Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Warrior Heir


I hug myself for doing so well with posting. Maybe too well *ponders*. But the point is that I have written another review. And this book was better even than the last one I read!

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Chima begins with a young boy swearing vengeance as marauding wizards burn down his home and his sister is taken captive. 100 years pass and a child is born a wizard. But after a risky surgery to save his precious life he is given the stone (a magical article that gives people their magicality) of a warrior. This crosses all boundaries of the five guilds (enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, warriors, and soothsayers) and provides new life to a war between the guilds that had begun during the War of Roses.

16 years later, Jack Swift does not take his medicine. And odd things begin to happen. A strange burst of energy temporarily paralyzes a bully on his soccer team and the aunt he sees only occasionally appears. When Jack goes on a short trip with his aunt and friends to study his family’s genealogy they are attacked by a man with blue fire at his hands. His arrival unlocks a flood of family secrets. Jack is a warrior, one of a dying breed and his beautiful aunt an enchantress. Wizards have put themselves above the other guilds and several factions are on the hunt for Jack so he can serve as entertainment in the evil gladiator-like “Game” that has existed for centuries.

At the same time Jack must push away an old girlfriend in hopes of wooing a certain Ellen from homeroom and learn how to handle a mystic sword known as Shadowslayer without decapitating himself.

The Warrior Heir is fast paced and creative. Chima manages to provide an entire world of background and then weave it into the familiarity of present day earth. Her characters are easy to relate to and I almost found myself falling for Jack. Plus the plot twists abound! Ah, such is a good book. I bequeath upon this book a 6 out of a 7 and command ye all to go and read it. There’s even a sequel *skips giddily about with great abandon* called the Wizard Heir.

Reading the sequel,

Aella Siofra

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I JUST saw this book at the library EXACTLY twenty-four hours before you posted. That's not fair. Now I have to finish the books I got and go back before someone else steals it. *looks around for Aislinn*

The Whirlwinds said...

Ah! The mysterious b. You have discovered my hideaway of L33T free glory. Haha. Just kidding. Welcome to the Maelstrom

Anonymous said...

:)

Anonymous said...

ha! i win again! i've read that one too! and the sequel!

and you can never post too many reviews. i say this as someone who posted six reviews in one day once.

i thought the Warrior Heir was okay---the Wizard Heir was the one i loved. because that one had psychological intrigue in bording school in the first half, magicness in the second.

i wasn't especially fond of Jack, actually. he was sort of...dull and warriory. not bad. just not my type. Fitch was kind of hot though.
must say i had much more of a soft spot for Seph from the second book. aside from the cool name thing, i have a soft spot for protaganists who're going insane under force of magic.
it's Jason who i was fearsomly in love with though.

very good books. i second the review of coolness.

Bri said...

ooooooo, sounds fun! i'll have to add it to my list. but just one quick question: why did it lose that one point?

The Whirlwinds said...

It lost the point because only the most incredible of incredible of incredible books maintain *music of impending doom* the seven. The six means it was rather fantastic all-around and I'd definitely buy it for my shelf, but I won't read it more than six times.

Anonymous said...

...Only once in a blue moon is a book truly amazing enough to earn a fabled *hushed tone* seven out of seven....

By the way Aella... seven out of seven what?... Amazingly excited screams?

Ink Mage said...

Ooh, we seem to have similar tastes and read a lot of the same books; I love this series and can't wait until The Dragon Heir is released in September.

You're blog's awesome! I'm adding you to the link list on mine. :-)

CindaChima said...

I share your taste in books, too!! :) And Jason (along with Maddie Moss) is the viewpoint character in Dragon Heir.

Best, Cinda Williams Chima