Attack of the Fiend

Format:

Book

Title:

Attack of the Fiend

Uniform Title:

Spook's battle

Author:

Delaney, Joseph, 1945-

ISBN:

9780060891275

9780060891282

9780060891299

9781536416374

9781439597774

Edition:

1st American ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Greenwillow Books, 2008.

Physical Description:

532 pages : illustrations, map ; 21 cm.

Series title(s):

Last apprentice ;

Number in series:

04.

General Note:

Originally published in Great Britain by The Bodley Head, 2007 under the title The Spook's battle.

Contents:

Visitor from Pendle -- Theft and kidnapping -- Priorities -- East to Pendle -- Three sisters -- Cellar of mirrors -- Alice's tale -- Mistress Wurmalde -- Footprints -- Tibb -- Thief and murderer -- Army arrives -- Sepulchre -- Wight -- Like lithe cats -- Mam's trunks -- Moonlight -- James the blacksmith -- Agnes Sowerbutts -- End of an enemy -- Back to Downham -- Battle of Pendle Hill -- Blood moon -- Despair -- New order -- Journal of Thomas J. Ward.

Summary:

When witches steal Tom's inheritance and kidnap his relatives, Tom, the Spook, and Alice set out for Pendle Hill, a particularly dangerous district, in hopes of preventing the three witch clans from uniting to raise the Fiend, the Devil himself, thus bringing about an age of darkness.

Program Information:

44510. Reading Counts RC 5.3.

Accelerated Reader AR MG 5.7 14.0 121819.

AR 5.7 14.0.

Subject(s):

Apprentices -- Juvenile fiction.

Paranormal fiction.

Witches -- Juvenile fiction.

Devil -- Juvenile fiction.

Apprentices -- Fiction.

Supernatural -- Fiction.

Genre:

Added Author:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Woodburn Public Library	Delaney	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Monmouth Public Library	YA Fic Delaney, J. 2008	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Newberg Public Library	TEEN DELANEY	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Silver Falls Library	YA DELANEY	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stayton Public Library	TEEN DELANEY	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

"I see your future clearly. Your master will be dead, and you will be alone. It would be better if you had never been born."

Thomas Ward is the apprentice for the local Spook, who banishes boggarts and drives away ghosts. But now a new danger is threatening Tom's world: the witches are rising and the three most powerful clans are uniting in order to conjure an unimaginable evil.

Tom and the Spook set out to stop the witches before they unleash the demon. But when Tom finds himself on his own, he wonders if he has the courage and cunning to defeat the most powerful enemy he has ever encountered.

Author Notes

Joseph Henry Delaney was born on July 25, 1945, in Preston, Lancashire, England. He was educated at Lancaster University, studying English, History, and Sociology. At St. Martin's College he studied to become a teacher. He earned a degree at Open University to become a computer programmer. He wrote science fiction and fantasy books. His first book, Mercer's Whore, was written under the penname of J. K. Haderack. He began to write full-time after his second book was published. Under his real name, he wrote The Wardstone Chronicles, which is called The Last Apprentice series in the United States. In 2015 he made The New York Times High Profile Title's List with The Seventh Son. His other series included The Starblade Chronicles, Arena 13, and Aberrations. Joseph Delaney died on August 7, 2022 at age 77.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (3)

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-8-Apprentice witch-hunter Tom Ward and his master, the Spook, must now travel into deep enemy territory. The three witch covens of Pendle Hill have been at odds for a long time, but somehow they've been persuaded to put aside old enmities. The aim of this unholy alliance is no less than raising the Devil himself. The key to defeating the witches may rest in a set of trunks willed to Tom by his mysterious mother, but they have been stolen by the Malkin clan, along with Tom's older brother and his family. Delaney does a good job of tying in information from previous books, but the prosaic writing style means the story only occasionally achieves an atmosphere of excitement and dread. Still, fans of the series will welcome the surprising revelations and further questions unveiled in this chapter of the tale.-Christi Esterle, Parker Library, CO (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Horn Book Review

Jack (Tom Ward's brother) and the Spook battle warring witch families, both of whom want the contents of the mysterious boxes left to Jack by his mother. Although some of the battle scenes run too long, fans will appreciate the way this latest installment brings in elements from the previous books. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

Once again packaged as a doorstopper but reading as if it's half the length, the fourth episode in the harrowing training of teenaged Tom Ward as a bulwark against all that is evil and supernatural brings some disturbing revelations about his absent mother's identity. Plus there are battles with undead creatures, a trained assassin who likes to use scissors, three entire clans of witches--and not just a fiend, not just some fiend, but Old Nick himself, newly re-invited back to the world and far more powerful than all other threats combined. Fortunately (if that's the word), with help from a small but doughty crew of allies that swells with the addition of two winged, bestial vampires who turn out to be relatives, Tom pulls through; the stage is set, though, for further bloody struggles with the Devil and his minions. Dark chapter-head illustrations add a properly ominous air to the narrative, as do closing notes on each ghost, ghast, wight and worse he has met. Not recommended for beneath-the-sheets reading. (Fantasy. 11-13) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.