Faerie Wars

Faerie Wars is a great example of a young adult book about the faerie world. Herbie Brennan joins together two boys of about the same age, one a Faerie prince and one a youth from our "Analog" world. Henry has just had a terrible shock, his family is shaken by an affair but it is nothing Henry

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could ever have imagined would happen to HIS family. Prince Pyrgus is in a lot of trouble but there may be more to it than a run of bad luck. He is jerked from what is expected to be a safe and temporary exile into the danger of Henry's world. Treachery, romance, scientist bank robbers, and demons (who resemble Aliens) all figure into the convoluted plot.

This book is amusing without being cutesy and tough without being crude. The traitor wasn't who I thought it would be.

The affair and an incident where Henry sees a girl in her bath are not prurient but some parents may not think them suitable for their children.

I barely finished this book when a 12 year old girl collected it from me so she could read it. I had to get it back for this review. An engaging book, I read it through in a day and looked forward to the sequel The Purple Emperor.

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wow. now this is a faery novel that breathes some life into a genre that was nearly dead. Thanks to Brennan, we have unlikely heroes once, surly champions and not-so-delicate creatures of fancy. Intriguing, well-written, and fresh.

Fun reading, but takes place mostly in Faerie land...

A friend gave me this book. I wasn't sure I would like it, but it turned out to be a good read.

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

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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 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?

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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

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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 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?).

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This is from a stable very close to Artemis Fowl - child from here and now meets faeries, fun and games ensue.

In some ways it feels more childish than the Artemis Fowl book, although the protagonist is a little older, I think perhaps because the sense of humour is very different. It certainly deals

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with themes that are older - mum is having an affair with dad's secretary and so mum and dad are going to separate, the hero's real world helper is an UFO-conspiracy freak (and former armed bank robber).

It's not a hard read by any stretch of the imagination, but it's loads of fun.

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This book may seem a little childish, but it was eventually it got good enough to read for pleasure. The first chapter was a little more than strange. It dealt with a boy named Henry who was dealing with the news that his mother was now a lesbian. Like I said, a little more than strange. I kept

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thinking, "This is a children's book? What does this have to do with fairies?" By just reading the first chapter, I would have put the book down and read something a little less weird. But I decided to continue reading and was surprised at how good it got. The second chapter dealt with a character in a different world; complete fantasy fiction. However, much to my dismay, this character (Pyrgus) met up with the character from the very beggining (Henry). Just by the names, I'm sure you'll figure out which one was more interesting to read about. The book only got better as mysteries started to build and surprising plot twists unfolded. The author also added a variety of different characters with distinct personalities. All in all, this book was a good read and I am thinking about gettting the sequel.

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Surprisingly, these books are not just kids stuff. I really enjoy reading them.

I love the Faerie Wars books. They take the basic and much used plotline, normal boy ends up in fairyland concept, to a whole new level.

Faerie Wars by Herbie Brennan is a scifi about a faerie world and our analog world. It is kinda like a myth [we've been studying them in language arts] because it has lots of explanations for things, from UFOs and demons to why the faeries we see have wings. AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH! I am

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going completely away from the story and making it look like a spiced up history book, which is definitely not the case. Let's begin.

There is a boy named Henry. His life is like a book that I tried writing once, and still have on my hard drive [if I get comments about it I could put it in a series of posts]; all the action at once and a horrible aftermath. then he goes to clean up an old man's house, like he does once or twice a week.
He is slightly insane, always rambling on about aliens and how the CIA & FBI are all being mindwashed as I type. and his cat is a menace to the many-legged society. So when he sees this cat start to chomp on a beautiful butterfly, he saves it's life, or rather the life of Pyrgus Malvae, a faerie prince from a parralel world.

This prince was escaping from usurpers who are trying to overthrow his father, the king, or as they call him there, "The Purple Emperor". Pyrgus loves animals, and before he changed worlds was in trouble from saving kittens from a glue factory, where they would have been boiled alive as the main ingredient.
Then Henry and old mr. Fogarty [the neighbor whose yard he cleans] go to Pyrgus' native land, him included with the travelers to save the lives of Pyrgus and his people. His is a thrilling tale full of adventure, good for ages [at least I think] 10+.

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Teen reading surveys consistently demonstrate teen’s loyalty to fantasy. Faerie Wars will not disappoint them. Harry Atherton rescues a “butterfly” from a cat. This simple act launches us into parallel worlds. Purple Empires are under attack. The forces of Hael are loosed. Evil must be

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repelled. Harry and the “butterfly,” Pyrgus Malvae, a faerie Prince, team together with cranky Mr. Fogarty to protect both worlds. Plenty of actions, plenty of characters, tons of detail cater to the serious fantasy fan craving complexity. The action keeps us up late at night turning the pages; it may even allow us to forgive a missing plot edit. Teens who have read this, say it is first rate.

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A Nice faery world created, but it felt a little like a Terry Pratchet without the sense of humour. The tale is gripping however, and I wouldn't say no to reading the rest of the series.

Good fantasy about a Prince of Faerie who gets transported to the Analogue (read our) world for his safety. With the help of his friends he gets back home only to be kidnapped by a demon. The story is good, but there are elements – such as Henry’s home life – that either should have been

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discussed more or less.

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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

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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 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!

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Interesting and clever Kids story. The Interrelationship between the characters and this world and the fairy world is also quite interesting. Bit of a rushed ending though

An enjoyable book. Henry stumbles upon a faerie in Mr. Fogarty's (an old man for who Henry does odd jobs) garden. While trying to help the faerie get back home, Henry and Mr. Fogarty are pulled into a war between good and evil. This is a great book. It is a mix of fantasy and science fiction and

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the hero is very lovable. I will definitely read more of the series.

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A fast-paced book that draws you in and keeps you hooked. A wonderful twist to the usual fantasy elements that proves things are all in the individual perceptions. Looking forward to reading the next in the series!

A great story about two teenage boys - one in our world and the other in a magical world just through the portal. This is a book with fantasy, science fiction, and demons that most every teenager will enjoy.

This book is one of my favorites. I really enjoyed the mix of fantasy and science fiction, and the story I found to be very creative and engaging. The characters are awesome and funny, and all have their own unique stories and personalities. I could not put this book down when I first read it. I

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definitely recommend it to someone looking for something different.

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Predictable, but fun. I'm not usually a fan of humor in my fantasy, but I read this for my book club and enjoyed it enough to go onto the next book in the series. This book is classified as YA, but has some graphic descriptions of animal sacrifice. It also gets overly silly at times and parts of

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the resolution were stupidly anticlimactic (the demon Belas tripping in his pool of molten lava, undoing decades of preparation). But I liked Henry, Pyrgus, Blue, and Mr. Fogarty and I'm curious to see what they get up to in the next book.

P.S. The whole business with Henry's parents and his mom being a closeted lesbian was... weird. I'm not sure how it all fits into the story and I can't decide if Brennan is trying to be progressive or poking fun at "progressiveness." I guess I'll find out.

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Grade 5-8 fantasy. One of the main character has a bisexual mother.

I really enjoyed reading this

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

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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. 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.

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