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Summoner #5
Summoner 5
With the mystery of the monsters and the Shadowscape growing deeper every day, Gryff and his friends have been split up by Headmaster Sleet and sent to the far corners of the world with one mission: find some ancient ciphers that could end this war once and for all.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Well, it would be except for the rifts that keep opening up on top of them, the mercenaries that want them dead, and, oh yeah, a murderous, monster angel that is seeking to bring about the end of the world as Gryff knows it.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Well, it would be except for the rifts that keep opening up on top of them, the mercenaries that want them dead, and, oh yeah, a murderous, monster angel that is seeking to bring about the end of the world as Gryff knows it.
406 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 31, 2019
520 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Eric Vall
351 books689 followersThanks for reading!
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Buy my audiobooks directly from me at:
www.ericvall.com
Read and listen to early chapters, see NSFW covers, and subscribe to my discounted audiobook bundle at:
www.patreon.com/ericvall
https://www.facebook.com/authorericvall
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews
May 25, 2019
cant say I love or hate this
I am stopping now in reading; this is just too long. 5 ebooks now with a long way to go. Feels like a telenovela or bookvela, in this case. I love the monsters, i love their skills, main character is entertaining, camaraderie is also endearing. What I dont like is the sex all over the place --with just every girl he encounters. The author keeps saying making love; well in fact it's just sex. I dont want to sound like a fanatic feminist, but come on, Layla was unconscious and the main character still has time to have sex with other women. Mind you, all the female characters seem so ok that their guy is screwing almost every one wearing a skirt. This has a good story so why make it cheap with the ridiculous sex and pretend love? My 2 cents that's all.
I am stopping now in reading; this is just too long. 5 ebooks now with a long way to go. Feels like a telenovela or bookvela, in this case. I love the monsters, i love their skills, main character is entertaining, camaraderie is also endearing. What I dont like is the sex all over the place --with just every girl he encounters. The author keeps saying making love; well in fact it's just sex. I dont want to sound like a fanatic feminist, but come on, Layla was unconscious and the main character still has time to have sex with other women. Mind you, all the female characters seem so ok that their guy is screwing almost every one wearing a skirt. This has a good story so why make it cheap with the ridiculous sex and pretend love? My 2 cents that's all.
April 19, 2019
Rating 3.5
Not my favorite book in the series. I like Gryff interactions with his friends. I like the new monsters and the different tactics. I like the school. None of that was in this book. The headmaster sends Gryff and Gawain off on a mission together. There wasn't much action until over halfway through the story. The new monsters were the A class monsters Gryff has started to use which are powerful creatures by themselves, so Gryff didn't need to combine the monsters to get new techniques. Gryff is still only just completed his first year of school and yet he is being expected to solve all these problems by himself? I can see him being part of the rapid response team and doing his part, but not sent on a 2 person mission. If he is that ready, why is he still in school? I also don't have a clue what is going on with that Angel creature or their goal in finding the ciphers. Still, every series needs to have that one book that isn't as good as the others. I expect it will get back to what I like in the next book.
Not my favorite book in the series. I like Gryff interactions with his friends. I like the new monsters and the different tactics. I like the school. None of that was in this book. The headmaster sends Gryff and Gawain off on a mission together. There wasn't much action until over halfway through the story. The new monsters were the A class monsters Gryff has started to use which are powerful creatures by themselves, so Gryff didn't need to combine the monsters to get new techniques. Gryff is still only just completed his first year of school and yet he is being expected to solve all these problems by himself? I can see him being part of the rapid response team and doing his part, but not sent on a 2 person mission. If he is that ready, why is he still in school? I also don't have a clue what is going on with that Angel creature or their goal in finding the ciphers. Still, every series needs to have that one book that isn't as good as the others. I expect it will get back to what I like in the next book.
July 11, 2019
I base my ratings on Goodread's system, so 1 star simply means I did not like it. I could not even give it a 2-star 'It was okay' rating, cause it felt so bad that I sped read the last 30% in around 1 hour.
After the very interesting and entertaining premise, world building, character interactions and story of the first 3 books, the Summoner series has started on a dive since the 4th installment, with this one going especially low.
All the things that made the first 3 books great to read are getting scratched away. What we had when we started the series was a guy, a summoner, who used ingenuity and thought outside the box for his approach towards summoning. Though not flabbergastingly intelligent, he was decently equipped with what you'd call street-smarts, due to his large-for-his-age experience. At the beginning (which means first 2 books), it felt like this was going to be a series on how this summoner tackles the long held negative and narrow-minded beliefs of his class by showing something different.
But now we're into the 5th book and it has all degraded into basically him summoning a single strong monster and powering his way through the obstacles. The exact thing that we were told was what made summoners less respected and unreliable. That they could only summon a strong monster for a few hits and had to be benched after that cause of taxing mana costs. But of course, surprise, surprise that our protagonists has no such trouble. In fact his handling of extremely strong monsters gets better and better with time.
The next thing thats changed in this series is the harem element. In the first 2-3 books, I was frankly surprised at how smoothly those elements were introduced. He didn't just get into the pants of every girl the moment they met, but there was generally a decent amount of something akin to relationship build à la The Wheel Of Time series.
Not anymore now, with him pretty much kissing any new girl on the first meeting, and having sex on the second.
Also whats was noticeably different for me, and one of the big reasons I did not like this book, is how dumb the main character has now become. During the first 2-3 books he was quite likeable and cool. Now, most of the times he acts like a 5 year old. A 5 year old that has urges for sex every few chapters. You can imagine how jarring this would feel.
Where initially all dialogues and responses of the MC seemed decent, now they all seem over the top. And I mean literally all. At the silliest unexpected things his 'jaw drops to the floor' or he's utterly stunned. At the slightest mention of suggestions that might not be the best options from any of the other characters, he reacts with instant anger. At the first sign of a girl, he's up and flirting.
Worst of all, all these things might happen in the same paragraph when make you wonder what the fuck is going on with his head? One moment his 'jaw is on the floor' (yes you better get used to this phrase), next moment he's angry, next moment he's grinning, next he winking at whichever girl is present. This utter devolution of the main character was a pain to swallow.
Another thing that was extremely weird was repetition of things. In one instance, Gryff gets told the location of where someone is going, and some chapters later he's wondering if they're going to that place when they literally mentioned it to him where they were going!
In another instance, he deliberates whether to share information with someone, then decides to do it and divulges what he knows. A couple of chapters later, he's again given an offer by the same people to share information, although he has no new information, and he again deliberates if he should do it! What the heck?! Man you already decided you were going to do it once, and you did it. Now you've nothing new to share and still you're deliberating?!
This book in essence was an attempt by the author to add some lore to the world by trying to give reasons for why things are the way they are. But it fell miserably flat from the first person POV of a MC who feels like a child. Not to mention you're going to have problems when you spend more effort it writing extremely lame wisecracks and flirty dialogues for the MC than working on the lore, which did not drawn me in in the least.
I will still read the 6th book, but if it has been written in the same style as the 5th, I'll probably speed read all of it and not bother waiting on the remaining however many books the author releases. A shame since I really liked it in the beginning.
After the very interesting and entertaining premise, world building, character interactions and story of the first 3 books, the Summoner series has started on a dive since the 4th installment, with this one going especially low.
All the things that made the first 3 books great to read are getting scratched away. What we had when we started the series was a guy, a summoner, who used ingenuity and thought outside the box for his approach towards summoning. Though not flabbergastingly intelligent, he was decently equipped with what you'd call street-smarts, due to his large-for-his-age experience. At the beginning (which means first 2 books), it felt like this was going to be a series on how this summoner tackles the long held negative and narrow-minded beliefs of his class by showing something different.
But now we're into the 5th book and it has all degraded into basically him summoning a single strong monster and powering his way through the obstacles. The exact thing that we were told was what made summoners less respected and unreliable. That they could only summon a strong monster for a few hits and had to be benched after that cause of taxing mana costs. But of course, surprise, surprise that our protagonists has no such trouble. In fact his handling of extremely strong monsters gets better and better with time.
The next thing thats changed in this series is the harem element. In the first 2-3 books, I was frankly surprised at how smoothly those elements were introduced. He didn't just get into the pants of every girl the moment they met, but there was generally a decent amount of something akin to relationship build à la The Wheel Of Time series.
Not anymore now, with him pretty much kissing any new girl on the first meeting, and having sex on the second.
Also whats was noticeably different for me, and one of the big reasons I did not like this book, is how dumb the main character has now become. During the first 2-3 books he was quite likeable and cool. Now, most of the times he acts like a 5 year old. A 5 year old that has urges for sex every few chapters. You can imagine how jarring this would feel.
Where initially all dialogues and responses of the MC seemed decent, now they all seem over the top. And I mean literally all. At the silliest unexpected things his 'jaw drops to the floor' or he's utterly stunned. At the slightest mention of suggestions that might not be the best options from any of the other characters, he reacts with instant anger. At the first sign of a girl, he's up and flirting.
Worst of all, all these things might happen in the same paragraph when make you wonder what the fuck is going on with his head? One moment his 'jaw is on the floor' (yes you better get used to this phrase), next moment he's angry, next moment he's grinning, next he winking at whichever girl is present. This utter devolution of the main character was a pain to swallow.
Another thing that was extremely weird was repetition of things. In one instance, Gryff gets told the location of where someone is going, and some chapters later he's wondering if they're going to that place when they literally mentioned it to him where they were going!
In another instance, he deliberates whether to share information with someone, then decides to do it and divulges what he knows. A couple of chapters later, he's again given an offer by the same people to share information, although he has no new information, and he again deliberates if he should do it! What the heck?! Man you already decided you were going to do it once, and you did it. Now you've nothing new to share and still you're deliberating?!
This book in essence was an attempt by the author to add some lore to the world by trying to give reasons for why things are the way they are. But it fell miserably flat from the first person POV of a MC who feels like a child. Not to mention you're going to have problems when you spend more effort it writing extremely lame wisecracks and flirty dialogues for the MC than working on the lore, which did not drawn me in in the least.
I will still read the 6th book, but if it has been written in the same style as the 5th, I'll probably speed read all of it and not bother waiting on the remaining however many books the author releases. A shame since I really liked it in the beginning.
April 4, 2019
The story is getting complicated
I enjoyed the Summoner series so far, but this book is really complicating the story to the point that I am not as enthusiastic about it as I once was. The MC now seems more like a ‘Playa’ than a man with a healthy relationship with several girls. Nia one of my favourite characters only appears to be a damsel in distress instead of the powerful mage and equal partner she was in the previous books. Complicating the story with quests for chunks of ‘Cyphers’, political issues with councils and the headmaster, Monsters now being intelligent with language, Phi getting ‘what she wanted’ suggesting a win was a loss, text to be deciphered, ancient libraries to be found, 12 mysterious ‘heroes’ who sacrificed themselves for balance.... etc, etc. So much for a simple action/adventure/love/harem tale that the first books suggest the tale was. Still an enjoyable read, but not as good as the previous books in my opinion.
I enjoyed the Summoner series so far, but this book is really complicating the story to the point that I am not as enthusiastic about it as I once was. The MC now seems more like a ‘Playa’ than a man with a healthy relationship with several girls. Nia one of my favourite characters only appears to be a damsel in distress instead of the powerful mage and equal partner she was in the previous books. Complicating the story with quests for chunks of ‘Cyphers’, political issues with councils and the headmaster, Monsters now being intelligent with language, Phi getting ‘what she wanted’ suggesting a win was a loss, text to be deciphered, ancient libraries to be found, 12 mysterious ‘heroes’ who sacrificed themselves for balance.... etc, etc. So much for a simple action/adventure/love/harem tale that the first books suggest the tale was. Still an enjoyable read, but not as good as the previous books in my opinion.
April 10, 2020
So, book 5 and so far none of the mysteries of the book have had any development.
The MC is still using the same techniques from book one.
Time passes strangely slowly, not a entire year has passed in 5 books.
The plot is not clear, and keeps getting bigger.
There are some inconsistencies throughout the books, like abilities the MC looses or, even worse, resources that they gained out of nowhere... Suddenly in the middle of a fight the MC just unveils a new (power, knowledge, ability, monster) that it acquired out of thin air.
I'm dropping this for now because it is really slow, there are 8 more books published books to go (and an undisclosed amount unpublished) and I can't stand the thought of that being only one more year in the MC life with nothing more than questions and no answers.
Note to future self: stopping reading ongoing series of books
The MC is still using the same techniques from book one.
Time passes strangely slowly, not a entire year has passed in 5 books.
The plot is not clear, and keeps getting bigger.
There are some inconsistencies throughout the books, like abilities the MC looses or, even worse, resources that they gained out of nowhere... Suddenly in the middle of a fight the MC just unveils a new (power, knowledge, ability, monster) that it acquired out of thin air.
I'm dropping this for now because it is really slow, there are 8 more books published books to go (and an undisclosed amount unpublished) and I can't stand the thought of that being only one more year in the MC life with nothing more than questions and no answers.
Note to future self: stopping reading ongoing series of books
August 24, 2021
Took me forever to finish. I just lost interest in it and moved on to other reads. It was fairly slow until the end which I then started to gain interest again. My only problem is gryff is still so damn weak. He has these top tier creatures and it was said a book or 2 ago that it took very little to summon the baroquer yet in this book it seems like it takes about 60% of his mana pool. Its just annoying how I was under the impression that it took about 10% of his mana pool. He cant even summon both his captured monsters at the same time meanimg each has to take at least 40% of his mana pool. I dont really care if he has the best monsters if he can only summon one at a time.
November 1, 2021
Story of a boy who is trying to add summoners to the army, rather than being at sides and working for Construction companies and etc.
Sent to a journey Buy his Headmaster to find the way to decipher ancient book the found, which might help them understand monsters and humans if not bring them together.
He ends up finding one of those scrolls in the monster world and runs away from the tiny demon they found in the shadow verse... For now
Sent to a journey Buy his Headmaster to find the way to decipher ancient book the found, which might help them understand monsters and humans if not bring them together.
He ends up finding one of those scrolls in the monster world and runs away from the tiny demon they found in the shadow verse... For now
April 2, 2019
Gryff and his monsters are back
The world continues to grow and the monster plot deepens. Gryff and his friends resume their battle with the monsters while the politics of the world start to swirl around the academy.
Eric Vall weaves a wonderful continuation of this story as Gryff and his girls get into bigger challenges and fight tougher monsters.
The world continues to grow and the monster plot deepens. Gryff and his friends resume their battle with the monsters while the politics of the world start to swirl around the academy.
Eric Vall weaves a wonderful continuation of this story as Gryff and his girls get into bigger challenges and fight tougher monsters.
April 15, 2019
The best one yet
Great read. It was filled with action, intrigue, and satisfaction. The worlds, both the material world and the monster world, were expanded. New characters were introduced. Other smaller characters had their roles expanded. The story actually got a little deeper. Just an overall fantastic read
Great read. It was filled with action, intrigue, and satisfaction. The worlds, both the material world and the monster world, were expanded. New characters were introduced. Other smaller characters had their roles expanded. The story actually got a little deeper. Just an overall fantastic read
May 7, 2019
Gryff hunts cyphers
Gryff is paired with Gawain and the hunt for a cypher. With entering the shadow scape and loosing days at a time Gryff has to balance his pove life and his mission. Finding the love if his life has gone missing he goes searching for Nia. An excellent addition to Gryff's story.
Gryff is paired with Gawain and the hunt for a cypher. With entering the shadow scape and loosing days at a time Gryff has to balance his pove life and his mission. Finding the love if his life has gone missing he goes searching for Nia. An excellent addition to Gryff's story.
December 7, 2019
Protrct your Own
Fighting the battles as they come is the true sense of a hero. You don't need to be super powerful to beat the evil that threatens your life and the lives of your friends. But, always remember that working as a team and using your training is the sirest way to win battles.
Another fun read and I'm off to the next.
Fighting the battles as they come is the true sense of a hero. You don't need to be super powerful to beat the evil that threatens your life and the lives of your friends. But, always remember that working as a team and using your training is the sirest way to win battles.
Another fun read and I'm off to the next.
July 1, 2021
Keeps getting better.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Gruff finds himself in a world of trouble as he embarks on a mission to recover tools to aid in the war against monsters. The story and characters were intriguing and engaging. I look forward to reading more about these characters and their further adventures. This book was definitely worth reading.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Gruff finds himself in a world of trouble as he embarks on a mission to recover tools to aid in the war against monsters. The story and characters were intriguing and engaging. I look forward to reading more about these characters and their further adventures. This book was definitely worth reading.
April 4, 2019
Another good book.
Once again I was entertained by this series and I am looking forward to reading more. The plot is going in a different direction than I thought it would and I am really enjoying the twist. Overall another awesome book.
Once again I was entertained by this series and I am looking forward to reading more. The plot is going in a different direction than I thought it would and I am really enjoying the twist. Overall another awesome book.
April 6, 2019
Good read
I have yet to have a bad read in this series, the author has given us likable characters and plenty of room to grow them. The story is fluid at the moment and that's saying something for a book 5.
I have yet to have a bad read in this series, the author has given us likable characters and plenty of room to grow them. The story is fluid at the moment and that's saying something for a book 5.
April 21, 2019
it seems like things might be moving to a head although i rather doubt it theres still plenty of mystery to be had and plenty more tales to be written here, hopefully without too long before the next one
April 21, 2019
Good But Mildly Confusing
A good plot progression story, with action (!) and drama, but it also feels transitional, as there are enough unexplained things that keep you pondering once the book is closed.
A good plot progression story, with action (!) and drama, but it also feels transitional, as there are enough unexplained things that keep you pondering once the book is closed.
April 28, 2019
Still Good!
I cant get the image of pokemon out of my head when i read this series even the main charachter seems to have similar mannerisms however i cant see it being on childrens TV!
The conflict between humans and monsters is growing and is not as straightforward as it seems!
I cant get the image of pokemon out of my head when i read this series even the main charachter seems to have similar mannerisms however i cant see it being on childrens TV!
The conflict between humans and monsters is growing and is not as straightforward as it seems!
July 22, 2019
More of that great action and suspense !!
Great action scenes, but the writing and subsequent description needs to improve a lot. Added suspense and mystery does this series a whole world of good!! Looking forward to reading the next installment in the series.
Great action scenes, but the writing and subsequent description needs to improve a lot. Added suspense and mystery does this series a whole world of good!! Looking forward to reading the next installment in the series.
November 3, 2020
Summoner 5
Well the summer vacation adventure ended up taking more than the summer vacation and took sometime in the next semester so now what is the cancel gonna do to him we'll see will in the next book
Well the summer vacation adventure ended up taking more than the summer vacation and took sometime in the next semester so now what is the cancel gonna do to him we'll see will in the next book
January 21, 2021
Eric Vall has once again written an amazing series. This ranks right up there with Metal Mage. This series is like crack. I can’t put it down. Tons of action,great characters,and a killer storyline. Can’t wait to get to book 6
November 30, 2025
Extremely well executed storyline
The growth of the characters, the development of the plot, and rate and number of changes is very well monitored and paced by the author. The series just keeps getting better. Bring on Book 6.
The growth of the characters, the development of the plot, and rate and number of changes is very well monitored and paced by the author. The series just keeps getting better. Bring on Book 6.
April 3, 2019
Great
Another great ready. I love the progressive development of each and every character, and the joy in read this just made it go by so fast.
Another great ready. I love the progressive development of each and every character, and the joy in read this just made it go by so fast.
April 4, 2019
Love the books
I fell in love with the series. Easy to read and grow with the characters. Can't wait for the next book. The story is getting better and better.
I fell in love with the series. Easy to read and grow with the characters. Can't wait for the next book. The story is getting better and better.
April 6, 2019
Good continuation in the series
I really like the book it was entertaining and easy to read . development of the characters was good and existing characters improved
I really like the book it was entertaining and easy to read . development of the characters was good and existing characters improved
April 6, 2019
Good read
Another good read from Eric Vall. I am enjoying this series alot. Excited for the next book to be released.
Another good read from Eric Vall. I am enjoying this series alot. Excited for the next book to be released.
April 7, 2019
Great
This series keeps getting better and better.Cant wait for book six to come out.Action and hot babes what more could you ask for.
This series keeps getting better and better.Cant wait for book six to come out.Action and hot babes what more could you ask for.
April 7, 2019
Love the book series.
I just wish there was a more consistent schedule of book releases and updates. Definitely can not wait for the next book!
I just wish there was a more consistent schedule of book releases and updates. Definitely can not wait for the next book!
April 8, 2019
Great addition to the series
Adding to the plot, fleshing out the lore of the monsters and humans, this is an excellent addition to this series. Keep up the great work
Adding to the plot, fleshing out the lore of the monsters and humans, this is an excellent addition to this series. Keep up the great work
April 12, 2019
Really good - the main character is a bit off - but really engaging. Interesting world, magic system and fun to read.
April 12, 2019
Great
Can't wait for the next one great character development when is the next book coming! Geoff is just the kind of character you can't help but like
Can't wait for the next one great character development when is the next book coming! Geoff is just the kind of character you can't help but like
Displaying 1 - 30 of 50 reviews