A very traditional fantasy, a quest with a hero who meets an odd bad of outcasts to help him along his way. Nyroc become Coryn and learns about his destiny. We also get to see a little bit of our original Band of friends all grown up, as teachers and leaders of the Guardians of Ga'hoole.

There's an art to writing books for kids that are both simple enough and yet still deeply expressive, and Lasky has the talent in full.

This one was my favorite one so far! Nyroc found a rabbit that was a web reader, which is like fire sight but in webs. Nyroc found mist and changed his name to Coryn. He also saved an egg. After that he went to Beyond the Beyond and got the Ember of Hool'e after befriending a wolf. Next he went to the great tree. This book is amazing!!!

I'm back with another round of unsolicited thoughts about a children's book series. (This is not what a thirty-something woman should be writing on a Saturday night.

Probably my favorite so far

This book has one contradiction about the scent ability of owls. On page 87, Otulissa compares the ability of owls and dire wolves scent and classes the scent ability of owls as “…inferior.” This is because owls do not at all have a scents of smell. Vultures are the only bird that can in fact smell.
But then on page 154, when Nyra was in the Chieftains cave, she exclaims that …”the whole cave stinks. Terrible gas these wolves have.”
How in the world would she smell the odour of these canines? Furthermore, how the heck would she be able to precisely pin their fumes to be caused by “…that tough winter grass that grows here”?

On page 114, there is also a factual mistake. On this page, we are introduced to the rabies virus. One of the dire wolves explains that wolves, and even owls can get infected by this deadly disease. This is entirely untrue. Only mammals can get infected with rabies, with the exception of the opossum, who is immune to the disease.
Even whales and dolphins can get rabies, since they are mammals, but no record has ever been made of an aquatic mammal ever getting this disease. But this really made me wonder.
You see, one of the very first symptom of rabies is hydrophobia. The infected gets terrified of water and will not even be able to put water near it mouth, let alone drink. This is because the virus lives within the saliva of the mammal, and water can wash the virus away, so the virus makes the infected scared of water, increasing the chance of other individuals becoming infected once they are bitten.
So what if some of these dolphins, orcas and whales that get beached are in fact infected with rabies and are trying to get away from the water in which they live?
The only way you can 100% be certain that an animal has rabies is to do an autopsy of the brain, and I can assure you probably none of these beached aquatic mammals have ever had a brain autopsy.

Minus these problems, the storyline was great and the series could have truly finished with this book.

Favourite quote from book 8: “Well, first murder,then shopping.”

01/11: Lasky managed to take me by surprise in this one. Her analogy to the Nazis is apparent throughout, but in this one I could see hints of OT prophets and even Moses. I see a worldview still waiting for a "worldly" Messiah. Good stuff! Sidenote: Hamish's Scottish brogue is my favorite of all the accents throughout the audio book.

I love this series. I love how far the owls have come, and how the story has shifted to let new and younger characters take center stage. I am a big fan of Coryn and the part he plays. I wasn't prepared for the (near) ending so there was a lot of unexpected emotion. The two sides at play are very interesting, good verses evil, and I'm excited to see what our aerial heroes will do next!

liked it a lot, but then the end seemed rushed. it also seemed like more time had passed for some characters than others, and that characters which had been main characters in the previous 7 books were brushed under the rug a little bit.

I remember hating this particular entry in the series when young. I loved the exploration of Beyond the Beyond, but by the book's closing moments Coryn felt like an entirely different owl. I don't mean he grew up. I mean he feels like a totally different character, with magic powers to boot. This was where I felt the series started slipping hard first read through. We'll see if I feel the same as I power through to the end again.

it was good

This book was easily the weakest in the series so far. As is too often the case in this sort of "prophecy fulfillment" story, the general outcome is foreshadowed so heavily that there's really very little doubt. In this case, on top of that, there's very little conflict, and no big growth of any of the characters. People (owls) go places and do stuff. Then they learn things and do more stuff. A prophecy is fulfilled. No drama. No suspense. In some cases this is ok because of the quality of the prose, but not here; Lasky's writing isn't very good, and certainly nowhere near strong enough to carry such a weak plot as this. It's like an even worse version of the last of Orson Scott Card's "Alvin Maker" books. Even Card's writing wasn't enough to save that one, and Lasky offers the reader far less.

Review by James, age 9.
The main character of this book is Nyroc, not Soren who was the main character of all the books before it.
Nyroc later renames himself Coryn, because he hates his old name. It is the name given to all owlets born under the full moon. Being born under the full moon gives them an evil blessing or a good blessing. His mother, who was super evil and trying to take over the world with the help of huge armies called "The Pure Ones," wanted it to be an evil blessing. She did not take into account that it could also be a good one, and it was. He inherited firesight from his father Kludd, who hadn't always been evil. Kludd's parents had not been evil but his parents had been, and his parents' parents. He saw that entire history when he was little and became evil himself when he saw the Pure Ones flying by wearing battle claws which he was obsessed with. Nyra got her boss to recruit him. Later they were married.
Anyway, Nyroc / Coryn had firesight and met Mist who taught him about the Ember of Hoole and The Beyond. He had firesight and had to go beyond the Beyond and search of the Ember in the sacred ring of volcanos, and when he found it he was crowned the King of Hoole. He had to bury the Ember just before he died so it wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. His mother tried to kill him to steal the Ember but was unsuccessful because another owl tried to same him and succeeded but died himself.
Then he goes to the Great Tree and meets his Uncle Soren and begins to train there.
I would recommend this book for anyone who has read the other 7. Don't try to read this as the first book. It would be really, really confusing.