The Siege: Book 4 of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series
Target age group: 8 – 12 years old
This book felt
almost split in two by stories and quality. The first half or so of The Siege (creepy but intriguing
beginning aside) was pretty average, but the second half picked up considerably
– thank goodness!
Soren and friends
are sent on a [not at all memorable] mission. Will they survive? Erm… yes,
because the book is titled The Siege
so I’m pretty sure they need to get holed up in the Great Ga’Hoole Tree for
that event to take place. Thankfully, about mid-way through the book, the
stakes suddenly get high, the intensity goes way up considering all the war and
death that’s going on, and Otulissa becomes even more intriguing.
Bad points:
-
The mission driving a good part of the book
seems kind of pointless. The characters go to an awful lot of risk and effort
to confirm some fairly irrelevant suspicions, in my opinion. After all; the
owls can’t actually act on these suspicions, no matter what they discover. Therefore
mission = unnecessary, yet the characters still go to an incredible risk. I
just don’t get it.
-
SPOILERS… of course.
-
Judging by the way in which the villains are
talked up in this series, you would expect a little danger: the mission Soren
is undertaking seems practically
suicidal… yet it never feels risky once it’s underway, and the villains’ lack
of perception makes them a great deal less threatening.
-
Overall, the mission was a key element of this
book but it was never adequately explored. The stakes didn’t feel high, the
entire sequence felt rushed and, on the whole, there was nothing to keep a
reader particularly interested. I felt like I had read it before, but better;
and, in a way, I had. How disappointing.
-
Oh, and by the end you totally forget that there
ever even was a mission. Also, none of the owls seem to remember either. That
just shows you how pointless that entire plotline was.
-
END SPOILERS.
Good points:
-
The cover art is fantastic here. We’re back to
the quality of the first book here! (Yes, this is an exciting moment for me).
-
We finally get an explanation concerning Kludd. Sure,
it’s not the explanation to end all explanations, but it’s reasonably
satisfying all the same.
-
Nyra. Let’s just say that this character changes
the dynamics of a certain group in quite an interesting way. She seems like a
good character so far. I don’t wish to spoil though; she’s intriguing enough
that you’ll just have to find out about her yourself.
-
We receive a taste of another owl language and,
let me tell you, it’s pretty awesome. Additionally, if you look closely you’ll
see that the speech isn’t even gibberish, for it clearly shares certain roots
with Latin-based languages. Very cool stuff. The effort put into making the
language appear ‘authentic’ definitely earns some respect for Lasky.
-
Mist! Hello revelation, and consequentially
welcome-back-those-little-bits-of-my-heart-which-Kathryn-Lasky-previously-blasted-into-pieces.
-
As I mentioned earlier, the stakes get high in
the second half of the novel, and there are also a few deep bits. I was hooked.
-
Otulissa is AMAZING as always. Need it even be
said anymore?
Therefore, I’m
looking forward to the next instalment and, of course, the spin-off series
about Otulissa which I am hoping Kathryn Lasky will write for me.
Sadly for The Siege, however, the first half
really dragged down the overall quality and by consequence, the rating. Towards
the end the book reaches into 8 or 9 territory… but overall…
Pippa’s rating: 7/10
Dang it.
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Ooh! One more thing: once you’ve read the first four books
of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series,
you can watch the animated movie! Sure, it COMPLETELY CHANGES the plotline
(trust me, you cannot imagine how much) but the visual effects are excellent
and, if you view it as a movie (without obsessing over the differences between
it and the books) you’ll very likely enjoy it.
Have a trailer. And those are Australian accents, FYI.
Oh, and despite Digger having a complete personality
makeover, he’s pretty cute!
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