Favorite fantasy series in years! I have given this book to MANY teachers and students. A great example of world building. Great for fans of Studio Ghibli films or books like Serafina.

I really enjoyed The Beast Player and thought it was a wonderful story. I didn't think, at the time, that it really needed a sequel but here we are. I loved that we got to see more aspects of the world and interact with new creatures and places. I was disappointed that this book takes place so many years after the original story. it felt a bit jarring to be honest. It skipped over a lot of important developments in the protagonists life and we don't get to experience that as a reader.

I felt myself getting more and more disinterested as time went on and although the book itself wasn't bad, I just don't feel like it was necessary.

I did not read this one. I misunderstood that it was the conclusion of a series. I loved the cover and must have not read the synopsis closely enough.

"With my own hands, let me break sunder the chains that Jeh and my mother’s people made to bind the beasts. With my own eyes, let me find the truth that was hidden."

A decade after the events of book one, Elin lives a peaceful life with her husband (Ialu) and son (Jesse). She wants nothing more to do with the power struggles of humankind. Because of her skill as a “Beast Handler” (put in quotes because Elin loathes that title), however, her kingdom (Lyoza) calls her to fight once more. With dangers looming over her family and over her people, Elin looks back at history, to her past in the Toda villages and to her country’s origins for answers. Her discoveries lead her to question whether her pursuit of knowledge will cause history to repeat itself—and result in the destruction of her people.

Since her childhood, Elin has sought knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The Beast Player (book 1) offered hope through knowledge. Now that Elin has grown up, we can see that her hope in book 1 comes from a younger, more innocent perspective. Older, wiser, and a bit more pessimistic, Elin has learned that others desire to exploit, or silence, knowledge to further their political goals. For example, she changed the procedure for raising the Royal Beasts to give them freedom, but her resulting bond with them has turned them into a potential weapon of war.

With her country on the brink of war, Elin must now face the consequences of her pursuit of knowledge and her application of that knowledge. Seimiya and Shunan had hoped that their marriage would unify the country, but the leaders are more divided than before. Although, like Elin, they desire to safeguard the next generation, they differ in beliefs on how best to serve their country. Their actions force Elin and Ialu to assume the identities they thought they had put behind them, so that they can protect their family.

Elin’s conflicts explore the question of whether there exists knowledge we shouldn’t pursue, or whether knowledge should be revealed at the risk of others using it for wrong purposes. Through Elin’s story, Uehashi shows the consequences of the decisions made by two generations (the founders of Lyoza and Elin) and offers another perspective (though Elin’s son, Jesse), but without showing the results of Jesse’s interpretation of events. Instead, she ends the book by leaving the reader to contemplate over Elin’s story.

I enjoyed the exploration of family in this book. Elin continues to struggle with the decision that her mother made in book one to protect her. Yet, she too makes decisions to protect Jesse that cause him grief. So, while Jesse is proud of his mother’s work and wishes to emulate her, he also has many memories of being left behind by the mother he loves.

Uehashi also examines what drives people to war and the grim realities of war: the years that go into preparing for and waging war, what it means for the common people, and how it divides family.

"We will never find an alternative to war until every one of us—nobles, commoners, and even warriors—is convinced that bloodshed must be avoided at all costs."

Themes include human greed, family and duty, man versus nature, the motivations behind and realities of war, and how politics and power change people.

Anime Fans

If you love anime, you may enjoy The Beast Player series. The Beast Warrior concludes the English adaptation of the series, originally published in Japan in four books, as a duology.

The first book (books 1 and 2 in Japanese), The Beast Player, has been adapted into an anime: The Beast Player Erin (獣の奏者エリン Kemono no Sōja Erin). If you’ve watched and enjoyed it, and you want to see more from the world and characters, I recommend picking up The Beast Warrior. If you haven’t watched the anime, but think this series might be up your alley, you can check out my review of book one (which includes an arc on raising magical creatures in a fantasy world).

I was surprised at the time jump in this book, but I enjoyed the sequel to one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy titles. There are no books like these and I am so happy to have found an incredibly good and well-written dragon series. These may be labeled as YA, but readers of all ages would certainly enjoy the stories this author tells.

I did not finish this book, as the pacing felt much too sluggish. Rather than struggle through the last quarter or so of the book, I opted to DNF. I loved the first book in this series, enjoying the aesthetics and wordbuilding very much. However, in this book, the world didn't feel as vibrant (which was, I think, partially intentional), and the plot moved very slowly.

A fitting conclusion to the first, The Beast Warrior follows Elin's journey to the very end, and reveals the mysteries she faced earlier in her life. Overall, the story is beautiful with a powerful message: don't shy away from the past or you're bound to repeat it.

This was a very good young adult book, I wish I had read the first one in the series first but it was still a very good story!!!

Even as a continuation from The Beast Player this book still assumed a sedate pace to get to the meat of the story. Even though it progresses slowly that doesn't mean important events aren't happening or that the writing isn't as beautiful as the first book. Even though it's now a return to a world I'm familiar with rather than newly discovering Nahoko Uehashi gives plenty of new tidbits of information about the world she's built. There was a jarring transition in the book - after Elin takes a dangerous and unexpected bath in the river she still wishes to journey to the mountains of Afon Noah but in the next chapter it seems like a snap decision outside of the book was made that they wouldn't be going.

Due to events that have come to pass Elin finds herself even more enmeshed with the politics of Lyoza. During the ten years that have passed between the two books Elin now has her own family, become a teacher, and has grown even closer to the Royal Beasts - especially Leelan. I am rather surprised that the author chose such a (to me in the US anyway) basic name for the son of Elin and Ialu - all other characters have fitting names in the book. At the beginning of the book, Elin feels like the same character but as the book continues she felt harder to connect with. I didn't mind the chapters voiced by the additional characters but this story is really Elin's story in connection to the Royal Beasts and Toda. The chapters with Oli could have been left out - she really doesn't contribute much to progressing the story other than what she agrees to and that could've been told from Shunan or Seimiya's perspective.

"The life of one person is short, but there're a lot of us. If we keep recording everything we know, down to the smallest scrap of information, those records can lead others to important discoveries. At least, that's what I think. We're living on the far edge of the lives of many who came before us, people we never even knew. In the same way, others will carry on from the far edge of our lives."

The Yojeh and Aluhan have not only been unable to mend the dissension within Lyoza but it seems to have festered even further because of the choices they have made. This fact serves as a root for the story which the problems branch out in several ways I didn't see coming. The end result was expected but there were several things that I didn't expect. This book and the ending really shine a light on human relationships with animals - both the good and the bad. I can see why Elin loved the Beasts so. I really wish that Elin would've been able to reach and spend time with the Kalenta Loh - I so wanted to know more about them and the time before.

"The Royal Beasts were noble beings. In fact, maybe all creatures were. Maybe there weren't any that people had the right to use as tools."

Again I would definitely recommend The Beast Player and The Beast Warrior to readers who enjoy books about animals (and the relationships humans have with them), fantasy, and Japanese mythology. I would like to thank Henry Holt and Co. (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group) and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this beautiful book as a digital ARC - all opinions are my own.

<I>Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

I really wanted to love this, unfortunately it was just more of the same problems I had in the previous book. The 10 year time jump that starts out this book was a huge mistake when the story and characters have not changed one bit. It was as if Uehashi paused the entire world just so Elin could get married and have a kid off screen. The story feels as if it is only picking up a few days later and if it wasn't for being told that there was a time jump (and the fact that Elin now has a husband and kid) the reader would never have known that much time had passed. Further, Elin at 30 is indistinguishable from Elin at 10, highlighting the lack of character development.

The repetitive, textbook style lectures are still prevalent here and even though there are multiple new characters, they are hard to tell apart since everyone talks in exactly the same way all the time. Finally, the beasts, which these books are supposed to be about, come across as props for the plot/human stories and have all of the personality of house plants.

This is deeply disappointing given that Uehashi has some really interesting ideas to work with.

A beautiful sequel to the ghibli-esque The Beast Player, The Beast Warrior concludes the epic tale that spans decades. The book continues to explore ever-important themes regarding the ethics of raising wild animals in captivity as well as the importance of history and how easy it can be forgotten. This story holds a timely relevance and has lessons from which readers of any age can take something away from.

This is a continuation of The Best Player, an epic fantasy which was a Printz and Batchelder honor book. The story is set in a fictional land where fierce water serpents (not really, because they have feet) called Toda are kept and trained to be ridden in battle. Another fantastical creature, called Royal Beasts, can fly and are known to be the only thing that can kill Toda in the wild, but are forbidden to be used in battle as the Toda are.

In the first book, Elin was an orphaned girl who developed a special relationship with one of the Royal Beasts named Leelan, and could communicate with her and Leelan would follow her directions. At the end of the book, she rides Leelan into battle to save the kingdom from a bloody civil war. The second book starts about 10 years after the first, and Elin is now married and has a son. Once again, the kingdom is threatened, and she is ordered to breed and train a group of Royal Beasts for battle, even though it goes against everything she believes.

This book was well-written and engaging, and has an even stronger message about the responsibility humans have to animals, and the consequences of interfering with the natural order of things, and shows there are often unintended results when man interferes with nature, just as Jurassic Park did. It did have a more melancholy tone and fatalistic outlook than the first book, however.

I made it 6% before I DNFed.

This book is simply not for me. I found I didn't care a lick about the characters or their struggles. When I requested this, there was no description for the book on Netgalley, so I went in fully blind. be sure you read that description. This book takes place a DECADE after the previous installment. And honestly, I don't get why. You get a tiny list of all the things that happened in ten years after the ending of the last book, and I don't see how it justifies, for the plot, where there is now a ten year gap. It's almost like the story paused for ten full years before picking up again when the next book got published. The first book ends with a dramatic battle, conflict, and Elin being injured and whisked away by a Royal Beast. Then for some reason everything in that world goes silent for ten years and then we pick up again with Elin married with a kid (I never knew she liked the guy she married enough to, well, marry him). We missed all of that which would have been great character development for her.

Instead, I find myself not caring one bit as to what's going on or what may happen. Why should I when the characters have had ten years to grow and change and haven't at all? Elin is still the same character since she entered the beast school. She hasn't changed one bit.

Anyway, take that as you will, but this story is definitely not for me.