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The Last Apprentice / Wardstone Chronicles #1-13
The Last Apprentice: Complete Collection
All 13 volumes of Joseph Delaney's internationally best-selling fantasy adventure series, The Last Apprentice, plus the two short story collections and The Spook's Bestiary—all together for the first time!
Tom Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son. As the Spook's apprentice, he will face boggarts, witches, ghosts, and other terrifying creatures of the night. Other apprentices have come before him. Some have failed. Some have fled. Some have died. Will Tom be the one who survives—especially when he becomes the target of the world's greatest evils?
Includes 16 books set in the world of the acclaimed series that inspired the major motion picture Seventh Son.
Revenge of the Witch (Book 1) Curse of the Bane (Book 2) Night of the Soul Stealer (Book 3) Attack of the Fiend (Book 4) Wrath of the Bloodeye (Book 5) Clash of the Demons (Book 6) Rise of the Huntress (Book 7) Rage of the Fallen (Book 8) Grimalkin the Witch Assassin (Book 9) Lure of the Dead (Book 10) Slither (Book 11) I Am Alice (Book 12) Fury of the Seventh Son (Book 13) The Spook's Tale and Other Horrors (short story collection) Coven of Witches (short story collection) The Spook's The Guide to Creatures of the Dark (illustrated companion book)3960 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 5, 2014
129 people are currently reading
566 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Delaney
59 books3,986 followersJoseph Delaney was a full time writer living in Lancashire, in the heart of Boggart territory.
He was the author of Wardstone Chronicles, Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, Aberrations and a new book came out in April 2020, Brother Wulf. This is a new spooks story featuring Tom and Alice, but introducing a new character, a young monk called Brother Wulf.
He first got the idea for the Spooks series when he moved to the village where he lives now and discovered there was a local boggart - ‘a man like me needs boggarts around’. He made a note in his notebook ‘a story about a man who hunts boggarts’ and years later when he had to come up with an idea at short notice developed this into ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’, the first book in the series.
He continued to draw upon the folklore of Lancashire and has acquired much local knowledge over the years which he tweaks and modifies to create his fictional world. Another source of inspiration has been Lancashire's varied and atmospheric landscape. Many of the locations in the County are based on actual places in Lancashire.
In the early days of his writing career Joseph worked as a teacher at a Sixth Form College: his subjects were English, Film and Media Studies. He used to get up early and write every morning before work. That way he could write a book a year – which promptly got rejected! When the Americans bought the series he decided to give up teaching and write full time.
Prior to teaching he worked as an engineer in his twenties, completing an apprenticeship just like Tom Ward in the spook’s books.
Joseph described his method of writing as a process of discovery. He didn’t plot too far ahead and often didn’t know what is going to happen until he writes it down. In other words he made it up as he went along. He prefed writing dialogue to description, in which he said he is a minimalist and leaves much to the reader’s imagination.
Joseph had three children and nine grandchildren and was a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events.
The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse and The Spook's Secret have all been shortlisted for the Lancashire children's Book for the Year Award. The Spook's Apprentice is the winner of both the Sefton Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award.
www.josephdelaneyauthor.com
from publisher's website
He was the author of Wardstone Chronicles, Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, Aberrations and a new book came out in April 2020, Brother Wulf. This is a new spooks story featuring Tom and Alice, but introducing a new character, a young monk called Brother Wulf.
He first got the idea for the Spooks series when he moved to the village where he lives now and discovered there was a local boggart - ‘a man like me needs boggarts around’. He made a note in his notebook ‘a story about a man who hunts boggarts’ and years later when he had to come up with an idea at short notice developed this into ‘The Spook’s Apprentice’, the first book in the series.
He continued to draw upon the folklore of Lancashire and has acquired much local knowledge over the years which he tweaks and modifies to create his fictional world. Another source of inspiration has been Lancashire's varied and atmospheric landscape. Many of the locations in the County are based on actual places in Lancashire.
In the early days of his writing career Joseph worked as a teacher at a Sixth Form College: his subjects were English, Film and Media Studies. He used to get up early and write every morning before work. That way he could write a book a year – which promptly got rejected! When the Americans bought the series he decided to give up teaching and write full time.
Prior to teaching he worked as an engineer in his twenties, completing an apprenticeship just like Tom Ward in the spook’s books.
Joseph described his method of writing as a process of discovery. He didn’t plot too far ahead and often didn’t know what is going to happen until he writes it down. In other words he made it up as he went along. He prefed writing dialogue to description, in which he said he is a minimalist and leaves much to the reader’s imagination.
Joseph had three children and nine grandchildren and was a wonderful public speaker available for conference, library and bookshop events.
The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse and The Spook's Secret have all been shortlisted for the Lancashire children's Book for the Year Award. The Spook's Apprentice is the winner of both the Sefton Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award.
www.josephdelaneyauthor.com
from publisher's website
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
January 1, 2015
" The Last Apprentice " is one of the greatest modern series of fiction , it can easily be compared to " Harry Potter " .
August 6, 2015
A series with promise that failed to deliver. A few terrific lines: "Beware girls in pointy shoes." But the banter and bildungsroman stultify. Tom Ward doesn't compare to the darker Alice. The series should have moved POVs between Tom and Alice.
February 6, 2023
Lovely, took me a while to finish but in the end it was totally worth it, following the adventures of young Tom and his master this was a brilliant 2018 😁
re read started January 2022 and ended end of January 2023
re read started January 2022 and ended end of January 2023
June 20, 2020
The first time I tried the series, I was too young and couldn't stand how dark the story goes, but now I've finally managed to make it to the end =)
All in all, it was a fun experience, and I certainly recommend it!
All in all, it was a fun experience, and I certainly recommend it!
December 15, 2018
2.5 Stars. .I'm reviewing the series as one book because it's not worth the effort to break it up. This is a complicated series to rate because on the whole I enjoyed the writing there were a lot of interesting characters and plot points, but as I sit with why it just feels sorta vaguely dissatisfying I come up with two thoughts, first there's something off/wrong/imbalanced about the theology/mythology.
I think it has something to do with the Spook's "purity" dogma. The book gives lip service to the idea that we are all both light and dark, that there can be both good and bad witches, and I kept reading with the hope that learning to integrate our shadows would be part of the various character archs. But no, the growth never happens, the mythology of the witches and magic remains shallow and dissatisfying. There is no deeper explaination for why some practices are "dark" or some "light" why is looking through a mirror so very bad that you're going to take a 14 year old girl and bury her alive where she will live in dark isolation and eat worms until she escapes in 40 years wanting to kill you? *she used magic to speak through a mirror!! Oh no!!* And why is it "better" to bury these women (witches) alive than to just kill them, or why is it okay to give the beautiful witch you love a potion that basically makes her into a zombie who can't remember who she is so she can can cook and clean for you in your frozen fortress. So many of the "light" practices seem morally questionable or down right wrong to me, and the "dark" practices seem not so bad. I mean ambiguity IS FINE, it's okay that lots of things are grey and it's hard to know what is the best thing to do, but the book does not explore these problems it just says "this is dark" (your soul is in peril!) "this is light" (you are totally justified!) and we are supposed to just believe it, and I'm not into it.
Second major critique is this series just feels deeply anti woman to me. Again Delany tries (I guess?) To include complex female characters, but he fails. All the female characters feel kinda hollow, like they have no soul, the male characters spend most of their time distrusting female power (I don't know how to read his witches as anything other than a metaphor for female power and it's almost always evil), and the only good way to be a woman is to give up your power and raise male babies or to love powerful men without ever using power of your own.
All the powerful women are evil, or former evil trying to atone through their man, or potential evil. There really are no good women or witches here, even his name for good witches is "benign witches", which is there any less powerful word than benign? "look! the tumor is benign it's not going to kill you!!!"
Not to mention that the male characters often have some really shifty dark sides, Dude just got drunk and beat a 14 year boy then sent him off into danger and *his* soul isn't in danger of being taken over by the "dark"? It seems that darkness is only something women are guilty of, and men being horrible is just a normal part of life.
Frankly. I think Delany is terrified of female power and women in general, I kept reading and kept hoping that at some point the narrative would get more complex and this theme of the distrust of "darkness" (aka: female power)(in this mythology) would be explored and challenged, but nope, the whole series is about him trying to justify that out in his subtly dysfunctional myths.
I think it has something to do with the Spook's "purity" dogma. The book gives lip service to the idea that we are all both light and dark, that there can be both good and bad witches, and I kept reading with the hope that learning to integrate our shadows would be part of the various character archs. But no, the growth never happens, the mythology of the witches and magic remains shallow and dissatisfying. There is no deeper explaination for why some practices are "dark" or some "light" why is looking through a mirror so very bad that you're going to take a 14 year old girl and bury her alive where she will live in dark isolation and eat worms until she escapes in 40 years wanting to kill you? *she used magic to speak through a mirror!! Oh no!!* And why is it "better" to bury these women (witches) alive than to just kill them, or why is it okay to give the beautiful witch you love a potion that basically makes her into a zombie who can't remember who she is so she can can cook and clean for you in your frozen fortress. So many of the "light" practices seem morally questionable or down right wrong to me, and the "dark" practices seem not so bad. I mean ambiguity IS FINE, it's okay that lots of things are grey and it's hard to know what is the best thing to do, but the book does not explore these problems it just says "this is dark" (your soul is in peril!) "this is light" (you are totally justified!) and we are supposed to just believe it, and I'm not into it.
Second major critique is this series just feels deeply anti woman to me. Again Delany tries (I guess?) To include complex female characters, but he fails. All the female characters feel kinda hollow, like they have no soul, the male characters spend most of their time distrusting female power (I don't know how to read his witches as anything other than a metaphor for female power and it's almost always evil), and the only good way to be a woman is to give up your power and raise male babies or to love powerful men without ever using power of your own.
All the powerful women are evil, or former evil trying to atone through their man, or potential evil. There really are no good women or witches here, even his name for good witches is "benign witches", which is there any less powerful word than benign? "look! the tumor is benign it's not going to kill you!!!"
Not to mention that the male characters often have some really shifty dark sides, Dude just got drunk and beat a 14 year boy then sent him off into danger and *his* soul isn't in danger of being taken over by the "dark"? It seems that darkness is only something women are guilty of, and men being horrible is just a normal part of life.
Frankly. I think Delany is terrified of female power and women in general, I kept reading and kept hoping that at some point the narrative would get more complex and this theme of the distrust of "darkness" (aka: female power)(in this mythology) would be explored and challenged, but nope, the whole series is about him trying to justify that out in his subtly dysfunctional myths.
February 9, 2022
My partner gifted me this series as an Anniversary gift because he read and loved them so much as a kid that he wanted to share them with me and after reading them I can say that this series is one of the best gifts he's ever gotten me. If the lore isn't enough to bring you in, the characters will be. The Spook has joined my exclusive favorite character list and Tom is a main character that you find yourself falling deeper and deeper in love with with every new chapter and book. You see him age and mature and grow into a character your proud of and you want nothing more than to succeed. These books are so interesting and fresh, creating an entire world with witches, gods, new monsters you've never even heard of, and so much more. The biggest series I read as a kid was the Hunger Games so I have never been exposed to a book that has so much world building that there's a hand drawn map included at the front of every book. This series took up about a little more than half of a year of my life and they've provided me with some extremely fond memories. I would recommend this series to anyone who likes spooky things, wizardry, the eragon or lord of the rings series', or someone looking for a completely new genre to get into.
My ranking of the 13 books are as follows:
Battle (It was the first book with real stakes, other than Curse, and really introduced you to the clans of witches and really had me on the edge of my seat. great read)
Curse (The Bane was probably my favorite villain in the entire series. I don't know why but this book had everything right about it.)
Destiny (This is Tom's ultimate hero story. This is his attack against the fiend, this is his transition from being an apprentice to being worth of more, this is his one of his defining character moments where he fights for himself and the people he loves)
Mistake (I loved the swamp, I loved Bill, I loved the dogs)
Blood ( He must work the hardest he ever has to try and fight for freedom)
I am Grimalkin (I love Grimalkin and I appreciated being able to read about her adventures )
Secret (I think the whole spirit aspect and winter god are cool but I think more could've been done about I think it was a really cool concept but not execute properly)
Apprentice (Great beginning but the others just have more too them. I think it served its purpose as creating a good intro into this whole world and it left readers wanting more)
Alice (I did like this book. It was a good read and very cool to see hell and all of its different regions and I like but it just wasn't as good as the rest. Needed a bit more, although maybe I'm just biased because there wasn't enough Tom or the Spook.)
Sacrifice (I just wanted so much more. They were going to a completely new place with an awesome new team and I felt like Delaney just didn't deliver. While it showed Mam's true colors it left out any character development for every other interesting character. )
Revenge (It just wasn't the ending I wanted. I think it could've been done a lot better. Again, not a bad book by any means, but the others just gave so much more and were much more satisfying. )
Nightmare (Ok this book I didn't like. It didn't make sense! To go from sacrifice to nightmare and then to destiny was a wild ride. The plot was decent but I just did not get why they were there. All of the other plots and threats seemed to ride along with one another. They flowed and nothing felt forced but to me this one felt forced. It felt like they had to end Bony Lizze and they had to empower Alice and this was how they chose to do it. Dislike.)
Slithers Tale (Nothing really wrong with this book. Written pretty well and good character building for Slither and happy to see Grimalkin but weird placement. I get that this book was setting up for the next trilogy after the Spooks Books but it was weird to go from Blood to this then completely disregard this book for both Alice and Revenge)
My ranking of the 13 books are as follows:
Battle (It was the first book with real stakes, other than Curse, and really introduced you to the clans of witches and really had me on the edge of my seat. great read)
Curse (The Bane was probably my favorite villain in the entire series. I don't know why but this book had everything right about it.)
Destiny (This is Tom's ultimate hero story. This is his attack against the fiend, this is his transition from being an apprentice to being worth of more, this is his one of his defining character moments where he fights for himself and the people he loves)
Mistake (I loved the swamp, I loved Bill, I loved the dogs)
Blood ( He must work the hardest he ever has to try and fight for freedom)
I am Grimalkin (I love Grimalkin and I appreciated being able to read about her adventures )
Secret (I think the whole spirit aspect and winter god are cool but I think more could've been done about I think it was a really cool concept but not execute properly)
Apprentice (Great beginning but the others just have more too them. I think it served its purpose as creating a good intro into this whole world and it left readers wanting more)
Alice (I did like this book. It was a good read and very cool to see hell and all of its different regions and I like but it just wasn't as good as the rest. Needed a bit more, although maybe I'm just biased because there wasn't enough Tom or the Spook.)
Sacrifice (I just wanted so much more. They were going to a completely new place with an awesome new team and I felt like Delaney just didn't deliver. While it showed Mam's true colors it left out any character development for every other interesting character. )
Revenge (It just wasn't the ending I wanted. I think it could've been done a lot better. Again, not a bad book by any means, but the others just gave so much more and were much more satisfying. )
Nightmare (Ok this book I didn't like. It didn't make sense! To go from sacrifice to nightmare and then to destiny was a wild ride. The plot was decent but I just did not get why they were there. All of the other plots and threats seemed to ride along with one another. They flowed and nothing felt forced but to me this one felt forced. It felt like they had to end Bony Lizze and they had to empower Alice and this was how they chose to do it. Dislike.)
Slithers Tale (Nothing really wrong with this book. Written pretty well and good character building for Slither and happy to see Grimalkin but weird placement. I get that this book was setting up for the next trilogy after the Spooks Books but it was weird to go from Blood to this then completely disregard this book for both Alice and Revenge)
September 26, 2018
I really enjoyed the books during my fourth grade year. Although I was never able to read the last book of the series, what I did read was very enjoyable. The lore of the series is very immersive, and Joseph Delaney's style charmed me beginning with Revenge of the Witch. Really good series that I recommend spending some time on, though the content can be rather dark for some readers.
May 21, 2024
Rating: 4.5
A great throwback to my teenage years with this omnibus.
A well-written, easy to read series, The Wardstone Chronicles delivers an even amount of fantasy and intrigue. The characters and creatures introduced in this series builds an incredible world of Spooks and the Dark.
Looking forward to more with The Starblade Chronicles.
A great throwback to my teenage years with this omnibus.
A well-written, easy to read series, The Wardstone Chronicles delivers an even amount of fantasy and intrigue. The characters and creatures introduced in this series builds an incredible world of Spooks and the Dark.
Looking forward to more with The Starblade Chronicles.
January 15, 2019
This will be the book series I will read to my children. It is so well written that you cannot but devour two books per day. I love the feeling, the atmosphere, everything. I cannot wait to read it out loud to my kids.
May 27, 2020
AMAZING SERIES NO BOOK IS BETTER THAN THIS!!!
This is my no.1 book series.
This is my no.1 book series.
October 30, 2020
Très bien construit et bcp bcp d'imagination, un plaisir!
September 6, 2021
Excellent books to read lots of Adventures with witches, monsters and ghosts and bravehearts
March 9, 2022
These were what fed my love for Fantasy when I was younger and are still great today
November 15, 2022
one of my always fav
Want to read
December 26, 2025read this as a child, but i'm pretty sure i didn't finish the whole series. would love to reread and finish it now because i find myself thinking about this series for no reason quite often.
August 30, 2014
Thomas Ward is living a normal life on his family's farm, until he’s apprenticed to the county Spook, John Gregory. Spook's are guardians of the light and are tasked with protecting the county and it's people from the dark. John Gregory has been at the trade for many years and is looking for an apprentice to take up his mantle. Tom doesn't think he's up for the tough life of a Spook, but he was born to do it. He is the seventh son of a seventh son and has powers that normal people don't. But he is also his Mam's son. She told John Gregory that Tom is her gift to the county and will be the greatest apprentice he will ever have. Tom faces creatures he's never seen before such as ghost, witches and braggarts. Tom and the Spook encounter surprising friends and deadly enemies. On their journey they meet many dangers, but nothing compared to when the Fiend is released into the world. The Fiend is the dark made flesh and is bent on destroying Tom not only so he can rule the world, but also because he's his Mam's son. Can Tom live up to his Mam's vision? Will Tom become the greatest Spook ever and defeat the Fiend? He'll have to because John Gregory's time is ending and Tom will be his last apprentice. This page turner is a great read because it will keep you guessing on what will happen next. As Tom learns about the light, the dark, his Mam's past and being a Spook you as the reader will feel as if you've grown with him. The Last Apprentice series is a must read for anyone looking for a fantasy, action story that will leave you wanting more.
January 10, 2015
It was hard to rate the series as a whole because the first 8 books I really enjoyed but then the last 5 just sucked. I've never really had read a series were I end up just not liking a lot of the characters that I had invested time to getting to know. The ending was so disappointing and it became clear that the author was just setting up another series, I wish I could get the time and money back. It had a great story and premise but the author just mucked it up big time in the end. I will not be reading the upcoming series. Too bad.
February 6, 2015
I absolutely loved all books from the Wardstone Chronicles and was suprised its gonna be a movie.
I loved how the characters developed over the books and how the relationships changed. Also in the beginning you kinda think its all black and white but there is so much grey in between. Joseph Delany writes for fast-pace, gripping the book till the end-reading. I couldn't put one book down - loved them so much. Also its funny and sometimes a little bit teary-eyed.
I loved how the characters developed over the books and how the relationships changed. Also in the beginning you kinda think its all black and white but there is so much grey in between. Joseph Delany writes for fast-pace, gripping the book till the end-reading. I couldn't put one book down - loved them so much. Also its funny and sometimes a little bit teary-eyed.
October 12, 2015
These books are absolutely amazing. They are meant for teens I suppose but with 23 I still loved them so much, I read all 13 plus the extra book "witches" within two months. Not seen the movie yet but it won't be able to be better than the books, no way!!!
December 31, 2014
Brilliant def recommend to all sci fi/Harry potter fans
May 7, 2015
Loved it
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews