Well this series was not what I was expecting and so it absolutely blew me away with how Lasky was willing to go there. I already talked about it in my previous posts but Lasky doesn’t shy away from showing the terror and violence evident in living as a wild animal. But she also humanizes them and elevates the material with its allusions to Shakespeare and Bradbury and more. It’s more than just owls that populate the world but puffins, crows, horses, wolves, polar bears and each have distinct relations to each animal group with their own heirarchies that apparently Lasky expanded into other series. It’s just so expansive and. . . well epic. Anything with animal warfare is just epic to me as it combines the unpredictability of nature with the corruptive ember that is the center of power in this world with ruthless animal instincts.

Just awesome.

It was a real treat to read this and after a month of rest from this, I think I’ll start the Wolves of Beyond.

Now onto the rankings:

1. The War of the Ember: This was a close one but being the finale that culminates the arcs of almost every character, and brings Soren back to main character POV. I’m sorry, Coryn is cool and all but I missed Soren. He was more relatable and less predictable. Okay, actually he is kinda predictable but at least I didn’t keep comparing him to Lion King’s Kovu. It was distracting me from this masterfully crafted world.

2. Exile: Coryn becomes his own worst enemy as he falls prey to his insecurities of being bred evil or turned evil by the ember. I love these kind of stories so obviously it had to be up top. In reality, Coryn’s darkness is being stoked by his new, highly trusted right hand, Striga. And in exerting his control under the guise of protecting, he starts burning books (a la Fahrenheit 451 which Lasky credits in her author’s note) exiling the band and more. Plus it was cool to see secondary characters like Bell, Fleemas and others rise up to help free Coryn from Striga’s influence. 

3. The Golden Tree: Also set up for the coming battle with the owls meeting new allies, and Otulissa trying to drive out a band of owls seemingly led by Madam Plonk whose zeal to protect the ember make them almost like Nyra. Also Nyra is back and worse than ever. All these actions foreshadow plots to come which is good storytelling but makes it less memorable in hindsight as they feel like a smaller versions of the events in the next books.

4. The River of Wind: Nyra tries to assassinate her son on his trip to the pacifist-monk-esque Middle Kingdom. Meanwhile Eglantine and Primrose journey to save them. It was kind of an average adventure story compared to previous books. I suppose it could be considered a breather while putting the players in place as the machinations in this book put Coryn in the sway of Striga.

5. To Be King: This concludes Hoole’s trilogy and officially creates the guardians against the forces of darkness. As I already mentioned in my previous rankings, while the Hoole trilogy might be interesting for some, they’re not to me. It feels a bit divorced from the main series despite the frame narrative. It’s just a setup for Coryn to develope a fear that his mother was one of the hagsfield that brought about nachtmagen.