Customer Reviews

The First Collier (Guardians of Ga'hoole (Pb))

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From his death bed, the old owl Ezylryb warns Soren and the great tree's new king, Coryn, of a coming danger, and instructs them to read the Legends of Ga'Hoole so they will know the identity of this mysterious rising threat.

The first of these three ancient volumes is entitled "The First Collier." In it, Soren and Coryn find a world of chaos, warring kingdoms, and nachtmagen, the dark magic of the evil half-crow, half-owl creatures known as hagsfiends.

When good King H'rath is murdered by the foul hagsfiends, his mate Queen Siv knows she must give up her egg if it is to survive. The hagsfiend Ygryk knows that within the egg is a very special owl, and she wants nothing more than to steal it and turn the chick within to evil. To rescue her chick, Siv gives the egg to noble Grank, the first collier, so he can raise it far from the hagsfiends' harm.

The First Collier is an excellent read for fans of the series, and Coryn's startling revelation at the end will leave readers hanging and anxious for Book Ten: The Coming of Hoole, which arrives in bookstores this summer. Keep up the great writing, Mrs. Lasky!

My son and I have really enjoyed the whole Guardians of Ga'hoole series. This book is no exception. The story is well written and holds your attention quite well. We have read all of the series at bedtime and 3-4 chapters a night never seems like enough. We both always want more.

This story explains a lot of things mentioned in the other books. It was nice to see the background behind those books. Now we are anxiously awaiting the next addition to this wonderful series.

This book is AWESOME! It's exciting and detailed to the point where you are swept away in it. It's really easy to imagine the scene which you are reading. It's AWESOME!

This book was great because it was action-packed and discribes the action also. It was very interesting and I ALWAYS would read it again. (Which is 9 times) Well, It's a lot for an 8 year old like me!=)

YAY. GRANK'S STORY.

This book was actually pretty good. I like how there's no nest maid snakes to brag about how great owls are.

This is for you magic maniacs out there. There's more magic than the in the previous books.

The story starts off really... well, bad. But as soon as H'rath, the High King, dies, the story gets a ton more interesting. That's probably because of the hagsfiends. They're the only part that makes this book worth reading (and those hagsfiends do a good job).

Soren and the others dwell in the Prologue and Epilogue. Soren seems to have gotten a major personality make-over, and the rest of the Band just loafs around talking. And yes, there's still the unmoving dying unique to Guardians.

This is a cool book if you're willing to spend about 49 pages reading boring stuff (the 127 other pages are WAY more interesting). If you're the patient type, this is a book for you.

If you like the Guardiens of Ga'hoole series then you'll love this. Unlike the other series, now it talks about this one legend of this one spotted owl, Grank. He seems to have fire like powers such as.... when he looks at fire he has visions and so. This is so a must read and I can't wait to get the next book too!

The First Collier was very good, as I'm sure any Guardians of Ga'Hoole fan would agree. I, personally love the characters Soren & Coryn and their stories, and to have them in the Prologue and the Epilogue was great! Sure, I'd like to see them in a whole book, but this is good enough for now. When the Legends are through, Kathryn Lasky may continue on with Soren, Coryn, and the Band, at least I think so, because if Nyra is what Coryn & Soren think she is (I won't say, so I don't ruin it for you all who havn't read it yet) then how can they stop her in just a Prologue & Epilogue of 2 books? What I think will happen is, over the time that the young king and his uncle are reading the Legends of Ga'Hoole in Ezylryb's hoolow, they will figure out exactly how (what Nyra is) was stopped then, so they could do the same now to save Ga'Hoole. The First Collier had it's thrills and sadnesses, and a lot of new words! (Nacht Ga', nachtmagen, gadfeathers, spottilate, ect.) And of course, the surprising end to the book in the Epilogue, in which Soren refers to Coryn "Why, dear boy, why?" and "Go on, my boy", and Coryn reveals what he thinks the reason was for reading the Legends as Ezylryb instructed. Now, is The Coming of Hoole has an Epilogue, and I think it will, then it will probably be a surprise as well to readers. I think Mrs. Lasky has outdone herself with this stunning prequel to the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, and I think the next, the 10th, the Coming of Hoole, and the last, the 11th, To Be A King, will both be equally spectacular and an overall enjoyable reading experience!!!

Oh, what happened to the earlier Guardians of Ga'Hoole books, where we could enjoy Twilight's antics and the annoying (and later hero) Otulissa?

The First Collier, like The Hatchling and The Outcast, are not the same as the other Guardian books. But while Coryn's stories at least followed a familiar plot (really, the only reason to read those two is to see what happened to the Pure Ones) The First Collier is totally different. Sure, it has a prolouge and an epilouge with Soren and Coryn, during which Soren refers to Coryn as "dear boy" and the rest of the band sit outside musing over how long its been since they met. Where are the wet-poop jokes, Lasky?

Anyway, the First Collier follows the story of the Spotted Owl Grank, friends to the king and queen, H'rath and Siv. He discovers at an early age that he has fire sight and an unusual interest for the flames through which his visions are born. He goes to Beyond the Beyond to explore his power, where he meets and learns from the dire wolf Fengo. Then, suddenly and randomly, he dives into the volcano and grabs the Ember of Hoole. It messes him up for about ten pages (enough for the entire kingdom of owls to turn upside down, without so much as a description from Kathryn Lasky) and then when he gets a message from his friend the king telling him to come back, the wolf Fengo says something along the lines of, "You can't have the ember, Grank." And Grank says pretty much "Okay" and puts it back. Yep, that's it.

The story does pick up a bit when Grank meets the newly widowed Siv and takes her egg. He goes to raise it away from the harm of the hagsfiends, the story's villians. Siv is left with her last good friend Myrrthe on an iceburg with a polar bear after escaping from the hagsfiends. Siv's story is probably the most interesting, as she is one of the more well-done characters, as is the polar bear, Svenka.

The story is told from a first-person narrative, which is a mistake on Lasky's part, because she spends way too much time having Grank think back and put in obscure reminisces from his childhood, throwing you off the actual plot. Then he says things like "Later Siv told me..." assuring us that Siv doesn't actually die, ruining all suspense. Also, Grank himself isn't well done. Sometimes you think that he's proper and noble, and then other times you think he's like Twilight. The new villians, the hagsfiends, are weird and I can already tell that they're going to have powers which are so strong at one point and then at another time they'll be oh-so-convieniently inaffective against the story's heroes. There is also a token new "owl" word- gadfeather. Oh, I do have one more praise for it- the mention of Grank and Theo's exploration through smithing is interesting, bringing you to the origin of bonk coals and battle claws.

So no, the Guardians of the Ga'Hoole series is not back to its old charm, and I doubt that it will be again. In this three-part "legends of the Ga'Hoole" (the three stories are titled The First Collier, The Coming of Hoole, and To Be a King) you get to see some things that you wondered about in the other Ga'Hoole books, but that's about it.

Defenetly a good book I was always wondering about Grank's story. Hurry and get this book it is wonderful, and very exciting!! As good as The Rescue in this series and The Journey that is also in this series. This series is like a shorter booked Redwall series.

Received on time, great product as described.
In original wrapping, Perfect!
I ordered 12 of these books for my Grandson Caden
He loves them!
Mary