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Gerald and the amulet of Zonrach
In the realm of Wyverndawn, a wizard’s height is the mark of his power, and shrinking an entire inch is disastrous for twelve-year-old Gerald.
Looking for promotion of an inch or two, Gerald attempts to create a village landmark using his superior wizarding skills. But the spell he bought - from a guy who knows a guy - is a tad more powerful than he anticipates. The resulting earthquake breaks off a chunk of Wyverndawn from the rest of the realm allowing Vabalaz, a highly dangerous wizard, to escape from prison.
A red-faced Gerald is banished from his village and, to complete his shame, is demoted another inch; two more and he’s likely to become a Royal Equine Poop Disposal Coordinator. Gerald’s questionable acquisition of a certain golden amulet could be the answer to his problems. But when Vabalaz discovers it may also be the key to creating his elite wizard realm, Gerald is elevated to evil wizard’s enemy number one.
Gerald’s hopes of returning home hinge on repairing the damage to Wyverndawn and thwarting Vabalaz’s plans. Failure could mean Gerald’s next spell might well be his last.
Looking for promotion of an inch or two, Gerald attempts to create a village landmark using his superior wizarding skills. But the spell he bought - from a guy who knows a guy - is a tad more powerful than he anticipates. The resulting earthquake breaks off a chunk of Wyverndawn from the rest of the realm allowing Vabalaz, a highly dangerous wizard, to escape from prison.
A red-faced Gerald is banished from his village and, to complete his shame, is demoted another inch; two more and he’s likely to become a Royal Equine Poop Disposal Coordinator. Gerald’s questionable acquisition of a certain golden amulet could be the answer to his problems. But when Vabalaz discovers it may also be the key to creating his elite wizard realm, Gerald is elevated to evil wizard’s enemy number one.
Gerald’s hopes of returning home hinge on repairing the damage to Wyverndawn and thwarting Vabalaz’s plans. Failure could mean Gerald’s next spell might well be his last.
363 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2019
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Carl Hackman
4 books13 followersBorn in Folkstone, England in 1961, Carl grew up in many different locations, including Zambia, Africa. He spent most of his school years in Leeds, West Yorkshire, where his extended family lived. He will be the first to admit that he was never a great student, but he did love reading. The last thing he would ever have imagined during his time at school was that he would achieve his dream of seeing his name on the cover of a published novel.
After serving eighteen years in the British Royal Navy, Carl was medically discharged with a broken back and started his first novel. He had almost completed it when he had to put it aside to earn a living wage. He taught himself Visual Basic and became a computer programmer. Although it paid enough to live on he felt unfulfilled and became unhappy with the rat race. He and his wife decided to move to the Dominican Republic for a slower pace of life.
He started to write GERALD, his second novel. The first draft was completed within six months and went through revision after revision until he had it shining like a new penny. James Wymore saw the novel and championed it through a few more revisions and it was published in May 2017 by Immortal Works as his debut novel.
Since finishing GERALD, Carl has completed JAGUAR, the first novel he started, and has also finished writing the second in the GERALD series. He is now half way through his fourth novel about an Anglo Saxon boy. They are all very different and say a lot about his interests in life. Fantastical worlds, animals and medieval England.
When Carl is not writing he paints animals and some of his art can be seen on his website. In Carl’s ideal world he would be writing novels and painting magical creatures such as Dragons, Unicorns and Phoenixes.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
May 19, 2017
Gerald is a short fellow with an unshakable confidence that one day he'll be the greatest wizard in all Wyverndawn. That is if he can overcome his penchant for biting off more than he can chew and the unforeseen consequences of taking shortcuts.
Gerald, like the young readers to whom I would recommend this book, has high hopes in life, big plans, but sometimes things just don't work out as he hopes. With the unrelenting support of his friend and fellow apprentice Wizard Collin, Gerald embarks on an adventure to gain power and prestige while dealing with the dark wizard Vabalaz hot on his trail.
What I liked:
Gerald and the Amulet of Zonrach is a fun, engaging story for middle-grade readers. My 10-year-old daughters looked for to the nights when I would continue the story. The writing is witty and descriptive, bringing you into Gerald's world.
What I didn't like:
While Gerald is an excellent read for younger audiences, adults without a sense of wonder and whimsy may not engage with the characters so well.
I gave Gerald and the Amulet of Zonrach five stars for younger readers, and four stars for those who are not fans of middle-grade fantasy.
Gerald, like the young readers to whom I would recommend this book, has high hopes in life, big plans, but sometimes things just don't work out as he hopes. With the unrelenting support of his friend and fellow apprentice Wizard Collin, Gerald embarks on an adventure to gain power and prestige while dealing with the dark wizard Vabalaz hot on his trail.
What I liked:
Gerald and the Amulet of Zonrach is a fun, engaging story for middle-grade readers. My 10-year-old daughters looked for to the nights when I would continue the story. The writing is witty and descriptive, bringing you into Gerald's world.
What I didn't like:
While Gerald is an excellent read for younger audiences, adults without a sense of wonder and whimsy may not engage with the characters so well.
I gave Gerald and the Amulet of Zonrach five stars for younger readers, and four stars for those who are not fans of middle-grade fantasy.
May 31, 2017
I loved this book - so much humor and heart. I read the ebook but I wish I'd read it aloud to my nieces and nephews - they would have gotten a kick out of Gerald and his antics. Can't wait for the audiobook version.
Also, "Kack" is the new swear word in our house!
Also, "Kack" is the new swear word in our house!
March 24, 2017
'Measuring up' has never been as important as it is in the world of GERALD. A wizard's status and magical ability is determined by their height, so the loss of an inch or two can be devastating to one's magical career. Add to this a magical amulet, a very polite baby dragon, a very short villain, and a clumsy yet confident hero, and you've got yourself a great story filled with a loveable cast of characters! The style screams Douglas Adams and the dialogue delivery has a Python-esque quality to it that's entirely too enjoyable to read. Highly recommend!
June 8, 2017
Gerald and the Amulet of Zonrach is a solid grand slam out of the park for Carl Hackman. If you're a fan of the Harry Potter series then this book if for you! If you maybe weren't too much of a fan of the Harry potter series then I would highly suggest that you give Gerald a try. The humor and heart within this book will keep you and your kids quickly turning the pages to see what happens next!
And who would have guess that growing shorter could ever be so interesting?
And who would have guess that growing shorter could ever be so interesting?
July 17, 2017
*Received as an ARC from the author*
After reading about this book I knew I had to pick it up! It sounded full of adventure and magic and I knew I wouldn't regret reading it.
In this book we follow Gerald and his companion Colin as they inadvertently have to stop a crisis after Gerald makes a little mistake while using a spell - a mistake that causes part of the country they live in to detach from the mainland and can only be accessed by a portal. This piece of land suddenly becomes very valuable as controlling it would mean great power. Therefore our two characters must go on a dangerous quest to find the portal and shut it down before someone of greater power can take over and use it for their own good.
As soon as I started reading this book I started to get a Hobbit/Stardust theme and this flowed throughout the book. It had similar elements - two small characters going on a dangerous quest, there was magic and changing people into rodents etc. therefore as I loved both of these books I knew this was going to be a good book. The story is full of magic and fantasy elements, however it has it's own twist on it...the wizard grows with each spell. When the wizard reaches their full height e.g. 6 foot 3 they will be at the height of their power, however if they do something wrong or cannot do a spell properly they lose vital inches that mean they cannot perform spells they once could and become weak. I liked this addition as it is really easy to get used to the typical wizard story, this was a nice little addition that I think really added something extra to the story.
I loved the characters in this book, although our main character wasn't my biggest fan - he reminded me a lot of Frodo from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy in the fact that he relied a lot on his companion to do most of the lifting and things while believing all the hard work was done by him. The rest of the characters though I absolutely loved! My favourite character has to be the dragon Zach, the bond him and Gerald have is amazing and I liked reading about how they grew together and trusted each other. It was nice to see that the character had to work for this trust as all too frequently in books the character and their animal companion are instantly best friends and trust each other completely, I liked that the characters grew with each other and learned to trust each other.
I do think this book is aimed at younger children however there were some parts in it which I do think adults would enjoy so it is appropriate for all ages and I'm sure people at any age would enjoy reading it. If you're a fan of the lord of the rings and Stardust then you will definitely enjoy this book. It is a fun adventure story with magical elements involved and I would definitely recommend it!
After reading about this book I knew I had to pick it up! It sounded full of adventure and magic and I knew I wouldn't regret reading it.
In this book we follow Gerald and his companion Colin as they inadvertently have to stop a crisis after Gerald makes a little mistake while using a spell - a mistake that causes part of the country they live in to detach from the mainland and can only be accessed by a portal. This piece of land suddenly becomes very valuable as controlling it would mean great power. Therefore our two characters must go on a dangerous quest to find the portal and shut it down before someone of greater power can take over and use it for their own good.
As soon as I started reading this book I started to get a Hobbit/Stardust theme and this flowed throughout the book. It had similar elements - two small characters going on a dangerous quest, there was magic and changing people into rodents etc. therefore as I loved both of these books I knew this was going to be a good book. The story is full of magic and fantasy elements, however it has it's own twist on it...the wizard grows with each spell. When the wizard reaches their full height e.g. 6 foot 3 they will be at the height of their power, however if they do something wrong or cannot do a spell properly they lose vital inches that mean they cannot perform spells they once could and become weak. I liked this addition as it is really easy to get used to the typical wizard story, this was a nice little addition that I think really added something extra to the story.
I loved the characters in this book, although our main character wasn't my biggest fan - he reminded me a lot of Frodo from the Lord Of The Rings trilogy in the fact that he relied a lot on his companion to do most of the lifting and things while believing all the hard work was done by him. The rest of the characters though I absolutely loved! My favourite character has to be the dragon Zach, the bond him and Gerald have is amazing and I liked reading about how they grew together and trusted each other. It was nice to see that the character had to work for this trust as all too frequently in books the character and their animal companion are instantly best friends and trust each other completely, I liked that the characters grew with each other and learned to trust each other.
I do think this book is aimed at younger children however there were some parts in it which I do think adults would enjoy so it is appropriate for all ages and I'm sure people at any age would enjoy reading it. If you're a fan of the lord of the rings and Stardust then you will definitely enjoy this book. It is a fun adventure story with magical elements involved and I would definitely recommend it!
January 8, 2018
•audiobook•
Gerald and the Amulet of Zonrach is a full fledged fantasy deserving to be noticed.
It started off solidly, building the world with comedic characters; one (Gerald), being such a simpleton, you can’t help but want him to succeed.
The dragon became a centerpiece of his own right. He, too, grows -literally and figuratively- with the progression of the plot.
The villains weren’t scary, but haplessly clueless and funny.
Such creativity was poured into the book, I can’t even (nor would I want to) compare it to other works on the market. Except for the training the dragon/dragon rider piece. That aside, it clearly stands on its own in originality. Another rarity with today’s Indie genre.
I loved this book and am eagerly waiting for more about Gerald, Collin, and Zach.
Tim Anstey nailed the narration and voices! He served justice to the story and audiobook. LOVED IT
Gerald and the Amulet of Zonrach is a full fledged fantasy deserving to be noticed.
It started off solidly, building the world with comedic characters; one (Gerald), being such a simpleton, you can’t help but want him to succeed.
The dragon became a centerpiece of his own right. He, too, grows -literally and figuratively- with the progression of the plot.
The villains weren’t scary, but haplessly clueless and funny.
Such creativity was poured into the book, I can’t even (nor would I want to) compare it to other works on the market. Except for the training the dragon/dragon rider piece. That aside, it clearly stands on its own in originality. Another rarity with today’s Indie genre.
I loved this book and am eagerly waiting for more about Gerald, Collin, and Zach.
Tim Anstey nailed the narration and voices! He served justice to the story and audiobook. LOVED IT
June 5, 2017
This is a great story of how a wizard learns the art of friendship and form a bond with people and a dragon. It is done with humor and insight. Gerald and his team win in more ways than one. Loved this book and looking forward to Carl's next book.
April 12, 2017
... a most enjoyable read!
I immediately liked Gerald, the not quite perfect apprentice!
The author immediately creates a picture in your mind, the characters, the land.
We'll done Carl! I look forward to more!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews