Warrior

This was an unexpected delight. Much like with A Star Shall Fall, I went into this expecting a pleasant fantasy novel. But I was blown away but how much I ended up loving the story. Brennan is great at finding a new take on classic tropes, and now I'm more committed to actually tracking down and reading her Memoirs of Lady Trent series.

But back to Warrior. The book follows two women: a Witch named Miryo and a Hunter named Mirage. The former was raised in a sort of Witch academy, and when she goes to take the initiation test she discovers that she has a doppelganger. As long as the doppelganger lives, she won't be able to control her magic. So Miryo sets out to kill her, strong in her belief that this is just a soulless shell, not a person at all.

Unfortunately for Miryo, Mirage is very much a person, and might just be the best Hunter in her generation to boot. Trained as an assassin, a spy, a bodyguard, and a tracker, there's no way Mirage is losing in a fair fight. Or an unfair one for the matter. And she's recently been contracted by a faction of witches to determine who murdered one of their own.

I loved the dual narrations of Miryo and Mirage. They have so much in common while also being very distinct in a few ways. I think it would be interesting to look at this book from a nature/nurture perspective. But it's also just fun to have a bunch of spells and fight scenes and women being badass in all sorts of ways. It's like taking Wheel of Time and focusing in on just the inner politics of the Aes Sedai (which was always my favorite part of those books).

At the end, Miryo and Mirage bring a whole lot of upheaval to the world of witches, forcing them to question traditions that have been passed down for generations. And I'm excited to see the sequel deal with the fallout of all that.

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