Faerie Wars

I definitely enjoyed it. It was a very good mix of scifi, fantasy, and real life similar to Artemis Fowl but still different.

I was not expecting Henry's personal life problems, but they added so much more to the story. It made Henry very real. His return to real life at the end, with just a bit more confidence, is very nice as well.

Henry is my favorite character, but he spends a surprisingly small amount of time in the story. It's a little odd, since he is set up as the main character in the first few chapters, only to be cast aside in favor of Pyrgus and Blue. Pyrgus is okay, but I'm not fond of Blue. Every time they had a scene, I was mostly just hoping Henry would be next.

The plot itself is very interesting, if a little complicated. show more I got the three villains all mixed up, which made the plot twists a little confusing. They were also all very stereotypical villains, with none of the depth given Henry or Mr. Fogarty.

I'm also not entirely sure what age group this is for. The stereotypical villains and the age of the main characters make me think it is for pre-teens and maybe young adults -- and yet there is a lot of stuff directly referencing sex. No explicit sex scenes of course, but there are quite a few references -- from Henry's parents's problems to Henry seeing Blue in the bath. And yet the story itself does not seem complex for or written for young adults.

Despite all of this, I really did enjoy it, and definitely recommend it. show less

Okay, I'm going to give my critique! I still am glassy-eyed from staying up *literally* all night to finish this book! When you cannot pry a book from your fingers, that means it's good, right? I certainly think so. - To be fair: This is a down-the-line sci-fi/fantasy, IMO. As someone who has extremely little patience for and limited understanding of fiction technology, I could have done with less "science" but that's a person-to-person thing. My little brothers read this series and recommended it to me, and they both loved it for these aspects. I give the author props for just being so darn creative! Creativity, to me, should generally outweigh and outshine the more technical aspects of writing, like your "literary elements" and your show more actual writing style. This is most certainly a "third person omniscient" story in that you as the reader follow literally EVERY character. Most 3rd persons don't do this: they pick one or two characters to follow and you learn about other events through their subsequent discoveries. Sometimes I felt a bit overwhelmed by the back-and-forth coverage, but as the story progressed, it became very necessary to see the plot unfold from different directions. So bravo to that, Brennan! It just took me a few hundred pages to get used to! - Characters: I tend to like "good" good guys and "bad" bad guys, so when I read other reviews that criticize Brennan for not being "complex enough," I dont give those much weight. Evil is very one-dimensional. The baddest villains are the ones that really have no complexity: they're just bad to be bad. And thank god, not every protagonist is Holden Caulfield. I found the main protagonist - Henry Atherton - very enjoyable and relatable, if not a little dorky. He reminds me of a modern Taran from (IMO the greatest childrens fantasy EVER) The Chronicles of Prydain in that he's sweet but maybe a tad dorky (girls, we all know boys like this!). I can certainly deal with the "lovable loser" character type. **I feel like I do need to address this aspect of the story, as everybody does** - Umm okay I found the series in the YA section, and to me that's a very appropriate place. This is a very action-packed series, and yeah there's conflict: and not wishy-washy glossed over conflict, either. These are bad guys who do bad things. I wouldn't use the word "pervasive," but there certainly are violent aspects of the story. To me, I didnt find the violence out of place or even unnaturally heightened...it had a purpose: to be contrasted with good. To make the reader think: "Wow, these dudes need to be stopped". I wouldnt recommend this series for anyone under middle-school (with the exception of the above-average-intelligence 5th grader). CON: - Really, there's only one definite negative I have to gripe about: This is FANTASY--I don't want to read about melodramatic, "Eastender-like" family drama! It is necessary to a point to set up the emotional characterization of Henry: we need to see a bit of his background in order to understand and relate to his situation. What we dont need is over-the-top melodrama, which IMO is what we are given. It seems as though it's not good enough for Brennan to present a relatively normal family problem: he has to write a rather specific and uncommon family situation that to me was just put in to be a "shock factor." There's no development, no substance, because that's not the point. So why bother? Anyway, that's my beef.Overall? Excellent. I will proceed to the next book in the series promptly! This is not exactly a well-known series in the US, though a few of my English friends have read the books and quite enjoyed them. If you are reading this review, give the FAERIE WARS CHRONICLES a try! show less

I totally enjoyed this foray into the Faerie Realm with Henry, Mr. Fogarty, Pyrgus, and Blue, and look forward to reading the 2nd book in the series, The Purple Emperor. This is billed as a young adult book, assumingly because of the age of the characters. But the plot was intriguing with multiple things going on, and can just as easily draw in any adult.

Henry didn't believe in faeries until he caught one in Mr. Fogarty's backyard, saving it from Hodge the cat. But once Pyrgus fills them in on the attempts on his life, and explains how he must get back to the Faerie Realm to warn his father, the Purple Emperor, against an imminent attack. Behind the scenes, the Nightside Faeries have allied with the Demon Realm to insure the success of show more their attacks. But can Henry and Mr. Fogarty do their part to help the Lightside Fairies from falling into oblivion at the hands of these dark forces? show less

After someone tries to kill Pyrgus, the Crown Prince of the faerie world, his father, the Purple Emperor, sends him off into the Analogue World (aka the world we humans live in) for safety from their political enemies, the Faeries of the Night. However, the translator they used to send Pyrgus into the other world has been sabotaged, sending Pyrgus drastically off course, landing him in the middle of present-day England, in the backyard of a paranoid old Mr. Fogarty. Mr. Fogarty enlists the help of Henry, his helping boy with family troubles, to construct a translator to send Pyrgus back to his own world.

The Purple Emperor and his subjects frantically search for Pyrgus to save him from his death, knowing that the Faeries of the Night are show more concocting something terrible. However, Pyrgus is sabotaged once again… this time by the demons, allies of the Faeries of the Night and creatures whom we know as aliens. The demons intend to kill Pyrgus and his father, throwing the Faeries of the Light into chaos and thus succeeding in overthrowing the government. Now it seems like the only two who can stop the demons are Henry and Pyrgus’ fearless little sister, Blue, an accomplished spy with intelligence and beauty.

FAERIE WARS, the first in this captivating series by Herbie Brennan, engaged me in the first paragraph and didn’t let go. Brennan does a fantastic job of keeping up the suspense all the way through the novel, purposely alternating points of view to keep readers on their toes. With his vivid writing, I felt like I was actually there alongside the main characters as they struggled against terrifying enemies. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves fantasy, science fiction, action, and Harry Potter (that should cover about everyone, shouldn’t it?). show less

This book. (!!!!)

I read it when I was younger and I just absolutely loved it. I read it when I was about 13, and I liked that it was a little bit grittier, a little bit more serious than most fantasy books. The protagonist seemed to be making some quite serious decisions throughout the story, which I appreciated as well. There are quite a few 'mature' themes, but to be honest, it's fiction. I'm... more or less happy, as a teacher, when I see kids reading.

ANYWAY.

I loved Brennan's British/Irish wit, dry, dark and clever.

I can't remember much of the plot (apparently there are some twists that I totally forgot about!) but I loved the writing style, I loved the voice of the narrator. It was one of the books that I stayed up all night show more reading, which was rare for me to do when I was that young.

... I don't normally read YA and children's literature (unless it's for a class), but I'm tempted to reread this book. Hmm.

(Coincidentally, the author loves a holiday spot in Ireland where I've been a few years ago. I love it too! That's so weird.) show less

I read half, and just couldn't develop enough interest to go on. I wanted to know more about Henry's family - what an intriguing teen realistic novel that could have been. But we spent so much time in the run-of-the-mill 'faerie' world, focusing on adventure and the duties of the Purple Emperor, his heir, and the sister who could probably have run the 'Wars' better than the whole male clan, that I just got bemused and bored.

Opening Sentence : '...Henry got up early on the day that changed his life ...'

Henry is having a really bad day - he finds out his mum and dad are getting a divorce because his mum is having a lesbian affair with his father's pretty secretary!!!!! Prince Pyrgus Malvae, heir to the Purple Emperor, leader of the faerie realm is having a bad day as well. He rescues some kittens in a glue factory and almost ends up being sacrificed to a demon by a dark faerie. To get him out of the way while diplomatic discussions go on - Pyrgus is sent to safety through a portal. The portal has been sabotaged and Pyrgus ends up in Mr Fogharty's shed and rescued from being eaten by the cat by Henry. The bad day the two boys are having is about to change.

A show more really great start to a 'new for me' series. The plot is complex involving an evil demon, two avaricious glue factory owners, and Lord Hairstreak, leader of the Faeries of the Night, each with a personal agenda that will lead to taking over the realm. Pyrgus needs to be rescued on more than one occassion to try and stop the plot to overthrow his kingdom. His sister Holly Blue is the only one with the resources to track her brother down - she just needs a bit of help - and that is where Henry and Mr Fogharty comes in.

It is not a cutesie YA book - it is quite dark in places - and some pretty gruesome things happen. The ending of the book is complete enough to read as a stand alone, but there are one or two open ends that made me realise that there may be another book to follow. Imagine my joy when I found out there are at least four in the series. show less