A beginning to a new fantastic children's series. Edras is a world very very similar to Earth with Amaya being the Americas, Eura being Europe, Zhong being Asia, Nilo being Africa, and Stetrioe being Australia. Four children find that they are bonded with amazingly powerful spirit animals, but that happening cues the coming of a foretold evil. The children must do their best to prepare themselves for the oncoming war and choose which side they'll support.

The writing is fast and extremely easy to read. Younger children will definitely be able to handle the diction used. The characters all have different backgrounds (ethnic and economic), and different personalities. Some are funny, some serious, some confident, some untrusting. There's a little bit of everything represented. They aren't the most deep characters ever, but that would be hard to accomplish in a 202 page book regardless.

I liked the realness that the book portrayed in terms of the danger of war, people die in war, and Mull didn't sugar coat it too much. The lessons a child would gain from this book would be beneficial. It's all about trust, patience, and following your instincts - they're usually right. Side note: there's an online computer game to go with the books so that's really really cool!