Review: Guardians of the Flame(The Heroes)

Well. A few weeks back I completed a review of the first three novels from the Guardians of the Flame series. See my original review here. I have more recently finally finished the next two novels from the same series dubbed 'The Heroes'. As I gave a review of the first part, I think it only fair to continue that trend and review each of the novels as I continue through these classic books.

The Heir Apparent: This novel takes off several years(?) after the conclusion of 'The Silver Crown' as Karl is now more than simply the head of the Bieme nation, but now is the Emperor of the entire Holton/Bieme area which has been renamed 'The Empire'. It is hard to understand how this occurred, but the assumption is that the warring nations came to a forced truce due to the involvement of Karl Cullinane and his Home warriors.

During this novel though the Heir, Jason Cullinane, is involved in his first actual fight and gets scared and runs. As he ran he feels a need to not return as he is concerned of being seen as a coward. His only way to rectify this situation is to eliminate the biggest threat he knows of, Arhmin, a Master Slaver which Jason's own father failed to kill. To this end he travels to Pandathaway and hires on as a 'slaver' with Arhmin as the Slavers try to set a trap for his own father who has left The Empire ona mission to distract the slavers from chasing after Jason.

This mission is the the Mellawei coast and the Sword which can protect its bearer from magic. The idea is that if the slavers know Karl is going for the sword, they will chase after him instead of looking for Jason giving the Empire and Home searchers time to find him.

The Warrior Lives: This is book 5 of the series and continues the story immediately after the conclusion of The Heir Apparent. During this story, it is unclear if the Hero, Karl Cullinane, has fallen or not as there are rumors that he still is around and has taken the fight straight to the slavers. The slaver guide is afraid of everything as they try to eliminate this new deadly threat, while Karl's son Jason, the Heir, and his friends embark on a quest to find the truth regarding karl and also bring Walter and Ahira back home.

Without giving away too much, the young Heir does find his friends and the truth about his father. Additionally, they encounter a monstrous beast of unknown origin which elludes to the next novel and the concerns of the creatures coming out of an area called Faerie.

Overall these are both good novels and is worth another read. I am glad I have tracked the series down as usual and look forward to the remaining books in the series.