Warrior Bronze (Gods and Warriors Book 5) by Michelle Paver
| Warrior Bronze (Gods and Warriors Book 5) by Michelle Paver | |
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| Category: Teens | |
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Reviewer: Jill Murphy
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| Summary: Immensely satisfying ending to Paver's Bronze Age series. Full of danger, excitement and characters to root for - especially the animals! - it's one to save enough time to manage in a single sitting. Because you won't want to put it down. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 304 | Date: August 2016 |
| Publisher: Puffin | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 0141339357 | |
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Hooray and boohoo! The final instalment of Michelle Paver's Gods and Warriors series has arrived. This series is set in the Bronze Age amid the Greek civilisations of the mainland (Mycenaean) and Crete (Minoan). Our two central characters represent both: Hylas, the boy searching for his sister, is Mycenaean, and Pirra, the daughter of a high priestess, is Minoan. Together, they are trying to defeat the evil Crows who are ravaging lands far and wide. But to do that, they need to retrieve the dagger of Kronos from deep inside Crow territory. If they fail, the evil gods known as the Angry Ones will rule all the land and all the people.
Will Hylas and Pirra find the knife? Can the Outsiders beat the Crows? And will Hylas ever be reunited with his sister, Issa?
What follows is dangerous and exciting but also romantic and mysterious. Paver always puts a little bit of magic realism into her books but she keeps it light and it's really up to the reader how much store they put in the supernatural and how much in the heroism of the human and animal characters. So we have human children fighting the good fight, animal companions helping them, and also curses and spells and ghosts. In this way, Paver speaks directly in the voices of Bronze Age people, who saw magic and divinity embedded deep in the natural world. To them, the lines between the real and the supernatural weren't just blurred: they didn't exist at all.
A review of a Michelle Paver story isn't complete unless it has an enthusiastic shout-out for the animals. In Warrior Bronze, Spirit the dolphin doesn't disappoint, Echo the falcon must overcome fatal peril, and Havoc the mountain lion must deal with divided loyalties. But that's all I'm telling you!
I've loved this series almost as much as I loved Paver's series about the Ice Age. It's full of accurate historical detail but it's never expositional and always blended into her characters' motivations and beliefs. In Warrior Bronze, all the various plot threads come together and are concluded in a breathless rush of satisfying pages. But there's some sadness and loss, too. Not every broken friendship can be repaired. Now it's all over, I'm torn between feeling satisfied at a story well told and a little bit lost because there won't be any more. I'm just trusting Paver to find a new chronicle from our deepest past that she really wants to tell.
Recommended.
If you haven't already, you must read Paver's Ice Age series about Torak, Renn and Wolf, Wolf Brother: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Warrior Bronze (Gods and Warriors Book 5) by Michelle Paver at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Warrior Bronze (Gods and Warriors Book 5) by Michelle Paver at Amazon.com.
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