The Green Ember (series) – S. D. Smith

"My place beside you, my blood for yours. Till the Green Ember rises or the end of the world!" – The Green Ember

The first books in a trilogy by Christian author S. D. Smith, The Green Ember and Ember Falls follow the adventures of Heather and Picket, two young rabbits in a world ruled by tyrants and ripped apart by betrayal. With a subtle allegorical feel, these books are a fun ride with plenty of action and interesting characters—not to mention some seriously cool rabbits with swords and great illustrations by Zach Franzen!

The Basics:

Heather and Picket Longtreader are sister and brother, two young rabbits living in the safety and peace of an out-of-the-way nook of the world called Nick Hollow. Their lives are turned upside when Redeye Garlackson and his wolves, the enemies of rabbits everywhere and servants of the tyrant ruler Morbin Blackhawk, torch their family home and hunt them across the wilderness.

Heather and Picket only escape by lucky chance, thanks to the last-minute appearance of their Uncle Wilfred and his adopted son Smalls. Too late to rescue or mourn their parents and little brother, Heather and Picket are spirited away to the relative safety of the secret rabbit fortress on Cloud Mountain. Here they discover secrets of their family history and the history of the rabbit kingdom. Once prosperous and peaceful under the leadership of the just and wise King Jupiter, the kingdom has since fallen into disarray when the king was betrayed to his death by a Longtreader—another of Heather and Picket’s uncles. With the king’s heir missing and the Great Wood, the heart of the former kingdom, burned and in ruins, rabbits have fled to fortresses where they try to defend themselves from Morbin Blackhawk and his marauding wolves.

Branded as traitors and with their family lost or dead, Heather and Picket have only each other and a handful of new friends to depend on as enemies close in on every side and any hope of victory diminishes. They will question who they are and struggle to overcome fear, doubt, resentment, and thoughts of revenge as they come to terms with their new life. Will the heir be found? Could the Great Wood be mended?

The Opinions: 

"You know in tales, Heather, how you believe it will go badly, but it all turns out fine – better than fine – perfect? It's not like that in a real war. In real war there's betrayal, and the betrayers win. In real life you get old staring at a growing heap of unhappy endings." 

– Lord Ramnor, "Ember Falls"

I approached The Green Ember series with some initial trepidation. My past experience with Christian books and modern allegories is that they have a tendency to be heavy-handed with their message and overtly preachy at the expense of what could have been a good plot and cast of characters. To my surprise and appreciation, The Green Ember did none of these things.

As Christian allegories go, The Green Ember is extremely subtle. S. D. Smith writes with a light touch and there are no hard parallels to any particular biblical story. Instead, while the overall message could be tied in with themes of faith and virtue, it’s capable of standing on its own merit as an interesting and entertaining story.

Another pleasant surprise is that unlike many contemporary Christian authors, Smith’s primary focus seems to be on developing characters and creating an interesting plot—not knocking you out with a heavy-handed moral message. Although Christian themes are woven in throughout, they appear gradually and don’t overtake the importance of the rest of the story. In fact, I found the “Christian” touch so slight in this book that, having addressed it, I’m going to move on to the other aspects of the story that I have opinions about.

But something in her wanted to let it alone. It was a mark of their journey and who she was becoming.

– Heather, "The Green Ember"

For instance, how refreshing it is to see a book where characters make mistakes, but then aren’t allowed to spend the ENTIRE REST of the series stewing about those mistakes. Smith doesn’t play around with the stakes of his story. His characters are caught up in a major conflict, making important decisions that put their lives and the lives of others at risk on a regular basis. The cost of failure is high and Heather and Picket both know there isn’t much margin for error or mistaken trust. Of course, because it’s a story, someone is guaranteed to screw up at least once.

What I loved about S. D. Smith is that he veered away from the tired old cliché of a character who made a fatal mistake spending the next 300+ pages moping around and beating themselves up over how it was “all their fault.” Instead, the cast of mentors and supporting characters surrounding Heather and Picket when those mistakes happen refuse to let them go around moping. After all, there’s a war on! They’re adamant that while Heather and Picket might be somewhat to blame for the problems at hand, they can’t hold themselves personally responsible for every bad thing that happens.

I also have to applaud his exemplary character development. Picket’s simmering resentment against something that was not his fault (losing his family/home) and then being rescued by someone who he doesn’t particularly like because it reminds him of how he feels helpless—that resentment is his fault. It’s the part of himself that he struggles with and continues to have problems with controlling. And Heather’s timidity, her tendency to seek comfort and safety and stay put there even though that’s not the best place to stop or the best she could do—I identify with that.

Maybe I’m just reading my own vulnerabilities and faults into these characters, but the fact that I can do that and identify them in this way is a sign of good character building. They struggle. Against themselves, against outside adversaries. They’re basically just two ordinary kids, just two young rabbits in the middle of a world that just got a lot bigger and grew some teeth.

"Pretty, yes. But I'll be who I am and remember where I've been."
– Heather, "The Green Ember"

In fact, the only significant issue I had with these two books lay in the technicalities of his writing. Especially for a reader like me who cares less about the action and more about the mental process behind the characters’ actions, Smith could have benefited from tweaking his sentence structure to make them have a greater impact. He needed to go back to the drawing board with that age-old piece of writing advice: Show, don’t tell. As it is, I felt he frequently told readers that Heather or Picket was feeling sad or angry or horrified—but then never elaborated on how that felts.

However, as read-aloud books, these seem perfect—and the material is perfect for the age range who would want to sit and listen to a book being read aloud. It starts a little slow, but once you get past the initial first few chapters of setup, the pace picks up and is maintained for the rest of the series. Of course, it ends in a cliffhanger and the next book won’t be out until sometime in 2018, but hopefully that will only make you more excited for the next installment. Smith clearly planned for a series when he wrote this book, so the entire series (or trilogy?) ought to string together in a clear and logical way, rather than having to be linked together after the fact when Smith decides to fabricate a new disaster to string the story out a little longer.

The Verdict: 4 stars

I’m stingy. Technical aspects of his writing were derailing and took away some of the potential impact of the story. But his character development was excellent and his subtle touch with the Christian themes really made it that much more uplifting and empowering. I get tired of being beaten over the head with a message, but Smith approached it in a different, non-confrontational way. And he made some standout children’s characters in Heather and Picket. They’re definitely still kids, but they’re growing up and growing into their problems.

HOWEVER! I had an 11-year-old read them as well. You can read her opinion of them HERE.

Suggested reading age: 8-14 if they’re just going to take off on their own. However, these books are very good for reading aloud as a bedtime story or family activity.

Author website: https://sdsmith.net/

Read other reviews on Goodreads.

Find the series on Amazon – or buy direct from the author!