Enchanter Heir

by Cinda Williams Chima Narrated by Robert Ramirez

Overview

The fourth installment in the Heir Chronicles series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Cinda Williams Chima.

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, he has become the deadliest assassin in Nightshade, a network that hunts the undead.

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?

As members of the mainline guilds start turning up dead, the Wizards blame Nightshade, and it's up to Jonah and Emma work to uncover the truth ... before whoever planned the Thorn Hill Massacre strikes again.

Editorial Reviews

School Library Journal

02/01/2014
Gr 7 Up—The fourth installment to Chima's "Heir Chronicles" centers around two teens, Jonah Kinlock and Emma Greenwood. Ten years earlier, a massacre killed off all adults, leaving just child survivors known as savants, who are mutants endowed with skills that, once brought under control, can be used in ways to contribute to the survival of the community. Many of the them, however, require heavy medication and rarely live to adulthood. Those that die turn into shades, zombielike creatures that retain the memories of their past life and inhabit dead bodies. Jonah is a talented musician, enchanter, and trained assassin. His skin is poisonous and he can kill from a simple touch; his job is to rid the world of shades. Emma is also a talented musician, but unlike Jonah, she is not aware of her special abilities. The teens are star-crossed lovers with overwhelming obstacles blocking their paths. As Emma's world slowly converges with Jonah's, both of their lives spin into a chaotic downward spiral. Scattered with musical references throughout, the book also tackles serious themes of disability and discrimination. The cliff-hanger ending will leave readers restless for more. For those in need of a quick refresher, the author provides a series guide on her website.—Sabrina Carnesi, Crittenden Middle School, Newport News, VA

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2013-08-15
Chima returns to her best-selling contemporary fantasy series with an entry that is almost entirely setup--but such delicious setup. Ten years ago, something terrible happened at the magical commune of Thorn Hill, a refuge from vicious Weir infighting. Thousands died, leaving only a few hundred young children, horribly damaged and with mutated gifts. Jonah is one of those survivors, born a charismatic and empathetic enchanter but now cursed with a killing touch, which he reluctantly employs to hunt down the undead spawn of the massacre. Meanwhile, Emma scarcely remembers Thorn Hill and knows nothing of her sorcerous heritage, until her grandfather's murder sends her fleeing into the epicenter of Weir intrigue, prejudice, accusations and assassination. There are so many complicated storylines introduced here--characters old and new, factions with shifting allegiances and agendas, plots and counterplots and secrets and lies--that the protagonists don't even meet for over 100 pages, and the volume ends on a grisly cliffhanger. Yet the twisty narrative works, propelled by the deft characterizations of tortured, frustrated, desperate Jonah and fierce, feral, determined Emma and held together by the ubiquitous soundtrack of the blues, both literally and metaphorically. Chima orchestrates a world gravid with smoke and grit and sudden death, throbbing with hopeless longings, messy affections, festering resentments, passionate hungers, inevitable betrayals, and miraculous flashes of beauty and grace. A smoldering story soaked in tears, sweat and blood, constantly threatening to blaze into an inferno. Spellbinding. (Fantasy, 14 & up)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170704224
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	11/08/2013
Series:	Heir Chronicles Series , #4
Edition description:	Unabridged

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