Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Rounded out the series very well.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, War
Minor: Child abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail
Secrets, secrets, and more secrets.
Jonah's and Emma's relationship is something that is rare in the books that I read. I liked how it was different from most other novels where the characters instantly fall in love and there's smooth sailed here on out. I enjoyed how rocky it was. Even when something earth-shattering was thrown at them, I still silently hoped that they would find a way to make it work. Although, I wanted to yell at them a few times when the other concealed a secret that could dramatically improve their investigation.
I was incredibly heartbroken when Grace Miss turned out to be one of the victims. She was just one of those characters that you always believe they would be there.
I honestly had no idea who the murderers were for both Thorn Hill and the wizard murders. I had my suspicions, but each time those characters turned up, my suspicions were altered. I thoroughly all of the miscommunication/lack of communication strategically planned throughout the book.
If I had to choose a favorite character from the series, I would have to say, Jack. Mainly because he's been there since the beginning and original characters always end up leaving a lasting impression.
My favorite book of the series would have to be The Wizard Heir. There is a big sense of family throughout the entire story. We slowly uncover more secrets that bring the characters together. I absolutely love Hasting's, Downey's, and McCauley's relationship. I can't explain it, they are just perfect together.
My favorite side character would have to be Kenzie. I dreaded the inevitable, silently hoping that he would survive. I was ecstatic that he made it to the end! I enjoyed this sarcastic humor when the story grew darker.
Lastly, I am so thankful that I got to read this series! It is one of the favorites! Without it, I would not have discovered my passion for reading and writing. I cannot imagine where I would be and what I would be doing today without it. I cannot believe that it has been nine years since the first book hit the shelves. I am so thankful that I discovered it when I did, I hate picking up series only to discover that they have already concluded. I also love the fact that the books are based close to where I grew I so I know exactly that Chima is talking about while reading them. I smile each time I stumble upon something so familiar. The books are absolutely amazing and inspiring.
Jonah's and Emma's relationship is something that is rare in the books that I read. I liked how it was different from most other novels where the characters instantly fall in love and there's smooth sailed here on out. I enjoyed how rocky it was. Even when something earth-shattering was thrown at them, I still silently hoped that they would find a way to make it work. Although, I wanted to yell at them a few times when the other concealed a secret that could dramatically improve their investigation.
I was incredibly heartbroken when Grace Miss turned out to be one of the victims. She was just one of those characters that you always believe they would be there.
I honestly had no idea who the murderers were for both Thorn Hill and the wizard murders. I had my suspicions, but each time those characters turned up, my suspicions were altered. I thoroughly all of the miscommunication/lack of communication strategically planned throughout the book.
If I had to choose a favorite character from the series, I would have to say, Jack. Mainly because he's been there since the beginning and original characters always end up leaving a lasting impression.
My favorite book of the series would have to be The Wizard Heir. There is a big sense of family throughout the entire story. We slowly uncover more secrets that bring the characters together. I absolutely love Hasting's, Downey's, and McCauley's relationship. I can't explain it, they are just perfect together.
My favorite side character would have to be Kenzie. I dreaded the inevitable, silently hoping that he would survive. I was ecstatic that he made it to the end! I enjoyed this sarcastic humor when the story grew darker.
Lastly, I am so thankful that I got to read this series! It is one of the favorites! Without it, I would not have discovered my passion for reading and writing. I cannot imagine where I would be and what I would be doing today without it. I cannot believe that it has been nine years since the first book hit the shelves. I am so thankful that I discovered it when I did, I hate picking up series only to discover that they have already concluded. I also love the fact that the books are based close to where I grew I so I know exactly that Chima is talking about while reading them. I smile each time I stumble upon something so familiar. The books are absolutely amazing and inspiring.
More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.
The Sorcerer Heir is supposedly the last book in Cinda Williams Chima's Heir Chronicles. I say supposedly because The Dragon Heir was supposed to be the last book, but then she went on and wrote two more, so I don't think we can really say that she's done with this series completely and certainly. She could always come back with a new one years down the road--after all, she hasn't really touched on the seer guild yet, and The Seer Heir has such a ring to it, don't you think?
The Sorcerer Heir is also the most direct sequel in the series. The other books all had related storylines, but with new main characters in each. The Sorcerer Heir, in comparison, picks up with the same story and same characters as The Enchanter Heir, the book before it. It continues to follow Jonah Kinlock, the boy with the deadly touch, and Emma Lee Greenwood, the girl with the gift of music, in the wake of the events that ended The Enchanter Heir. Shades and murder continue to plague the Weir community, and it's completely unclear who is behind it all. Williams Chima does a good job keeping us chasing our own tails as the characters run hither and yon, all blaming each other for what happened, but I think the "twist" is pretty apparent to a savvy reader if you just poke at it enough. That said, it wasn't so blatantly obvious that I thought the characters were morons for not figuring it out; they didn't have the same information available to them, after all, or at least not individually, and they didn't know enough to ask the right questions of each other for the vast majority of the book.
Williams Chima also re-integrates Leesha as a semi-main character here. She gets a number of chapters to herself, which seem superfluous at the beginning but build interest and importance as the story goes on. I don't remember Leesha enough from the earlier books to say if this is something I would have wanted, but I did like it, at least towards the middle and end. Leesha's story is really one of redemption, probably more than any other character, and it was neat to see her finally get some resolution in that respect, especially because so few of the other characters got any real sense of resolution. The end of the book in general is very open, which is one of the things that makes me think that we might see a sixth Heir book sometime in the future. A lot of things are left up in the air, with the attitude of "Well, if they become problems, then we'll deal with them then," which seems both like not a good attitude to take toward the undead roaming your city who potentially want to kill you, and also like a cop-out so that the storyline can be continued in a future book if reader demand is great enough.
That said, with author ploys aside, I did like this. It certainly gets going faster than The Enchanter Heir did, probably because Enchanter did all of the set-up for it. There is action, conflict, and tension pretty much from the beginning. I wish that there had been a bit more interaction between our two main characters; there's such tension between Emma and Jonah that I thought it had to be going somewhere every time they were in the same room, and yet it never really did. They had such build-up in the first book, but it never really matured into anything in this one. Again, I suspect this is because Williams Chima is leaving herself open for another volume. After all, Seph and Madison, Jack and Ellen, Leesha and Fitch...all of their romantic plots (which Jonah and Emma were certainly made out to have) resolved themselves fully in books following the ones in which they originally appeared. I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar happen here.
So, that's basically it: I liked this book, I think it had much better pacing than the one preceding it, but I'm not buying that it's the final book in the series. There was too much left open for me to really believe that it's the final end. I think even The Dragon Heir had a more concrete ending than this, and that was supposed to be the end, too, so I would not be one bit surprised if another book--like, as I said, The Seer Heir--hit the shelves within a few years. That said, I'm still eager to read Williams Chima's other series, The Seven Realms, and will probably move onto that in the near future.
4 stars out of 5.
The Sorcerer Heir is supposedly the last book in Cinda Williams Chima's Heir Chronicles. I say supposedly because The Dragon Heir was supposed to be the last book, but then she went on and wrote two more, so I don't think we can really say that she's done with this series completely and certainly. She could always come back with a new one years down the road--after all, she hasn't really touched on the seer guild yet, and The Seer Heir has such a ring to it, don't you think?
The Sorcerer Heir is also the most direct sequel in the series. The other books all had related storylines, but with new main characters in each. The Sorcerer Heir, in comparison, picks up with the same story and same characters as The Enchanter Heir, the book before it. It continues to follow Jonah Kinlock, the boy with the deadly touch, and Emma Lee Greenwood, the girl with the gift of music, in the wake of the events that ended The Enchanter Heir. Shades and murder continue to plague the Weir community, and it's completely unclear who is behind it all. Williams Chima does a good job keeping us chasing our own tails as the characters run hither and yon, all blaming each other for what happened, but I think the "twist" is pretty apparent to a savvy reader if you just poke at it enough. That said, it wasn't so blatantly obvious that I thought the characters were morons for not figuring it out; they didn't have the same information available to them, after all, or at least not individually, and they didn't know enough to ask the right questions of each other for the vast majority of the book.
Williams Chima also re-integrates Leesha as a semi-main character here. She gets a number of chapters to herself, which seem superfluous at the beginning but build interest and importance as the story goes on. I don't remember Leesha enough from the earlier books to say if this is something I would have wanted, but I did like it, at least towards the middle and end. Leesha's story is really one of redemption, probably more than any other character, and it was neat to see her finally get some resolution in that respect, especially because so few of the other characters got any real sense of resolution. The end of the book in general is very open, which is one of the things that makes me think that we might see a sixth Heir book sometime in the future. A lot of things are left up in the air, with the attitude of "Well, if they become problems, then we'll deal with them then," which seems both like not a good attitude to take toward the undead roaming your city who potentially want to kill you, and also like a cop-out so that the storyline can be continued in a future book if reader demand is great enough.
That said, with author ploys aside, I did like this. It certainly gets going faster than The Enchanter Heir did, probably because Enchanter did all of the set-up for it. There is action, conflict, and tension pretty much from the beginning. I wish that there had been a bit more interaction between our two main characters; there's such tension between Emma and Jonah that I thought it had to be going somewhere every time they were in the same room, and yet it never really did. They had such build-up in the first book, but it never really matured into anything in this one. Again, I suspect this is because Williams Chima is leaving herself open for another volume. After all, Seph and Madison, Jack and Ellen, Leesha and Fitch...all of their romantic plots (which Jonah and Emma were certainly made out to have) resolved themselves fully in books following the ones in which they originally appeared. I wouldn't be surprised to see something similar happen here.
So, that's basically it: I liked this book, I think it had much better pacing than the one preceding it, but I'm not buying that it's the final book in the series. There was too much left open for me to really believe that it's the final end. I think even The Dragon Heir had a more concrete ending than this, and that was supposed to be the end, too, so I would not be one bit surprised if another book--like, as I said, The Seer Heir--hit the shelves within a few years. That said, I'm still eager to read Williams Chima's other series, The Seven Realms, and will probably move onto that in the near future.
4 stars out of 5.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The big conclusion of the Heir Chronicles. Emma and Jonah are the stars here, but I actually liked reading about Leesha. She really has the best character arc out of all the characters, with Madison in there too. I liked this one, but not as much as the first couple of books in the series. I just didn't like Emma or Jonah as much. I thought they were all really slow to figure things out in this book and Jonah in particular was hard to relate to. The whole shades element was a little irritating too. I liked the first 3 books much better, but I did like the big battle at the end. I think I would have rated it lower if she hadn't done such a good job there.
Even though there was a lot I loved about this book, it took me forever to read. It just wasn't calling me. I blame Emma. Why did Sorcerer have to have the same characters as Enchanter? Jonah's a good character but I can't stand Emma!
After that cliffhanger I wanted to know what happened with Jonah and he doesn't come back in until page 50!
Lesha gets a POV. She's certainly grown up since Warrior. How cute a are Lesha and Fitch together!
Can I just say how much I love Kenzie? Jonah's brother needs his own book!
Of the big mysteries, only one I didn't see coming from a mile away. (What/who caused the Thorn Hill Massacre, Who killed the people on Halloween, who killed Emma's Grandpa, and one more that's spoilery.)
The Bad:
Emma.
A few continuity errors with people calling the zombies shades when they didn't know about shades yet.
The End:
A good ending but with enough loose threads for a sequel. I need more!
SPOILERS
Who died?
The romance;
A bit too perfect at the end.
After that cliffhanger I wanted to know what happened with Jonah and he doesn't come back in until page 50!
Lesha gets a POV. She's certainly grown up since Warrior. How cute a are Lesha and Fitch together!
Can I just say how much I love Kenzie? Jonah's brother needs his own book!
Of the big mysteries, only one I didn't see coming from a mile away. (What/who caused the Thorn Hill Massacre, Who killed the people on Halloween, who killed Emma's Grandpa, and one more that's spoilery.)
The Bad:
Emma.
A few continuity errors with people calling the zombies shades when they didn't know about shades yet.
Spoiler
I totally called the whole Gabriel being a douche thing. I really hated what he did to Jonah! Plus then we didn't get Jonah's POV much in the last quarter of the book.The End:
A good ending but with enough loose threads for a sequel. I need more!
Spoiler
I wonder what will happen to the shades.SPOILERS
Who died?
Spoiler
Grace, Blaise Highborn, Gabriel, Allison, Burroughs, Hackleford.The romance;
Spoiler
I love how things ended between Emma and Jonah. Not romantic but friends. A hint of maybe more one day but they didn't rush to I love yous.A bit too perfect at the end.
Spoiler
Jonah's magically not poisonous anymore. I wish we knew if he could just control it now because it doesn't make sense that it's gone for good when he was engeneered to be poison.
The best part of the last two books of the Heir Chronicles is the balance between old characters and new characters; especially when underrated characters of the first series get more focus. A very nice ending to the series and open enough that I could see at least one more book being written if Chima ever thinks of a plot.
Rate 3.5 its was really good but it felt like there was a bit of a plot hole with the shades at the end.
It was nice to finally get all the explanations for the mysteries that had been mounting, and this was a solid book as far as keeping my interest engaged, but I came out the other end without that wow factor that would have thrown it above 3 stars for me. Chima is simply a pleasure to read and I look forward to whatever her next series may be!
Cinda Williams Chima, you have done it again. You are, by far, one my all time favorite authors. You create stories and characters and worlds that sink into my skin and into my bones. Your writing is beautiful and a reader could not ask anything more from her favorite author (except for the request for more books...so, please, please, please, PLEASE???).
Okay, Chima is another author who creates boy characters that I fall absolutely head over heels in love with. First, I absolutely fell for Han Alister. And then, Jonah Kinlock. I guess I have a type. You know, the broody and complicated boys who have complicated pasts, with a touch of an antihero in them. What can I say? I like my boys with a hint of bad in them.
An absolutely phenomenal finish to an absolutely amazing series.
Now, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE A NEW SERIES? 'CAUSE I WILL BE THE FIRST IN LINE AT THE BOOKSTORE TO GET MY HANDS ON ANYTHING WITH YOUR NAME ON IT.
Okay, Chima is another author who creates boy characters that I fall absolutely head over heels in love with. First, I absolutely fell for Han Alister. And then, Jonah Kinlock. I guess I have a type. You know, the broody and complicated boys who have complicated pasts, with a touch of an antihero in them. What can I say? I like my boys with a hint of bad in them.
An absolutely phenomenal finish to an absolutely amazing series.
Now, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE A NEW SERIES? 'CAUSE I WILL BE THE FIRST IN LINE AT THE BOOKSTORE TO GET MY HANDS ON ANYTHING WITH YOUR NAME ON IT.