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The Wardstone Chronicles (Published in the United States as The Last Apprentice and in the UK as The Spook's Apprentice) are a series of books written by the author, Joseph Delaney and published by Random House. The series is about a seventh son of a seventh son, Thomas J. Ward , who can see and sense creatures of the dark and other things that others cannot. He is apprenticed to train as a "Spook" so he may learn how to deal with the dark. six books in the series have been written so far: The Spook's Apprentice, The Spook's Curse, The Spook's Secret, The Spook's Battle , The Spook's Mistake & The Spook's Sacrifice The fifth book was released before its June 5 2008 release date. In their release in America they are titled, Revenge of the Witch, Curse of the Bane, Night of The Soul Stealer, Attack of the Fiend and The Wrath of the Bloodeye, respectively. The fifth book was released in America on August 28 2008; and was entitled "Wrath of the Bloodeye" In this fifth installment Tom is sent to another spook, "Bill Arkwright" to receive further training against the everlasting battle of the dark. However The Fiend sends his daughter after Tom in this new territory, to kill him. The sixth book is entitled The Spook's Sacrifice, and it sees Tom and Mam travel to Greece with the witches of Pendle to fight a powerful ancient goddess named the Ordeen. In America it will be published as Clash of the Demons.

The Wardstone Chronicles Series

Six books have been released. According to comments preceding an interview from BBC, Delaney "currently expects a minimum of seven books in the series, but perhaps more if he continues to enjoy writing them, and also if he doesn't run out of ideas - he's also thinking about a prequel featuring Alice and her training as a witch before she meets Tom and gets involved with him and the Spook" ^[1] Another book, The Spook's Tale, was released in March 2009, as a World Book Day 2009 book.^[2], and another book, this time a bestiary for The Wardstone Chronicles, The Spook's Bestiary, is secheduled to be released in October 2009. The book, written by Delaney, will include illustrations by Julek Heller, who has illustrated other fantasy novels.^[3]

The books that have been released by Joseph Delaney are (in order of publication):

The Spook's Apprentice (Revenge of the Witch) - 2004
The Spook's Curse (Curse of the Bane) - 2005
The Spook's Secret (Night of The Soul Stealer) 2006
The Spook's Battle (Attack of the Fiend) - 2007
The Spook's Mistake (Wrath of the Bloodeye) - 2008
The Spook's Sacrifice (Clash of the Demons) - 2009

Also:

The Spook's Tale (March 2009)
The Wardstone Witches (expected release October 2009)
The Spook's Bestiary (expected release Winter 2009)

References

^ [1]
^ The Wardstone Chronicles - Joseph Delaney's Blog [2]
^ The Wardstone Chronicles - Joseph Delaney's Blog [3]

External links

Wardstone Chronicles Official Site

Template:The Wardstone Chronicles

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[2] The Wardstone Chronicles - Joseph Delaney's Blog [2]

[3] The Wardstone Chronicles - Joseph Delaney's Blog [3]

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 {{Primary sources|date=October 2008}}
 '''The Wardstone Chronicles''' (Published in the [[United States]] as '''The Last Apprentice''' and in the UK as '''The Spook's Apprentice''') are a series of books written by the author, [[Joseph Delaney]] and published by [[Random House]].  The series is about a seventh son of a seventh son, Thomas J. Ward , who can see and sense creatures of the dark and other things that others cannot. He is apprenticed to train as a "Spook" so he may learn how to deal with the dark.  six books in the series have been written so far: ''[[The Spook's Apprentice]]'', ''[[The Spook's Curse]]'', ''[[The Spook's Secret]]'', ''[[The Spook's Battle]]'' , ''[[The Spook's Mistake]]'' & ''[[The Spook's Sacrifice]]''  The fifth book  was released before its [[June 5]] [[2008]] release date.  In their release in America they are titled, [[Revenge of the Witch]], [[Curse of the Bane]], [[Night of The Soul Stealer]], [[Attack of the Fiend]] and [[The Wrath of the Bloodeye]], respectively.  The fifth book was released in America on [[August 28]] [[2008]]; and was entitled "[[Wrath of the Bloodeye]]" In this fifth installment Tom is sent to another spook, "Bill Arkwright" to receive further training against the everlasting battle of the dark. However The Fiend sends his daughter after Tom in this new territory, to kill him. The sixth book is entitled ''[[The Spook's Sacrifice]]'', and it sees Tom and Mam travel to Greece with the witches of Pendle to fight a powerful ancient goddess named the Ordeen. In America it will be published as [[Clash of the Demons]].
-== Characters ==
-{{Plot|date=June 2009}}
-=== Thomas J Ward ===
-Tom, full name Thomas James Ward, is a flourishing apprentice to John Gregory, the County Spook. The Spook has had twenty-nine apprentices before Tom, although he is the best so far. He is the seventh son of a seventh son, but it is revealed in the fourth book of the series that his mother is a domestic Lamia Witch from Greece whom his father saved during his time as a sailor.
-Tom has accomplished many things, despite his lack of experience.
-He has a friendship, though strongly disapproved of by his master, with Alice, a young girl who will grow into a witch, though it is uncertain whether she will become malevolent or benign. However, both his mother and his master's love, a Lamia witch called Meg, have advised him to "treat her better than John treated me and it won't end like this". Tom continues his friendship with Alice, despite the warnings given by the Spook. He also seems to develop some feelings for her, although it is possible that he could be constantly fretting over her because she is the closest thing he ever had to a friend. In the fifth book, she kisses him for the first time, before running off, supposedly to Pendle.
-Not much is known about his appearance, although it was written in ''The Spook's Battle (Attack of the Fiend)'' that he has green eyes and is left-handed, which seems to be common amongst Spooks. (Bill Arkwright, The Spook and Tom are all left-handed.)
-In the sixth book, Mam returns and they, along with the Pendle witches, travel to her homeland of Greece to continue the battle with the dark. Tom is reunited with Alice, and she joins him on the journey to Greece. The Spook accompanies them, and they battle a powerful goddess called the Ordeen. Mam's secret is revealed to Tom - she is Lamia, the mother of all Lamia witches. Tom sacrifices himself in order to save everyone who travelled with him to fight the Ordeen, surrendering his soul to the Fiend. However, just as he is about to be taken, Alice pushes the blood jar into his hand, meaning the Fiend can never harm Tom as long as Alice is by his side. The two must now never be separated, but both stated that they wouldn't mind spending the rest of their lives together.
-=== John Gregory ===
-John Gregory is one of the most prolific Spooks and has a mysterious history that he will not tell Tom. We gradually discover more about him. He originally trained to be a priest but after falling out with his brother, he became a Spook.it is also revealed in "The Spook's Tale" that he became a spook because on his way to train as a priest in Houghton he encountered the spook before him ,later to be his master-Henry Horrocks and aided him in disposing of a powerfull witch and her pet boggart.
-Gregory is a strict mentor, always to the point and hard to please. However, he gives praise to Tom at some moments, albeit rather gruffly and (somewhat) reluctantly, showing that he has a soft side (but is afraid to show it). He claims this lack of praise is at least in part to do with him doing his best to avoid Tom becoming big-headed  and making mistakes.
-He has had relationships with Meg Skelton and Emily Burns, and is suspected to have more. He met Emily Burns first, admitting that she was his brother's girl, claiming that "he was young". However, she got tired of him and moved on, although they remained good friends. He says she had already got over his brother, one of the reasons why their relationship started. When he had just become a Spook, Gregory met Meg. He had been going off to take care of a monster, and she happened to be in the tower with it, bound with a silver chain. He ended up sleeping with her and discovered that she was a Lamia witch in the morning (after noticing the line of yellow and green scales along her back). When he tried to put her into a pit, Gregory found he couldn't bring himself to do it. Eventually, he sends Meg and her sister, Marcia, back to their home in Greece at the end of the third book (''The Spook's Secret'').
-He has a brother named Andrew, a skilled locksmith. He has made keys that can open almost any door for both the Spook and Tom, which have often come in useful, such as when battling the Bane in the Priestown catacombs. Tom meets him for the first time in the second book. He has one other significant brother who is a priest. He is first met in Horshaw after Tom has just begun his apprenticeship. Gregory and his brother did not speak, because Emily Burns was once the priest's lover, but went for the Spook instead. However, he did decide to pay his last respects and attend his funeral when he died. He died after he was attacked by a ripper (a powerful boggart).
-In "The Spook's Tale" John's brother Paul is introduced. Not much is known about him apart from the fact that he shared a nightmare with John in his childhood and that he worked in a coal mine if he continued to is unknown.
-During the fifth installment, he sends his apprentice to train with Bill Arkwright to receive further training against the everlasting battle against the dark. Later he has to help Tom rescue Arkwright from several Water Witches. At the end of the book, he sends Alice away because, among other things, she used a mirror to communicate with other witches, including the witch assassin Grimalkin, who ended up saving Tom's life in the fifth book.
-=== Alice Deane ===
-Alice is the niece of a witch who in the first book of the Wardstone Chronicles is under the care of her Aunt, known as "Bony Lizzie" by the locals because she uses Bone Magic. She first tricks Tom into freeing the witch "Mother Malkin" but helps him escape from her Aunt. She originally came from Pendle. Her mother was a Malkin and her father was a Deane, though neither practiced witchcraft. They died at an early age so Alice was put under the care of her Aunt. It is later revealed during the 5th book that there is a possibility the Fiend and Bony Lizzy are her true parents.
-In the first part of the Wardstone Chronicles, Alice Deane seems to be a confused young girl seemingly under the wrong influence. However, as the series goes on, she starts to see from good and bad, and starts to help Tom in many ways. She seems to be a feminist, throwing a fit when Tom suggested that she cooks. (Although Tom later pointed out that she is good at it.) She also seems somewhat reluctant to help out Mr. Gregory when he's in a tight spot, pointing out that he probably wouldn't do the same for her, but ends up being convinced by Tom to do so anyway. She doesn't like the fact that Mr. Gregory doesn't trust her, and is known for throwing fits when she's left out of something big. She claims Tom's mother left her with instructions to protect Tom by any means, which she uses as an excuse to try and use the dark as a tool.
-However, Tom's mother was often worried about how Alice would turn out, as she seems to be on the fine line between good and evil. Even though she helped destroy Mother Malkin and the Bane, it was (mostly) her fault that they had to be stopped in the first place, albeit unknowingly. Bony Lizzie had made her convince Tom to give Mother Malkin blood cakes, and she had made a sacrifice to the Bane out of pure hatred and spite toward the Quisitor. Although she knew the consequences, she had freed the Bane to help Tom, Mr. Gregory, and herself.
-Alice seems to have a gift with botany, putting leaves on Tom's hand to treat his burn and mixing a potion to help Mr. Gregory's pneumonia. She is assigned to tell Tom all she knows while she is staying at [[Chipenden]], as well as copying Mr. Gregory's books. Tom said that she had nice handwriting at the end of the book.
-During the books, Alice is said to be pretty with big, brown eyes and long, black hair. She seems to have feelings for Tom as she jokes about using, during a moment of solitude during the day of his birthday, glamour and fascination on him, two witch powers to seduce him and often control him. Another reason for believing that Alice has feelings for Tom may come from the fifth book, where she is tormented by the idea that she will be separated from him and eventually kisses him.
-At the end of the fifth book, Alice contacts Grimalkin (a savage witch assassin) to help Tom defeat the Fiend's daughter, Morwena, which later gets her banished from Chipenden. She revealed to Tom that she was going to become a witch once back in Pendle Hill, claiming that's where she belonged. However, it is hinted that the only reason Alice says she's going to become a witch is because it was revieled to her that she is not only infact Bonnie Lizzy's daughter of the Fiend. Knowing this Alice feels she will venture into the dark no matter how hard she tries to stay by Tom's side in the light
-=== Tom's Mother ===
-Tom's Mother, nicknamed Mam, is a very mysterious woman and in the fourth book (although it is heavily hinted at in the second and third book) that she is a Lamia witch. Tom's father and mother met when Mam had her hand nailed to a rock and Tom's father came and took off his clothes and covered her from the sun, so she wouldn't burn.a characteristic trait of a lamia witch.
-When the sun went down, Mam, who was still nailed to the rock, pulled her hand straight off and Mam and Tom's father kissed. Mam married Tom's father, bearing him seven sons, three of whose names we know (Jack, James and of course Thomas).
-Mam has a locked room in the house, right under the attic; we find out that she has a great deal of money in there because her money bought the farm in the first place, and when the Spook came to collect his money for Tom's training, Mam got it from her room.
-There are many things in Mam's room; in the fourth book, we find out that it contains a lot of potions and money. It also contains two of Mam's sisters, who are feral lamias who can only be woken up when touched by moonlight (which Tom does in book four), and her wedding dress that she kept all this time. It is also said that only the young can use this room. Mam said that it was alright for Thomas and Alice to enter but not Mr Gregory. He would not be able to withstand the toll of using the room. This room saved Tom's life when the Fiend was under the control of the three Pendle witch clans.
-In "The Spooks Sacrifice", she returns to ask Tom if he would help destroy an ancient goddess Ordeen, with the help of the Pendle witch clans.
-it is revealed that she is not only a lamia witch, but is in fact ''Lamia'' herself- the mother of all lamia witchs and in fact the feral lamias in her trunks are not her sisters but her decendants via many, many generations.it is also revealed that in her early life she commited countless acts of evil and caused many deaths, in order to achieve redemption she turned to the light and fought a private war against the ordeen as her nemesis. It is her hope to destroy the Ordeen in order to end it's reign of terror over her homeland, and achieve redemption.
-she has lived for hundreds and even thousands of years, and during her lifetime she has undergone many changes and evolutions, and her final form before her last battle with the Ordeen is of a large feral lamia with huge angelic wings.
-after she has taken her final form and said her goodbye's to Tom she engages the Ordeen in battle and destroys her, killing herself in the process.
-later it is heavilly hinted in a dream of Tom's that she has gone to heaven.
 == The Wardstone Chronicles Series ==