This rendition of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole has its merits. I felt like there might have been too much all at once. While yea, war is something that has so many sides and viewpoints, I feel like there were too many to feel like the build up was enough and what we did get just didn’t feel like enough. However, I am very much intrigued by the characters introduced in this book. In the other hand, I couldn’t get a grasp for the timeline. When it mentions events being a few months or years ago, it’s hard to believe in that passage of time with everyone’s reactions and knowledge of the incidents. Many shifting tensions and in ways that don’t feel natural because of that. The sense of maturity feels like it’s trying too hard. I’m not too upset over it, though. It was still a decent book, but I am looking forward to rereading the next one knowing I shall soon be meeting one of my favorite characters.

Eh.

Enjoyable books to listen to on my commute.

THE EPIC CONCLUSION: Soren, the chosen one, suddenly realizes that he too can kill his siblings???? Yay????

Hoot hoot. 9 more!

Gylfie is a hero!!

This was yet another great book in this series. Although this series is for kids, it has a lot of great messages and I think really important ones that kids need to know, presented in a fun, exciting way. This book was just a continuation of that journey. I loved the split perspectives of the many owls on their many missions. I liked the idea that the other owls didn't have to be brave together, but could be brave and act noble on their own, especially Gylfie. I liked that we got to see different sides of the owls, especially Twilight and Soren. The new characters were always useful and I liked seeing more of Ruby and Martin, who we don't see enough of.

In a nutshell, a wonderful book for kids that explores why "purity of race" is a REALLY BAD THING.

I know that this is the end of the war against the Pure Ones, so I'm curious on how there's more books in the series? How can this go on longer? In any case, I'll probably start the next one tomorrow, or at the latest on Monday!

Pretty basic middle grade fantasy fare, but with owls! I started this series when I was in the target range for it, but it's still fun now.

Overall Rating : C+

"I am a Guardian of Ga'Hoole."

Great book, I'm thoroughly enjoying reading the series.

I listened on audio to books 4-6, and I have to admit that I'm losing interest. Perhaps it's the audio format, or perhaps it's some flaws in the books themselves. In general I still like the idea (the invention) and much of the writing. I think the series should have ended with this one with Kludd dying. I will try to read the others sometime when I can get them from the library, but am not willing to purchase any more.

[edited for clarity 2023-04-27]
Since the sixth book is the last book where Soren is the main protagonist, I want to summarize some of my thoughts I've been having since my first review of the series. There are three.

One: The Pure Ones' ideology of white supremacy is not convincing. This is clear from how other owls talk as a fringe belief, like a New Age cult that sprung out of the blue. Even though they're scared of the Pure Ones' cruelty, they're confused at how the Pure Ones ever got the idea that barn owls are superior to other owls.

What ultimately breaks the game is that the owl family taxonomy is manmade: it doesn't exist in nature. Human taxonomists decided that the Strigiformes family should have two genera, Tyto, to which barn owls belong, and Strigidae, to which all other kinds of owls belong. It doesn't seem like these fictional owls learned this taxonomy from the humans before the latter went extinct, nor is there a shared mythological story about the first owls separating into these two genera.

My point is, I wish Lasky had done more work to build her fictional world' culture and history so that the cruelty of the Pure Ones isn't just a homogenous group of owls who have this crazy fringe belief but instead a group of owls whose beliefs have historical roots ... just like the white supremacy in our world.

Two: Starting in Book Three, the narration gets expositional because the narrator explains an event or a character from the previous installment of the series. In *Harry Potter* J.K. Rowling gets much of the recap exposition out of the way in the first chapter, explaining that Harry Potter is not an ordinary boy, that he goes to a special school, that he is not even an ordinary boy in the magical world, etc. Perhaps the alternative is what Lasky does: intersperse the exposition throughout the narrative as the references to the past comes up. But these books are less than 200 pages, and nearly a third of the narrative prose could be taken up by expositions!

Three: The characters start to blend together. Since Soren is easily impressed, there are about four "smart" owls. Gylfie, Diggert, Otulissa, and Martin have all been noted as intelligent in one way or another by Soren. Although they are intelligent in different ways, there could have been more variety in personalities. I keep bringing up Harry Potter, but one of the things J.K. Rowling did well despite the large number of characters was making them distinguishable. (... at least within a certain range. I admit that even in Hogwarts, the farther away you get from Harry, the students start to blend together.)

I like the way how seamlessly the story is being transited from one to the other.