Gods and Warriors Paperback – Illustrated, December 5, 2013

Crossposted from Goodreads - beware of spoilers!* spoiler alert ** Actually, I am wavering between four and five stars on this one. Until I finished the book, I was thinking: what a lot I could learn from Michelle Paver! She has the gift of writing such a gripping story that you (I, at least) put down every other book in order to finish hers. She can also be trusted to do her research, write believable characters, and use good, clean prose. All this makes her books a pleasure to read.This new series is set in Bronze-age Greece (before it was Greece) and Crete. I was extremely taken with the character of Pirra, a Cretan 12-year-old who has been promised in marriage to an Achaean lord she has never seen. Pirra is determined to escape. More than anything, she wants freedom to make her own life. Interestingly, until she meets the second protagonist, her best friend is an Egyptian slave who is like an older brother to her.That protagonist, whom Pirra encounters as he tries to steal a boat, is the young goatherd Hylas. The book begins with Hylas wounded and running for his life from black-clad, ash-coated warriors. His goal is to survive the tumult he is caught up in and find his little sister. But, at every turn, he encounters more mysteries and more danger. He also makes a friend; a young dolphin he names Spirit, who saves his life when he is lost at sea. The relationship between Hylas and Spirit is reminiscent of the friendship between Torak and Wolf in the "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness". Paver writes animals and their viewpoints awfully well, and Spirit becomes the third pov character.The fourth is Hylas's best friend, Telemon, who is caught in a terrible quandary. He has a relationship with the Crows, the warriors who have tried to kill Hylas, and who have driven Hylas's little sister further into the mountains. As a chieftain's son, Telemon is bound to obey his father. But he wants to help Hylas and little Issi. Can he find a way to fulfill all his obligations? I don't want to say more about Telemon's quandary, but I do hope we see more of him in further books. I could empathize with him, and, by the end of this book, he had come to a somewhat dubious decision, one that I hope he will rethink.As for Hylas, he's a tough, illiterate kid - very capable and very ignorant at once. I liked the way he and Pirra, when stranded on a dangerous, sacred island, struck sparks off each other and also filled gaps in each others' knowledge. One of the things they discover is exactly why the Crows are hunting and killing outsiders like Hylas. There is, of course, a prophecy, and the Crows are determined to see it never comes true. The prophecy concerns a dagger which Hylas is given by a dying man. Hylas comes to think the weapon is evil and that it has a mind of its own. I think he might be right.The reason I'm wavering between 4 and 5 stars is that, fine as it is, this story does not quite stand alone. I was frustrated that we never found out what happened to little Issi, and, at the end of the book, all four of the viewpoint characters have been separated. That was frustrating, too!One of the blurbs about this series is that Hylas would be helped in his quest by three animals, a dolphin, a falcon, and a lion cub. We have met the dolphin, and he seems strongly linked to Hylas. I have a suspicion that the falcon will be linked to Pirra, and the lion cub to Telemon, the chief's son. We'll see!

A very exciting book that I really enjoyed to read.my favorite character was spirt the dolphin because the dolphin shows great power. In my perspective this was a great book, and I think that anybody could read it.

Michelle Paver has once again proved that she is a writer of quality work. Self-published fiction authors should use Michelle's writing as a template for good writing. Too often ebooks today are rushed onto the world stage without proper editing. A lot are also written in the old "Telling" style, which makes for boring reading.Michelle Paver is not guilty of these writing flaws, her words create believable worlds and characters. Gods and Warriors is no exception, Michelle has created a book that all lovers of fantasy will enjoy. The adventures of Hylas as he travels through the ancient world of gods and demons will keep the reader wanting to know more.This book gave me a lot of reading pleasure. I look forward to reading more books in the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series.

This was a fabulous book. Interesting characters and the action started right away. The book is filled with figurative language. Couldn't put the book down. I have been waiting for her to write another series and she did. The only problem is I have to wait for the next book in the series.

Amazing my daughter couldn’t put it down (age 11)

Awesome read! Great for 6th graders! This book nicely dovetails with Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief for kids who are interested in Greek Gods. It also supports Common Core Curriculum objectives.

I actually bought book 1 & book 2 at the same time so I read them back to back. Book 1 is good and sets the stage but I liked book 2 even better. This should be a very interesting series. I am already craving book 3!

Same great quality and service.

As a long term fan of Michelle, this book was always going to be a big deal for me, and the wait for it has been a torturous one. First announced back in December 2010 after the release of the terrifying ghost story, Dark Matter, the last year and a half have been slow. Long days of waiting for something new to read, something new to put on the bookshelf next to her previous books. I'd even left a space just begging to be filled. And now, at last, it's here.And it was worth every single second that passed. Every moment was worth the wait because what we have here is nothing short of amazing.I remember saying on Twitter in February when I actually read the book that it's a real world building book and I still stand by that. Gods and Warriors really gives us an insight into the world in which the 5 book series is set. Set in the Mediterranean around the bronze age, we get a glimpse of the way the characters live in the bronze-age, we get a feel for their customs and their ways, their beliefs and their views on those who are not like others. Outsiders.Hylas is an Outsider. All his life, he and his sister have lived outside of the village with a few others, tending to goats on a mountainside. They are not worthy of life within the confines of the village, but at the same time, they are given a purpose. But then one day, everything changes. The Black Warriors come to slaughter them all. But why? Hylas manages to escape, barely, with his life, but his sister is missing. His beloved sister Issi. She's all he truly has in the world, she can't be dead. Hylas is determined to find her. He has to.But it's not just the mission to find his sister that has been unlocked by the arrival of the Black Warriors. Something else is stirring, far bigger and far more dangerous.I will be honest that when I started reading the book, it did take me a few chapters to warm to Hylas. To all of the characters really. I was so used to reading about Torak, and Renn and Wolf, that it felt weird to be reading about all these new characters. The style, although different to that of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, is instantly recognisable as Michelle's, right from the first word, and it was hard to get used to these new characters being here, all of a sudden out of nowhere. And the book really does start all of a sudden. Bang. Right into the action from the first sentence. And the pace doesn't really let up. As is custom with Michelle's work, she's so economical. Every single word counts. Every sentence has fought for it's right to be there and this is evident. Sometimes when reading a book you get a sense that a paragraph or even sometimes whole chapters are just fillers, only there to be there, and not really serving any justice to the story. But with Gods and Warriors, and indeed all of Michelle's work, there is no sense of that here.We also meet Pirra. Daughter of the High Priestess she has never been her own person. Always told what to do, when to do it and told never to question, she longs to be normal, to live outside of the confines of the temple. She is feisty, strong willed, and defiant.And as we know Michelle is so passionate about wildlife, we have animals here too. From the blurb we are told to expect dolphins, a lion cub and a falcon, and it is the dolphin we meet first. Michelle caught peoples imagination in Wolf Brother when she wrote from Wolf's point of view, from within his mind and here again she does it with the dolphin, and it is mind-blowing. She really seems to get it. Whatever it is, she knows exactly how to express it, and how to get as much out of it as she can. I often wonder if there is an element of Doctor Dolittle in Michelle. She has captured something so wonderful and captivating.Again, I'll be honest, this is not at all what I was expecting. As already mentioned, the wait was a long one, and having already known that the series was to be called Gods and Warriors, I let my mind wander many-a-time to think about what the series could have been. I'd imagined Zeus and Hades. I'd imagined storms created by Gods and the Humans of Earth, the Warriors of Earth, rebelling against them. But that's not what we find here. It's something far greater and more original than I'd thought and to be honest, I'm thankful!To close, as this is nearing 900 words now, oops...Michelle Paver is back with a colossal bang ladies and gentlemen. You can expect to be late for school, work, appointments, everything, because once you sit down with this book you will not want to get up until you've finished it!It's beautifully written, eerily captivating, totally addictive and blooming brilliant to boot! Please, I implore you, do not miss out on the start of what looks set to be an incredible series. I am gagging for Book Two already! ARGH!(P.S. Check out that cover! I'm sorry, but I can't help but stare! Bravo Puffin! Bravo!)Originally posted by me on [...]

I came to this Michelle Paver series late, years after reading the award-winning ‘Chronicles of Ancient Darkness’ series which starts with the wonderful ‘Wolf Brothe’r. Doubtful that any character could be as admirable as Torak, it was a joy to read about Hylas who, like Torak, is an outsider.‘The Outsiders’ starts at a run from the first page and doesn’t slow up. Hylas has been attacked, his dog is dead, his sister missing and a fellow goatherd killed. And the killers are after him. Adrift at sea, disorientated, Hylas fears he must die. And then there follows a glorious section about dolphins. I won’t give away any more of the plot. The narrative is a shape familiar from ‘Wolf Brother’ - wild boy in trouble, on the run, not sure who is friend or foe, sets off on a quest where he makes new alliances – but that doesn’t mean this is not an entertaining read with new characters, a new setting, and different myths and gods.Michelle Paver’s books for children and young adults are set in mystical places but are based on solid research about the way our ancestors lived and survived in wild lands, the animals they hunted, the gods they worshipped and the monsters they feared. ‘The Outsiders’ is set in the Mediterranean in the Bronze Age.All the outdoors things inaccessible to today’s children – unsupervised by adults, expected to be self-sufficient at the age of twelve, adventuring to unfamiliar places, making a den, lighting a fire, navigating, foraging, analysing geography, weather and threats. Her child characters have respect for their world, they are brave, adventurous and learn quickly from their mistakes. If they don't, they will die: these are not gentle stories but they are a preparation for the real world where children must learn for themselves how to survive.

This is the first offering, from what is to be a five-part series that is a mixing of magic with ritual from Michelle Paver. Her new series of books tells the narrative of Hylas, a 12-year-old goatherd, whose adventures take him to Ancient Crete and Ancient Egypt. He also has a potent ally in the form Pirra; the stubborn daughter of an Egyptian priestess, the scene is set during the Bronze Age. Other characters featured in the plot, of non-human variety are a lion cub, a falcon and a dolphin (called Spirit).Book 1 shows our hero Hylas given a bronze dagger by a dying slave, though he is both mystified and at loss to understand why the dreaded Crows – the warrior clan of Koronos and rulers of Mycenae – will do anything within their power to retrieve it. Hylas finds himself on the run. On his fraught journey Hylas encounters the daughter of the High Priestess, courageous 12-year-old Pirra, who has boldly branded her own cheek and escaped an arranged marriage joins him on his journey. Soon they find themselves marooned on an Island, and here they are caught up in hostile enmities between Lakonians, Mycenaeans and Minoans. They soon find that they must rely on each if they are to survive, and this growing shared dependency drives the story.While a number of other fashionable children's authors imagine a future regularly described in dystopian terms, Paver’s work looks backwards more with a positive eye to the past. This book illustrates the quality of Paver's research is impeccable and, reading her intense accounts of Bronze Age life really the narrative to the fore. Paver’s brings in well-rounded and stalwart characters that always seem to do the right thing, helped by generous helping of flukes and a succession of eleventh-hour escapes. The authors’ story telling maybe a blend of fantasy and adventure, however, the background to the narrative is facts based archaeology of the Greek Bronze Age and its belief systems of that time frame. It is this attention to detail - innovative storytelling and clean grammatical style as most of written word is written in short, stabbing sentences. The wide ranging success of the first set of books has assured her popularity and success, in my opinion this series will do as well hence my 5 star rating.

My son enjoyed this book and recreated one of the scene for world book day. The scene in the jar is still sat at his school. He liked the adventure and the creativity of the characters and how their personalities came through. On to the next one...

I first read the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness when I was six, and still love the careful thought and beautiful writing Michelle Paver uses, and Gods and Warriors was no different. I love reading about the little details of Hylas and Pyrrha's lives and how they survived in this world so alien from our modern day society. Their experiences feel so real in my mind as Paver puts so much effort into her research and writing. The actual story line is well written and thought out, with plenty of plot twists and dramatic realisations along the way. In short, an exemplary novel!