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Everything looked like it was going up when Conor,Rollan,and Abeke returned. Shane was trying to convince the Greencloaks that he was a good guy, but Conor and Rollan knew better. With a burst of light and speed Shane let his crocodile out of dormant form and quickly ran for the talismans. He got them and then he tried to run. He was surrounded and was about to be captured when Haliwar (the eagle Great Beast) came down and rescued him. The Greencloaks didn't know if Kovo was released from his prison or not. Then the Greencloaks had to hunt Shane down and retrieve the talismans before it was to late.

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SPOILER-STOPPER LLAMA
This article contains plot and/or ending details.

Halawir

Halawir is an eagle Great Beast. You have to defeat Drina in-game at level 40 to obtain his talisman. In the second series, he is summoned as a spirit animal by a girl named Cordalles.

Halawir is an eagle with yellow eyes and blue-gray feathers under his wings. He is one of the most respected Great Beasts. It was said by Essix that only Tellun the Elk held more respect than the eagle. He has a haughty and independent personality, as he became defensive when Essix asked him about his missing talisman, and openly tries to resent his and Cordalles' bond. He was the guardian of Kovo the Ape's prison at Muttering Rock. At some time during the series, Halawir sided with the Conquerors because he was sympathetic towards Stetriol; It could also be because Kovo persuaded him. Halawir also has power over the winds, similar to Arax the Ram.

As revealed in The Book of Shane, Halawir may have been the one to hide the talismans after the first great war, which could explain why he knew where Suka the Polar Bear and her talisman were. He was also the one to convince Cabaro the Lion not to fight in the first war.

Main article: Talismans
Halawir's talisman is the Bronze Eagle. It allows the wearer to 'nudge' the air around them, as one's hand might divert water in a stream.

Halawir is mentioned when Suka the Polar Bear reveals that he had come to Arctica to ask for her talisman. She jokes that she sent him on his way "minus a few tail-feathers".

Halawir helped Shane steal the talismans from Greenhaven (with the exception of the Granite Ram and the Coral Octopus) and prevents Abeke from getting back the talismans as they flee. It is revealed by Olvan that he betrayed the Great Beasts by taking the Conquerors' side.

Halawir appeared, along with the rest of the Great Beasts, as Kovo summoned all of them to The Evertree. As a battle breaks out, Essix and Ninani attack Halawir; with the help of Uraza and Mulop, Arax is able to ram Halawir into the Evertree, the impact killing both of them.

Book 2: Vendetta Edit

This book is set directly after Rise and Fall, where Halawir is flying away from Greenhaven with Shane on his back. They dodge ship cannons, and when Shane requests to be dropped off, Halawir drops him onto a Niloan island.

Halawir appears in the first chapter, and is summoned back to Erdas by a girl named Cordalles. Whilst Halawir is flying he is caught in a net by Cordalles' father, Imari. At the arrival of Halawir, Cordalles' mother wants to take him to Greenhaven. He at first hates Cordalles for restraining him and attempts to avoid their bond and escape once they get to Greenhaven. He showed that not even his strong willpower can resist a bond since, when Cordalles let him go when Raisha was holding her, he felt a stone in his stomach weighing him down. He returned to rescue Cordallles by pulling Raisha's hair. Raisha let go of Cordalles and Halawir gave her all the power he could to run away; but was then captured by Zerif and infected with the Wyrm parasite. His last memory was when he saw Cordalles return for him and Zerif grab her as a Redcloak arrived to rescue her.

In the game, there is a unique armor called the Golden Sky that has an eagle's face on it. This may be Halawir.

On the cover of The Book of Shane #2 and Tales of the Fallen Beasts, Halawir appears to be a Golden Eagle, but in Rise and Fall, he is described to be blue and gray.

The name 'Halawir' could derive from "Haliaeetus", the scientific name of a genus of eagles.

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Halawir is an eagle Great Beast. You have to defeat Drina in-game at level 40 to obtain his talisman. In the second series, he is summoned as a spirit animal by a girl named Cordalles. Halawir is an eagle with yellow eyes and blue-gray feathers under his wings.

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I feel Tarik is the static character because throughout the book he stays the same brave person. He sacrificed himself for Rollan even though he could have turned and run leaving Rollan behind, but he didn't. Throughout the series Tarik has saved the kids from death and bad situations. Even when Tarik was dead, Rollan always had thoughts like "If Tarik was here..." (There is no real pictures of Tarik)

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Tarik and Lumeo, his otter!  Omg, the feels!!!!! 

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One really big dynamic character is Rollan,summoner of Essix. In the beginning of the book Rollan is happy and funny. He made jokes when times were tough to lighten the mood. After his friend and mentor,Tarik, sacrificed himself for Rollan he completely changed. He is now rarely making jokes and he is more serious. The authors made him like this to show what was really going on inside.

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Rollan

Book Appearances

First series: Wild Born, Hunted, Blood Ties, Fire and Ice, Against the Tide, Rise and Fall, The Evertree
Second series: Immortal Guardians, Broken Ground, The Return, The Burning Tide, Heart of the Land, The Wildcat's Claw, Stormspeaker
Special editions: Tales of the Great Beasts

Rollan is a 13\14-year-old boy from Concorba, Amaya. He is the summoner of Essix, and a main protagonist of the series.

Appearance

At the beginning of , Rollan was a few months short of turning 12 years old, making him the oldest of the Heroes of Erdas. He has tanned skin with short, tousled dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a gyrfalcon tattoo over his heart. He also is revealed to have a clash of scars on his wrist, most likely because of Wikerus clawing him when he was a child. It was mentioned in that he is taller than Meilin.

Rollan has been shown to have a very strong sense of justice and fairness. Since he grew up on the streets as an orphan since age five and became a street thief since running away from his orphanage at nine, he is very independent, almost to the point of resenting help from others. Despite that, Rollan is often the joker of the group and likes to tease other characters. He gives himself the responsibility of seeing if a suspicious person is lying or not, due to the intuition Essix gives him. Usually, he is spot-on with his accusations. He also frequently has bad experiences with riding animals, such as horses and rhinos, and claims to dislike a variety of animals, including walruses, weasels, and naked mole rats.

Rollan trusts Conor, Meilin, Tarik and Abeke deeply; he calls Conor his best friend and sees Tarik as a father figure, giving him the nickname 'old man'. When Dorian seemed to be replacing Tarik, Rollan was quick to judge his actions and compare his decisions to what Tarik would have done. He also has romantic feelings for Meilin, which she returns.

In the Books

Rollan first appears in the chapter 'Essix', where he is revealed to be a street orphan living in Concorba, Amaya. He lives with his orphan friends Digger, Red and Smarty. At the beginning of the chapter, Digger is sick even to the point that he might die if he doesn't get medicine. Rollan, Red and Smarty head out to a nearby apothecary, where Rollan approaches the storekeeper Eloy Valdez and tries to convince him that Digger desperately needs willow extract. Rollan even offers to work for him to get it, but that gets on Eloy's nerves and the storekeeper orders Aldo to throw Rollan out of the apothecary. While Eloy and Aldo are distracted with Rollan, Smarty darts behind them to the counter and grabs the willow extract. Eloy, furious, accuses Rollan of distracting him on purpose so that Smarty could steal the medicine. Rollan tries to justify himself but is thrown to the Milita.

When caught by the Militia, Rollan is put into a cell. He talks briefly to a man in a cell next to him, who had lost his spirit animal. After that a member of the Militia approaches Rollan's cell, asking how old he was and if he had taken the Nectar yet. Rollan replies that he's almost 12 and that he hadn't had the Nectar yet. The Militia member leaves shortly and returns with a Greencloak woman. The Greencloak offers him the Nectar, and Rollan drinks it. He then summons a gyrfalcon with amber eyes; Essix, the patron beast of Amaya. The Greencloak and Militia member are shocked, leaving Essix in Rollan's cell with him and leaving. Another man approaches Rollan's cell, introducing himself as 'Duke Zerif'. Zerif tells him that he has paid his bail and releases Rollan and Essix from the cell, and they leave the jail together.

Rollan is first seen in the book when Abeke enters the training room, late, and he frowns at her. Later, in the training session, the children are taught how to defend themselves with everyday things such as brooms, handkerchiefs, pans, lamps, vases, and spoons. Rollan teases Meilin by giving her a handkerchief saying, "Here, this one won't scratch up your noble hands," and Meilin teased back by handing him a pan and saying, "And here's one for you, it doesn't require much brains to use it," and take to their marks as told. After that round, the kids are supposed to take a new weapon, and Rollan argues with Meilin over a vase; Meilin ending up with the vase, Rollan the flowers. After the training session, Rollan, Abeke, and Conor come along with Finn and Tarik to inform Meilin that there was bad news; Zhong has fallen to the Conquerors, and that Meilin's father, General Teng, was missing.

Later, Rollan was on-board a ship watching some odd waves and feeling seasick. Abeke found him and told him that the odd waves were a whale's bumpy back poking up and diving under repeatedly. Rollan, since they were alone, asked Abeke how she knew that. Abeke awkwardly said that with the Conquerors' ship, she saw the same waves. Rollan, not very smoothly, asked if she had any inside information about the Conquerors, and she said not much. While talking about their Nectar ceremonies, Rollan realized that Abeke was the first person he un-teasingly told about his strange Nectar ceremony.

Once they reached land, Rollan was riding on a rude horse and working on getting smiles out of Meilin, whom he described as the "snotty general's daughter". Abeke thought that perhaps his horse was jealous of his and Essix's bond. While riding, an animal jumps and attacks Tarik; and with the help of Essix's intuition, Rollan realizes that they were being ambushed by Conquerors. He tries to tell his horse to get closer to the battle, but the horse rears twice and flings him off, then runs off. Rollan runs to Tarik and tries to warn him about a Conqueror's snake, but the snake bites him in the arm, and Essix swoops in to blind the attacking Conqueror before he can kill Tarik. Rollan grabs the sword the Conqueror dropped and holds him at swordpoint. The Conqueror pleads for mercy, but he still has his snake, and Rollan tells him that he doesn't trust anyone; the snake lunges and he slices it in half. But, his sword keeps swinging, and strikes the Conqueror right in the leg. Rollan is surprised because it was the first time he had struck anyone with a sword. He then turns his attention to Tarik, who tells him and Conor that the snakebite was venomous. They realize that Finn, Meilin, and Abeke had disappeared, but decide that helping Tarik was more important, so they head to a Greencloak's house that was nearby. He and Conor alone go to Trunswick, only to be captured and put in the Howling House. They are rescued by Meilin, Abeke, and Finn and proceed to battle Conquerors in the courtyard. They escape successfully and proceed to the next city, Glengavin.

At the beginning of the book Rollan is travelling with Abeke, Tarik, and Conor to find Meilin and Jhi. He later catches the Sunset Death which nearly kills him, but The Tergesh eventually give him the cure. He later asked Dinesh for his help in the battle for the Slate Elephant. Dinesh gives Rollan the Slate Elephant in the end.

In the beginning, Rollan is trying to cheer Meilin up by telling her a joke and calling her ' Lady Panda'. Meilin leaves and goes to collect wood with Abeke when two men started fighting about money and thievery. Rollan shows up, telling them it was a man named Jarack who stole the money. After, he goes back to camp just in time for Jarack to try to kill him with a knife. Meilin saves him and for the second time, he holds her hand and smiles at her.

Later, they enter Samis thanks to Conor. The next day, Conquerors break into Samis, only seven of them, and Rollan's mother is among them. Rollan runs into an alley, hoping that his mother would not be there. But she is. She starts telling the whole story of why she abandoned him. Rollan tells his mother that he had to go and he runs off.

He meets Pia in her kitchen and he asks what she was hiding. She gave him a compass and told him it led to Suka. Rollan takes the compass and hides it until the next day. Rollan wakes up everyone, telling them to go. Still, he tells no one about who he met the day before. They go across a river and continue their journey to find Suka. On one point, the compass bursts and a note from Pia wrote: I'm sorry. They then try to find Suka on their own, and finally arrive at an Ardu settlement. They stay one night there, but the next morning, they told the Ardu about their quest to find Suka, and the Ardu told them to leave.

Meilin and Abeke find the ice city, and Maya tried to break Suka out of the ice. Instead, she awoke her and Suka tried to attack them. Rollan finds Meilin, telling her that Jhi needed to fight Suka. He holds her hand, telling her it was alright.

On their way back, Rollan pulls the rope tied to Meilin playfully, and she does the same back. That pull causes them to nearly fall over, but they use them selves to hold each other up. Their faces were close, the fur on their hoods already brushing. Abeke suddenly pulls on the rope and says: "If you two are done playing kissy face." Rollan put one hand on the rope that tied him to Meilin, though.

They head back to the docks; where they came from. The Conquerors are there. Conor attacks Shane and that begins the fight. Rollan's mother Aidana pulls him aside and tell him to come with her. Rollan disagrees and Aidana attacks him on the influence of the Bile. Rollan runs back to a boat of where his friends are, and he jumps on the boat, but he drops the Crystal Polar Bear, Suka's talisman. A walrus takes it away, and Rollan states how much he hates walruses.

At the very end, Essix finally agrees to go into passive state and forms a tattoo over his heart.

When Rollan, Meilin and Tarik return from Nightshade Island, Kalani considers them tapu (Evil and not to be addressed) and completely ignores him. This continues until The Evertree.

Rollan uses Essix's vision quite a bit and is one of the last people to see Tarik alive. He hides two talismans when Shane and Halawir come for them, letting his friends breath a long sigh of relief.

Rollan is seen wearing green at last in Tarik's honor. He is more serious and less of a joker now. When Dorian becomes their new guardian, Rollan compares him to Tarik. He doesn't like Dorian but feels sad when Dorian is killed by a stonefish. Later he is shown to help Meilin go back to her normal self. He kisses her near the end of the book.

Rollan and Abeke sails to amaya, to find Tellun and his bond. They find them, but on the way back to Greenhaven they are ambushed by Zerif. Tellun gets captured but a redcloak helps them and Zerif retreats.

Abeke and Rollan head on to Greenhaven Castle and are sent to find Ninani and her bond, Tasha in Stetriol. They find her and Rollan convinces her to come with them. The Many attack the city, but the Redcloaks help fend them off. Abeke, Rollan, and Tasha are able to escape with the Tellun's pride II. On their way back they find out that Greenhaven has fallen and that they must find Cabaro in Nilo.

At the very end of the book, Rollan is seen through Essix's eyes as she is summoned by him.

Relationships

In Rise and Fall, Rollan is the one to name Irtike's naked mole rat spirit animal "Snake-eyes", whom he strongly dislikes, even saying it is "Worse than a walrus".

In Wild Born, he mentions that his friends tried nicknaming him "Justice".

The name Rollan could mean 'renowned in the land'. This could be a reference to the fact that Amaya is sometimes called 'the new lands'.

It was never mentioned who Rollan's father is, but in , he told Conor that his father "rudely up and died on him".

References

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Rollan is a 13\14-year-old boy from Concorba, Amaya. He is the summoner of Essix, and a main protagonist of the series. At the beginning of Wild Born, Rollan was a few months short of turning 12 years old, making him the oldest of the Heroes of Erdas.

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The antagonists are an evil army called Conquerors with their leader the Devourer. They belive that Kovo and gerathon are good guys fighting for the right cause. This is hardly the case though. They are just using the Conquerors and tricking the Devourer into thinking he will rule Erdas if he helps them. Although the Conquerors still can have spirit animals, they picked the wrong side because the Devourer doesn't like them he just needs a army. The Devourer's name is Shane.

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SPOILER-STOPPER LLAMA
This article contains plot and/or ending details.

Shane

AKA

King Shane
The Devourer
The Reptile King
King (Redcloaks)

Spirit Animal

Grahv the Saltwater Crocodile (formerly)

Shane, or The Devourer, is the nephew of General Gar and the main antagonist of the original series. In the Fall of the Beasts series, he leads the Redcloaks under the name King.

"

I see a young prince who mourns his family. I see a king who wants to save his people. I see a boy who will regret his mistakes ... and who will miss his only one true friend.

"

Shane was born in the island continent of Stetriol, and is the only son and heir of the country's king, King Irwyn. He grew up in Stetriol's harsh conditions and society (he described himself in the Book of Shane #1 as 'the poorest prince in the world'.) and watched as his family was plagued by the Bonding sickness, which gave him a reluctance of summoning a spirit animal in fear of catching the sickness. However he later does gain a bond to a spirit animal with persuasion from Zerif; a saltwater crocodile named Grahv. He is mostly close to his family members, especially his sister Drina and his mother. He was tutored by the Conquerors' seer, Yumaris, and was apparently trained for combat by his uncle General Gar.

Shane's goal was to help Stetriol and its people. Using this goal, Kovo and Gerathon were able to manipulate him into gathering an army (The Conquerors) and waging war with the Greencloaks. For most of the first series, Shane's true identity (The Devourer/The Reptile King) was hidden and his uncle Gar posed as him instead. Shane thought that he was helping his people by commanding the Conquerors, but in reality it was only allowing Kovo to pursue his goal of taking over Erdas. Because of the destruction he has spread throughout Erdas, Shane gained many enemies and lost many loved ones, including his remaining family members and Abeke, his closest friend. With the eventual defeat of the Conquerors at the end of the first series, Shane still continues to pursue his goal of helping Stetriol. He does regret some of the things he has done in the past and accepts whatever judgement he receives.

In the second series, Shane gathers a group of allies ( The Redcloaks), which he leads against Zerif and The Wyrm.

He has notable parallels to King Feliandor, his ancestor and the first Devourer; they both wanted to make Stetriol great, and they both summoned a saltwater crocodile via the Bile. Unlike Feliandor, however, Shane does not bow to Kovo in the end. Shane was made to be a mysterious character on purpose, and Nick Eliopulos (author of The Book of Shane) described him as being "on the fence" between good and bad. He is very clever, dutiful, and can be a bit cynical and sarcastic, as shown by his thoughts.

Worthy describes Shane as a good leader, and thinks that Shane had been love with Abeke, even if he did not admit it to himself.

Appearance

Shane is a pale, handsome boy with a slight build. He has blond hair, blue eyes, and an intense gaze (as described by Abeke) and he is tall for his age, as he lied about being 12 (it was his 13th birthday when he forced the bond with Grahv). He has broad shoulders, and Grahv's tattoo covers his chest, though in the Book of Shane it is revealed the tattoo has become a waxy scar.

As King, Shane wears a white mask, a red cloak, and has reptile skin-like armor on his arms. In The Return, it was revealed that his eyes became yellow and crocodile-like.

In the Books

Shane is introduced as Abeke's trainer and General Gar's nephew. In a training session, he tests Abeke's skill by staging a fake invasion. Abeke, who thought the invasion was real, defeats a hired Conqueror with hardly any effort. Shane tells her to stop attacking and that it was staged. He is impressed by her fighting skills, but apologizes when Abeke tells him to never do something like that again.

Later, Abeke hides from Shane in a tree as he calls for her. When he admits that he gave up on finding her, she climbs down from her tree. Shane tells her that a very special visitor was here, his uncle Gar, (he does not tell her Gar is the Devourer.) When they arrive, Abeke is introduced to Gar and Gar explains the Conquerors' motives to her. Shane helps explain as well, and even begins to tear up as he talks about Stetriol. Abeke agrees to help them find Arax's talisman.

At the battle with Arax in Amaya, Shane appears again and duels Meilin. He overwhelms her easily, and tells her that she should give up. But when the Conquerors begin to lose and Abeke switches sides to the Greencloaks, Shane retreats alongside Zerif.

Shane blocks a blow from a Conqueror soldier during a battle in Zhong, saving Abeke's life. Conor spots the way Abeke and Shane look at each other, asking Abeke who Shane was.

Shane is spotted by the Greencloaks at Pia's house in Samis. When Shane and Abeke embrace, it is a clear representative of the indecisive nature that Abeke constantly tries to disguise.

Shane is seen at the end of the book, telling the Conquerors to be gentle when dragging Abeke.

Shane is first seen coming down to check on Abeke and Meilin, who have been taken prisoner. He apologizes for their conditions, then takes them to the above deck of the ship they're riding. He mocks Drina, then tries to keep Zerif from shoving Meilin and Abeke into the sea. He shouts to them that the shore isn't far. Later, he brings them to a Conqueror meeting with his uncle Gar and Gerathon, revealing he has been told to kill Meilin and Abeke if they refuse to follow his orders.

Once out of their cell, he is horrified to watch his sister be killed by her spirit animal, a spider called Iskos. He mouths to Abeke, counting down to their escape, then knocks out the Conqueror seer, Yumaris. He leads them to an archway and helps them defeat the guards stationed there. He tells them to grab the biggest boxes they can, then leads Abeke to his family ship to escape; leaving Meilin behind, as she is afraid that Gerathon will use her influence over her to undermine the Greencloaks' plans. Once on the ship he confesses his anxiety about going to the main Greencloak base to Abeke, who assures him that she will make them listen to him.

Once in Greenhaven, he appears surrendering as the Greencloaks surround him, but grows extremely nervous once Rollan corners Shane about his spirit animal. With trembling hands, he finally gives in and shows them his tattoo, which is a giant saltwater crocodile, revealing him to be the true Devourer. He turns to Abeke, his expression unreadable, then summons his spirit animal and rampages through Greenhaven towards Tarik's casket, then steals most of the talismans, but is almost killed in the process. He is only saved by Halawir's arrival, where they snatch up most of the Greencloak's talismans (excluding the Coral Octopus and the Granite Ram) and they escape. He is only mentioned afterwards and doesn't appear again.

Shane reveals to Meilin that he is the Devourer, causing her to attack him. Afterwards, Shane leads the Conquerors into battle against the Greencloak forces. After enduring a heart wrenching duel with Abeke, he turns his attention to Meilin, realizing that she is able to resist the Bile, and threatens both her and Gerathon. When the four teammates realize Shane has been controlled all along, they quickly retreat. Shane is later seen at Muttering Rock, where he learns that Kovo has been using him. Shane joins the team with his hands tied behind his back, however, within hours he flees, and Abeke tells the others to allow him to do so.

Shane meets Zerif, the Bile is made, and the war is just about to begin. Talks mainly about when he was younger and had not became the Devourer yet.

Shane turns 13 in this book, and he happily says that he is free form his family's curse, because no-one has called a spirit animal after the age of 13. He then finds out that his father has died, and releases that he wants a spirit animal, and know which one. He finds the salt water crocodile that he encountered the other day and forces a bond with it, via the bile.

Shane has taken the talismans from the Greencloaks and tries to survive in the Niloan jungle with a boy named Achi.

Shane seeks revenge on his former mentor Yumaris who he blames for killing his sister.

Shane is captured by a former Conqueror named Maddox.

At the very end, Abeke and Rollan are rescued by the Redcloaks. The only Redcloak with a plain mask volunteers to escort Cabaro and Kirat to their boat. Abeke refuses, saying that she and Rollan would do so, and asks the Redcloak to return Tasha and Ninani to the boat instead. The Redcloak appeared to be wanting to argue, but he doesn't. Once on the boat, Abeke asks for the Redcloak's name. The only name (at first) that she is given is King. Then, King turns around, but comes back, slowly taking off his mask. He revealed himself as Shane. Abeke is mad at him,thinking it was him that caused the Wyrm infection, and she swings her fist, but luckily, Rollan caught her before she could punch Shane in the face. Shane looks down at the ground, stating that the time he was the Devourer was a "life time ago".

Shane leads Abeke, Rollan, Tasha and Kirat to the Place of Desolation, which is also the Redcloak base. He introduced them to some of the Redcloaks, stating that they were all transforming into their spirit animals, because of Gerathon's Bile. Shane then introduced then to Niri, who summoned Mulop. He tells Niri to converse with Kovo, but then is interrupted by the notice that Zerif has found them. He quickly makes a plan, telling Abeke, Rollan, Tasha, Kirat and others whom have lost their spirit animals to go underground and hide with Niri. He promises it would work, and promises himself he would win Abeke's forgiveness, no matter how long it took.

But Abeke does not obey the plan, and later helps Shane's archers by shooting possessed Greencloaks. A cannonball lands close to the tower the archers were firing on, and Shane jumps on top of Abeke to protect her from the bolder. After, as Abeke is called underground for a message from Niri, Shane was thought to be following her.

Abeke sees Uraza, whom was still possessed by Zerif, and the leopard attacks her. Shane, who was wearing his mask and cloak, knocked Uraza to the side of the cavern wall. Uraza bit Shane on the side, Abeke shot Uraza, then she summoned in passive state by Zerif. He tells Abeke: "I... saw Uraza running toward the tunnel and I was afraid she might... hurt you." He then coughs out blood, the continued, "I... I'm sorry, Abeke. I'm sorry for everything."

Relationships

Shane fears spiders (revealed by his feelings towards Iskos).

In the game, there is a quest where you find Shane's signature sabre.

Shane's favorite color is green.

Mulop seems to be a bit more forgiving to Shane the rest of the Great Beasts, not seeing him as a war monger but as a boy who has made mistakes.

References

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Shane, or The Devourer, is the nephew of General Gar and the main antagonist of the original series. In the Fall of the Beasts series, he leads the Redcloaks under the name King. Shane was born in the island continent of Stetriol, and is the only son and heir of the country's king, King Irwyn.

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Our protagonists are Conor,Rollan,Meilin and Abeke. They are the summoners of the late Great Beasts Uraza,Briggan,Jhi, and Essix.  The author had these characters live on complete different sides of Erdas. The authors even made the characters have a different race depending on where they live.(as seen on the cover) They fight for the Greencloaks and fight for Erdas.

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Wild Born, Spirit Animals Book 1, by Brandon Mull (September 2013), is the first book of a new multi-authored series from Scholastic. When this book arrived in the mail, it's kid-appeal was just bursting out of its cover image--brave, multicultural kids with cool spirit animal companions--and my ten-year-old pounced on it.

In a fantasy world modeled loosely on our own, with equivalents of Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa, some children form mystical bonds with spirit animals, who become their companions for life. These children become Greencloaks, traveling the world to help others safely bond with spirit animals. But this year, four children summon spirit animals that no child before them ever has. They are four of the twelve Great Beasts--mythical beings of legend--the Wolf, the Leopard, the Panda, and the Falcon, who died long ago in battle against two of their kind who had turned rogue.

Now Connor, a shepherd boy from the European equivalent, Abeke, from the African, Meilin, from the Chinese, and Rollan, from the colonial North American, must learn to trust their spirit animals so that they can tap into their powers. The two defeated Great Beasts from long ago are rising again, and war is engulfing the world...

This is primarily an introductory book---we meet the kids and their spirit animals, we get a bit of back story on the past conflict, and we share the protagonists frustration as the Greencloaks withhold information (for no good reason that I can see). Some tension comes from the fact that Abeke has been co-opted by a group that opposes the dominion of the Greencloaks, and the reader, like Abeke, is not sure what side is Right (clue--people with "nice" spirit animals are good, people with snakes and bats and crocodiles, not so much).

The story is propelled forward into a quest adventure when we learn, about halfway through, that each of the 12 Great Beasts has, or had, a talisman of power. Both sides want the talismans, and so the three young protagonists who were co-opted by the Greencloaks set off with their spirit animals, and their Greencloak mentor, to find the Great Ram and procure his talisman. The opposing side, along with Abeke, is (coincidentally) headed to the same place, and they meet and fight, and Abeke realizes that the folks she's with are the bad guys, abruptly the somewhat interesting ambiguity.

So there is indeed, as I had suspected, much kid appeal here. The gradual development of the bonds between the spirit animals and the kids they have chosen, and frustrations the kids experience as they try to make sense of what is going on makes for good reading. The larger plot, with its ancient evil and magical talismans, will seem much more fresh and inventive to the younger reader than to an experienced veteran of fantasy.

There's a pleasing diversity to the main characters, which goes beyond window dressing--the cultural backgrounds of the protagonists have contributed to who they are. My son, who I have trained to approach book covers critically, was happy to see that the African girl not only has the coolest, most actively being used, weapon, but also the most powerful and appealing spirit animal, and this pleased me too. I was a bit disappointed that Brandon Mull fell into the trap of stereotype, though, when describing his alternate North America, as "untamed land controlled mostly be beasts and the Amayan tribes" (page 68), as not only is it wrong to describe pre-contact North America as "untamed" (a lot of New England, for instance, was pretty carefully managed and rather park-like), but lumping together "beasts" and "tribes" is distressing.

Short answer: not one for adult readers, but 8-10 year olds embarking on their exploration of fantasy worlds and quests and companion animals will quite probably enjoy it.

The next book in the series ( Hunted, coming January 2014) is written by Maggie Stiefvater...I prefere her writing to Brandon Mulls, so I will await it with interested optimism; my son will await it with unbridled eagerness.

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher

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Wild Born, Spirit Animals Book 1, by Brandon Mull

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Wild Born, Spirit Animals Book 1, by Brandon Mull (September 2013), is the first book of a new multi-authored series from Scholastic. When this book arrived in the mail, it's kid-appeal was just bursting out of its cover image--brave, multicultural kids with cool spirit animal companions--and my ten-year-old pounced on it.

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Marie Lu, in the exposition of Evertree, brings back up  our four heros: Conor, Meilin, Rollan,  and Abeke. In the world of Erdas set back in the medieval time period with swords and bows. This world is similar to Earth and has similar continents. Meilin is still imprisoned and the talismans of the great beasts have been stolen by the Devourer (the leader of the Conquerors, which are the bad guys). The Devourer is a guy named Shane who tricked Abeke into thinking he was a good guy.  The talismans are the powers of the Great Beasts in a pendent. If the Conquerors get all the talismans they will release a giant, evil ape named Kovo.

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Erdas is the world in which the books are set in. It is roughly based off of Earth.

Continents

Erdas is made up of seven continents and is based off of Earth:

Stetriol ("The Lost Lands") (Australia and Indonesia)

Arctica (Antarctica, Arctic Circle).

In , Rollan mentioned that Meilin spoke the 'Common' language. Each continent has their own languages (and many sub-languages, presumably) but 'Common' is most likely a language that is taught to the majority of people over all of the continents, similar to English in the real world. The languages of Erdas were rarely touched upon until Immortal Guardians and the books thereafter, where several characters spoke their native languages. Rollan also taught Abeke some Amayan hand signals and their meanings.

Stetriol was formerly under Conqueror control

Zhong has fallen to the Conquerors, but still has a little bit of resistance,(not anymore).

In the game, Nilo has lands resembling both Egypt and Southern Africa, accurately proving it is based on Africa. Zhong's lands look like Chinese fortresses, Eura's maps look like mountainous plains and Amaya has maps resembling both the Northern United States (North America) and Rain forests with Aztec structures. (South America and possibly Mexico).

Like the Americas, Amaya is known as 'The New Lands'.

Nilo's name may be based off of the Nile River, the longest river in Africa, and is an anagram of an animal found in it: lion.

Zhong is based off of China's Chinese name, 中国, who's pinyin is zhong guo.

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Erdas is the world in which the books are set in. It is roughly based off of Earth. In Wild Born, Rollan mentioned that Meilin spoke the'Common' language. Each continent has their own languages (and many sub-languages, presumably) but'Common' is most likely a language that is taught to the majority of people over all of the continents, similar to English in the real world.