Fantasy book series about a boy who is unaware of a different realm he travels to; a grand wizard there asks him to join a quest to slay a dragon

Question

You will have to bear with me, I haven't read this these books since high-school. That being said I am looking for a fantasy book series about a boy who is unaware of a different realm that he travels to then at the behest of the grand wizard there asks him to join a quest to head to a mountain and slay a dragon and claim the score of a life time. I keep thinking wizard's apprentice meets Hobbit.

The boy lives in the inn with his mother and stepfather then step father is horrible to him so he runs off to get away when he finds a building that looks out of place he's curios and goes when he meet the wizard that offers him apprenticeship and adventure. Oh and something that always stuck with me is the messengers in the book they look like bowling pins and they show up where and when ever and head butt you until you pay them.

I read the book I'm guessing around the 2013 to 2014 mark and I remember the book series not being completed at the time if that helps.

Answer 1

Might this be the Adventurers Wanted series by M.L. Forman?

• Book 1: Slathbog's Gold (2009)
• Book 2: The Horn of Moran (2011)
• Book 3: Albrek's Tomb (2012)
• Book 4: Sands of Nezza (2013)
• Book 5: The Axe of Sundering (2017)

Judging by this review, the first book in the series has a plot very similar to what you've described:

Boy meets adventure in a paint-by-numbers fantasy quest. Young Alex toils with mild discontent in his stepfather’s tavern when he spots a sign in a shop window declaring ADVENTURERS WANTED. Succumbing to impulse, he inquires within and is recruited willy-nilly to help slay the evil dragon Slathbog and claim his treasure. His cookie-cutter companions include painfully generic dwarves, elves and human stereotypes, all of whom regard Alex with inexplicable delight and wonder, especially as he starts to reveal a dazzling range of hitherto-unknown powers, while remaining so gosh-darn modest and likable that every person of note wants to be his friend and every villain makes him his target. After an interminable journey through vaguely described fantasy locales, the company eventually catches up with the Big Bad Beast, whom Alex (naturally) dispatches in a few paragraphs. Cue another chapter divvying up the loot, before Alex can return home to receive a SHOCKING!!! revelation, just in time to set up threatened sequels. Wait for the collectible card game instead.