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perid0t 's review for:
The Beast Hunters
by Christer Lende
Thank you NetGalley for the free copy
I greatly enjoyed this book, it was fantastical and full of creatures.
I'm a big fan of creatures, and I greatly enjoyed how there were over a dozen introduced in this tiny 200 or so page book and only one of them had even a familiar name. Which made the book feel quite unique.
This book tells the story of Ara, 17, who is rescued by two Beast Hunters when a monster attacks her family. And the two hunters, Topper and Khendric take her under their wing and try to teach her their ways. I'm not sure I can call this Young Adult, but then I don't have a lot of experience with YA. Despite the age of Ara, there is quite a deal of gore in the book. There were also none of the pesky YA tropes you generally see, despite one of her rescueer seeming to be in his young 20s there wasn't even a hint of romance, which I greatly enjoyed.
My biggest complain is that I wish the book was larger and slower. (which is usually a sign of a good book) Ara at the beginning showed many personality traits of someone who not only came from an abusive family, but from a bad place. Mistrustful and secretive, I loved how grey she was. It wasn't black and white, she still loved her family. Which is often the truth in those cases. I loved the scenes where Topper and Khendric were trying to get to the soft gooey center of her personality. Alas, the change from mistrustful slum child to the typical heroine of a fantasy novel happened a little too quickly. Like blink and you missed it. I wish the change was more gradual, more realistic instead of a flip of a switch.
I'm also not the biggest fan of the cover, I was expecting big ass dragons. But the closest thing we got was the large dog sized thing (small horse?) in the prequel. Everything else was human or smaller sized. But, I enjoyed the story nonetheless and I cannot wait to see the next book. Maybe we'll see something bigger in the end!
I also loved the bestiary at the end, I loved how we got to see pages from the Red Book of creatures that weren't even mentioned in the first book. I wish there were illustrations available and would love to see an edition in the future that held them.
I greatly enjoyed this book, it was fantastical and full of creatures.
I'm a big fan of creatures, and I greatly enjoyed how there were over a dozen introduced in this tiny 200 or so page book and only one of them had even a familiar name. Which made the book feel quite unique.
This book tells the story of Ara, 17, who is rescued by two Beast Hunters when a monster attacks her family. And the two hunters, Topper and Khendric take her under their wing and try to teach her their ways. I'm not sure I can call this Young Adult, but then I don't have a lot of experience with YA. Despite the age of Ara, there is quite a deal of gore in the book. There were also none of the pesky YA tropes you generally see, despite one of her rescueer seeming to be in his young 20s there wasn't even a hint of romance, which I greatly enjoyed.
My biggest complain is that I wish the book was larger and slower. (which is usually a sign of a good book) Ara at the beginning showed many personality traits of someone who not only came from an abusive family, but from a bad place. Mistrustful and secretive, I loved how grey she was. It wasn't black and white, she still loved her family. Which is often the truth in those cases. I loved the scenes where Topper and Khendric were trying to get to the soft gooey center of her personality. Alas, the change from mistrustful slum child to the typical heroine of a fantasy novel happened a little too quickly. Like blink and you missed it. I wish the change was more gradual, more realistic instead of a flip of a switch.
I'm also not the biggest fan of the cover, I was expecting big ass dragons. But the closest thing we got was the large dog sized thing (small horse?) in the prequel. Everything else was human or smaller sized. But, I enjoyed the story nonetheless and I cannot wait to see the next book. Maybe we'll see something bigger in the end!
I also loved the bestiary at the end, I loved how we got to see pages from the Red Book of creatures that weren't even mentioned in the first book. I wish there were illustrations available and would love to see an edition in the future that held them.