It's book four of this anthropomorphic owl series and none of them have visited Hogwarts yet (that could be a different series as it happens) it is about a quarter of the way through and tensions are mounting or so they tell us, anyway it is another average adventure, although sometimes distinguishing one owl from another is a little difficult, which I guess is kind of like real life.

I couldn't stop reading this one. There were some not so interesting parts but once the actual siege happened I couldn't turn the audio off. (reading this with audio. I'm not a fan of the narrators voice she's not very good at doing male voices but I'm still invested.)

Kludd is so evil. The book makes it seem like he was born this way which I'm okay with but I want him to be a little bit more complex. Can't wait for the brothers to have the big fight at the end. Sorren will slay him good.

Spoilers Ahead


I didn't like this book as much as the first sequel but man was it gory. The part where the enemy owls got their necks snapped for instance. And the cannibalism. Katheryn was not afraid of dark ideas and I love it. This series is honestly better than Redwall in terms of character. I care a lot more about Sorren than I did Martin the warrior.

2.5

This book features the most anticipated return to St. Augie's and at the end the very first battle with Kludd. I think the duality of the guardians compared to details about st Augies and the pure ones gives you a very clear picture to how different they all are. At the very last few pages were hit with the death of Strix Struma and Sorens future sight which leads us to conclude that this is indeed not the last we'll see of the pure ones. I look forward to reading more because I think these books are truly special in their own way.

This series is so strange to me. As I said in my previous reviews, I'm really bothered by all the discrimination on the part of the protagonists and the plot's inherent hypocrisy. On the other hand, there are nuggets of awesome tucked in here and there.

For example, I felt the sudden creation of the Band was something of a cop-out because there wasn't really much building of the comradarie; the four owls were suddenly friends for life, no questions asked. But the Chaw of Chaws? It took the Band's stated relationship and build upon it to get a killer team with a solid friendship as backbone. I felt like I was watching the Harry Potter kids become a family again. I love well-developed teams of characters, and the Chaw of Chaws fit the bill perfectly.

But there's just so much nonsense elsewhere that the awesome bits are lost in the sea of bullshit. It is so disappointing to me that the relationship dynamic between Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, Digger, Otulissa, Ruby, Martin, Eglantine, Primrose, and Ezylryb got bogged down by all the bungled racism, the juvenile handling of mature themes, and the wishy-washy world-building.

Nieco lepsza od poprzednich, może dlatego, że się przyzwyczaiłam do tego poziomu literatury.

Zbyt dziecinna, by zostać uznana za "młodzieżową książkę".

Took us a few months to get through this, but my 9 year old still loves these books to be read aloud. They’re intense, adventurous, and we love every valiant owl character in them! The fight rages on between good owls (The Guardians) and the bad owls, the “Pure Ones”, as they call themselves.

A little too brutal for my kiddies. I'm cringing in my gullet as I read about... What else? War.

This should have been two different books. It had a very strong beginning, but about 2/3 of the way through, it completely fell apart, with a giant rush to sum up a bunch of storylines, none of which it actually did effectively. A tremendous end battle was reduced to nothing but a couple lines of text, and puttered out with no climax whatsoever, while other characters and plot lines were almost ignored completely. This was a big miss for me.

Also, this is the fourth book in the series, and it's still providing overviews of every single character and every single piece of its own history, as if no one was expected to read any of the first three books. It's not a very long book and precious page space is being filled with explanations of who each character is and what they mean to the plot. At some point you have to take pride in your own series and assume no one is going to start reading with book four.

Most parts of these stories are so improbable, but some are heartwarming. I must be nuts, but I have enjoyed listening to the audio of these stories. I am constantly amazed at the imagination of the author and the talent of the narrator.

There is evil and wickedness in story but also love and admiration and companionship. The siege of the great tree and the battle for their home is the main theme in this story, but the Owls and their diversity are an overriding. No one is better than any other. They work together and fight together. It is not over yet.

pretty slow at parts but builds suspense for the next book

My son loved these! He read them in about 3rd grade. I didn't share his love, but then I'm an adult and I experienced the story from a totally different point of view (I mean, fighting owls??! It was hard for me to get into.) I was willing to let him read whatever it took to get him to reading fluently and I was just happy to see him immersed in a book.