The Way of the Wizard is the fifth novel of the Trollhunters book series written by Richard Ashley Hamilton. It was released on October 2nd, 2018 by Simon Spotlight.
Synopsis[]
The wizard is discovered, but at what cost?
Jim and the Trollhunters team have finally found the wizard Merlin, but at a terrible cost. One of their beloved Troll friends has fallen in battle. Jim must now come to terms with true, lasting death for the first time in his young life. But there is little time to mourn—Jim must reclaim his fighting spirit because a civil war is about to commence among the various underground Troll communities. If not controlled, it will spill into the human world. Once again the fate of the entire planet rests on Jim’s shoulders. Will he be able to shoulder these epic responsibilities?
Chapters[]
Prologue[]
- Birthstone - Kanjigar and his wife, Ballustra, witness their son hatch from his birthstone, naming him Draal. Ballustra excitedly declares he will become a great monger, which troubles Kanjigar. They are interrupted by a Gumm-Gumm raid and Gunmar bursts into their cave. Ballustra holds him off, the baby even throwing himself into an attack, until the Gumm-Gumms sound a retreat. She praises her son as a great warrior even on the day of his birth.
Story[]
- Rest in Pieces - 1200 years later Jim kneels beside Draal’s remains and everyone joins him. Merlin appears to be oblivious to the situation and Jim storms away. When they start to leave, Merlin declares they will walk back home to the shock of everyone else.
- Two Trolls Walk into a Cave... - A few River trolls enjoy themselves in a hot spring but are interrupted by a prank. They blame two nearby Garden trolls and all begin to fight. A cloaked figure snares them and suggests if they want to fight, they do it with more than their fists. The figure releases them and they leave, but someone else watches from the shadows, snickering.
- Seven Thousand Miles to Home - Jim exits the tomb to vent then calls his mother, but the phone battery dies before he can say much more than that they’re fine and Draal is gone. Claire angrily rants that Merlin did something to her staff so that she can’t shadow-jump. Jim decides he won’t leave without Draal.
- Family Feud - An old Garden troll hears about the conflict and remembers the day the feud with River trolls began. An unprovoked River troll struck him as a child with a boulder, breaking his horns. He announces the truce is over thanks to the defilement of their sacred lichen patch by the hot springs. Simultaneously, the ruler of the River trolls remembers thousands of years earlier when Garden trolls dammed a river and then let it loose, destroying their home. Meanwhile Porgon the Trickster laughs at the jokes he’s played on both River and Garden trolls and is happy that it’s all coming to fruition.
- Salt in the Wound - Team Trollhunters carries Draal’s body through a new series of caves in the mountain to avoid daylight. Jim is bitter towards Merlin for his condescending attitude, constantly losing focus. He ignores the others when they try to comfort him. They enter a large cavern and accidentally set off a trap, all inhaling fumes that render them unconscious.
- House Arrest - Strickler convinces Barbara not to leave the house in order to keep herself safe. She points out that the main reason she was ever in any danger to begin with was because of him, so she kicks him out. Strickler wanders the town, eventually finding his way to the bridge just in time to watch Gunmar step out of Trollmarket.
- Under the Hood - Team Trollhunters wakes up in chains. Blinky is surprised when Aaarrrgghh!!! can’t break them, saying only the most skilled artisans can make such metals. Jim’s amulet refuses to respond to him, but Claire manages to pick the locks. Suddenly the hooded troll appears and looks at Draal’s stoned body, asking who killed her son. She pushes back the hood and Blinky recognizes her as Ballustra just before an explosion shatters the wall.
- Hatching a Plan - Gunmar boasts about single-handedly destroying Trollmarket, then brings out nine nyarlagroth eggs. Angor Rot uses magic to hatch them and massively accelerate their growth. Gunmar tells his underlings he intends to have the ground-eels burrow along the fault line, creating an earthquake.
- World War Troll - The group realizes the surrounding caverns have become a battlefield for Garden and River trolls. Ballustra sets up shop on the side, selling weapons to both sides as long as they pay her. Blinky refers to her as a monger – a skilled weapon-maker and dealer. They also notice Porgon who then casts a hex that makes the team look like enemy trolls to both River and Garden tribes, causing both sides to attack them. Jim pulls Merlin aside and begs him to help end the battle, but Merlin tells him to get his feelings in order or he will end up dead. Jim angrily wishes he could speak to someone who’d give him real advice like Kanjigar, so Merlin obliges.
- To Be, or NotEnrique To Be - Nana serves tea to Dictatious and Chompsky. NotEnrique and Enrique get along, but notice the ground beginning to shake. Strickler rushes to Barbara after enlisting help from Steve and Eli.
- Locked Horns - Jim stands in the Void and meets Kanjigar, apologizing for letting Draal die. He watches memories of Draal longing for combat despite being urged to study by Kanjigar, and later leaving Ballustra behind to protect his father in the new world. Kanjigar tells Jim he bears no guilt in Draal’s death, and the best way to honor him is by fighting for him.
- The O.P. - Tired by the charade, Merlin banishes the illusory hex so that both River and Garden trolls see who the team really are and the confusion causes their battle to pause. He reveals Porgon as the one playing both sides and the two have a duel of magical pranks, ending with Merlin victorious. Toby praises him as the O.P. – original pranksta. Not willing to give up their feud so easily, the trolls begin to clash once more. Jim reappears from the void, briefly thanks Merlin, then states they only need one troll to end it all.
- Puzzle Prince - Gunmar spends hours in Vendel’s cave piecing together the remains of his son. Still barely more than a shadow, Morgana challenges him to free her more quickly, but he tells her his plan is already in motion – the nyarlagroths are tunneling beneath Arcadia, weakening it.
- For the Love of... - Struggling their way through the renewed battle, Jim and his friends make their way to where Ballustra is still in the process of selling weapons to both River and Garden trolls. They confront her and Jim realizes the reason she wholeheartedly threw herself into providing weapons to the warring tribes was because she’s in mourning. As she finally comes face to face with her own actions, gruesomes enter the battlefield.
- Giant Worm Food - Barbara determines that the nyarlagroths’ highly-attuned sense of hearing can be tricked by an overload of sound, so she and the Creepslayerz set off car alarms all around the block. While they load into the Nunez’s van, Dictatious informs them that the reason the giant eels have honed in on their neighborhood is because they smell the stench of the Darklands from Jim, Enrique and Dictatious himself, therefore there is no escape. Strickler suddenly comes up with a plan.
- Dust to Dust - Powdery troll dust covers everyone in the battlefield, leading to the gruesomes attacking the living as well as the dead. Team Trollhunters takes refuge in Ballustra’s workshop. Draal’s stoned body is still lying there and she voluntarily uses it as bait to cluster most of the gruesomes together before destroying them with dwarkstone grenades. When they emerge, Porgon has Merlin unconscious and turns a siege engine on them.
- The Serpent's Spine - At school, Eli gets a call from Jim who begs for Steve’s pranking advice. He answers as the two of them dodge a nyarlagroth that tears through the school. Meanwhile Claire’s mother drives everyone to the canal, luring all the giant eels there. They meet up with the boys, who produce the fetches they got from Strickler’s office. Dictatious breaks them all and everyone helps rearrange them into a large, single doorway to the Darklands. Scenting their homeland, the nine nyarlagroths instinctively funnel through and then the large fetch collapses under the strain.
- No Take-Backs - With Ballustra’s help Jim manages to free Merlin, who then petrifies Porgon’s mouth so that he doesn’t have to listen to such tiresome bragging. Smelling the dead troll-skin of his mouth, a few remaining gruesomes converge on him. They have the numbers 1, 2 and 4 painted on them. Porgon kills them, but looks desperately about for the remaining gruesome. Merlin imitates its cry and the trickster troll flees the nonexistent gruesome. For the first time Jim laughs and Merlin asserts that he is finally ready to go home.
Epilogue[]
- Filling the Void - Draal materializes in the Void with Kanjigar. They watch as Jim and Ballustra separate, the monger finding a new interest in communications after she repairs Jim’s phone. As they observe Gunmar attempting to use Merlin’s staff on the Heartstone, Draal grows depressed and calls himself a failure since he can no longer protect Jim – a claim which Kanjigar denies since he has been welcomed into the resting place of Merlin’s champions. Father and son decide to spend eternity discovering their purpose together.
Characters[]
- Kanjigar
- Jim Lake Jr.
- Toby Domzalski
- Claire Nuñez
- Blinky Galadrigal
- Merlin
- Ballustra
- Draal
- Kanjigar the Courageous
- Barbara Lake
- Strickler
- NotEnrique
- Ophelia Nuñez
- Javier Nuñez
- Dictatious
- Gnome Chompsky
- Nana Domzalski
- Porgon
Books Index[]
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The story is set right after "For the Glory of Merlin" and before the events of "In Good Hands" (as well as the 3Below episode "Lightning in a Bottle").
- This is the first time, Draal's mother, Ballustra makes an appearance.
- Toby's paternal grandfather is revealed to be named Horace and is mentioned to have died at some point in the past.