Bringing closure to the Cain and Abel dance between Soren and Kludd, this book is what I like to think of as the 'final' in the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series. Indeed, when I was younger, as the first six books were the only ones the library carried, I thought it was the final. It mostly centres around Otulissa's plot to invade the St Aegolius Canyons, which have by now fallen to the Pure Ones, and, were there no more books in the series, would do a credible job of wrapping it all up.

For a Ga'Hoole book, it was excellent. All the owls are dropped into a new land, facing the perils of the Northern Kingdoms, which gives Lasky scope to reveal new aspects of their characters.

I especially enjoyed reading the sections with Otulissa and Gylfie--they are great foils for one another and I've grown to love Otulissa for her intelligence, cunning, ideals, upset outbursts, and of course, her unintentional moments of humour. Probably the best example of character development in the entire series with her sudden but understandable turn to a colder, less charitable version of herself. And yet she is by this point my favourite.

Twilight, on the other hand, has a scene of shocking cruelty, one of which I do not understand and which Lasky makes no judgement on, though the situation richly deserves it. Apparently it's all right to harass a group of vultures who just helped you out even though you shore their tailfeathers off, simply because they aren't owls. Twilight is a character I like, but at this point I like him in spite of himself.

Digger, as always, never gets enough screentime.

And Soren is one of the most likeable, thoughtful characters I've ever read. As far as I can tell (I've read up to about book 10), this is the last book that focuses much on him. I'm sorry to see him lose the limelight.

The richness of the owl culture and history as always sucks me in, with all its cheery poems, songs, and Twilight's chants (raps, really). Meanwhile Lasky retains a subtle but firm touch of the mystical, with ice weapons that never dull from an ice spear that never melts, and Soren's starsight dreams, which are excellent foreshadowing, and are rarely if ever used in a heavy-handed way. The epic tone of the story is still there, bolstered by the aspiration of the owls to be better versions of themselves, and Lasky's use of telling rather than showing at times, which hearkens back to the songs that bards would sing. They are the Chaw of Chaws, the best of the best, and they will fight for their freedom.

However, the elitism of the story also proves its undoing. The Burning loses a star, as any Ga'Hoole book always will, for Lasky's blindness in creating a band of noble owls fighting against a supremacist and rather racist cult, when they themselves behave in exactly the same way towards other birds (seagulls, puffins and vultures come to mind as especial victims). Not to mention the nestmaid snakes, who are practically enslaved by the owls, and who seem to revel in their servitude. Lasky makes no attempt to comment on this beyond actually praising this order of things, which I find quite despicable.

I also dislike that Octavia seemed to naturally take on such a role in becoming Ezylryb's nestmaid snake after she had such a different life before she was blinded. As though that were all she were good for, and all she aspired to!

The scale of the book was again off, and I, a long-time fan of the series, don't actually know how much time has passed since the series began. I thought it was a year, two at most. Apparently it was "summers and summers ago". And yet Soren and the rest of the band, whilst they have grown and changed over the previous books, are still very much adolescent and do not seem to rank any higher in the Tree than a fairly talented group of teenagers would in the real world.
Meanwhile, the number of owls in the Tree is still unexplained, and when you're talking war and invasion, it gets confusing.

This book would have gotten five stars had it not been for the severe moral flaws within--however, the rest of the writing and worldbuilding is good enough to overcome it--and it has to be good. The Guardians of Ga'Hoole is a series that somehow, against all odds, rises above its unsightly flaws to live up to the nostalgia it evokes in me. The nostalgia of a different and more naive time, in which I was a different and more naive young girl.

This world of Owls created without the Others brings new and interesting settings with each book. Excellent narration.

" This book was one of the greatest of a series I have ever read. It was definitely reading. One thing I loved about the series is that it tells the plot through animals, owls one of my favorite animals. To put them into a society like this is amazing. A life lesson the book teaches is to never give up on things that seem beyond lost. I have already completed the series, it has been the first series of books Iv'e read. If you were to read this series I do think you will love. Shows lots of adventure, mystery and suspense. A negative opinion I have on this is that the ending a part of the ending was sad but had a good one in the process. After reading these books I have found that books about animals in society are quite interesting books to read."

Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Burning (The Guardians of Ga'Hoole Book 6) Summary: A great battle is on the horizon and drawing near. In preparation, Soren and his band must fly to the mysterious Northern Kingdoms to find allies and study the grim art of war. Meanwhile, St. Aggie's has fallen to the Pure Ones. If they are not stopped, they will launch another, more deadly attack against the Great Tree. And without allies from the north, Ga'Hoole will surely fall. The coming conflagration will demand wisdom, bravery, and sacrifice from all the owls of the Great Tree, and from Soren and the band, nothing less than heroism.

Rating: 3 stars

Opening Line: "'Night gathers and your time has come,' intoned Barran the large Snowy Owl and monarch of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree."

Quote: "But Hoole wore no crown. Remember the legend? I've studies the entire cycle of the North Waters."

Not as strong as the first four books, The Burning, is still a good read. The band heads out to the northern kingdom in search of support. While there they are also trained to fight with specialized equipment(ice scimitars and shards). However everything does not turn out as expected. They are unable to guarantee any assistance and are merely sent back home.

In addition to this the band confronts kraals, Lasky's pirate owls. They succeed in thwarting them but Glyfie is taken prisoner. She tries to devise a plan to escape and after doing so she makes a difficult decision to ensure that support will come for her friends and stays in the northern kingdoms.

Soren full of grief returns back to the gahoole tree with only news of failure. Kludd on the other hand has not been idle this whole time. He has invaded St. Aggies with his followers and is reinforcing its defense against a probable guardian invasion.

Towards the end of the books Soren and Kludd confront in the much anticipated battle but it ends quickly due to an unexpected factor. I believe that their battle could have been much more intense. Lasky ruined something with much potential but did not necessarily ruin the book. The author also has a habit to incessantly repeat previously mentioned facts throughout this book and the series. I know this book was written for a young audience but this is very frustrating. Keep in mind young adults are reading this too!

After this book I thought the series would end but it continues. Curious how the story will progress. If you exclude the final battle this book is worth your time.

This is a delightful series! I love the characters beginning with Soren. The story flows through each book as if the reader were living with the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. St. Aggies falls to the rule of the Pure Ones who are feared by owls who are not associated with them. The Guardians must rally whatever resources and support they can find as they find themselves once again at war with this ruthless group. Indeed, it's a good read and I plan to continue the series!

As far as the characters and plot goes, I thought it was great. I really liked the way everything seemed to come together. However, the reason I give it 4 stars is because of the pacing. Everything was happening way too fast and without a clear timeline and there were several things like the amber necklace Primrose had last book and the growing dissatisfaction of the general (Ungarth?) that could have added so much more to the story. At this point in the series, fans would be dedicated enough to read a 300 page novel that gives the proper time to explore everything and to give a more satisfying ending rather than a 200 page novel that seems to skim over some important details.

Read with Grandkids Bookclub. They have loved this series. Grades 5-7.

I loved this one. So many things happened. I enjoyed the travelling to the Northern Kingdoms. It was great.

(See review of book five for comments on style)

The character growth is starting to show, and I love it. Gylfie and Soren are, in the first book, inexperienced owlets who can't even fly. They don't even known each other. But fate makes them meet.. *sigh* I ship it. Now they're so powerful, but still close! *sigh again*

Also, Eglantine deserves more! I want to learn more about her! I've been disappointed by the lack of information about Mark and Ruby already, so at least give Eglantine some more time in the spotlight!

The plot is good. I'm still missing my aspect of tragedy, but thee's slightly more dramatic wording, which is good.

This seems like such a concluding ending, but there's ten more books! I wonder what could happen to enlarge and carry on the story!

Kids and animal lovers are more likely to enjoy this book than teens, adults, those who prefer human stories, and those who don't care to learn when they read.

I was planning to put these chronicles away for a bit after 6th book (there's 15 in total!) as I was getting a bit tired of it and my mental health needs some self-help books right now (I thought I was doing well so far in the lockdown but it's affecting me quite a bit right now). At 80% I started debating whether I should give this book 4 stars instead of my usual 5. But it's like the author sensed the need for a break and she delivered. It was a beautiful closure with a nice cliff hanger. I'd say books 1-6 is Part 1 of the series and I might go back to it eventually. But for now - 5 stars, as always. Love the Guardians of Ga'Hoole.

With The Burning comes the end of the series' focus on Soren, the Band, and the Chaw of Chaws. (At least so far as I've read at this time of writing, which is up to To Be a King. The focus changes again after that, but from where we seem to be going, it looks like it's going to be Coryn's story from The Golden Tree to the end.) It's a massive disappointment, of course, as the Chaw of Chaws was the single best aspect of the story. As a matter of fact, they're just about the only aspect that make any sense.

Exhibit A: The Guardians of Ga'Hoole, an ancient order of owl-knights, act like they don't have any more experienced or trusted warriors than the adolescent protagonists. The King and Queen, the teachers, all the other Guardians--they all leave every important aspect of the story up to the main characters with zero in-universe justification.

Exhibit B: Kludd's initiation into the Pure Ones inexplicably demands the murder of a family member, ignoring the fact that there couldn't be a more counterproductive method of proving one's worth; if the Pure Ones want to build a pure race/society of Tyto Albas, why would they purposefully kill off the potential breeders?

Exhibit C: There's no sense of time flow to the series. The narrative skips over massive periods, giving off the impression that only a few weeks are passing. And then a single line will suddenly clarify that years have gone by without so much as a nod.

Exhibit D: The protagonists are just as prejudiced and ruthless as the antagonists, and yet the narrative never once hints at the possibility that maybe the war isn't as morally black-and-white as the protagonists think. When the protagonists do something, it's good. When the antagonists do something, it's bad. No one questions this. Not the snakes that the protagonists have enslaved. Not the other birds that they spend so much time insulting. Not even the vultures that Twilight threatens to maim (in order to get them to join the Guardians in fighting the Pure Ones).

So I'm hoping that with the shift of focus that's coming in the next book, things will start to improve again. Unfortunately I'm starting to suspect it's not the Ga'Hoole series that doesn't work for me so much as it is Lasky's writing in general. I'm honestly wondering if what this series needed was just a brutally honest editor. There's enough here that it could have been great: an awesome team of characters at the core of the story, a secret society of owls who can use their specialized training and intellect for both war and humanitarianism (well, the owl equivalent of the term) depending on which needs doing, two opposing Big Bads to give the story some hints of moral ambiguity and opportunities for awesome team-ups and war tactics, a Cain and Abel aspect to explore psychologically, etcetera, etcetera. Instead, everything was handled in a rather clumsy fashion, and what could have been a great plot has thus far been lost on me.

Maybe I'll have better luck with n  Warriorsn.