The Heir Chronicles is a young-adult fantasy series by American author Cinda Williams Chima. Throughout the five books, we meet different protagonists and see growth from some of the main characters from the previous books. You can read my review of book 1, The Warrior Heir, here. I also started a new tabbing system for my books that I hadn't tried before, which was very fun but also I see myself running out of tabs in the near future.
Beware: You may encounter some small spoilers in this review :)
The Books
The Warrior Heir - 3.5 stars (no spice)
The Wizard Heir - 3.5 stars (no spice)
The Dragon Heir - 3 stars (no spice)
The Enchanter Heir - 3.5 stars (no spice but lots of gore and graphic descriptions of battle scenes)
The Sorcerer Heir - 3.5 (mentions of sex but nothing graphic)
The Characters
The characters were one of the things I liked best about this series. Some of them were really well developed (some were underdeveloped but that's another story) and I could always see them clearly in my mind. We have 5 major protagonists that each book follows, along with several other protagonists whose points of view we get to see.
Jack Swift: Warrior. Warriors are magical people who are gifted in the ways of combat and can use physical objects to manifest their magic. Jack is a "mongrel" - he was supposed to be a wizard, but, long story short, a doctor turned him into a warrior. If you want the whole story you'll have to read the book.
Seph McCauley: Wizard. Wizards are the most powerful of the Weir (magical people) because they can manifest their magic in more ways than one. They can conjure, use physical magic, and use mental magic. Seph didn't know he was a wizard until he was around 16. He spent a lot of his life moving around as an orphan, with a fleet of lawyers as his guardians.
Madison Moss: Anaweir (non-magical person). While non-magical herself, Madison is what is known as an elicitor - she can absorb magic. Madison is an artist who, in later books, studies at the Chicago Art Institute.
Jonah Kinlock: enchanter savant. Jonah is what is called a Savant - he is a survivor of a tragedy that happened in Brazil, where thousands of Weir were killed by poisoned water. The children who survived have very unusual magical abilities, including Jonah. His main magical strength is enchanting - the ability to convince people to do what he wants.
Emma Greenwood: sorcerer savant. Emma is a bi-racial girl who grew up primarily in Memphis, Tennessee with her grandfather, a blues musician and luthier. Emma's magical abilities, undiscovered until she was around 16, lays in imbuing the things she makes (namely guitars) with magic.
Other characters in the gallery below!
One of the most impressive things about the characters was one character in particular who had a great redemption arc. I started off the first book absolutely hating her - this lasted until well into the third book, but by the end of the final book I loved her. It's not easy for an author to change my mind about a character, but this one totally worked.
Overall
Overall, this was a 3.5 star series for me.
I liked the way everything was laid out, and that it wasn't something I expected - it didn't follow a traditional plot outline and there were multiple protagonists instead of following just one. I recommend this series for anyone 12 and up who likes urban fantasy :)