Really the whole set. My nephew started me on these when I was recovering from surgery and staying at his house so they could watch over me. I read his 8, sent them to the bookstore for book 9, have since read book 10. I see I am behind again. I think these are among the best children's books and the best fantasy books I have ever read.

I read these book in second and third grade! I absolutely loved them. They inspired my love for reading, writing, and raptors!

This is a truly awful book. It's not even the fun kind of bad- just the slogging through terrible writing kind of bad. The story is largely uninteresting, the characters unexplored, and the author continuously forgets her own plot points.

Only good thing? Wolves with laser eyes having a rave out in the desert. That image will stay with me for a while.

My favorite part was when all the hagsfiends were defeated,a nd the ice palace was restored. My least favorite part was when Lutta died because even though she worked for evil, she was actually quite good, it was just because of how she had been raised. I now want to figure out how Nyra is a hagsfiend, because she is a barn owl, and doesn't look like a hagsfiend. I'm pretty sure it will explain it in the next book though. And, there is no mention of who actually was the writer of the third legend book that the Band read, which is wierd, because the other two books at least mentioned it.

Honestly, it was a well written book and I like it a lot, but the ending felt rushed. And well, that last part about Lutta? That broke my heart. In some ways, it was good it didn't end up with her saving everyone and finding love with Hoole. But she was merely a victim and she deserved redemption.

I'm grouping my reviews for Books 9-11, aka the prequel, here. TL;DR: Lasky made some choices.


Choice #1: When Book 9 introduced a first person narrator, I was hoping for a change. Lasky gets too expositional as a story narrative spans across more books. I don't really understand her choice to expound every character and every event from the previous books because these expositions happen so constantly that they break the flow.

Because Book 9 is a prequel and inherits no history from the previous installment, it was refreshing to read without this sort of interruption. Although unrelated, I was hopeful the first-person narration meant that the narrator for the prequel segment would be more attentive to keeping the flow even if less fastidious than the omniscent third person Lasky had employed since Book 1. Unfortunately, Books 10 and 11 reverted to the same third person narration.

Choice #2: Another choice of Lasky's that left me perplexed was the character of Lutta, a changling who infiltrates the Great Ga'Hoole tree by shape-shifting as a spotted owl named Strix Emerilla. So far there hasn't been any romance among these owls; love either happen off-stage or have already happened by the characters appear in the story. Lutta is the first character the reader meets who feels love in her gizzards. Her unrequited love towards Hoole coupled with her struggle with her sense of identity--being neither an owl nor a hagsfiend--was a golden goose of an opportunity. But no, Lasky just kills Lutta off without ever giving this previous character the chance to explore these themes. And Hoole doesn't know Lutta ever had these feelings. It's one thing for Hoole, whose gizzards are more sensitive than other owls, couldn't see through Lutta's transformation; it's another thing that he marries the real Strix Emerilla without any qualms.

My bafflement over Lasky's choice with Lutta's character feels like a final straw to the pattern of disappointment I've been feeling over the last twelve books. Lasky has a pattern of dipping her toe into serious themes and then drawing back from it without wading further into the waters. I'm still going to read the whole series for the sake of completion, but, reader, it's becoming harder to give these books score higher than 3 out of 5 stars.

Just like the past few books the 'band' is only mentioned in the prologue and epilogue. This story once again is about the past and Hoole's story. I still really enjoy the wolves and polar bears in the story. It's really cute how the author incorperates them into the story.

Information is gathered as Hoole readies his owls for battle.
I feel sorry for Lutta, half of each world.

I had a hard time reading the prequel arc for some reason. It rounded our fairly well in the end, but I'm anxious to get back to Sorren and the gang in the last four books of the series.

Couldn't take my head out of it

It is set up so that you know the ending, but not in much detail, so it's very good to read. The plot is very intricat, but it got too fast paced aroound the end, so the final battle was written too short. However, it's still a great book.

A wee bit dull, potentially because this is the first one I didn’t listen to on audiobook. Glad to be returning to the original plot, cause the chemistry was simply never there with Hoole and his gang.

2.75/5 stars