The Summoner trilogy, by Taran Matharu, is a YA series that combines classic rpg video game elements, a Hogwart's like academy, and the teen vs teen survival trials of the Hunger Games. Fletcher is an orphan who finds, and successfully uses, a demon summoning scroll in a world where the human battlemage summoners support the army in an endless conflict with the orcs. 

The heart of the story revolves around the demon summoning mechanic. Each species of demon requires a certain amount of summoning power to maintain the connection and each summoner has levels of power that may grow with experience. For instance, Fletcher's demon Ignatious is level 5 but his starting summoning level is 8 so he could also acquire a level 3 demon or three level 1 demons. Different demon types confer varying amounts of mana to the summoner who uses it to cast spells like shields, fireballs, etc. in addition to their own abilities. Ignatious is a Salamander demon that can breathe fire. All of this is explained at the academy so we learn as Fletcher does.

The ability to summon demons tends to run in noble bloodlines so there are few commoner students at the battlemage academy. This sets up the usual arrogant noble vs smarter but poor kids scenario. There are also two non-human students, an elf and dwarf, adding in some racial tensions. As an outsider himself, Fletcher attempts to befriend these two. The first book culminates with the students dueling each other in a tournament to get themselves the best commissions as officers in the army.

Politics and problems with Fletcher's enemies among the nobles continue to plague him in the second book, Inquisition, as the students are divided into teams for a mission deep into orc territory that will be viewed by the public through scrying crystals. They are all supposed to be on the same side but someone is trying to kill Fletcher and casting suspicion on several he thought were friends.

The series is easy reading with clear rpg influence. The scenes were so well visualized that it felt like I had previously seen it as a movie. The books are sadly lacking in real character development but they aren't very long in either timeline or pages. Overall, I'd rate them as a good first effort from a new author. Novice and Inquisition are out in all three formats, Battlemage will be released in May 2017.