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Malinda Lo: Huntress
Jul. 12th, 2011 07:34 pmBeing one of the people who read Ash and was all “Gosh, this is nice and all, but I really just want more about the huntresses…” I was thrilled to learn that Lo’s second book was, in fact, a prequel about the huntresses. This is, I think, a stronger book than Ash, but also has some of the same weaknesses, particularly the sketchy world building and not quite making all of elements gel together.
Attempting (with mixed success) to combine elements of Celtic and Asian mythology, this is very much an Old School quest fantasy. Strange things are happening to the world and a sage-in-training, Taisin, is sent on a quest to find the fairy queen and ask her to fix things. She’s been having visions of another trainee, Kaede, and so Kaede is sent along with her. They have a couple of other traveling companions, and most of the book is a road trip with the companions having adventures, with another quest waiting for them once they find the fairy queen.
The strongest element is probably the romantic plotline, and the approach to Destined Love. Instead of being all “Oh hey, you are my One True Love, and so our relationship is perfect!” it’s “Well…we’re…going to fall in love and you seem nice and all and are pretty cute, but I don’t know you well yet, and so AWKWARD.” and going from there. In addition, destined love here doesn’t mean you’re automatically together forever unless you die. Kaede is on the verge of being kicked out of sage school for having no particular sage skills and just being really good with knives, and Taisin will become a sage and take a vow of celibacy when the quest is over, and it becomes increasingly clear as the book progresses that both have roles to fulfill. It’s actually one of the more mature approaches to romance that I’ve encountered in YA.
It’s not perfect, but it is very enjoyable, and well worth reading. Though, warning for the pronunciation guide telling you to mispronounce Japanese words? I suspect I’d pronounce them the way the pronunciation guide says to if I hadn’t consumed a lot of various forms of Japanese media over the last decade.
Attempting (with mixed success) to combine elements of Celtic and Asian mythology, this is very much an Old School quest fantasy. Strange things are happening to the world and a sage-in-training, Taisin, is sent on a quest to find the fairy queen and ask her to fix things. She’s been having visions of another trainee, Kaede, and so Kaede is sent along with her. They have a couple of other traveling companions, and most of the book is a road trip with the companions having adventures, with another quest waiting for them once they find the fairy queen.
The strongest element is probably the romantic plotline, and the approach to Destined Love. Instead of being all “Oh hey, you are my One True Love, and so our relationship is perfect!” it’s “Well…we’re…going to fall in love and you seem nice and all and are pretty cute, but I don’t know you well yet, and so AWKWARD.” and going from there. In addition, destined love here doesn’t mean you’re automatically together forever unless you die. Kaede is on the verge of being kicked out of sage school for having no particular sage skills and just being really good with knives, and Taisin will become a sage and take a vow of celibacy when the quest is over, and it becomes increasingly clear as the book progresses that both have roles to fulfill. It’s actually one of the more mature approaches to romance that I’ve encountered in YA.
It’s not perfect, but it is very enjoyable, and well worth reading. Though, warning for the pronunciation guide telling you to mispronounce Japanese words? I suspect I’d pronounce them the way the pronunciation guide says to if I hadn’t consumed a lot of various forms of Japanese media over the last decade.