Doppelganger; Warrior and Witch (AKA Warrior; Witch) by Marie Brennan
Smart, action-oriented, female-centric, small-scale sword and sorcery. If that sounds good to you, you will almost certainly like these books.
Mirage is a Hunter (mercenary warrior/detective/etc) with a mysterious background and skills like no one’s ever seen; Miryo is a witch awaiting the sometimes-deadly test that will allow her to claim her magical powers. These women have never met or even heard of each other. But while Mirage is hired by the witches she hates to investigate a murder, with her own death the penalty for failure, Miryo is informed that witches gain their powers by being split, in infancy, into two babies. One becomes the witch, and the other, an empty, soulless shell, is killed.
But Miryo’s doppelganger gained a soul and was hidden away… and if Miryo, who has never fought in her life, doesn’t kill her other half with her own hands, both of them will die.
I enjoyed the first book, which stands on its own, but the second is significantly better: far more interesting supporting characters, a wider world, and more delving into the fascinating implications of the weird magic system. Both books are solidly plotted and full of the martial arts and moral dilemmas one would expect from the premise. Almost all the major characters are women, which I liked.
Unusually for me, I wished that the possibly-romantic element with one of the few male characters had been more developed and explicit: for spoilery reasons, Mirage and/or Miryo being involved in a romance with anyone would have added a lot of fun complications.
The parts of the worldbuilding which Brennan developed at all are developed very well, especially in the second book: the social structures and politics of the witches and the Hunters, and the metaphysics of the very satisfyingly complicated magic. Other areas of worldbuilding, such as food, what people do for fun, and much of the physical environment, are almost non-existent. I would have liked more atmosphere, which is often one of the highlights of swords and sorcery. There is also a fair amount of completely literal deus ex machina, but it’s well-handled and makes sense within the context of the books.
Warrior
Witch
Feel free to put spoilers in comments.
This entry was originally posted at http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/871620.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Mirage is a Hunter (mercenary warrior/detective/etc) with a mysterious background and skills like no one’s ever seen; Miryo is a witch awaiting the sometimes-deadly test that will allow her to claim her magical powers. These women have never met or even heard of each other. But while Mirage is hired by the witches she hates to investigate a murder, with her own death the penalty for failure, Miryo is informed that witches gain their powers by being split, in infancy, into two babies. One becomes the witch, and the other, an empty, soulless shell, is killed.
But Miryo’s doppelganger gained a soul and was hidden away… and if Miryo, who has never fought in her life, doesn’t kill her other half with her own hands, both of them will die.
I enjoyed the first book, which stands on its own, but the second is significantly better: far more interesting supporting characters, a wider world, and more delving into the fascinating implications of the weird magic system. Both books are solidly plotted and full of the martial arts and moral dilemmas one would expect from the premise. Almost all the major characters are women, which I liked.
Unusually for me, I wished that the possibly-romantic element with one of the few male characters had been more developed and explicit: for spoilery reasons, Mirage and/or Miryo being involved in a romance with anyone would have added a lot of fun complications.
The parts of the worldbuilding which Brennan developed at all are developed very well, especially in the second book: the social structures and politics of the witches and the Hunters, and the metaphysics of the very satisfyingly complicated magic. Other areas of worldbuilding, such as food, what people do for fun, and much of the physical environment, are almost non-existent. I would have liked more atmosphere, which is often one of the highlights of swords and sorcery. There is also a fair amount of completely literal deus ex machina, but it’s well-handled and makes sense within the context of the books.
Warrior
Witch
Feel free to put spoilers in comments.
This entry was originally posted at http://rachelmanija.dreamwidth.org/871620.html. Please comment there using OpenID.