Spook-y writing

I mentioned that the upcoming movie, Seventh Son, was based (as near as I can tell at the time) on the book Spooks Apprentice.  Well, I got the book and took it on the trip to Oshkosh, to see if it's any good.

One thing I'm sure of is that there were many additions to the book (just based on that one trailer).  It could be that they came from later books in the series, or maybe they were entirely fabricated.  But the trailer made it look like fighting took up a large portion of the movie, while the book had very little fighting.

I am, however, sure that I got the right book.  Too many elements do line up.

My suspicion is that it was decided that the original book was too tame, and it needed to be "punched up to eleven".  The original is in the form of a diary, and a fairly informally written one, at that.  Also, as I said, conflicts were brief, and not a focus of the book.

Mostly, the book is about Thomas learning what his position is about, and a few of the threats he has to deal with.  There are also intimations that he is uniquely qualified for the position (aside from being the seventh son of a seventh son), and hints of other things to come in later books.

Some other bits of interest.  There are hints that the book takes place in our world (specifically, in the UK), although at an unspecified time in the past.  The vague hints of when seem to indicate pre-Industrial Revolution, but probably not a long while before that.

Anyway, as part of a coming of age story, I liked the book.  I suspect that I will not like the movie (certainly, the connection to the book is unlikely to make me like it more), but we'll see.

It isn't big and dramatic, and that's not a knock on it.  It was actually suggested to be a horror novel.  I'm really not big on horror (the movies generally make me laugh, more than anything, because of how ridiculous they are, and I generally avoid the books), but didn't find much there, horror-wise.  And again, that was not a bad thing.

I am curious about the later books, but I'm not sure if I'll chase them down.