Laskey made the right move in ending Grank's rambling first-person narrative and returns to the third-person, which the rest of the series is written in. The "writer" of this Legend book that Soren and Coryn (now accompanied by Otulissa and the rest of the band) read is supposedly unknown, but easy to figure out from pretty much the first ten pages. I liked her choice, and though you don't really get much more insight into this character than any of the others, it was still good narrative.
The widowed Queen Siv's egg has hatched, and Grank names the owlet Hoole. Immediately he and Theo begin to teach and train him, and Hoole is enthusiastic about it all. You can't help but love his owlet character- he's hyper and ambitious, totally unaware of who he really is and the power he has. When others decide to inhabit the island with Hoole, Grank, and Theo, however, the first collier begins making plans for their journey to Beyond the Beyond, where Hoole will learn from the dire wolves- most especially Fengo, Grank's old friend.
Meanwhile, Siv can't stand to have never seen her owlet. She makes an attempt to see him, which almost ends in his capture by hagsfiends, so contents herself with letting those she trusts in her old kingdom know she's there, readying suport for when she'll need it.
As typical now with Kathryn Laskey, there is no show of character development- Hoole grows up overnight without so much as a warning, and there is almost no mention of how the owl kingdom is faring without Hrath's leadership. So why do they care that the hagsfiends are there? From what it shows they haven't done anything bad! The battle scene at the end is sloppy, and, as predicted, the magic of the hagsfiends doesn't seem to stop any of Hoole's side, even though it supposedly made them unreachable in The First Collier.
But I still liked this book. It had good pace with a good story. Afterward, however, I'll be very glad to get back to Soren and the band (with the unfortunate addition of Coryn) with The Golden Tree, which will supposedly pick up where The Outcast left off. It's almost hard to read their tiny prolouge and epilouge scenes in the Legends trilogy.
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