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Will of the Covenant #1
Apprentice
Lorian is thrilled to start his new apprenticeship at Norvind. He welcomes the tutelage of arch-mage Gawain. But does not welcome advice from the older mages urging him to be patient. Mastery of the Lumen will take time, they tell him. Patience was never a virtue in Lorian's mind. For him, it was an excuse to justify stagnation - one used by the less capable to limit the ones on the true path to power. After all, what use was the most powerful school of magic if you were still a slave to time?
For others, however, patience was paramount. They had lain dormant for thousands of years, waiting for the right pieces to fall in place. Lorian's thirst for power, a discharged soldier's recklessness and an uncannily intelligent child's willingness to plunge the city's underworld into a guild war. That was all it would take to break the shackles of death and unleash the Will of the Covenant once more.
For others, however, patience was paramount. They had lain dormant for thousands of years, waiting for the right pieces to fall in place. Lorian's thirst for power, a discharged soldier's recklessness and an uncannily intelligent child's willingness to plunge the city's underworld into a guild war. That was all it would take to break the shackles of death and unleash the Will of the Covenant once more.
- GenresFantasy
668 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 29, 2019
99 people are currently reading
316 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Hale
1 book13 followersHello and thanks for visiting my page!
My name is Nicholas Hale. I'm a Fantasy writer.
Right from the first time I read my father’s copy of the Hobbit, I knew I wanted to write and create my own worlds. I enjoy Fantasy and Science Fiction in all forms – Novels, Comics, Manga, Tabletop games, Computer Role Playing Games.
Due to mundane life reasons that I won’t get into, I couldn't give writing a more serious attempt until the last couple of years.
One month ago (January 15, 2019), I finished my book – “Apprentice”, the first of seven planned books (for now) in my "Will of the Covenant" series ( available for the kindle at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N8FGD1D ).
The only thing more satisfying than publishing my first book and having it available for the world to read, was to see my first review. I can’t describe in words my feelings when I saw that a complete stranger had liked what I’d written and had taken the time to say so in a review.
I really look forward to writing more books.
And most of all, I really hope you enjoy reading my works as much as I like writing them.
My name is Nicholas Hale. I'm a Fantasy writer.
Right from the first time I read my father’s copy of the Hobbit, I knew I wanted to write and create my own worlds. I enjoy Fantasy and Science Fiction in all forms – Novels, Comics, Manga, Tabletop games, Computer Role Playing Games.
Due to mundane life reasons that I won’t get into, I couldn't give writing a more serious attempt until the last couple of years.
One month ago (January 15, 2019), I finished my book – “Apprentice”, the first of seven planned books (for now) in my "Will of the Covenant" series ( available for the kindle at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07N8FGD1D ).
The only thing more satisfying than publishing my first book and having it available for the world to read, was to see my first review. I can’t describe in words my feelings when I saw that a complete stranger had liked what I’d written and had taken the time to say so in a review.
I really look forward to writing more books.
And most of all, I really hope you enjoy reading my works as much as I like writing them.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 9, 2019
"Apprentice" is a great conventional action fantasy book. The author has managed to give each of the three main characters a distinct voice, personality and motivations. Each of them has a unique storyline that intersects with the others at some very key points to result in a very interesting consequences. For a first book, it seems to have invested pretty heavily in world-building which gives you the impression that it's leading into the "epic" side of "epic fantasy". There's also several action sequences that are described in vivid and entertaining detail.
Of note are small tidbits about a greater plot that are weaved into the storyline. While there are some chapters dedicated to this, conversations between the characters and recollections of world effecting incidents and historical facts give you the feel that this is definitely the first in a series of books to come. Besides the three main characters, several of the secondary and tertiary characters are also interesting and play significant roles in the main plot.
It held my attention right from the Prologue but it primarily reaches what one would call an "avalanche effect" after about 6-8 chapters where it becomes really hard to put the book down.
If you enjoy action fantasy books (with a small amount of situational humour) set in a larger world - then I would definitely recommend giving this book a go.
Of note are small tidbits about a greater plot that are weaved into the storyline. While there are some chapters dedicated to this, conversations between the characters and recollections of world effecting incidents and historical facts give you the feel that this is definitely the first in a series of books to come. Besides the three main characters, several of the secondary and tertiary characters are also interesting and play significant roles in the main plot.
It held my attention right from the Prologue but it primarily reaches what one would call an "avalanche effect" after about 6-8 chapters where it becomes really hard to put the book down.
If you enjoy action fantasy books (with a small amount of situational humour) set in a larger world - then I would definitely recommend giving this book a go.
March 5, 2019
Preamble
This is author Nicholas Hale's debut novel. He was running a give away about a week and a half ago on reddit's /r/fantasy for copies of his novel. Being a fellow new fantasy author (my first novel is being released on April 19), and firmly believing that the true path to success starts and ends with lifting others, I signed up for the giveaway and told wrote a post telling him that I would read and review the book on an expedited basis. Nick contacted me, sent me a download code for US Kindle (I'm Canadian and it didn't work), and we got into a chat. I ended up telling him that my first book was coming out soon, and he told me that he would review mine as well. He actually pre-ordered a copy of my book, so when Nick offered to send me the correct code when the US one didn't work, I simply returned the favour and got a copy on Amazon.ca.
Review - 5/5
So, before I get into the meat of this review, I want to note a couple of things. First, my review system is this: regardless of flaws, if a book feels like a 5/5, I will give it a 5/5. Perfection does not exist in nature, but 5/5 reviews certainly do (I gave a 3/5 to Ship of Fools recently, so I don't give them to everything I read). There were a scattered few punctuation and grammatical issues but I did not find that these detracted from the story in any way. The second thing is this: this is a 5/5 for the genre that I place this book within. I liken it to the fantasy fiction version of a summer blockbuster. It is pure action, suspense, dazzling vistas, powerful magic - epic in every sense of the word. Comparing it to something like, say, American Gods, would be comparing apples to oranges, despite them being in the same category ('fantasy').
The book features an impressive host of characters, with the titular character (the apprentice) being a novice mage by the name of Lorian. Lorian is an unnaturally adept weaver of the magical arts, even without training. He impresses the shit out of various and sundry masters of magic, and ends up going on to become the apprentice of one of the most powerful mages in all the land, Gawain, Master of Castle Norvind. Gawain is introduced in a prologue, set some 600 years before the start of the book (mages live a looong time in this world). He has access to some powerful magic that all covet but only he and his mages can access. I do not want to get to much into the plot because that would be spoiling it for you.
In a very small way, Lorian's progress reminded me a bit of the LitRPG genre, though it was not tied to triumph over enemies. It was more so the way the progress stacked upon itself. Lorian is a very powerful mage at the end of the book, but how he gets to be that way will completely surprise you.
Other characters include knights, adept warriors, necromancers (there's always a bleedin' necromancer ;-P), demon summoners, demons, dragons, pirates, thieves- it is a veritable smorgasbord of fantastical elements for all tastes. And the way all the storylines are woven together - just splendid, really.
Character progression, political intrigue - this book has it in spades. Another of the main storylines involved Azrael, a warrior with a conscience, living in an world where slavery and brutality are the way of life. His struggle with this was very human, and I am looking forward to seeing what's next for him!
The book reminded me so much of the old Dragonlance books by Weis and Hickman - books that I cut my teeth on when I was a lad. It also had overtones of Magician by Feist. I have not read a fantasy novel like this in a long time and it was such a treat.
The settings are various and epic. There is one particular setting - a castle within a castle filled with magical elements - that just blew me away. It was so cool, and Nick's gift for description really made me feel like I was transported into it. Which reminds me of another thing...
The references! The book is chock full of references to popular culture, mythology, and other works of art. One of my favourite video games growing up was Baldur's Gate 2. And you will be in stitches when you see (one minor spoiler) the reference to Boo of Minsc and Boo. It is not subtle, and it provides some comic relief in an otherwise rather seriously-toned story. The references are great - most of the names of the characters you will recognize from our world, which helps to ground the story a bit It is very hard to write fantasy with completely made-up names for everything without having it jar the senses a bit - Nick's use of references in this way is done very well and keeps you engaged.
Engaging. That is a word that is oft-used in reviews of fiction. But in this case, it certainly fits. The pacing is so on point. It is a very long book and I crushed it in a very short period of time (albeit I was on vacation). It kept me interested throughout - it did not lag at all.
Do yourself a favour and grab a copy of this book. You will be happy you did. Have a chuckle for me when you see Nick's nod to Boo.
This is author Nicholas Hale's debut novel. He was running a give away about a week and a half ago on reddit's /r/fantasy for copies of his novel. Being a fellow new fantasy author (my first novel is being released on April 19), and firmly believing that the true path to success starts and ends with lifting others, I signed up for the giveaway and told wrote a post telling him that I would read and review the book on an expedited basis. Nick contacted me, sent me a download code for US Kindle (I'm Canadian and it didn't work), and we got into a chat. I ended up telling him that my first book was coming out soon, and he told me that he would review mine as well. He actually pre-ordered a copy of my book, so when Nick offered to send me the correct code when the US one didn't work, I simply returned the favour and got a copy on Amazon.ca.
Review - 5/5
So, before I get into the meat of this review, I want to note a couple of things. First, my review system is this: regardless of flaws, if a book feels like a 5/5, I will give it a 5/5. Perfection does not exist in nature, but 5/5 reviews certainly do (I gave a 3/5 to Ship of Fools recently, so I don't give them to everything I read). There were a scattered few punctuation and grammatical issues but I did not find that these detracted from the story in any way. The second thing is this: this is a 5/5 for the genre that I place this book within. I liken it to the fantasy fiction version of a summer blockbuster. It is pure action, suspense, dazzling vistas, powerful magic - epic in every sense of the word. Comparing it to something like, say, American Gods, would be comparing apples to oranges, despite them being in the same category ('fantasy').
The book features an impressive host of characters, with the titular character (the apprentice) being a novice mage by the name of Lorian. Lorian is an unnaturally adept weaver of the magical arts, even without training. He impresses the shit out of various and sundry masters of magic, and ends up going on to become the apprentice of one of the most powerful mages in all the land, Gawain, Master of Castle Norvind. Gawain is introduced in a prologue, set some 600 years before the start of the book (mages live a looong time in this world). He has access to some powerful magic that all covet but only he and his mages can access. I do not want to get to much into the plot because that would be spoiling it for you.
In a very small way, Lorian's progress reminded me a bit of the LitRPG genre, though it was not tied to triumph over enemies. It was more so the way the progress stacked upon itself. Lorian is a very powerful mage at the end of the book, but how he gets to be that way will completely surprise you.
Other characters include knights, adept warriors, necromancers (there's always a bleedin' necromancer ;-P), demon summoners, demons, dragons, pirates, thieves- it is a veritable smorgasbord of fantastical elements for all tastes. And the way all the storylines are woven together - just splendid, really.
Character progression, political intrigue - this book has it in spades. Another of the main storylines involved Azrael, a warrior with a conscience, living in an world where slavery and brutality are the way of life. His struggle with this was very human, and I am looking forward to seeing what's next for him!
The book reminded me so much of the old Dragonlance books by Weis and Hickman - books that I cut my teeth on when I was a lad. It also had overtones of Magician by Feist. I have not read a fantasy novel like this in a long time and it was such a treat.
The settings are various and epic. There is one particular setting - a castle within a castle filled with magical elements - that just blew me away. It was so cool, and Nick's gift for description really made me feel like I was transported into it. Which reminds me of another thing...
The references! The book is chock full of references to popular culture, mythology, and other works of art. One of my favourite video games growing up was Baldur's Gate 2. And you will be in stitches when you see (one minor spoiler) the reference to Boo of Minsc and Boo. It is not subtle, and it provides some comic relief in an otherwise rather seriously-toned story. The references are great - most of the names of the characters you will recognize from our world, which helps to ground the story a bit It is very hard to write fantasy with completely made-up names for everything without having it jar the senses a bit - Nick's use of references in this way is done very well and keeps you engaged.
Engaging. That is a word that is oft-used in reviews of fiction. But in this case, it certainly fits. The pacing is so on point. It is a very long book and I crushed it in a very short period of time (albeit I was on vacation). It kept me interested throughout - it did not lag at all.
Do yourself a favour and grab a copy of this book. You will be happy you did. Have a chuckle for me when you see Nick's nod to Boo.
December 23, 2019
I really enjoyed reading this novel. The main characters are a young mage, Lorian, and an idealistic young noble, Azrael, who tries his best but is in over his head; add to these a kid, Riven, whose brother is a freelance thief and about to get into an awful lot of trouble. The chapters move between several other characters' POVs too, but everything is relevant to the storylines of these three, so it stays suitably focused.
The magic system is very, very detailed, and plausible in-world, but as I read relatively little in this genre I cannot comment on how original it is. The action scenes are many and compelling, and thankfully unpredictable.
It is a satisfyingly long read but when I finished it I immediately went looking for the sequel instead of writing my own next novel (naughty I know) - to sadly find that it does not exist yet.
Both Lorian and Riven are quite shady characters, overly ambitious in one case and prone to cruelty in the other, so there is some doubt as to whether they are good guys or not: imperfect heroes or developing villains on the road to corruption? I hope the former as they are generally well meaning and I certainly rooted for them through their trials. The Amazon description, however, suggests that all three main characters are the cause of some evil covenant being unleashed... Poor Azrael, if this is the case it's one more unfairness Life has dumped on him.
There is some welcome humour - if you are fighting a crazy necromancer, it is impolite to stop and talk to your hamster as this is disrespectful to your opponent and likely to cause offence. As most people do not carry a pet hamster into battle this is unlikely to be a problem in practice though.
Downsides? Very minor and no reason at all to miss this enjoyable start to a promising series: further proofreading is advised as there are several dozen missing or misplaced words, and in one case at least the wrong character was clearly invoked; none of these spoil the story. For me another downside is the nonchalant way in which the heroes kill other people without apparent remorse, even Azrael: soldiers are people too, with families, dependants and their own stories! And if you are an excellent swordsman and are facing an unskilled boy do NOT kill him! Don't you DARE kill him! I'm sure this will not put many people off if the popularity of certain genres of book and film is anything to go by, you violent consumers you!
In summary, read this book and get to know these wonderful characters and world!
5 stars.
The magic system is very, very detailed, and plausible in-world, but as I read relatively little in this genre I cannot comment on how original it is. The action scenes are many and compelling, and thankfully unpredictable.
It is a satisfyingly long read but when I finished it I immediately went looking for the sequel instead of writing my own next novel (naughty I know) - to sadly find that it does not exist yet.
Both Lorian and Riven are quite shady characters, overly ambitious in one case and prone to cruelty in the other, so there is some doubt as to whether they are good guys or not: imperfect heroes or developing villains on the road to corruption? I hope the former as they are generally well meaning and I certainly rooted for them through their trials. The Amazon description, however, suggests that all three main characters are the cause of some evil covenant being unleashed... Poor Azrael, if this is the case it's one more unfairness Life has dumped on him.
There is some welcome humour - if you are fighting a crazy necromancer, it is impolite to stop and talk to your hamster as this is disrespectful to your opponent and likely to cause offence. As most people do not carry a pet hamster into battle this is unlikely to be a problem in practice though.
Downsides? Very minor and no reason at all to miss this enjoyable start to a promising series: further proofreading is advised as there are several dozen missing or misplaced words, and in one case at least the wrong character was clearly invoked; none of these spoil the story. For me another downside is the nonchalant way in which the heroes kill other people without apparent remorse, even Azrael: soldiers are people too, with families, dependants and their own stories! And if you are an excellent swordsman and are facing an unskilled boy do NOT kill him! Don't you DARE kill him! I'm sure this will not put many people off if the popularity of certain genres of book and film is anything to go by, you violent consumers you!
In summary, read this book and get to know these wonderful characters and world!
5 stars.
March 26, 2019
First I would like to state that I have received this book through the Goodreads giveaway in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank the author for giving me this opportunity and honor in being able to read this book. When I received this book I began reading it at once. I enjoyed the authors writing style. This book was an interesting read.
April 4, 2019
The Time has Come
600 years after a young Mage, Gawain, was soundly defeated by warriors from another dimension, the creature they woke is stirring again and Gawain can only hope that his new apprentice is up to the challenge and not their downfall.
600 years after a young Mage, Gawain, was soundly defeated by warriors from another dimension, the creature they woke is stirring again and Gawain can only hope that his new apprentice is up to the challenge and not their downfall.
May 12, 2024
A Goodreads Giveaway
The story started slow and at first I was unsure who was the main character. But...as I got further into the book it became more interesting and I looked forward each evening to pick it up and move through the story.
The story started slow and at first I was unsure who was the main character. But...as I got further into the book it became more interesting and I looked forward each evening to pick it up and move through the story.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews