{"id":21053,"date":"2011-05-17T21:03:18","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T03:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=21053"},"modified":"2011-05-17T21:03:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T03:03:18","slug":"book-review-warrior-by-marie-brennan-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/17\/book-review-warrior-by-marie-brennan-2006.html","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: “Warrior” by Marie Brennan (2006)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Warrior<\/a>Warrior<\/a> by Marie Brennan<\/a><\/p>\n

My rating: 4 of 5 stars<\/a><\/p>\n

There’s a lot to like about this fantasy tale. The world-building is interesting (if nothing else, the use of Japanese-style names is a refreshing change from recycled Tolkien Elvish). The magic system and the society behind it are nicely realized. If the overall nature (political, economic) of the fantasy realm is a bit sketchy, the groups we get involved in — Witches (multiple schools of elemental magic) and Hunters (assassins \/ spies \/ bodyguards \/ sellswords of different guilds) — are nicely fleshed out, and tied into the framework of an overall religion that is a tick or two more complex than most fantasy fare.<\/p>\n

The overall plot setup, too, is a good one. The story focuses on two women — one a Witch, one a Hunter — who discover they are inextricably bound through a mysterious ritual that means one or the other must die, or else both will be killed. There are strong women characters here, which is nice, though there are male ones to match them.<\/p>\n

It’s also remarkably refreshing to read a book that’s really a “done in one.” Though there is a sequel (already ordered), you could easily finish this book and feel that you’ve read a full tale, not an installment with appropriate cliff-hangers at the end to bring you to the next in the series.<\/p>\n

The flip side to that is the down side to the book, which is it feels far too convenient. In another author’s hands, this would be at least two books (possibly even three), drawing out the conflicts and the dangers. In Brennan’s writing, by contrast, there are major challenges, but they seem to be resolved far too quickly. People meet each other sooner than expected, conflicts resolve too easily, threats are put to bed too quickly, things change too rapidly, and the whole affair is wrapped up in a conveniently dramatic (yet neatly resolved) bow by the last page.<\/p>\n

A good story and enjoyable, hampered by either a push to fit it all within a single volume, or too little an interest in making conflict resolution match the magnitude of the conflict.<\/p>\n

View all my reviews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warrior by Marie Brennan My rating: 4 of 5 stars There’s a lot to like about this fantasy tale. The world-building is interesting (if nothing else, the use of Japanese-style names is a refreshing change from recycled Tolkien Elvish). The magic system and the society behind it are nicely realized. If the overall nature (political, … Continue reading “Book Review: “Warrior” by Marie Brennan (2006)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21058,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/18\/tweets-from-2011-05-18.html","url_meta":{"origin":21053,"position":0},"title":"Tweets from 2011-05-18","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-May-11 12:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"This is where I tweet something witty to demonstrate I wasn't dragged off by wild ding in the night. # I actually thought my schedule was tight but manageable today. 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It's set in a near-future quasi-post-apocalyptic Atlanta -- except the \"apocalypse\" (akin to the novel Ariel) was the intermittent return of magic to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14488,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/04\/08\/book-review-mean-streets-2009.html","url_meta":{"origin":21053,"position":3},"title":"Book Review: Mean Streets (2009)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 8-Apr-09 7:10pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I hate it when I'm successfully manipulated by Big Business. Or Big Publishing. And, of course, that's what's happened with Mean Streets<\/i>, a collection of four novellas by different fantasy writers about their urban fantasy noir detectives. All of whom, coincidentally, happen to have book series that Roc (Penguin) would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":131923,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/03\/the-official-wonder-woman-trailer.html","url_meta":{"origin":21053,"position":4},"title":"The Official "Wonder Woman" Trailer","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Nov-16 7:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Very pretty.Nicely action-oriented.Yes, it's kind of stabby-stabby, because that's what DC\/WB have decided that Wonder Woman is actually Xena, Warrior Princess, only more colorful. Within those bounds, it looks like a fun film. 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