''Wren's War'' is the final book in

Sherwood Smith Sherwood Smith (born May 29, 1951) is an American fantasy and science fiction writer for young adults and adults. Smith is a Nebula Award finalist and a longtime writing group organizer and participant. Smith's works include the YA novel '' ...

's initially published trilogy of Wren books. It is currently the final printed volume in the Wren Series, with the sequel, '' Wren Journeymage'', available exclusively in electronic form. As with the prior two volumes, it is set in the east-of-the-Great-Desert region of that world.

Plot summary

Andreus In Greek mythology, Andreus (; ) may refer to two distinct individuals: * Andreus, son of the river-god Peneus in Thessaly, from whom the district about Orchomenos in Boeotia was called ''Andreis''. With Evippe, daughter of Leucon, Andreus had ...

finally begins the military maneuvers against Meldrith which had been feared in ''

Wren to the Rescue ''Wren to the Rescue'' is a novel by Sherwood Smith, which she first wrote in high school in the mid-1960s under the name ''Tess's Mess''. Described are the adventures of the title character, Wren, a female human orphan whose best friend Tess is ...

''. Lirwani agents launch a covert strike to abduct Tess and assassinate the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

and

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

. These events take place while Wren is on vacation in Alat Los. As part of the plot, Tess is drugged via a drink presented to her by one of the agents posing as a stable worker, but the effect does not take full hold until she is in a hidden staircase in the palace, and is rescued by her most loyal servant after reviving in time to witness her parents' murder. After being evacuated to a building in the hills, Tess raises the alarm to Wren, Tyron, and Conor using the summons rings which they began using after the events of ''Wren's Quest''. Capitalizing on the disarray inflicted by the toppling of royal order, Andreus moves the full force of his army into Meldrith, over 1 million troops in all. Tess organizes all support she can in order to mount raids against the Lirwani occupation forces, which were not yet evenly spread throughout Meldrith's lands. Wren and Tyron, having been successfully recalled earlier, are sent to seek the aid of Hawk Rhiscarlan, who is known to have now set himself up in some form of power at the ruins of his ancestral home, directly south of Senna Lirwan.

Publication

It becomes noticeable that events cause Wren to transform into a different animal in each of the three books. (A dog in ''

'', a

merfolk Merfolk, Mercreatures, Mermen or Merpeople are legendary water-dwelling, human-like beings. They are attested in folklore and mythology throughout the ages in various parts of the world. Merfolk, Merpeople, or simply Mer refers to humanoid creatur ...

in '' Wren's Quest'', and a bird in ''Wren's War''.) The only cover art which has not represented this is that of all editions of ''Wren to the Rescue''.

2004 Firebirds

If, as it appears, the art for all three books' Firebird edition was done by the same person, then the cover art for ''Wren's War'' is by Victor Lee. The dimensions of the Firebird paperback are 6.9 × 4.2 × 0.7 inches.Amazon.com: Wren's War (Wren Books): Books: Sherwood Smith
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References

{{Sherwood Smith 1995 American novels 1995 fantasy novels American fantasy novels Novels by Sherwood Smith