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
