The Warrior Heir

Author: Cinda Williams Chima

Genre: Young Adult, Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure. 

Publisher: Hyperion

Year: 2007

Ranking: 3,5/ 5

  

Synopsis

Before he knew about the Roses, 16-year-old Jack lived an unremarkable life in the small Ohio town of Trinity. Only the medicine he has to take daily and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from the other high schoolers. Then one day Jack skips his medicine. Suddenly, he is stronger, fiercer, and more confident than ever before. And it feels great - until he loses control of his own strength and nearly kills another player during soccer team tryouts.

Soon, Jack learns the startling truth about himself: he is Weirlind, part of an underground society of magical people who live among us. At their helm sits the feuding houses of the Red Rose and the White Rose, whose power is determined by playing The Game - a magical tournament in which each house sponsors a warrior to fight to the death. The winning house rules the Weir.

As if his bizarre heritage isn't enough, Jack finds out that he's not just another member of Weirlind - he's one of the last of the warriors - at a time when both houses are scouting for a player. 

The Author

New York Times bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima comes from a long line of fortune-tellers, musicians and spinners of tales. She began writing romance novels in middle school, which were often confiscated by her teachers.

Chima is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and the University of Akron. She is an active member of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Her books have been recognized with many awards over the years and she says she is always writing her next novel.

Personal Experience with This Book

I bought this book a long time ago and it was there in my shelf saying "read me". However, I did not take to read because I had many other priorities. And because I bought it so long ago I really do not remember why I did it.

My feelings about this book are quite confusing so I'm not sure that this review is going to be very understandable. I will do my best to do so. The story has an interesting premise. The world in which the whole plot unfolds is an "underground" world that has been around for decades without ordinary people - Anaweir, as they are called them in the book - realize that there is more out there. This underground world is composed of four castes: The Wizards, Enchanters, Sorcerers and Warriors. The warriors are at the bottom of the society. They are treated as things and not as people, especially by the wizards.

Our main character is Jack. He is a boy who has lived his entire life thinking that there is nothing special about him. Until one day his aunt comes and he gets involved in this world that he knew absolutely nothing about and suddenly his life is in danger. Why is this happening? Because Jack is a warrior and warriors are used as weapons in a tournament where two wizarding families who have been divided for many years in a power dispute put warriors to fight for them. Jack is like a precious and very rare stone and people want to sell him, catch him, kill him or put him to fight for them.

Jack is a character that I liked but didn’t love. He is not one of those characters that you feel tied or identified but it is a character that goes unnoticed. It has a very strong personality and he is a brave guy though afraid and not liking the situation in which put is put, he faces it because he knows that his family and friends might be in danger. I think as the protagonist of the story he lacked something because as I told he fails to portrait that feeling of attachment or concern. I will not mention the secondary characters because I think I can give spoilers if I do but I must say my favorite of all was Hastings.

The story starts out very quickly. Many unexpected events and things unresolved, many questions and inexplicable situations happen. That keeps the reader glued to their seat and wanting to know what will happen. But after the entire backstory of Jack and his relationship with this underground world is out the story becomes slow. We see everybody explaining to Jack his situation, we see him training to become stronger, we see him learning magic, etc. Nothing interesting happens in roughly about 100 pages and is more like world building part. That was bad being the first book in a series but in a way that made me lose my interest in picking up the book again. At first I could not put it down and then it was like I did not want to take it.

Then amazing things happen again and all the action starts, all for what Jack had been preparing begins. Then again the story takes a rapid pace and it seems that everything happens suddenly. Which caused my interest in not put the book back down to come back, but it left a feeling of "a whole book and everything interesting happens in two chapters,” I do not know if I explained that very well because everything explodes and we have this problem and this confrontation and battles, etc ... and that’s all ... as fast as it started it ends.

The narrative of the book is very well done and although the chapters are long you do not feel it tedious to read. I think the book fulfills its mission of being a first book of a series. Although it does not really leaves you wanting to know more. I think the end is tightly closed and I don’t really know what will happen in the books following, which I will read but not very so.