The Green Ember

Description of Book / Brief Plot Summary:
From the Cover: Heather and Picket are extraordinary rabbits with ordinary lives until calamitous events overtake them, spilling them into a cauldron of misadventures. They discover that their own story is bound up in the tumult threatening to overwhelm the wider world. Kings fall and kingdoms totter. Tyrants ascend and terrors threaten. Betrayal beckons, and loyalty is a broken road with peril around every bend. Where will Heather and Picket land? How will they make their stand?

This a book about rabbits with swords. Their home – the Great Wood – has been captured by wolves and destroyed after being betrayed by a traitorous rabbit. The rabbits are fighting back from different hidden outposts including a moutain community, always hoping for the prophesied “mended wood”.

Heather and Picket Longtreader lived elsewhere, however, when their home is attacked and destroyed, they are seperated from their family and chased by wolves, becoming caught up in these wider events in their world. They end up at the mountain, where they discover that, for better or for worse, their own family are inseperably linked with the both the past and the future of the Great Wood.

The book is well written, fast paced, exciting and full of descriptive language. It also explores deeper themes (see below) and many of the characters have flaws which they grapple with.

Language – Does the book contain any offensive or blasphemous language?
None.

Religious Content – Does the book contain any religious content, Christian or other?
SD Smith writes from a Christian perspective. Whilst God or “a god” is never mentioned, and the rabbits are not overtly religious, Christian values come through strongly.

At times the book has an allegorical slant. SD Smith says that is is not explicitly intended to be a Biblical allegory (for example in the way of C S Lewis’s Nania series), however, elements of the story do have overtones that will seem familiar to Christians e.g. the rabbits live in a broken world and are looking forward to a better future in a mended wood, and, there are cryptic references to a future great hero who will lead the rabbits to victory.

Moral Content – Good and Bad. Does the book contain any positive moral content? Does the book contain any questionable themes?
There are no immoral themes.

The book is about fighting rabbits and violence is therefore a feature, although not in an overly graphic way. There are some storylines that may not be suitable for younger readers, such as some peril, bullying, and the fact that the fate of the Longtreader’s family including their baby brother is not known.

The book explores themes such as friendship, loyalty, trust, resentment and courage. It has a clear good vs evil narrative.

Other Comments:
This is the first of four books in The Green Ember Series. There are also a number of other shorter stories and standalone books set in the same fantasy universe.

The book has black and white pencil illustrations by Zach Franzen throughout.

First published in 2015, the reviewed edition was published in 2023.