meganbmoore: (bleach-orihime reads)
meganbmoore ([personal profile] meganbmoore) wrote2008-02-24 07:37 pm
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Hunter's Death by Michelle West

Yup, I was right.  Book 2 is the payoff.  And a good one.  I'm not going to bother with any plot recapping or anything because (A) I posted on the first book just a few days ago and (B) it would actually be fairly spoilery for the final leg of Hunter's Oath.

 Stephen and Gilliam are still running around, dealing with gods and apocalypses and such.  I feel somewhat guilty because, while I like them, I wasn't incredibly interested in them and spent a lot of their plot time wishing it was focusing one the characters introduced in Hunter's Death.  Well...almost wishing.  They were with Evayne, who remained awesome, regularly changing age and all, and Kallandros, who added some bitter angst and details on his messed up relationship with Evayne to his role as the bard who moonlights as an assassin (basically...)  Espere remained interesteing, but didn't get to do a lot (again) until the tail end...where she got to be awesome and got a great ending.

MEANWHILE, THERE WAS JEWEL.

Jewel is a supremely awesome young woman who runs a small den of young street thieves, and who has the gift of sight.  When her mentor dies, she goes to deliver a message from him to a noblewoman called The Terafin, only to end up helping to save her from her mentor's murderer, and end up entering The Terafin's service.  Jewel also gets surrounded by an excellent supporting cast.  There's Torvan, a retainer of The Terafin's who pretty much takes Jewel and her Den in(yes, she brought them all with her, and regularly tells them they can't steal in the house...unless they have to make a break for it, at which point, it's a free-for-all) her Domici(think glorified butler) Ellerson, Devon, a nobleman who  serves both The Terafin and the royals, and, of course, The Terafin herself.  Most importantly, there's Meralonne, the cranky super-mage who kinda makes me think of Sanzo, and Avandar, a mage who is her other Domici. Avandar tests her worthiness by shooting a fireball at her.  She tests his by throwing a book at his head.  She passes the test, he fails.  She keeps him anyway because The Terafin said to.

From what I've been told, Jewel and many of the above play major roles in the Broken Sun series.

Now I must decide whether I want to start the Broken Sun books, or the Elantra books...