Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh BardugoWonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh BardugoWonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

The DC ICONS COLLECTION is a series of four YA novels that take a famous DC superhero and explores their background before they became the stuff of legends. This means having a look at their adolescence, whether it’s Clark tending the farm in Smallvillle, Bruce doing voluntary work in Arkham Asylum, or Selena Kyle struggling to survive the streets of Gotham City.

In the case of Princess Diana, she’s a young Amazonian warrior on the island of Themyscira, just beginning to understand her incredible power, but mostly eager to use it to impress her mother. That changes when a young woman is washed ashore, and Diana decides to break the law of the island by rescuing her.

Her new friend is called Alia, who is naturally baffled by her own environment — but has a secret of her own. After consulting with the Oracle, Diana is told that Alia is what’s known as a “Warbringer”. Like Helen of Troy before her, a warbringer is a woman who inevitably and unconsciously causes strife and conflict wherever she goes. Dark forces are gathering around Alia, and it’s now Diana’s responsibility to travel with her to the human world in the attempt to find a cure.

The DC Icons Series Books Set (4 Books) - Wonder Woman, Catwoman, Batman, Superman Paperback – 2020 by Marie Lu (Author), Leigh Bardugo (Author), Sarah J. Maas (Author)It’s an interesting story choice to make; that although Diana is the protagonist, Alia is focus of the plot. The advantage is that this places Diana in the role of protector, and is as loyal, fierce and brave as you’d expect from our beloved Amazonian Princess. As an original character, Alia is also well-drawn, grappling with plenty of anguish and fear concerning what she’s capable of, and it’s great to have a story that focuses on the forged-in-fire friendship between two young women (not even the 2017 film did that!)

If you were disappointed that the recent Wonder Woman film didn’t spend much time on Themyscira, then Leigh Bardugo ensures that although Warbringer’s story follows the same trajectory as the film (starting on the island, moving to the human world in the second act, before culminating in a showdown with the gods) the reader gets to spend a lot more time with the Amazons, learning more about the individual women who live there, their history and culture.

As with the rest of the DC ICONS COLLECTION, this story doesn’t exist in the same continuity of any films or comic books — here Diana is seventeen when she leaves the island for the first time, and a loophole ensures that she can return one day. It’s best to read all these books as standalone adventures, and in this case Bardugo delivers: Warbringer is interesting, insightful and is a great showcase for Diana’s abilities, kindness and sense of duty — that which will one day make her a hero.

Published in 2017. The award-winning DC Icons story of the world’s greatest super hero: WONDER WOMAN by the # 1 New York Times bestselling author LEIGH BARDUGO. She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . . Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law — risking exile — to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world. Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer — a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery. Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies — mortal and divine — determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

Author

  • Rebecca Fisher

    REBECCA FISHER, with us since January 2008, earned a Masters degree in literature at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Her thesis included a comparison of how C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman each use the idea of mankind’s Fall from Grace to structure the worldviews presented in their fantasy series. Rebecca is a firm believer that fantasy books written for children can be just as meaningful, well-written and enjoyable as those for adults, and in some cases, even more so. Rebecca lives in New Zealand. She is the winner of the 2015 Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best SFF Fan Writer.

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