The Warrior Heir

Reread in Feb of 2015“More and more, there were no revelations, but simply the uncovering of truths long known but dimly remembered. Everything had been written long ago. There was nothing truly new in the world, but only the slow, circular march of time that revealed the old things once again.”

This was a reread for me. Granted I read this over 5 years ago. This is why I decided to reread it. I never continued with the series and I really want to so I decided to reread the first one. Prior to starting this book, I literally remembered nothing. I had the most basic idea of the end. After I got like 50 pages into this book, a bunch of the plot points came back to me.

As for the actual book, I somewhat enjoyed this book. The world that Chima has created is expansive and I love it. Chima also did a good job just giving us the information we needed never anything more. For me the writing at times was flat, I feel like you could almost categorize this book as middle grade rather than YA. But for the most part, the writing did not hinder my enjoyment.

The story of a “normal” teenager finding out he is special is not unique, but Chima takes an interesting approach to it. Our main character, Jack, is born without a wizard stone (what gives people their powers) and is given a warrior stone instead. Jack is hidden in Ohio to protect him from the feud going on among the Weir people. But of course you cannot hide forever and Jack is thrust into this new world where he must fight to stay alive. Since I have read the book before I knew the ending, but I did not remember all the plot twists which helped with my enjoyment.

One last thing I want to mention is the prologue. I have read many mixed things about it. Yes it is really long at 18 pages. But I really liked it. It sets up this whole mystery of why they were after the family and what happened to the family after the attack. Personally, I'm a huge fan of prologues especially when their meaning and importance is not at all apparent at first.

This was a hard review to write for me because I remember really enjoying this book when I first read it, but after rereading it, I'm not in love. It is really hard to write a review for a book you have reread especially when you had high expectations and the reread was not as good as you remembered. I think part of that is because I'm older and have read many other fantasy books that I love. For me, The Warrior Heir is an interesting world with intrigue, but there was just something missing. I definitely want to read the other books in the series.

While yes, this book is just the typical story of a teenager, who is thrust into a strange new world with new powers/talents and discovers others are after him because he is the chosen one... just like dozens of other books and stories. However, this world building is very interesting and I love the guilds and the magic system. Cinda Williams Chima writes a great story and uses beautiful language.
I enjoyed this book as a teenager and still continue to enjoy it. I will be reading the rest of the series.

Quotes:
“Just remember who are you are... The world will try to change you into someone else. Don't let them. That's the best advise anyone can give you.”

“They fought for glory, but not for blood. They were Weirlind, heirs of the warrior's stone. And they always slept better with blades beneath their beds.”