Review - The Enchanter Heir (The Heir Chronicles #4) by Cinda Williams Chima

Title: The Enchanter Heir

Author: Cinda Williams Chima

Series: 4th (The Warrior Heir, The Wizard Heir, The Dragon Heir)

Pages: 458

Published: October 1st 2013 by Disney-Hyperion 

ISBN: 9781423144342

Source: Publisher via Netgalley

 

Description: They called it the Thorn Hill Massacre—the brutal attack on a once-thriving Weir community. Though Jonah Kinlock lived through it, he did not emerge unscathed: like the other survivors, Jonah possesses unique magical gifts that set him apart from members of the mainline guilds. At seventeen, Jonah has become the deadliest assassin in Nightshade, a global network that hunts the undead. He is being groomed to succeed Gabriel Mandrake, the sorcerer, philanthropist, and ruthless music promoter who established the Thorn Hill Foundation, the public face of Nightshade. More and more, Jonah’s at odds with Gabriel’s tactics and choice of targets. Desperate to help his dying brother Kenzie, Jonah opens doors that Gabriel prefers to keep closed. Emma Claire Greenwood grew up worlds away, raised by a grandfather who taught her music rather than magic. An unschooled wild child, she runs the streets until the night she finds her grandfather dying, gripping a note warning Emma that she might be in danger. The clue he leaves behind leads Emma into Jonah’s life—and a shared legacy of secrets and lingering questions. Was Thorn Hill really a peaceful commune? Or was it, as the Wizard Guild claims, a hotbed of underguild terrorists? The Wizards’ suspicions grow when members of the mainline guilds start turning up dead. They blame Madison Moss and the Interguild Council, threatening the fragile peace brokered at Trinity. Racing against time, Jonah and Emma work to uncover the truth about Thorn Hill, amid growing suspicion that whoever planned the Thorn Hill Massacre might strike again.

I Give This ...

So I was a little late to jump on The Heir Chronicles bandwagon.  The last book in the series came out in 2008 and I read it...last month I think.  I can't imagine the wait between that book and this one.  However, this book has an entirely different feel to it.  We get a little bit of our old familiar characters, but this one is about an entirely new group of Weirs.

I was honestly a little confused at the opening chapter.  Maybe I missed the timeline information but it took me a little while to identify the events as occurring before the first three books.  Once we established that, I plunged in.  I liked the survivors of the Thorn Hill Massacre.  They're like the mutants in the weir world.  Whatever happened at Thorn Hill severely messed up the powers.  It seems none of them could be sorted into the proper Weir groups.  Jonah, for example, seems to be our Enchanter Heir, though I never firmly established that.  Yet, he seems to have warrior powers considering he manages to hold his own in a demonstration bout against Jack and Ellen.  I think he has a few others that manage to manifest themselves at strange times.  It's no wonder that the other guild's are slightly afraid of them.  We're always afraid of what we don't understand.

I also knew that the peace brokered in that last book would not last long.  The Wizard guild will not be happy not sitting at the top like they think they belong.  It's to easy to turn the deaths against both the survivors and the Interguild Council.  Why not kill to bird with one stone?  However, there's a lot more going on here and a lot that hasn't come out into the open yet.

And here is were the book drug on for me.  I just didn't understand what happened at Thorn Hill and how this plays into what is happening today.  How is this all connected to the Shades (the ones who really seem to be behind all the killings)?  For a 458 page book there seems to be a whole lot more questions and very little answers.

I'm sure I will still read the next in the series.  This book has opened a door and it's frustrating that it's been left open.  I probably would have been content to the leave the series at book 3 and been done with it.