The New Apprentice is out May 23rd – Preorder now!
Fantasy has always been one of my favorite genres. Growing up, I consumed every fantasy novel I could, from high structure to low satire… from Michael Moorcock and David Eddings to Terry Brooks and Piers Anthony. 40 years later and I’m still engaged in fantasy, but what I have observed is a great detail of modern fantasy authors are just looping around previously built literary tracks and end up being a bit derivative and even trite in their character development and world building.
This is where Michael Weber stands out in the massive landscape of modern authors. While Mr. Weber certainly recognizes and embraces the accepted and beloved elements of the fantasy novel, but he puts his own signature on them. He makes them seem fresh and that the reader is exploring them for the first time. The New Apprentice takes recognizable components and makes them seem new and energized thanks to the voice of the author. Mr. Weber’s thoughtful world building is some of the best I have ever read, giving the reader enough to get engaged and bought into the story and setting without getting tedious or boring. His characters and their journeys wanted me, as the reader, to have more time with them immediately.
The New Apprentice is brilliant and should be on your Summer fiction reading list!
A perfect blending of old school fantasy and modern storytelling – get your copy of The New Apprentice today!
Publisher Blurb – Derek Fulstarter fancies himself a hero, but his quick temper keeps him in hot water. Like this morning, when a street fight with the neighborhood bully, Conrad, got him arrested, landing both of them in the stockades on Ploughman’s Wharf. When they witness the bully’s sister, Dani, getting kidnapped, Derek has to make a choice—be the hero he imagines himself to be or let the bully figure things out on his own.
With a little push from a mentor, Derek realizes it’s time to put up or shut up. He and Conrad escape the stockade and set off on an adventure with swaggering swordsmen, towering minotaurs, and pirates on the high seas to save the kidnapped children. Along the way, Derek discovers a new friend in Conrad, as well as admiration for Dani, who proves to be much stronger than Derek realized.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Michael Weber teaches high school-level history, writing, and film in Wales, Wisconsin. An avid believer in the power of storytelling, Michael emphasizes the importance of students becoming the protagonists of their own tales. When not writing fiction or drawing accompanying artwork, Michael is busy being a husband, dad, beekeeper, and chicken wrangler. Visit Michael on his Instagram page @mr.weberdoesstuff
