Oh gods, this series. Okay, so when this was first announced me and my brother were super into this series as kids/teens, though we never actually read the books. Instead we (and especially me) played the online RPG that accompanied it, where you could create a character and were assigned an animal companion and had to complete various missions in this fantasy world. It was highly addictive and I managed to reach the max level and complete the main story-line in a really short time.
After that there was not much left to do but some basic daily quests, so I quickly grew bored of it. Recently I decided to delve back into the game, however it turns out it's completely gone. Lost media even. Quite a shame, I had good memories of my short yet obsessive time playing it. As for the books...why don't I check them out, I mean, I have a library card now, right?
Also: one last thing to note is that, much like the Erin Hunter pen name for Warriors/Seekers/Survivors/etc., each of the Spirit Animals books were written by a different author. Mull himself (as in, the actual person) only wrote the first book and a few side stories. The other books in the series are each written by a different author, but still use Mull's name as the author name. So that might affect how each book is written since it constantly switches between authors. Even for Erin Hunter there's a small select team of the same writers that (or at least used to be) that writes the books, so there was some semblance of consistency. I wonder if there'll be much of that in this author-rotating series.
So yea, book one. Spoilers ahead.
In a fantastical world called Erdas each child who has reached the age of 12-14 is made to participate in a ceremony where they drink a concoction called Nectar and may or may not a receive an animal companion at their side, a spirit animal. This animal will from then on be their closest ally and enhance their abilities. Four children, each from a different continent, participate in the ceremony and summon four spirit animals: a falcon, a leopard, a giant panda and a gray wolf. But these aren't just any animals, they are legendary heroes of old called the Fallen, once killed but now returned as these children's animal companions. War is brewing on the continents, and it seems that the peace of the world hinges on these four children learning to hone their skills and grow their bonds with their animals.
Let's address the elephant in the room first, and the reason I held off of reading this series for years: the cultural appropriation. As far as I know the concept of spirit animals is a closed practice that's not just something every non-Native fantasy writer should appropriate, but they sure as hell did and basically the entire series' premise and title hinges upon it. It's not like it's minor or anything. It just...feels uncomfortable, and even though I liked the rest of the book there's always this feeling that you know that the premise of this series just...isn't supposed to just be taken from a culture and ran with like they did.
And, honestly, outside of the name I don't even think that the spirit animals were even used in the way they are in the traditional beliefs from the what I know. Here, they feel more like n animal companion that gives you extras skills and less like an actual spirit animal or totem in the belief sense.
So just to clarify: I absolutely do not vibe with them just taking closed cultural practices like this and appropriating them just to write a cool-sounding fantasy story. They might honestly as well have given the spirit animals a different name (something like animal companion or just made up a word) and it might've been less of an issue. I'm just mostly going to be calling them animal companions or something in these reviews.
That aside, the book itself was...good. Not bad, not perfect, but good. The world is interesting (though I'm not super fond how obvious it is that each continent directly corresponds to one we know on Earth), some of the characters were great and I loved the lore about these ancient heroic beasts.
The best part of the book was honestly Rollan's POV chapters for me. He and his gyrfalcon Essix are both assholes, but in a fun way. Rollan is rude and constantly lies and while he definitely has had a horrible childhood, he also loves to sometimes bring that up in order to gain extra sympathy. He's flawed and so is Essix, though she's not as present in the story. Out of all the main characters and their animal companions, he and Essix bond the least but it's also fitting. Essix constantly refusing to listen to him suits Rollan's own stubborn personality perfectly.
As for the other characters: they're fine. I like Meilin but I do think she's a bit overpowered (she's like, twelve, and she manages to out-fight quite a few adult fighters withe ease), Abeke was cool and I liked how she was initially on the villain's side without knowing it, and Conor was...there, I guess. He was by far the least interesting character to me. I also feel the same about their animal companions.
Despite the premise of the series hinging upon them, Essix the gyrfalcon, Briggan the wolf, Jhi the panda and Uraza the leopard are just kind of...there. Part of the book is about the children bonding with their animals, but they don't do that much, at least not yet. I also (personally) think that the animals should be able to talk or at least communicate in some way or form with their bonded person. Right now they're...basically just slightly magical animals.
They don't talk (except for one dream sequence where Jhi talks in Meilin's dream), all they can sometimes give their owners is vague messages and emotions through their connection. But no actual words, and, since these are actually the Fallen animals of legend (not just any animal companions) I really feel that these four in particular (because they're noted to be extra special) should be able to talk in some way or form. It would make us feel closer to them as characters, right now they're basically glorified magical pets. So yeah, for a series called Spirit Animals the titular spirit animals sure didn't do that much. Honestly, Arax, another one of the legendary animals who is not bonded to a human yet does talk, left much more of an impact on me than the others because he could talk. And he's not even in the book for long.
Another issue I spotted in my Dutch translated edition (probably exclusive to it) is that the translators kept switching between calling Zerif's animal companion a jackal and a coyote. Canonically in the English editions it's a jackal, but during Zerif's introduction it was consistently called the Dutch word for coyote. Then halfway into the book they went back to calling it the Dutch word for jackal. Like, whether they translate it accurately or not (it should be, though), at least keep it consistent within the same book? A jackal and a coyote are not the same thing.
And finally, Abeke coming around to the main team. Basically, throughout most of the book Abeke is separate from the other chosen kids because she is being led on by the villains. And they genuinely make it seem like they have a good point, and there was this cool set-up for one of the four chosen ones being deceived by the villain. Imagine, the villains having one of the most powerful chosen ones in their grasp through manipulation. And the idea that maybe the Greencloaks aren't all good and the villains aren't all bad, not a black-and-white situation.
But then during the last part of the book they back out of these cool concepts pretty much immediately. The villains are revealed to truly be villains and Abeke pretty much instantly decides to become a Greencloak instead. What a waste of a cool concept and telling a much more compelling story. Right now (though I can't judge this fully yet because I have not read the other books) it looks like it's just going to be another bland good-vs-evil fantasy war story. But with magical animal companions thrown into the mix, I guess.
So overall, the blatant cultural appropriation aside, this is a pretty decent start to the series. I just don't think it should've borrowed from native cultures the way it did and also it should've stuck to the cool concepts it was setting up for the story and characters. As well as given the titular animals more to do, because right now they felt more like accessories to the main characters than actual characters in their own right.
Rating: 3.5/5
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