All Josiah wants is a little excitement. His work as an apprentice fuller is boring, and playing in the mill’s machinery isn’t that dangerous. Everything goes fine—at first.
All right, he’s lucky the wizard Elkan and his familiar, a donkey named Sar, are there to save his life. Even better, when his furious master fires him, Elkan offers him a job as his assistant. Josiah jumps at the … jumps at the chance. Traveling around Tevenar for a year, meeting all sorts of interesting people, helping the dedicated young wizard and clever donkey serve them with the Mother’s healing magic—what could be more fun?
But Josiah soon learns that while matters of life and death may be exciting, they’re seldom fun. Impulsive actions, even when taken with the best of intentions, can have devastating consequences. And some choices have the power to change the future of Tevenar forever.
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Rich like a tapestry, this story has many layers! Excellent characters and story kept me interested from page one. I highly recommend this book to all who love fantasy fiction.
I loved this book. A directionless young man matures while sharing the adventures and responsibilities of a wizard and his familiar.
I really enjoyed reading this book
It was a book that made me want to find more by author to read.
An enjoyable read with several good messages.
Lots of adventure & satisfying to read. Enjoyed it & couldn’t wait to find out how the main character would find his calling.
Meet Josiah, an apprentice to a fuller. This is the career Josiah wants to work in. But, Josiah is bored and looks for things that bring a challenge. His last exciting experience brings him into the acquaintance of Elkan and an adventure that introduces real challenges in his life.
This is a great read, suitable for young adults, possibly some younger. The society is utopian, it bears a strong resemblance to some of the models outlined by those who had dreams of a perfect society.
This book had an interesting premise, I did finish the book and enjoyed it but it failed to capture me for the series. I found it a bit slow at times but that is really the only fault I can point out.
Josiah is an impulsive, impetuous, immature, self-centered fourteen year old who has been apprenticed to a fuller for more than a year. And he is bored witless. So, inside the waterwheel based mill, Josiah decides to run the boards, timing it so he’s not smashed. And that works the first time, until it doesn’t and he has to be rescued by the journeyman wizard Elkan and his familiar the donky Sardonyx. Of course the fuller wants to fire Josiah, but Elkan talks the fuller into allowing Josiah to take a year off to serve as Elkan’s assistant. And to be honest, Josiah is a thoughtless bother for most of the year, blurting things out, running off half-cocked and causing endless problems. But Josiah is intrigued by the powers of a wizard (the ability to heal, the ability to open a window to the past to find the truth of an event, and the ability to lift objects). This book is awesome, and I’m off to get the next in the series.
I liked the book but the second novel was too pricey
This was a fun book to read. Nothing too heavy, but well written, good story line. It is geared toward teens or tweens. Just enough adolescent kissing and boy/girl interest that I wouldn’t recommend it to my 10 year old granddaughter at least for another year or two.
My one complaint is that while it ends the basic story, it also builds towards the sequel. If you want the whole story, you have to buy the next book.
Good story with a well thought out adventure line. Good character development with depth setting up the players well for the future sequels. This book did well in tying up the loose ends at the end and yet set up interest for the next book. The adventure elements are each interesting and fully explored with their effect on the individuals nicely shown.
The only drawbacks for me were the ‘healing’ sessions were too repetitive, Josiah didn’t seem to learn from his rash actions very well, and some of the ‘tell’ aspects might have been more dramatic if ‘shown.’
I do recommend it as a fantasy read.
The theme of the book used a Mother image and wizardry instead of a
classic Father image but made it interesting even though I do not agree with the
principals used,
A good read
Good read overall. Just a little slow sometimes.
Great characters,couldn’t put it down.
Avery different take on how magic works. The characters were well developed and the story line was unique.
Entertaining and action-packed.
Great characters including the animals. Different take on being a wizard/healer along with their familiar and how they go about the world. Will continue on with series!
Enjoyable fantasy adventure with well drawn characters and animals who steal the show.