The column of sand spun high into the red sky, growing larger as it pulled more and more sand into its vortex. But then more columns sprung out of the center column, as if it were growing arms and legs—and a head. Two bright beams of light radiated from the head shape—like eyes, zeroing in on Levi and Brianna.
The Prince Warriors
I picked up The Prince Warriors by Priscilla Shirer on a whim after seeing it in a bookstore, and I most definitely do not regret it. Full of adventure, suspense, and thought-provoking challenges, it feeds both the imagination and the heart.
Table of Contents
Plot
Brothers Xavier and Evan are used to fighting each other. But they soon discover that a much larger battle is raging around them every day—and they’re a part of it. They enter Ahoratos, a fantastic land symbolizing spiritual warfare, brimming with danger and deception.
The brothers, and their new friends Levi and Brianna, meet the mysterious Ruwach, who offers them instruction from a book and gives them armor for their journey.
Yet, the path is treacherous. Even with their armor, they’ll have to keep their wits about them and recall the words of the Book if they want to make it out alive.
It makes me really happy to find books like this on shelves. I picked it out at random, hoping to find a good adventure laced with a meaningful allegory, and was not disappointed.
While not everything contains a larger meaning, much does. Each chapter is infused with references to the Bible.
However, the book should have cut out the last third. After the characters complete their quest and return to earth, it seems like things are winding down while other things are being set in motion for a sequel. But the cast proceeds to take a new character (who, I might add, is also well-written) to Ahoratos and go on an adventure with no real connection to the main plot.
I can’t say this annoyed me, since it was just as enthralling as the main story, but it seemed unnecessary. The last third could have been expanded and made into another book or left out entirely.
Characters
The main characters of the book consist of Xavier and Evan
The characters were fantastic. Shirer manages to juggle a main cast of four, showing their personalities and growth in a relatively short book. Evan fulfilled the comic relief role without being annoying, Xavier and Levi captured the “cool guy” look without being jerks, and Brianna manages to be a sparkle-obsessed, pink-loving fashionista somehow without irritating male readers.
In short, all of the character archetypes had the potential to be overbearing and annoying if done improperly, but they were excellently pulled off.
Theme & Content Warnings
The main point of this book is the thematic content. The author explains that she wrote the series to teach young readers about spiritual warfare.
At the beginning of the adventure the characters go through some variety of danger before getting to the Water, a picture of salvation and cleansing from sin. From there they receive their armor and are armed with instructions from the Book (each of which are paraphrased versions of actual Bible verses).
I can’t say much else without getting into spoilers, but once you’ve read the book the series website has an entire page dedicated to explaining all the Biblical references.
Overall
The one flaw I can point out in the book is the constant changing of views. Also known as head hopping, this is where an author doesn’t stick with one point of view for a scene, instead “hopping” between characters abruptly. This threw me off several times, since I had to pay close attention to who the new point-of-view character was every couple paragraphs.
I would recommend this book to younger readers and even older teenagers. The youngest of the cast is nine, and the oldest is thirteen. I’m even older than that but I didn’t find it childish.
And as always, thanks for reading, and I’ll write you in the next one!
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