Book Review: The Warrior Heir

The Warrior Heir by Cinda Williams Chima

Series: The Heir Chronicles #1

Publisher: Hyperion Paperbacks

Published: February 27, 2007

Before he knew about the Roses, 16-year-old Jack lived an unremarkable life in the small Ohio town of Trinity. Only the medicine he has to take daily and the thick scar above his heart set him apart from the other high schoolers. Then one day Jack skips his medicine. Suddenly, he is stronger, fiercer, and more confident than ever before. And it feels great – until he loses control of his own strength and nearly kills another player during soccer team tryouts.

Soon, Jack learns the startling truth about himself: he is Weirlind, part of an underground society of magical people who live among us. At their helm sits the feuding houses of the Red Rose and the White Rose, whose power is determined by playing The Game – a magical tournament in which each house sponsors a warrior to fight to the death. The winning house rules the Weir.

As if his bizarre heritage isn’t enough, Jack finds out that he’s not just another member of Weirlind – he’s one of the last of the warriors – at a time when both houses are scouting for a player.

I read this book because I wanted to read all things Cinda Williams Chima after reading the Seven Realms series. I loved the characters and the world she built, so I figured I should pick up this series while I wait for her new book to come out (my life can’t handle the fact that it comes out next year). Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy it as much as the Seven Realms series. In fact, I was quite … bored.

Reading The Warrior Heir I could tell that this was her first work in comparison to The Demon King. The writing left much to be desired, and I didn’t feel as connected to the characters in the book. There was a lack in world-building, which kind of annoyed me because I know how excellent she is when it comes to world-building.

The Warrior Heir is about Jack Swift who finds out that he is part of an ancient world of wizards and warriors. He discovers that he is one of the few warriors left and the ancient world of wizards and magic that his family left behind is quickly catching up to him to collect what they believe is rightfully theirs for the taking. The world that his family left behind is at war between two different clans: the White Rose & the Red Rose, and the only “civil” way for these two to live “peacefully” is to have each clan put forth a warrior to fight to the death.

Jack’s life is now turned upside down as he tries to fight the ancient wizard hierarchy with his family and friends to help him. Not only does he have to go to school and try to act like a normal teenager, he also has to include warrior training—with his Aunt’s ex-boyfriend—and magic training to his hectic schedule. Needless to say he has a lot going on.

Aside from Jack, Aunt Linda and Hastings a lot of the characters in the book felt interchangeable. The characters fell short and just incredibly one-dimensional. A lot of the time I found myself rolling my eyes, especially whenever Fitch and Will were on the same pages as Jack. Fitch’s random knowledge of things no one knew about isn’t really explained aside from the fact that he’s just “weird”. I understand their value to the story, I just think they could have been handled better with more depth to their characters. Especially Fitch—he stood out as the more capable friend in comparison to Will, and I feel like if more time was spent on developing his character he could’ve been my favourite.

The “romance” between Jack and Ellen was also just … ugh. The big “twist” concerning Ellen was extremely predictable, and the fact that Jack wasn’t clever enough to figure it out was just super annoying. Whenever it came to Ellen, Jack’s brain clearly didn’t exist. This is one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to romance.

Also, Ellen’s character in general just started to go downhill for me as soon as I figured out her big secret. It just felt as though she didn’t have a real purpose in the book aside from being Jack’s love interest/”big twist” that isn’t even a twisty secret.

There were definitely some parallels between The Warrior Heir and The Demon King, the most noticeable is magic. The way magic is handled (amulets) is the same, however the hierarchy of magic is different. I liked the way it was structured, definitely something new for me. However, Chima does it again in this book and glosses over the properties of magic and how it works in this world. She did this in the Seven Realms when it came to explaining Han’s magic, which is super frustrating.

But also, can we have magic with a wand? I miss it.

Final verdict, if you’re thinking about picking up this series but haven’t read Seven Realms then just go and read that instead. If you have read Seven Realms already then let’s just sit here together and wait for Flamecaster to come out!