Book four time! Let's-a go! As always, spoilers ahead.
Soren and his friends are called upon by the rulers of Ga'Hoole to return to St. Aggie's and infiltrate there. This in and of itself is already dangerous enough, but to make things worse Kludd and his Pure Ones are planning an attack on the Great Tree.
Yeah, a pretty exciting book, this one is. It wasn't my favorite of the series, but I was kept consistently on the edge of my seat because of all the tense situations our characters got in. They don't get much time to relax or another danger lurks around the corner.
I just feel so bad for Soren and Gylfie here in particular. Both of them were probably traumatized during their initial stay at St. Aggie's, and now here they have to return and also successfully infiltrate their ranks. With the very real danger of being recognized. And to make things worse for Soren, his own brother is desperately trying to murder him and the Guardians? Give the poor boy a break.
The book in and of itself was also good. We get more world-building, epic battles, tense scenes, return of old favorite (or not-favorite, in the cause of Auntie) characters, and all-round this was a solid entry. I also by now really feel the connection between each of these characters. The friendships of the characters (at least the Band in books one and two) felt a bit rushed (aside from Gylfie's and Soren's) and not super realistic. But after four books I can totally see the Band but also their extended friend group the Chaw of Chaws as a legit closely-knit family. Just really nice to see.
The book also has heavy themes relating to knowledge not having to be off-bounds to others. Otulissa is dismissed several times from learning about some key information by Dewlap because supposedly the information is forbidden. Kludd also was turned to the side of war because his curiosity only got worse because his parents forbade talk of battles and weapons back in the hollow. Good moral to tackle.
As for Kludd himself, yeah, we finally got a backstory for him. Last book he just re-appeared unprompted as Metal Beak without any backstory of how he came to be so, but this book finally gave us an answer as we get a detailed chapter explaining how as a fledgling he was approached by Nyra and her Pure Ones and groomed into becoming their perfect soldier, up until the point he defeated Nyra's mate and became the true High Tyto, leader of the Pure Ones.
That's...all kinds of messed up, but it also strangely makes sense. Kludd was a bit of a troublesome and arrogant fledgling, and with his parents refusing to talk of war or battles and the Pure Ones offering him exactly that and much more, yeah, I can see how an unknowing and curious child (or young owl) could be easily swayed to their side. Not to say that his backstory excuses any of Kludd's actions here, but it's a bit of tragedy that's added to his character nonetheless. At least he's not a boring one-note villain anymore, not completely at least.
My main gripe for this backstory chapter is honestly that Kludd's backstory is just directly told to us, the reader, rather than shown. I think a flashback chapter from Kludd's POV could've been an even more effective way to get the backstory across. Guardians of Ga'Hoole has no issues with POV-hopping from character to character (sometimes even within the same chapter section, which can be a bit annoying), so getting to experience Kludd's chapter from his own POV could've been a cool way to get his story across without it breaking the "show, don't tell"-rule.
Overall still a strong book, however! Looking forward to the next!
Rating: 3.5/5
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