The City of Beasts

15 year of Alexander Cold is going to go on the wildest journey of his life. He is going to go to Amazon to find the legendary beast. Along the way Alex meets a new friend called Nadia. They are going to look for the beasts. They discover the people of the mist (an indian tribe) and the famous city of gold - El Dorado. They find out that El Dorado is the city of the Beast. The beasts are like giant sloths with giant sloths with razor sharp claws the size of a banana. When people the find the entry of the city, the beasts start to attack the humans. Alex and Nadia and save the indians from getting typhus injections, the beasts from getting found and put in zoos, and the humans who were trying to find the beasts from getting killed by the beasts.

I liked this book because the description of the beasts was very realistic, and because Alex is pretty cool. The part I didn't like was the typhus injections because it would have wiped out the people of the mist and also the description the dead man killed by the beast, because the guy looked like he had slash wounds, but he had several unknown insect species on him as well as the normal flies and ants.

The Last Apprentice - Book 3 - Night of the Soul Stealer

In this book, the Spook gets a letter from a man in red cloak who looks a lot like spook. Then the Spook suddenly goes to his winter house with Tom and they meet a new character - Meg - a shapeshifting lamia-witch. In the first job, they face off against a stone chucker, a kind of boggart which throws stones from pebbles to boulders the size of a house (or at least the size of a head). Their second job is far more serious. They face off against a former apprentice of the Spook - Morgan the Necromancer. The Spook is seriously injured and Meg forgets to drink the potion that keeps her from attacking people. Then Morgan comes into the house and steals the grimoire, which is a book of magic, and he attempts to summon Golagoth the old lord of winter. However, he needs an apprentice to do it, and he asks Tom to become his apprentice. Tom says yes, but only to buy time until Alice could find them. Morgan takes Tom to the round loaf, which is a sacrificial hill, and makes Tom dig to the sacrificial chamber where he plans to summon the old lord himself. However, he makes a mistake with the pentacle and is shattered into a million tiny fragments of person and ice. Tom survives, but the Spook is still seriously hurt and he knows his time is coming close.

What I liked about this book was what the necromancer's robe looked like and the shape shifting witch. What i didn't like about this book was the feral shape shifting witch (Meg's sister). She was in a pit for 20 years and she was already very vicious before when she was in there, so 20 years would not have improved her behavior. I rate this book nine out of ten.

The Last Apprentice - Book 2 - The Curse of the Bane

In this book, almost every one of the Spook's brothers has died. He had six and now he only has one. He had come to the funeral of the latest one after the brother had tried to deal with a ripper (that's a blood sucking boggart), but he had also come to the area to deal with a malevolent entity called the Bane. In trying to deal with the Bane he is injured and he has to go talk to the first magician. But then Alice tries to take the Bane as her familiar. She succeeds but then it starts to take over her! Tom tries to get it out and he is successful, but the Bane nearly kills his master again. After a few weeks, the Spook is fine again, and goes back to the job.

What I liked this book is that there are a few new characters introduced, like the Spook's last brother, Andrew, and Father Carnas who takes the Spook into custody to burn by order of the supreme Inquisitor. What I didn't like about this book is exactly how the Bane looked - it was kind of disgusting. I would rate this as a seven out of ten.

The Last Apprentice - Book 1 - The Revenge of the Witch

This book is about a young boy called Thomas Ward. For years the Spook (who is a kind of exorcist) has been ridding the county of ghosts, but the Spook is getting old and he needs a new apprentice. He has hired 29 apprentices. Only one is left. in this book we find out if can become a true Spook's apprentice. In the book Thomas also meets a new friend named Alice, and he learns not to trust any girls wearing pointy shoes because they are witches.

I liked this book because because it is a thrilling mixture of fantasy, adventure and horror (but that much of horror). What I didn't like is that it involved witches being eaten alive by pigs. It was probably a good thing that she was eaten by the pigs, but it was still unpleasant.

I would rate this book eight out of ten. If you get nightmares when you look at the covers of horror books, you should not read this book. There are six books in this series. I plan to read them all.