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author, book, book reviews, books, characters, dystopian, fantasy, fiction, Hunter By Mercedes Lackey, literature, magic, magic system, Mercedes Lackey, novel, plot, post apocalyptic, read, reader, review, science fiction, scifi, stories, story, world building, write, writer, writing, young adult
Genre: Fantasy, Scifi, Dystopian, Post-Apocalyptic, Magic
Pages: 384
Point of View: First (Joy)
Released: September
1st 2015
Series: Hunter 1
Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)
Source: NetGalley
My Rating: 8/10 Stars
My Summary:
After the world ended, magic appeared and with it otherworlders, who think of humans only as prey. Luckily some rare humans with magic have a bond with magical creatures, known as Hounds. These Hunters keep people safe and are required to go in the main city of Apex.
Joy is a young Hunter, who has lived in a monetary on a mountain for most of her life. Her only family is her uncle, who is an important man in the city. When he requests that Joy join him, she has no choice, or she’ll risk the government learning about the other Hunters in the monastery.
She realizes things are more complex in the city than she thought. Her uncle is surrounded by enemies and Hunting is done very differently.
My Review:
I am proud to say I am yet again an oddball… I really liked this book!
I’ve never read a book before that started so BAD but ended so GOOD!
The Bad (the first 20%) :
Okay, so the first 20% I’d only rate a 6/10 and that’s being generous. The whole beginning is Joy riding the train to the city. It would’ve been so much better if it started in the mountains. Then we could’ve seen what it was like instead of being told about it.
It starts with TONS of info dumping! This girl has concentration issues. If she really spent this long staring into space people would think there was something wrong with her.
Seriously lots of telling! Do we really need to know how they make bread? The telling doesn’t even track! First she’s thinking about bread then it’s the armed services. She also talks to the reader a couple of times. (Which annoys me.)
I understand Joy’s never left home before and she’s homesick. But I wasn’t sure if I even liked her at the beginning! She came off conceited, constantly thinking how much better her mountain was and how silly the Cits are. (Cits = city people)
Speaking of which, I like made up magical words. But then she added in the dystopian slang too, and it was a bit much. Although I liked the names, did we really need things like coffee to be renamed?
Then she got to the Capital, sorry Apex, and Hunters are Vid stars. (It seemed very Hunger Games esque.)
The Good:
After Joy got to the city, she really grew on me! She really is a genuinely nice person. She also stopped constantly thinking of home and quoting her masters. (Which was beginning to grate on me.)
Once she she gets to Hunter HQ and starts going on hunts, the book improves drastically! The hunts were exciting and well done and I enjoyed the relationships between the Hunters. Though she not only makes friends, but also some enemies. Namely, Ace, the top ranked Hunter. He was a decent antagonist, I certainly disliked him.
There’s also a romance. The dates didn’t do much for me, because they couldn’t speak freely. (Since every minute Joy is being recorded.) There could’ve been more joking and banter, more getting to know him for me. Even though I liked him, I was never sure he was trustworthy and I think that’s why the author left him as a bit of a mystery, so there would be doubt.
The world was complex and there was so much to it; magic and psi energy, hounds and otherworlders. I love how the different mythologies come together. It’s so unique and such a good idea!
My favorite part of the book was the hounds! Joy and her hounds were more like siblings than pets. They had such a great relationship! The way they joked and helped one another. And everyone’s Hounds were so different; from winged lions to Joy’s large colorful shape changing Hounds.
The magic system was obscure, but had plenty of rules to ground it. I liked how it worked and the glyphs and the feelings she invoked. That last battle was pure perfection! Now this shows what a great writer Lackey is!
Do I recommend this book? Yes! But have patience with the beginning. It gets better, I promise!
Another reviewer complained that Joy was too special, but I didn’t think so. Sure, she was good with magic, but she didn’t start out with anything that was rare. (On the mountain at least.)
How do you feel about special protagonists? I don’t mind characters that are special. Talk about a character with a rare talent or a special magic and I’m there!
I am annoyed when they are perfect. Pretty and talented and with a perfect personality, it’s all a bit much. (And boring!)
Woven Magic Books 
Nice review. I think I may want to read it solely for the hound aspect. Have you read other Lackey books? What’s your opinion on them
Surprisingly this was my first Lackey book! I’ve been meaning to read her for years.
You are so good for sticking with this because I think most people would have given up but, yay for doing it because look how well it turned out! Wonderful review!
lol. I’m not good at giving up on a book. Usually it doesn’t pay off, so this was a pleasant surprise. 🙂 Thanks!
Oh YAY I am so glad you liked this one! I was really excited for it, and then I saw all the DNFs and such. Thank you for letting us know about the beginning too- because I likely would have gotten angry with it, but knowing that it gets better helps a LOT.
I agree with you completely about “special” characters. Special is fine, I am down with special. BUt NOT perfect. Perfect is annoying, and they are two VERY different things! Fabulous review 🙂
Me too! I put off starting it because everyone I know who reviewed it didn’t like it. Yeah, the beginning takes patience and maybe some skimming.
I’m glad you like special characters too! I see so many people complain about them, but it’s fun being special. Thanks!
I fear I would give up cos of the bad
You probably would. I wish I could quit books the way you do. Though if I did that then I’d never have read and liked this book. My persistence finally paid off!
This sounds like very complex story! But I like the factthat this is mix of magic and dystopia. I need to checkit out 🙂
It is complex and it really didn’t need all of the info dumps at the beginning to describe it either. I love it when stories combine scifi and fantasy and this one did it well.
Yay! I just brought this home from the library. Lackey’s books have been hit or miss for me, so I’m so happy you liked this Molly! 🙂
This was actually my first Lackey. She’s been on my list forever though. I hope that you like this book too! Thanks!
I’ve been seeing negative to tepid reactions to this book so far, so it’s good to finally seeing a glowing review. I remain very curious about Mercedes Lackey’s YA and I have a copy of this ARC which I won from a giveaway, so I hope I can check it out soon.
Yeah, all I’ve seen is not so great reviews for this one, which is why I put it off for so long. I hope you enjoy it too. I think if you can make it through that beginning you will.
I haven’t read this one but one of my reviewer did read it if I’m not mistaken but I’m not sure if she liked it or not.
Most of the reviews I’ve read for Hunter were negative. I hope that your reviewer did like it. It’s hard to make it through that beginning so I understand the people who gave up.
I haven’t read this book. The magic system does sound interesting, the plot as well. Another t add to my TBR. 🙂 I think characters do need flaws – to make them real. No one is perfect. Not possible. I don’t mind special characters, it can add a lot to the story if a character has a burden that others don’t. I believe that being special does tend to come with more responsibility/pressure.
The magic system was cool so far. I hope she does more with it in the sequels. Yeah, flaws are important. We all make mistakes and mistakes are good story fodder anyway. I’m glad you don’t mind special characters though. I tend to write them, which is why I asked this question. I hope you enjoy this book. 🙂
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Hahah I want to have patience! But I have a feeling that I won’t be able to! I’m really not a huge fan of telling, and as cool as the world and the hounds sound, I might have to pass on this one! I’m glad that you’re the oddball though! Yay for liking this 🙂