"A Confusion of Princes" by Garth Nix

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Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
I have died three times, and three times been reborn, though I am not yet twenty in the old earth years by which it is still the fashion to measure time. This is the story of my three deaths, and my life between. My name is Khemri.

Taken from his parents as a child and equipped with biological and technological improvements, Khemri is now an enhanced human being, trained and prepared for the glory of becoming a Prince of the Empire. Not to mention the ultimate glory: should he die, and be deemed worthy, he will be reborn...Which is just as well, because no sooner has Prince Khemri graduated to full Princehood than he learns the terrible truth behind the Empire: there are ten million princes, and all of them want each other dead. 


My Review
Honestly, I was kind of disappointed by this book.
I think my expectations were too high. So far I loved every single book Garth Nix wrote, especially with that wry sense of humour. However, I didn't really like this book that much.
This is a sci-fi book. Prince Khemri was taken as a baby from his parents and grew up to be Prince. We follow Khemri on his life journey growing up and making decisions that would change his lives.
The first chapter tells us right of the bat, that Prince Khemri died three times and that this book is about his life. This interested me from the start and the first paragraph was very intriguing. Then it went downhill from there on out. The first couple of chapters, in fact the entire first half of the book was a continuous information dump. I was bored out of my mind and put the book down for quite a while until I decided to finish it. I guess, that I am glad after all that I finished it, because it became really good. The world-building was really slow and boring though, but the second half of the book was way better and also exciting to read.
Khemri underwent some serious character development in this book, which I guess was the point. He was spoiled at first and also very, very arrogant. He believed that he was the best of the best and treated everyone else like dirt. However, I really liked Haddad and Raine. Haddad was responsible and you could really see how much he cared for Khemri near the end of the book. Raine was a really refreshing character, especially after reading about how arrogant and spoiled Khemri and the other Princes are.
Overall, Garth Nix finally retained his amazing writing style in the second half of the book. It took the first half of the book to create a very complex world, which I think should have been done more gradually and not dropped like a bombshell.
I was slightly disappointed by this book. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

"Fire and Ice" (Warriors #2) by Erin Hunter

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Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
'Fireheart could hear a roaring around him, like wind in tall trees. The acrid stench of the Thunderpath stung his nostrils, together with a new smell, sharper and more terrifying. Fire!'
 
Book Two of WARRIORS continues Fireheart's quest to be a true warrior, when he finds new danger lurking in the woods as the chill of winter sets in.

WindClan is missing, and hostilities between the remaining three clans place all the cats in peril. Illness and tragic accidents weaken the camp, and ThunderClan needs all its warriors to defend itself - but Fireheart suspects that certain cats may not be as loyal as they appear.

My Review
Continuing along my journey to reread this series, I picked up the next book immediately after finishing the last. This was a thrilling sequel and I finished it within a day.

This book picked up directly where the last one left off. The newly-made warriors Fireheart and Graystripe are sent off on their very first mission to retrieve the missing WindClan and bring them back home to the forest. However, things get tricky for the two friends when they start questioning where their own loyalties lie. Erin Hunter told a truly gripping narrative with fast-paced action and unexpected plot twists. I enjoyed every struggle the characters had to go through and contrary to my opinion on the first novel, I felt that the events fit together very nicely and had good pacing. The plot didn't feel forced, which made it very easy to be drawn into this amazingly detailed world of the Warrior Cats. 

I would even go as far as to say, that this book was even better than the first. Despite being primarily aimed at children, the author handles complex and deep themes within the book that adults can also fully enjoy. The core themes of friendship, trust and loyalty are excellently portrayed through the emotional turmoil the characters endured, which were as fundamental to the book as the battles that took place. Speaking of which, this might be a children's book, but wow the author really doesn't hold back from giving the characters a hard time!

Fireheart is such a likeable protagonist, that the reader can't help but sympathize with him and his struggles. His torn feelings of loyalty to his Clan, friends and kin are explored so deeply and thoroughly, that I could really envision the pain and loneliness he went through. Despite knowing how the plot gets resolved, I was still figuratively at the edge of my seat to find out what happens next.

I was also glad to see that the second book didn't suffer from the complicated worldbuilding the first book had. Instead, the author only had to build upon the existing world and gradually introduced new characters, rather than have another information-dumping session. I definitely didn't feel lost or confused like I did at the beginning of the first novel and that made this reading experience much smoother and more enjoyable for sure.

Final Thoughts: a thrilling sequel with gripping emotional suspense. This book did not let me down and is even better than the first novel because of how everything flowed better without being confusing for the reader. I am so glad I decided to reread this series again.
On to the next book!

"Into the Wild" (Warriors #1) by Erin Hunter

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Book Blurb (from Goodreads):
For generations, four Clans of wild cats have shared the forest according to the laws laid down by their warrior ancestors. But the ThunderClan cats are in grave danger, and the sinister ShadowClan grows stronger every day. Noble warriors are dying-- and some deaths are more mysterious than others. In the midst of this turmoil appears an ordinary house cat named Rusty... who may turn out to be the bravest warrior of them all.

My Review

"Fire alone can save our Clan."

I remember reading this series many years ago in middle school and being a total fan. To this day I have fond memories of the books. However, it has been a long time since I read them and I was in the mood for some feel-good nostalgia again, especially given the current times. So I decided to reread one of my favourite series!

Honestly, I was not disappointed at all when re-reading this. It brought back soooo many good memories! I had forgotten just how much fun I had when I first read these books and wow; I totally understand now why I was obsessed with this series and why it became one of my favourites.  So yes, I guess I will be a little biased when writing this review...

Plot: Rusty, a house cat dreaming of a life in the wild, learns of the four wildcat Clans that coexist in the forest: ThunderClan, ShadowClan, WindClan and RiverClan. He gets accepted into ThunderClan, where he is given the name Firepaw, training as an apprentice alongside his friend Graypaw to become a warrior.
I loved the fast-paced action of the book. Especially since I was looking for a light-hearted read, this one really got me sucked back into the world as twists and turns were thrown into the story. The plot itself was actually quite straight-forward with hints strewn throughout the novel as to who the real villain was. Because there weren't so many complexities, it was exciting to read how each plot twist escalated the tension and excitement.
I will say though, that at some parts, especially near the beginning when the story just kicked off, the events were packed too tightly together chronologically. As an example: just as Firepaw got accepted into the Clan, several disastrous events struck at the same time. He never seemed to catch a break! But as the story progressed, the events were spaced out more nicely along the timeline, so that it didn't feel as forced anymore.

Characters:  With such a huge cast of characters, it's a real achievement to have each of them be memorable - but the author has easily managed to do just that. Over time, it is easy to understand how some of these characters, like Firepaw or even Yellowfang, can sneak their way into the reader's heart. I honestly love the Clan naming system: the kittens are given the suffix '-kit', the apprentices '-paw', the Clan leader '-star', while the remaining warriors use their full names. It's just so... structured and organized and really lends the story a mysterious aura, which I absolutely adore.
However, at the beginning of the book, it did feel like a whirlwind of characters: names and appearances casually tossed at the reader, overwhelming in number and hard to remember.
It was great though that the book had a character glossary at the start to remedy that issue: showing information about to which Clans the cats belong, their rank and their appearance. Honestly, with the number of cats the reader is introduced to, the glossary is really a necessity.

Worldbuilding: Erin Hunter built a world that is really easy to fall in love with. I love animals and stories surrounding them already, so something like this was totally up my alley. Interspersed with fantastical elements, the author crafted an intricate world told from a new perspective (of a cat). There were rule and logic behind each aspect of the world, which is something I greatly appreciate in a novel.
However, introducing the hidden, albeit massive, lore of the world and the cat Clans comes with its own challenges because it can be easy to overwhelm the reader with a lot of information at once. That is something I sensed many years ago when I first read the book and I felt it again when rereading: once Rusty was accepted into ThunderClan, the onslaught of information began. It can be very confusing at first, even having read the series before. Many characters and rules of the Clan were introduced within two to three pages - information overload! However, this was an issue that was only noticeable at the very beginning of the book. As the story progressed, new information trickled in gradually at a good pace for the reader and by then, I was so acclimatized to the previous information I received, that I just took it in stride and added the new tidbits to the expanding world of the Clans in my head. I definitely remembered the information from the beginning now, because it gets rehashed very frequently throughout the book.

Writing: Rereading the book now, I, of course, realized that the behaviour of the cats is not realistic, but that honestly didn't bother me, because even though the cats were given such human-like traits, they were still meowing, purring cats doing extraordinary things. Common things like the seasons received new terms from the perspective of the cats, like leaf-fall for autumn, newleaf instead of spring, etc. These small additional touches really lent the whole story a sense of realism despite its fictional nature.
The writing style captivated me many years ago and it still does now. It conveys the emotions of the characters so well, that the reader could empathize with them. I could literally feel the restlessness that Rusty felt as a housecat, the freedom and exhilaration and unadulterated joy when he became Firepaw of ThunderClan.
Erin Hunter wrote in such a way that I was easily drawn into the created world: using great descriptions that truly excited the reader and compelled them to keep reading to find out what happens next. 

Final Thoughts: a truly captivating and exciting read that anyone of any age can enjoy. The novel suffers a little at the start from the sheer amount of worldbuilding that's happening, but if you bear through it, it's truly worth it. (I have absolutely no regrets rereading it)