Code of Honor

A Reader - General: Bravelands is fine, I guess. It's pretty poorly paced, and the description on the back does not match what actually happens in the story. Plus, two characters (Sky the elephant and Fearless the lion) are cliche and boring. Fearless was kicked out of his pride as a cub and the pride was taken over by a villain. THEN he runs away and is found by animals of a different species and raised by them. Sound familiar? The worst part is that he constantly acts like a heroic Simba, but every. single. time he has the opportunity to seize the pride, he gets scared and backs down. His story is basically just a back and forth argue-with-Titan (the villain)-and-then-run-away-because-I'm-a-cowardly-lion. So, even though the book says he is waiting for a moment to take back his father's pride, he honestly doesn't. Instead, he takes the cowardly way out (again) and just says, "Oh, I don't have a mane yet, I'll do it when I have a mane." Sky's life is basically just a Warriors character. It got really boring to read about her just because A. her plot was mostly just a typical Warriors book and B. The description says she is going to "find a new Great Parent" but that doesn't even happen. This book is really not reaching Erin Hunter team standards. Even some parts with Thorn the baboon felt rushed, and he was the only character I think is actually worth reading about. Even the villain in his story is really, really, REALLY annoying overpowered, and Thorn mostly just acts submissive. Thorn also is not exactly loyal to his girlfriend. And how, exactly, is he "rebelling against his destiny"? Is it by trying to be with his girlfriend when he can't because he's not the right rank?. The worst part is that Fearless could have had a chance to improve in this book, but instead (WARNING: SPOILERS!) he decides to KILL his friend, who happens to be the only character who is actually significant to the plot. The ending was also a mess. It was rushed, sloppy, and the cliffhanger felt inappropriate; Violence: Plenty. Semi-significant characters die. Animals are slaughtered by the lion villain for no reason. An elephant calf is killed out of pure bloodthirsty-ness. The baboon villain, the one who is overpowered and yet the way to defeat him is SO OBVIOUS, yet Thorn can't figure it out, kills basically everyone who gets in his way and conspires against members of his troop. A rhinoceros falls from a height and dies (thanks to the villain). The baboons fight several bruatal battles with a troop of monkeys before deciding to break the branches slightly. When the monkeys climb onto the branches, they snap and all the monkeys die of a broken neck. Eventually, all of the death becomes predictable: you die because of the baboons, the monkeys, or the lions. The baboons have something called "sweetpulp", which young baboons find a stash of. It's kind of like baboon alcohol. It is consumed multiple times. A baboon uses it to dull the pain of an injury. Thorn laces food with it to make the other baboons sleep so he can sneak away to attack the villain. There is no swearing, although they do have insults that might be their equivalent of strong language.