We meet our new heroes. We have Bramble, a jokester of a gorilla and son of his troop's Silverback; Chase, a fierce leopard with a heart of gold; and Prance, an antelope who keeps evading death somehow. The three start to notice more and more suspicious things going on in the Bravelands, and all deal with their own struggle. Brambles faces the rise of a cult within his father's troop. Chase is left alone to look after another leopard's cub. Prance is rejected by her herd after evading her destined death. Will they rise up and face these challenges?
Overall I think I like this book, but, like the first book of the first Bravelands arc, it's also very lacking in certain departments.
I will say that the conflict is built up much better than in arc one over here. There's clearly something fishy going on among the reptiles and the animal cult that voluntarily lets snakes bite them. Whereas Broken Pride just was very basic setup. We got to know Titan as a villain, but he didn't do that much in book one (or even the first three books) before finally becoming the main villain of the last three books. Stinger was set up as a villain in the first book, but not until the final chapters. So I do appreciate that this book has more proper setup and hints all throughout.
I also really like the world-building, still. I'm not sure if I complimented that element enough in my other Bravelands reviews. But after reading another Erin Hunter xenofiction series, Bamboo Kingdom, which has very lackluster world-building when it comes to the animal societies, I'm just glad to be back in the Bravelands with its well-thought out world-building for a bit.
One major flaw this book does have, much like the first Bravelands arc, however, is the blandness of the main characters. There, our main three were very basic characters and Fearless didn't even spawn a personality until like book four. Here, we do have protagonists that have a little bit more to them than the main three of arc one, don't get me wrong. Bramble is a jokester, Chase is fierce and Prance is very used to not having to think for herself because of the herd mentality. But other than those traits these main characters still don't really have that much to them. There's setup for arcs, but so far they just feel very generic. I like how Bramble started out very playful and cheerful, but after Cassava dies he pretty much changes into just another bland Erin Hunter protagonist.
Bamboo Kingdom, which I mentioned before, may have its flaws, but it has three very distinct main characters who all have their own wants, needs and flaws. And that's just not very properly conveyed here through Bramble, Chase and Prance.
I will say that, despite me finding her to be the least interesting of the main characters, I do think Prance's conflict is the most interesting. She's the first prey-animal POV we've had since Sky, and her way of life is very different from said elephant. Sky and her kin are used to generally not being hunted because of how big and strong they are, but that's obviously different for Prance's herd, with them being antelope and all. There also seems to be a slight form of a hive-mind connecting all antelope (and possibly other prey species like zebras) in the herd, which was rather interesting.
The antelope call it the "Us", and once you're no longer connected to the Us, you're no longer a part of the herd, which happens to Prance after she manages to evade death. This Us basically tells prey animals who is going to die and when, and helps them accept their fates easily. So it's very interesting to not only see Prance thwart her destiny several times (she almost dies like four times in this book), but she also loses her shadow and thus her connection to the Us, meaning she can't go back to her herd and now has to think for herself.
She temporarily lives with a herd of zebras, but cannot share in their possible form of the hivemind (known as the Friendship), so she still feels left out and ultimately leaves. Prance may not be the most interesting character personality-wise, but she does have a whole lot to her with these elements. In comparison, Bramble's and Chase's problems feel a bit more like standard Erin Hunter fare. "The leader in my troop is corrupt" and "I have to look after this cub and am also trying to figure out my feelings towards this male that keeps hanging around me" and all that.
Overall I like this book, and I do consider it slightly better than Broken Pride. But it still suffers from bland characters that really need more personality and flaws to them.
Rating: 3.5/5
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