''Spook's'', published as ''The Last Apprentice'' series in the U.S., is a
dark fantasy
Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporate disturbing and frightening themes of fantasy. It often combines fantasy with elements of horror or has a gloomy dark tone or a sense of horror and dr ...
series of books written by British author
Joseph Delaney
Joseph Henry Delaney (25 July 1945 – 16 August 2022) was an English author, known for his dark fantasy series ''Spook's''. He started his career as a teacher and wrote science fiction and fantasy novels for adults under the pseudonym J. K. H ...
and published in the UK by
The Bodley Head
The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...
division of Random House Publishing. The series consists of three arcs, titled ''The Wardstone Chronicles'', ''The Starblade Chronicles'', and ''Brother Wulf''.
Plot
''Spook's'' follow Thomas "Tom" Ward, the seventh son of a seventh son who is apprenticed to Gregory to become a Spook - a master fighter of supernatural evil. John Gregory is the Spook for "the County" and gives Tom practical instruction on tackling
ghosts
A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...
,
ghasts,
witches
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have use ...
,
boggarts
A boggart is a creature in English folklore, either a household spirit or a malevolent '' genius loci'' (that is, a geographically-defined spirit) inhabiting fields, marshes, or other topographical features. Other names of this group include ''bu ...
, and all manner of other things that serve "The Dark". Tom soon discovers that most of John Gregory's apprentices have failed for various reasons, including being killed in the process of learning how to be a Spook. As the Chronicles progress the focus expands to other characters such as the assassin Grimalkin and the young witch Alice Deane; overall the series develops the plotline of Tom being destined to save the world or be tortured by the Fiend, the father of all evil, for all eternity.
"The County" referenced in the Chronicles is based on
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
in the North of England. Various County fictional towns are thinly-veiled modern day cities; for example, the town of Priestown is based on
Preston (where author Delaney was born); Caster is
Lancaster; Black Pool is
Blackpool
Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...
; Chipenden is
Chipping.
The first series, titled ''The Wardstone Chronicles'', concluded in 2014, and was followed by ''The Starblade Chronicles'' in 2015, a trilogy following the continued adventures of Tom Ward, who has finished his apprenticeship and is now a Spook in his own right dedicated to fighting an unparalleled evil threatening the County, and the world.
Works
''The Wardstone Chronicles''
# ''
The Spook's Apprentice
''The Spook's Apprentice'' (American title: ''The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch''), written by Joseph Delaney, is the first story in ''The Wardstone Chronicles'' arc of the ''Spook's'' series. The plot centres on a 13-year-old farm boy ...
'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch'') (2004)
# ''The Spook's Curse'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Curse of the Bane'') (2005)
# ''The Spook's Secret'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Night of the Soul Stealer'') (2006)
# ''
The Spook's Battle'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Attack of the Fiend'') (2007)
# ''The Spook's Mistake'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye'') (2008)
# ''
The Spook's Sacrifice'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Clash of the Demons'') (2009)
# ''The Spook's Nightmare'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Rise of the Huntress'') (2010)
# ''The Spook's Destiny'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen'') (2011)
# ''Spook's: I Am Grimalkin'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Grimalkin The Witch Assassin'') (2011)
# ''The Spook's Blood'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Lure of the Dead'') (2012)
# ''Spook's: Slither's Tale'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Slither'') (2013)
# ''Spook's: Alice'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: I Am Alice'') (2013)
# ''The Spook's Revenge'' (U.S. - ''The Last Apprentice: Fury of the Seventh Son'') (2014)
''The Starblade Chronicles''
# ''Spook's: A New Darkness'' (2015)
# ''Spook's: The Dark Army'' (2016)
# ''Spook's: The Dark Assassin'' (2017)
''Brother Wulf'' series
# ''Brother Wulf'' (2020)
# ''Brother Wulf: Wulf's Bane'' (2021)
# ''Brother Wulf: The Last Spook'' (2022)
# ''Brother Wulf: Wulf's War'' (2023)
Related books
United Kingdom
* ''The Spook's Tale / Interception Point'' - The short story ''The Spook's Tale'' was combined with
Mark Walden
Mark Walden (born 1972) is the author of the H.I.V.E. series of novels. He was a senior producer in charge of developing PlayStation games for Sony before taking up writing full-time.
Personal life
Walden spent seven years at Bablake School, a ...
's ''Interception Point'' as part of a small (128 pages) special publication for
World Book Day UK 2009 which could be purchased at that event for a £1 coupon. (2009)
* ''The Spook's Stories: Witches'' - A collection of five short stories
'Meg Skelton''; ''Dirty Dora''; ''Grimalkin's Tale''; ''Alice And The Brain Guzzler''; ''The Banshee Witch'' (2009)
* ''The Spook's Bestiary'' - A guidebook to the creatures found in ''The Wardstone Chronicles'' universe. (2010)
* ''The Ghost Prison ''- The book occupies the same world as ''The Wardstone Chronicles'', but with different characters and story lines (2013)
* ''The Spook's Seventh Apprentice'' - A novella featuring the Spook's seventh apprentice, a boy named Will Johnson (2015)
United States
* ''The Last Apprentice: The Spook's Tale And Other Horrors'' - A collection of four short stories
'The Spook's Tale''; ''Alice's Tale''; ''Grimalkin's Tale''; ''A Gallery of Villains'' this is a U.S.-released compilation incorporating the earlier published ''The Spook's Tale''. (2009)
* ''The Last Apprentice: A Coven of Witches'' - The U.S. edition of the book ''The Spook's Stories: Witches'', without the story about Grima since it was already included in the previous collection book. (2009)
* ''The Last Apprentice - The Spook's Bestiary: The Guide to Creatures of the Dark''. The U.S. edition of the book ''The Spook's Bestiary''. (2010)
Illustrations
The illustrator for the original and UK releases is David Wyatt, providing the original series covers and the illustrations for each chapter.
A noteworthy feature of the U.S.-released books are the illustrations by Patrick Arrasmith; in addition to the cover art, Arrasmith designed pen and ink drawings which precede every chapter in the books.
Drama script
In 2014, Stephen Delaney, Joseph Delaney's son, adapted ''The Spook's Apprentice'' into a 160-page play script; it is published under the title ''The Spook's Apprentice - Play Edition''.
Characters
* Thomas Jason Ward: apprentice to John Gregory and the seventh son of a seventh son, also the son of the ancient and powerful sorceress Lamia; from his father he has inherited the gifts of a spook and from his mother the ability to speed up, slow down, and halt time, the ability to locate his prey supernaturally, the ability to heal from otherwise-fatal wounds like a Lamia witch, and a "Lamia form" that increases his strength, speed, durability, and healing but also anger and bloodlust.
* John Gregory: the Spook for the County who mentors Thomas Jason Ward.
* Alice Deane: a witch who becomes Tom's closest friend. She is the daughter of Bony Lizzie and the Fiend (the Devil) and an immensely powerful witch who walks the line between good and evil.
* Bony Lizzie: a malevolent witch, Alice's ex-teacher and cruel mother. She is captured by Gregory but later freed and attempts to conquer the Isle of Mona, but is killed.
* Mother Malkin: a powerful malevolent witch, was killed by Ward.
* Tusk: an abhumand, and Mother Malkin's son, was killed by Gregory.
* Agnes Sowerbutts: Alice's aunt and Lizzie's sister, a benign witch, healer, and midwife who helps Alice and a young Grimalkin. She is killed for helping Alice by pro-Fiend witches, "living" on as a dead witch.
* Adriana: a bird witch on the Isle of Mona who allies herself with Ward, Gregory, and Alice Deane and helps thwart/kill Lizzie.
* Mam/Lamia/Zenobia: Tom's mysterious mother, the original Lamia witch.
* Wynde and Slake: two Lamia witches and Mam's spiritual "sisters," who ally themselves with Ward.
* Wurmalde: a Greek witch and old enemy of Mam who nearly killed her.
* Bill Arkwright: the Spook for the county north of Caster, and a previous apprentice of John Gregory. He is killed helping the others escape the Ord.
* Judd Brinscall: a spook and former apprentice of John Gregory who primarily worked in Romania before moving to Caster to take up the late Arkwright's place.
* Grimalkin: the Malkin witch assassin who formed an alliance with Tom and the Spook to destroy the Fiend, who killed their son.
* Thorne Malkin: a witch and Grimalkin's apprentice as witch assassin. She is killed defending the Fiend's severed head.
* John Ward: Tom's father and a seventh son, who saved Tom's mother's life.
* Jack Ward: Tom's oldest brother, inherited the farm except for one room meant for Tom.
* James Ward: Tom's second oldest brother, a blacksmith by trade. Also helped fight the Pendle witch clans.
* Tibb: a mysterious creature of the Dark created by the Malkins to see into the future.
* Mab Mouldheel: a young witch and Mouldheel witch clan leader. Her potent scrying motivates the rival Malkins' creation of Tibb.
* Morgan: a necromancer and fallen apprentice of Gregory who tried to summon Golgoth.
* Meg Skelton: the mysterious Lamia witch that lives in John Gregory's winter house in Anglezarke. Formerly Gregory's lover.
* The Fiend: Old God and the Devil. Primary antagonist later killed by Tom Ward.
* Lukrasta: an ancient immortal dark mage and creator of the power-granting Doomdryte drimoire, wrongly believed dead. To combat the Kobalos, an all-male non-human warrior race intent on killing all human males and enslaving all human females (to ensure their species' survival), he allies with Alice and Pan.
* Horn: an
abhuman who can see darkness in oneself.
* Kratch: the Boggart who serves the Spook in Chipenden.
* Slither: a skilled and powerful Kobalos mage forced by circumstance into taking up arms against his kind.
* Talkus the Unborn: a New Kobalos God who takes over the Fiend's place as the strongest dark entity after Ward kills the Fiend.
* Golgoth: Old God and god of winter whom Morgan attempted to summon.
* Siscoi: Old God and vampire god who serves the Fiend.
* Pan: Old God and nature god who forced Alice to ally with Lukrasta.
* Hecate: Old God and self-proclaimed Queen of the Witches, later killed and usurped by Grimalkin.
* The Bane: former Old God who declined in power into a demon, killed by Ward, the Spook, and Alice.
* The Ordeen: Old God killed by her enemy Mam as Lamia/Zenobia.
Reception
The ''Spook's'' series is published in 26 countries: UK, U.S., Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Thailand, and Turkey. Sales of the Chronicles have exceeded 1 million copies.
Critical reception of the series has been positive, with two of the books in the series making the
ALSC's 2006 list of "Notable Videos/DVDs, Recordings, Software, and Subscription Services" and the
YALSA's list of "Fabulous Films & Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults" for 2009. ''The Spook's Apprentice'' was the winner of both the Sefton Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award.
Adaptation
A film adaptation of ''The Spook's Apprentice'' was produced by
Legendary Pictures
Legendary Pictures Productions, LLC (doing business as Legendary Entertainment or simply Legendary) is an American film production and mass media company based in Burbank, California, founded by Thomas Tull in 2000. The company has collaborated ...
and distributed by
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
in 2015 and directed by
Sergey Bodrov
Sergei Vladimirovich Bodrov ( rus, Серге́й Влади́мирович Бодро́в, p=sʲɪrˈɡʲej bɐˈdrof; born June 28, 1948) is a Russian film director, screenwriter, and producer. In 2003 he was the President of the Jury at the 25 ...
and entitled ''
Seventh Son''.
Ben Barnes starred as the main protagonist Thomas Ward. The other cast members were
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Bridges comes from a prominent a ...
as John Gregory (the Spook),
Julianne Moore
Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, a ...
as Mother Malkin,
Alicia Vikander
Alicia Amanda Vikander (, ; born 3 October 1988) is a Swedish actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critics' Choice Movie Award, as well as receiving nominations for ...
as Alice Deane,
Kit Harington
Christopher Catesby Harington (born 26 December 1986) is an English actor who is widely known for his role as Jon Snow in the HBO epic fantasy television series ''Game of Thrones'' (2011–2019).
After studying at the Royal Central School o ...
as Billy Bradley,
Djimon Hounsou
Djimon Gaston Hounsou (; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor and model. He began his career appearing in music videos. He made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) and earned widespread recognition for his role as ...
as Radu (an original character), and
Antje Traue as Bony Lizzie.
Audiobooks
Audiobook versions of the series (unabridged) have been released in both the UK and the U.S.. The UK audiobooks were produced by Random House Audio.
Jamie Glover
Jamie Blair Glover (born 10 July 1969) is an English actor. He is best known for being cast as Harry Potter in the second cast of the West-End production of ''Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'' in 2017. He portrayed Deputy Head Andrew Treneman ...
read Book 1 and
Will Thorp
Will Thorp (born 21 June 1977) is an English actor.
Early life
Thorp attended St Augustine's Catholic College in Trowbridge. He studied at Bath College and joined Musical Youth Theatre Company. Thorp was also a member of the National Youth T ...
read Book 2. Thomas Judd read Books 3 through 8 and Book 10.
Gabrielle Glaister
Gabrielle Glaister is an English actress, best known for her role as Patricia Farnham in British soap opera ''Brookside'' and Trish Wallace in ''Family Affairs''. She is notable also for her portrayal of Bob/Kate/Bobbie Parkhurst in several epis ...
read Book 9,
Toby Longworth
Toby Longworth is a British actor who has appeared on film, radio and television. He is originally from Somerset, where he attended King Edward's School, Bath. He has worked most often as a voice actor, however, notably in several science-fictio ...
and
Kate Harbour
Kate Harbour is an English voice actress who provides many voices for the television series ''Bob the Builder'', including Wendy, Dizzy, Mrs. Potts, Mrs. Broadbent, Mrs. Percival, and Pilchard.
Biography
She is the daughter of actor Michael ...
jointly read Book 11, and
Annie Hemingway
Annie Hemingway (born 14 December 1985) is a British actress and voice-over artist. She trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Career
On graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2007 Hemingway played the role of Melis ...
read Book 12. Random House Audio also produced an abridged version of ''The Spook's Apprentice'' which is read by
Daniel Weyman
Daniel Weyman (born 1977) is an English actor known for his role as the Stranger in '' The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power''.
Theatre
He has appeared in stage productions such as Samuel West's Sheffield Crucible production of '' As Yo ...
.
The U.S. audiobooks were produced by Harper Audio.
Christopher Evan Welch
Christopher Evan Welch (September 28, 1965 – December 2, 2013) was an American TV, film, and stage actor. He is best known as the narrator in Woody Allen's '' Vicky Cristina Barcelona'' and his role as Peter Gregory in the HBO series '' Silic ...
read Books 1 through 10, and he was joined by
Angela Goethals
Angela Bethany Goethals ( ) is an American film, television and stage actress. Goethals made her acting debut in the Broadway production of ''Coastal Disturbances'' in 1987, and later played the sister of Macaulay Culkin's character in '' Home ...
in reading Book 11. Welch also read the short story collection ''The Spook's Tale And Other Horrors''. Welch died of lung cancer in 2013.
Angela Goethals
Angela Bethany Goethals ( ) is an American film, television and stage actress. Goethals made her acting debut in the Broadway production of ''Coastal Disturbances'' in 1987, and later played the sister of Macaulay Culkin's character in '' Home ...
read Book 12 and Alexander Cendese read Book 13.
References
External links
''Spook's'' Official SiteSpooksWorld
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spook's
Fantasy books by series
Dark fantasy novels
HarperCollins books
Witchcraft in written fiction