AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERThe award-winning DC Icons story of the world’s greatest super hero: WONDER WOMAN by the # 1 New York Times bestselling author LEIGH BARDUGO.“You’ll enjoy this book whether you’re a fan of Wonder Woman comics, the Wonder Woman movie, Leigh Bardugo, or just YA lit in general.” —Hypable She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first … 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.
“Feminism is the invisible jet powering this literary revamp of the Amazon princess.” —The New York Times Book Review
“Warning: This novel about the young super hero crossing paths with a seemingly ordinary—but seriously powerful—girl may result in multiple fist pumps.” —Seventeen
Don’t miss the rest of the DC Icons series! Read them in any order you choose:
• Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu
• Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Maas
• Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Peña
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Let me preface this with a very unpopular opinion, and just get it out of the way right now: I absolutely *hated* the most recent Wonder Woman film. So I didn’t have super high expectations for this book. But I see it advertised on end caps every time I go to Barnes and Noble, and I loved Wonder Woman when I was three, so… I downloaded the sample. It was surprisingly engaging, and the ratings were super high, so I gave it a listen.
To my surprise, in the novel, Diana was a much more well-rounded and believable character—even an underdog among the Amazons. She had a good back story, and a need to prove herself which drove her choices to try to rid the humans of the curse of the Warbringer (carried by a girl named Aliyah, of Helen of Troy’s bloodline). While she’s incredibly strong, of course, the Diana of the novel was not the scantily clad babe kicking the crap out of hoards of armed men in slo-mo. She still had the fish-out-of-water sequence that she had in the film when she enters the human realm, but this time she is in modern day New York, not in historical WWII Britain. While I found the film’s sequence irritating because most of it centered on Diana shopping for clothes that emphasize her hotness and men ogling her, in the novel she is simply innocent and trying to understand the new world in which she suddenly finds herself. In the novel, her strength is believable. I actually root for her.
One surprise in this YA novel was the paucity of romance. There is some, but it’s very minor—and actually, for a novel about a superhuman immortal woman, I liked that. The idea of her falling in love with a normal guy just didn’t work for me. The story was largely a buddy novel, emphasizing the sisterly bond between Diana and Aliyah, and then also their friends Nim and Theo and Aliyah’s brother Jason. For the most part, I liked their dynamics, although I thought some of the snarky comments were a little forced. My biggest complaint about the story was the twist at the end—I won’t spoil it, but honestly, I didn’t see it coming because the story didn’t support it. It felt like it happened just because there needed to be a twist. But the story was still very entertaining, far more than I expected it to be… particularly considering the over-saturation of the American entertainment market with comic book retellings.
This book is amazing, it went above and beyond my expectations.
If you enjoy Greek mythology, I absolutely recommend it. I have a new favorite to add to my shortlist.
Diana is tasked with saving the world from the curse of the Warbringer, a teenage girl from the line of Nemesis, who brings about a catastrophic war at the apex of her powers.
I loved this book and I thought it was a great play on the original. I liked the twist in the beginning, instead of a man Diana saves a women. Instead of the War bringer being the bad guy, there is a twist. I can’t really say any more cause I really don’t want to give it away, but I give this book a 10/10 ans encourage you to read it!! If you love action packed twists and fantasy plots you will certainly love this book!
I love Bardugo’s work and got this audiobook from the library on a whim — it drew me in and didn’t let go. I love the ever-escalating challenges, the interpretation of Diana’s classic character for the modern world, and the many twists & turns of the unpredictable plot. A great read!
I loved this book… ! I am hoping for more to follow!
This was, by far, the best of the DC Icons series. The others have been about 2.5 stars, rounded up, and this really was 4.5, rounded down. Wonder Woman: Warbringer was really the only one of the series to combine the comic book stylings that made us love the character in the first place with modern problems that fit a YA novel. Bardugo has managed to intertwine problems regarding gender and race in the modern world with Diana’s more mythical upbringing to create a kind of “fish-out-of-water” narrative that reminds me a lot of the best moments of the latest Wonder Woman movie adaptation.
The DC Icons series tends to focus on two protagonists: a familiar hero and a new, mortal face. It would be a good formula to relate new readers into the world comic book readers may be more familiar with, except that most of the human protagonists fell flat. Luke Fox in Catwoman: Soulstealer fell flat in both personality and with Sarah J. Maas’s fumbling racial understanding, and Madeleine in Batman: Nightwalker felt like a genius stereotype. But now, Alia almost steals the show. She is a fully realized character with her own personality and life, and her friendship with Diana felt developed and without the hero-worship that tainted the other novels in the series. Diana and Alia are both the fish out of water: Diana literally entering the modern world for the first time and Alia feeling like an outsider, always an afterthought to her brother Theo, a black woman living in a racially unjust world, and gifted with powers that mark her as other. The girls have a strong and real friendship, and it was a relief that they weren’t love interests.
Diana does have a love interest, and it is the weak point of the novel. The romance in all the DC Icons series feels unnecessary, as I’m sure virtually everyone knows Superman ends up with Lois Lane, Batman with Catwoman, etc. We know as readers that any romantic relationship our heroes begin in these novels are doomed to fail, so it feels a little pointless reading about them. It’s possible that these novels were specifically requested by Random House to have some element of romance in them, as I know Bardugo is capable of writing a book with little to no romance and doing it very well. Aside from the futility of the romance, it just felt a little rushed. I find it difficult to believe that Diana, an Amazon who grew up in a world without men, would be so interested in getting together with a man while trying to prevent the end of the world, along with the dozen other things she has on her plate. Bardugo does her best and it’s not as ludicrous as the other romances in the series, so it’s not terrible, but not interesting either.
This novel definitely has the largest scope out of any others in the series. Not only is there a direct threat to the world, not just Metropolis or Gotham, but the novel ties in the weight of world history. There are moments in this novel that seem like they belong in a much more mature manuscript, far better and deeper than I expected. Diana’s world is mythical, but the emotional beats of this novel are very much rooted in real emotional issues. There is thought given to the inherent sexism of Greek myths, how women have become the scapegoats of world history, and how darkness can be reframed as empowering in the right context. The themes of this novel really elevated it far past the other books in this series.
I was more than impressed with this novel. It’s difficult to review this book without comparing it to the others in the series, as they are all meant to be along the same structure and plot and for the same audience, but I cannot express what a standout this novel was. Wonder Woman isn’t normally the character I attach myself to in the DC universe, I’m more of a Gotham person, but the way Bardugo handled Diana as a teenager made her feel so much more human and lovable than other iterations I’ve seen. I love Alia; I could read an entire series about this girl. Bardugo is white, but handles Alia’s blackness with care and grace, and with far less heavy-handedness than Maas’s take on Luke Fox. Overall, this overshot my expectations by far, and if you’re interested in the comics world or in any of the DC Icons series, Wonder Woman: Warbringer is the way to go.
review blog
Actual rating 4.5
What’s this? A less-than-perfect rating for one of Bardugo’s books? :O Look, don’t get me wrong, I love everything she writes, but I didn’t love this quite as much as her epic fantasies featuring her own worlds. I loved it, but Greece and New York are just a little too normal for me XD I know that couldn’t really be helped here since she didn’t create this universe, but that’s where I am. I loved it, but I’m not in love with it.
Wow!!!
Diana saves a mortals life just off the coast of her home island of Themyscira. Diana brings the mortal (Alia) back to the island only to find that all the woman on the island are getting sick. It is later revealed that Alia is a direct descendant of Helen of Troy and in the line of warbringers. It’s Diana’s job to return Alia to Helen’s tomb to break the line of warbringers and to save her own people. Diana and Alia run in to many difficult obstacles along the way and make difficult decisions that will lead to either success or destruction.
I started this book not knowing anything about Wonder Woman/Diana no having watched the new movie. With that being said, the book was very fascinating. I really enjoyed this book because it gave insight into Diana’s early childhood and her teenage years. The book also had me on the edge waiting to see what happened next. However, I was not impressed with the ending and kinda felt like it was a little drug out.
Incredible, and fans of Rick Riordan will rejoice! Fun for all ages! This is the story of a young Diana attempting to save the world with a posse of misfits, whose unique talents prove to be a blessing instead of a burden. This story reads like a Rick Riordan tale, and anyone who is intrigued by Greek mythology and the legend of DC’s Wonder Woman will not fail to find this novel highly entertaining!!! The tale was BEAUTIFULLY narrated, and I’m so glad I decided to listen to this instead of read. I am only sad that we may not see another story about young Diana anytime soon. I highly recommend this book to everyone 🙂
I’m kicking off 2019 with a book hangover. Wonder Woman has been a hero of mine since childhood. Bardugo only made her more bad ass! Bardugo’s writing immersed me completely in the story. I can’t wait to read more of her work.
Let’s just say I’m not that impressed. This book is another origin story and differed greatly from the movie or other accounts I’ve read.
The pace is very slow at first. It’s set in modern times and WW (not her name yet) has not come into her own. One sees glimpse she does have her rope and gauntlets but nothing else. WW is just now seventeen.
According to the story she’s not even a full Amazon and the author never explains how she arrived on her island exactly. Somehow Hippolyta suddenly conceived and was born. The other Amazons seemingly don’t accept her.
The last 80 pages are so were the best with good action scenes and a monster or two.
In conclusion I’m not sure whether I’d read another WW book by this author.
DC doesn’t seem like they can ever be consistent in books or the movies. Marvel still rules for sure.
I love this book so much. It is truly a Wonder Woman story of its own.
OK, wow. Whoever this author is, she’s good.
I’ve never been in a young Diana’s head so this was refreshing. She’s strong and tough without being bitchy, and she seems more concerned about empowerment for empowerment’s sake, rather than it being a sexist thing.
I felt she was initially prejudiced against men or all mortals, but she apparently changed over the course of the book…or maybe I’m just reading too much meaning into the book.
Huh, didn’t like the deux ex machina, but, hey, it’s comics, right?
Fight scenes well done.
And when they were playing with the lasso of truth…kids…
I appreciated this book cos it seems to be something about believing in yourself. You don’t need sexist approval, you don’t need society’s approval, you don’t need your mom’s approval…all you need is you.
I didn’t really like the ending though, but it’s all good…I really hope we see more of the people that survived this story in other media…comics for example…
The lady writing the Bruce Wayne story next year has some pretty big shoes to fill. (less)
A really good spin on an old story.i really Loved the characters. It was engrossing and very entertaining.