The Wandering Apprentice

A Life of Magic #1

by Matthew D. Mitchell

Ott's life is good.

He lives in the woods with his father learning the forester's trade. Their way of life comes to a shocking halt with the smell of smoke.

Ott's life plunges down a new path shared with a dragonet possessing a razor wit, a new master cloaked in secrets and mystery, and a destination that will change the world.

If Ott can survive....


Travel with Ott, Pat, Stain, Mophar, and others as they wander through a world of adventure, magic, and life lessons learned the hard way.

Genres: Fantasy

370 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 11, 2013

About the author

Matthew D. Mitchell earned 2 bachelors degrees concurrently, neither in English or any other kind of writing. He earned a B.S. in Business Admin with a minor in CIS and a B.A. in Christian Ministry with a minor in Psychology. That's 181 hours he will not be getting back anytime soon. He is married to an amazing woman who puts up with him, even when he is trying to write and keeps talking about his ideas no matter what else is going on. He has kids. They don't care that he writes. They just think he's odd. In his spare time (ha ha) Matthew gardens, works on various projects, reads, cooks, learns to play musical instruments, and generally tries to improve himself in various ways. Matthew is a Gemini with dark, brown, curly hair. His favorite chip dip is salsa mixed with fresh avocado.

Reviews

[Danae · Rating 4 out of 5]

A young man is becoming an apprentice to a travelling teacher only to learn that this teacher is also a wizard and he himself has big potential to become one himself.
Nice story - a bit slice of life - with the MC discovering more and more of his abilities, while finding more friends (lemur, dragonette, gargoyle and some humans) and also discovering that there is some bad mage after him.
I like the easy flow of the story, the mentor is super symphatic and overall the story left a good vibe.
Ends on a cliffhanger.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic series.

[Ilya Kochetov · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only good thing about this book is its name.
I usually read all kinds of bad books till the bitter end, just because I hate not finishing them.
This one was so bad that I've finished the first part, started reading the second and then deleted them both, so they would go away from my life forever.
The writing is non-existent - it looks Mr. Mitchell has no idea how to write sentences longer than 3 words long.
The story is non-existent - basically nothing happens AT ALL in the first part until the very last page, then the trend successfully continues to the middle of the second book, where, as I said, I've stopped reading. I have to say that books which manages to contains absolutely no plot and still gets published usually have other merits, like interesting style etc. - this one is bland in all aspects.
I suppose the book is targeted towards "young adults"/pre-adolescent teens. I pity the child. If you are the aforementioned teen go get yourself something worth reading.


Two main reasons for this book to be BAD:
A. Plot inconsistencies:
the book is full of them, but the worst is that while magic is kind of secret and the hero does not know anything about it at the start of the book EVERYONE else in the world is in on the secret. Also the magic is sold by mages, which is kind of difficult when it is supposed to be secret.

Over the course of the first part of the book the protagonist gets:
1) lots of high-quality gifts from various people, which are never mentioned or used afterwards.
2) super-magic - basically he is the MOST powerful mage in existence in all spheres of creative 'fire/water/air/earth' magic. He is more powerful than the wizard who tries to teach him. All magic comes easily and naturally to him, he spends no effort to master it at all
3) several high-powered and witty animal/magic creature companions, one of them is a booster for his already too-powerful magic and makes him a force of nature
4) legendary, unique, all-powerful sword (this is in addition to semi-magical staff and the bow he gets earlier)
5) knowledge of the ancient mage (i.e. all the spells that guy knew) including the spell to destroy and re-growth a limb. Which is then successfully cast by the teen who only learned that he is a mage recently.
6) several prophecies about how the protagonist is the best thing since sliced bread to come to the world
7) two beautiful girls competing for his attention
8) lots of awed stares from absolutely everyone (including said girls)

over the course of the same book the protagonist gets
0) NO CONFLICT WITH ANYONE AT ALL. ZILCH.

Caveat emptor

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I automatically give any book I can finish at least 3 stars, but thats really all I'm willing to give it. Descriptions are lacking, grammar errors are all over the place, and its really sort of disgusting how everything seems to go Ott's way.

I like a "happy" story, but this was ridiculous. The villain doesn't even appear until the final chapter, so it ends up sounding like a monologue about how awesome the protagonist is. Strongest mage possibly to have ever lived, an excellent swordsman with little training, girls fall all over him, and items fall in his lap. Give me a break.

[Amanda Kern · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished this book. I immediately went to amazon.com to see if book 2 was out yet. I was sad to find out it was not. One of the things that I liked about this book was like how it progressed. He does not learn everything at once. It makes him seem more human. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read. It does end at a cliff hanger though. So I hope the next installment will be out soon. I really want to see what happens next.

[Jdjade · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is simply written and easy to follow and very enjoyable. The author have pretty great sense of humor, no gory stuff but it ended with a cliff hanger.
so when is the next book coming out?????????????
Great adventure and loved Ott friends.

[Zephy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Can not believe this was published in book form. Good idea, semi good plot, great first draft. Needs work. So glad it was cheep on amazon.

[Ron Sturm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book grabbed me an sucked me in for a few hours, next thing I know my alarm is going off, I called in sick to finish this book and sleep. A great story can't wait for the next one!

[Shawn]

Great story

enjoy this book and keep me laughing a lot. has mythical magically ideas that are woven into the story and I look forward to the next one