Gregor and the Curse of the Warmbloods

Kirkus Reviews
June 15, 2005
For the third time, Gregor and his stolid little sister Boots desend to the Underland in fulfillment of a prophecy, in a story that delivers the breakneck adventure and strong characters readers have come to expect. The Curse of the Warmbloods, it turns out, is a terrible plague that threatens every mammal in the Underland. On their perilous journey to a cure, the questing party (which readers will be delighted to find includes the wonderfully caustic rat Ripred), encounters both Luxa, erstwhile, Queen of Regalia, along with her bat Aurora, and Hamnet, Luxa's long-lost uncle, who has fled humankind to escape its warring ways. Collins keeps the plot moving at warp speed and includes just enough background to bring readers up to speed on the multitude of characters and the political rivalries that unite and divide them. This offering takes on an even darker tone than the earlier ones, delving into meaty questions of territorial expansion and its justification. Although no further prophecy is unveiled at the end to explicitly promise another sequel, readers will surely be hoping for one.
Horn Book
June 6, 2005
Just a few months after his previous adventure in Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, (rev. 9/04), Gregor, almost twelve, finds himself deciphering another enigmatic prophecy from the Underland, "a dark war-torn world miles beneath New York City." In this gripping fantasy novel, Gregor and his two-year-old sister Boots embark on their third epic quest in the strange subterranean land, this time to help find a cure for the deadly plague that threatens to wipe out all "warm-bloods"; i.e., mammals. Gregor cares deeply for a number of the Underiand's pale, violet-eyed humans and giant rats and bats, and his mission takes on even more personal urgency when his mother (who, ill-advisedly, has insisted on joining her children in the Underland) is bitten by a plague- infected flea. This immensely readable installment won't dis