Book review: E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth's Core! (The Guardians #2) by William Joyce

Pitch, the Nightmare King, and his Fearlings had been soundly driven back by Nicholas St. North and company in the first Guardians’ adventure. But now Pitch has disappeared completely—and out of sight does NOT make for out of mind. It seems certain that he’s plotting a particularly nefarious revenge, and the Guardians suspect he might have gone underground. But how can they find him there?

Enter E. Aster Bunnymund, the only emissary of the fabled brotherhood of the Pookas—the league of philosophical warrior rabbits of imposing intellect and size. Highly skilled in martial arts (many of which he invented himself), Bunnymund is brilliant, logical, and a tunnel-digger extraordinaire. If the Guardians need paths near the Earth’s core, he’s their Pooka. He’s also armed with magnificent weapons of an oval-sort, and might just be able to help in the quest for the second piece of the Moonclipper.

Well, here's the second book in the series.  If you read my review of the first one, it was clear that I really enjoyed it.  And I loved this one, too.  These books are meant for about junior high level maybe, but there's so much to them that anyone can enjoy them, providing they haven't grown up so much that they think themselves above fairy tales.

This time we learn about E. Aster Bunnymund, the Easter bunny.  Bunnymund has invented pretty much everything useful used on Earth and will continue to do so if the book's hints are anything to go by.  He has a serious nature, but he slowly warms up to Katherine, North and even Ombric as the book goes on and he helps them find the next relic and fight against Pitch.

The writing itself hasn't changed; as I said earlier, it's like a fairy tale, telling the true origins of characters that everyone knows.  This time around, we even get hints as to Katherine's fate; she writes more stories that are common nursery rhymes and gets a goose.  Mother Goose?  Maybe.  I guess only time will tell.

Though it has the quality of a fairy tale, the writing has plenty of suspenseful parts as well, leaving you genuinely worried about the characters, such as when the Guardians get back to Santoff Clausen and find that Pitch has already gotten to the villagers and turned them into enslaved dolls.  Things don't always go perfectly, and that's the sign of a story told well, in my opinion.

There's only one more book in this series out right now, and the review for that one will be coming soon.