By Brandon Mull
A shepherd's boy, a hunter's daughter, a general's daughter, and an orphan each drink the Nectar and summon a legendary animal — a wolf, a leopard, a panda, a falcon — that bonds to them for life and pulls them into a war they never chose.
In the world of Erdas, every child drinks a bitter liquid called the Nectar when they come of age, and a rare few summon a spirit animal, a creature bonded to them for life that makes both of them stronger. Most children get nothing. Conor is a shepherd's son working off his family's debt in a nobleman's house. Abeke is a hunter's daughter her own village keeps at arm's length. Meilin is a general's daughter with a city to help defend. Rollan is an orphan in a jail cell for stealing food. On four different days, in four far-apart parts of the world, each of them summons one of the Four Fallen: Briggan the wolf, Uraza the leopard, Jhi the panda, Essix the falcon. These are Great Beasts who died ages ago holding back an enemy called the Devourer, and they've come back now because he has too.
What sets this one apart from the animal series it'll get compared to is that the animals share the page with people, and each animal belongs to a specific child. For a Warriors reader that's a real change of gear, and it's why I'd hand this to a child who wants the animal bond without a whole plain of dying lions. It's also the shortest, fastest book on the shelf: four heroes, four points of view, chapters that keep cutting out right on a drop. Mull knows what he's doing with pace. And there's a lot of runway behind that first book: seven in this arc, another seven after it, plus an online game your child will find on their own inside a day.