After reading pretty much all the Warriors books in the library, I decided to get into another animal-based series that ccombines fantasy, comprehensive world system and survival of the fittest mantra. Yes, I’m talking about Lasky’s Guardians of Ga’Hoole series as if the title wasn’t enough of a hint.

The series starts with Soren’s birth in a happy, loving family. Except for a mean older brother who shoves him out of the nest. Unable to fly, Soren is quickly snatched away by frightening elder owls who turn out to be the egg-snatchers of St. Aggie’s. St. Aggie’s a school training soldiers in a dehumanizing (de-owlizing) factory-like system, brainwashing them to believe in their might makes right philosphy and trimming wings so no one can escape.

Luckily, Soren makes fast friends with a few others like Digger and Agatha, and remembering his parents’ stories about the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, they break out and join the band just in time for the biggest fight of their lives. A rising danger known as the Pure Ones.

I enjoy how

Now onto the rankings!

The Rescue: Lasky delivers an awesome plot twist that Kludd wasn’t an accident by an aggressive brother. Kludd deliberately pushed Soren off in order to sacrifice him so he can join the Pure Ones. Now he’s the leader and makes the conflict between the Ga’Hoole guardians even more intense. Plus there’s flashbacks as Soren, Digger and the others are still at St. Aggie’s, their personal hellscape in order to rescue Soren’s mentor, Ezylryb. Meanwhile, back at the tree, Eglantine gathers forces at the homefront. I just wish with all this focus on Soren, Kludd and Eglantine, that the other secondary characters had more chances to shine.

The Shattering: This is Eglantine’s moment to shine. So far, we’ve known her as Soren’s beloved sister, rescued also from St. Aggie’s and aspiring guardian. Here, she eagerly reads everything she can and makes friends with other apprentiences. But friendship problems turn into espionage games when her isolation from Primrose leads to her to Ginger’s wings-a spy for the Pure Ones. We get to see up close that while Kludd is sociopath, his mate, Nyra may be the more deadly of the two as she uses the Flecks to possess Eglantine. I just wish Soren hadn’t taken over the last few chapters, shoving Eglantine out of what was her book. It could have been easily rectified by having Eglantine watch Soren’s upgrade as Ezylryb’s ward.

The Capture: A nice intro to the series, it sets up that even though this is a world of talking animals, Lasky is not going to pull any punches. There’s character death, brainwashing, graphic violence. It makes sense since they’re animals but still. Unfortunately with Lasky’s willingness to kill off major characters, it does undercut possible investment since we met and lose the character all at once.  

The Seige: While I admire how Lasky gives deeper insight to the motives of the Pure Ones and emphasizes their Nazi-esque ideology and soldierfication. It also has cool double crosses and infiltrations of the Guardians into St. Aggie’s but I just couldn’t get into it as the above three.

The Journey: While it does have one surprise in introducing that Soren’s little sister, Eglantine is alive, the premise is nothing that hasn’t been done before. Showing Soren and his friends training to be Ga’hoole warriors isn’t as glamorous as stories led them to believ and whatnot. It introduces the lore and shows more of the world like there are five other kingdoms but I’m more into personal conflict and growth.