Product Description

The Spook and his apprentice, Thomas Ward, rid the county of witches, ghosts, boggarts, and other creatures of the dark. And there's some unfinished business to attend to in Priestown. Deep in the catacombs lurks a creature the Spook has never been able to defeat; a force so evil that the whole county is in danger. The Bane!

But the Bane is not their only enemy. The Quisitor arrives, intent on hunting down anyone who meddles with the dark. Thomas Ward and the Spook must prepare for the battle of their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50865 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-01
• Released on: 2007-07-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 5–8—Young Tom Ward finds himself taking on more dangerous villains in the second book (Greenwillow, 2006) in Joseph Delaney's series. Six months into his apprenticeship to the monster hunter, aka the Spook, Tom is wrangling boggarts, ghosts, and witches. When he and the Spook are compelled to journey to Priestown for the Spook's brother's funeral, frightful situations develop. The sadistic Quisator is present, seeking to capture and kill the Spook. Alice, Tom's good witch friend, is among those already rounded up for a gruesome mass burning at the stake. How can Tom save Alice when his master recommends leaving her to her fate? Could the Spook's attitude reflect a regretful past love affair with a witch? Meanwhile, a more fearsome creature is bound to the catacombs under the Priestown cathedral. The Bane is a shape-shifting spirit who sucks blood and controls minds. It's up to Tom to outwit the Bane before it infiltrates his mind and inflicts its preferred method of execution, squashing victims flat. Christopher Evan Welch skillfully juggles voices, most notably conveying the Spook's irascibility and Tom's earnestness. Yet it is the Bane that takes center stage with its echoing hiss and eerie, Yoda-like syntax. The violence and villains here are not for the faint of heart. A YALSA 2007 Selected Audiobook for Young Adults.—Erin B. Allen, Rowan Public Library, Salisbury, NC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From AudioFile
Christopher Evan Welch does his best with an uneven and gory tale of exorcism. As young Thomas Ward and his mentor, the Spook, battle the Bane beneath a cathedral in Priestown, they must also struggle with the high church official who is bent on eradicating all who practice the dark arts. Welch is a bit too good at his portrayal of the Quisitor's sadistic glee at burning people alive and torturing confessions out of them. Welch clearly delivers Ward's insecurity and growing knowledge and bravery. His portrayal of Alice, the young witch who aids Ward, is equally good. However, there is an unevenness to his early voicings of the Spook, and the Bane's delivery is less menacing than it purports to be. D.P.D. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. When readers met Tom Ward in The Revenge of the Witch (2005), the first entry in the Last Apprentice series, he was a callow lad, apprehensively apprenticed to the Spook, who routs the Dark from the County. The malevolent forces that came into play last time seem almost mundane compared to the challenges Tom and the Spook face now: a violent, deadly bane growing in strength and power to become the embodiment of evil. Despite the blood and gore, this tale is more than a well-crafted horror story. Delaney infuses his characters with depth and emotion, but equally important, he grows his world by contributing significantly to the back story. Readers learn the reason the Spook has strong feelings about women in general and witches in particular, and Tom discovers something unexpected about his mother and her wisdom. Delaney also does an exceptional job of interweaving stories, with one plot point leading insistently to the next; at the book's conclusion, readers can go over all Tom has learned by leafing through his journal. Kids will breathlessly await Tom's next adventure. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Great book fun and exciting
This book was great, started off exciting with Tom, the spooks apprentice binding his first boggart. From there the story leads to The master and apprentice going to preistown to take care of the Bane, an ancient dark creature that lives in the catacombs under the city. Overall great book.

A good and satisfying scary tale!
A mix of medieval fantasy and good old-fashioned horror, this second book in The Last Apprentice series will definitely take its place in your grey matter [and your bones] for a long time. Young Tom Ward is the Spook's apprentice. The Spook, whose brother is a priest, rids the county of dark forces on a less spiritual level. Although people throughout the county are indebted to the work of the Spook, who neutralizes dangerous witches, boggarts and ghosts, he is treated with fear and apprehension. A major antagonist is the Quisitor, who makes it his mission to eliminate those who practice what he deems 'the dark arts'. And yet, there is an even more deadly foe, the Bane, a shape-shifting demon that controls minds, and must be eliminated before the dire prophecy regarding the Bane rings true. The story is told by Tom, accommodated by intriguing illustrations and addendums. This is edge-of-your-seat scary, and I can't wait to read it again!

Good Audio
I'm not usually one for audio books but I had to do a 64 hour drive from California and back in a 4 days period. Having read the first Apprentice book I was very interested in this one.
Let me tell you, it scared the heebies out of me. :) It was exciting and terror-filled. Many times I had to turn it off because I was driving in middle of nowhere Texas.

All in all, 2 thumbs up for scaring a 22 year old college student.