Second Reflections – hunter (Mercedes Lackey)

Ahoy there me mateys!  While drawin’ up me lists of 2016 for me log, I realized a curious thing – out of 134 books read, not a single one was a re-read.  In me enthusiasm of discovery and taking suggestions from me crew, I did not revisit a single old port for plunder!  And part of what I love about readin’ is re-visitin’ old friends.  So I decided to remedy that in this here new year and thus created me new category where I take a second look at a previously enjoyed novel and give me crew me second reflections, as it were, upon visitin’ it again . . .

hunter – Mercedes Lackey

Now I had touched upon this novel and the author in me previous log post, Broadside No. 8.  It was in reviewing Lackey’s novels that I was reminded of this particular read and how much I loved it.  I was mistaken in thinking that I read it in 2016 and so I thought what better book to re-read.  It was just as much fun the second time.

The world is a post-apocalyptic US where after said disaster, a seam to the Otherworld opened allowing magic and monsters through.  Several centuries later, the world has slowly rebuilt behind walls and there are armies and other groups trying to keep regular citizens safe.  One of those groups is the Hunters whose purpose it to hunt monsters of course!

The main character is a Hunter named Joy who goes from the mountain home where she grew up to the main city.  I absolutely love her.  Other particular favorite hunters include Knight, Dazzle, and Karly.  Now while the hunters are bad-ass in and of themselves what makes them truly wicked is that to be a hunter you need have Hounds.  Not just normal dogs but massive magical beasts from the Otherworld.  I would normally say I am a cat person but even I would want one of these!  And no one’s Hounds are specifically alike.

Joy’s Hounds for example are Zapotec with Tibetan names.  It was the Hounds the artist Pedro Linares apparently saw when he had his dream and created alebrijes.  I had no idea what Joy was talking about so did a bit of research and discovered these possibilities:

They can also have spines, stingers, and shoot fire.  Awesome right?  In fact part of what I loved about Lackey’s monsters and Otherworld creatures was the blending of our myth and her imagination.  Vampires, Magogs, Drakken, Knockers and all other sorts of fun monsters are there.  I loved it all.

The plot is quick, Joy’s story is wonderful, and I cannot wait to find out where the second book will go!

Side note:  Each time I read this, I borrowed it from a local library.  I will likely read it again in the future and so finally bought meself a paperback copy for me cabin shelf and also to try and convince the first mate to read it!

Goodreads has this to say about the novel:

They came after the Diseray. Some were terrors ripped from our collective imaginations, remnants of every mythology across the world. And some were like nothing anyone had ever dreamed up, even in their worst nightmares.

Monsters.

Long ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were ripped open, and it’s taken centuries to bring back civilization in the wake of the catastrophe. Now, the luckiest Cits live in enclosed communities, behind walls that keep them safe from the hideous creatures fighting to break through. Others are not so lucky.

To Joyeaux Charmand, who has been a Hunter in her tight-knit mountain community since she was a child, every Cit without magic deserves her protection from dangerous Othersiders. Then she is called to Apex City, where the best Hunters are kept to protect the most important people.

Joy soon realizes that the city’s powerful leaders care more about luring Cits into a false sense of security than protecting them . . . There is something much worse than the usual monsters infiltrating Apex.  And it may be too late to stop them…

To visit the author’s website go to:

Mercedes Lackey – Author

To buy the novel visit:

hunter – Book

To add to Goodreads go to:

Yer Ports for Plunder List