Reviews with content warning for War - Dauntless

Reviews tagging 'War'

Dauntless by Elisa A. Bonnin

4 reviews

emily_mh's review

adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Everything about this book was pretty much perfect apart from the execution of its theme, which I’ll get into later. For now I want to talk about the good stuff.

First of all, this book wasn’t trying to accomplish too much. Quite often in standalone fantasy, especially ones centring a conflict, the author makes the scope WAY too broad, so that nothing within the book feels fully fleshed out. This was not the case here! The story focusses on one stage of the broader conflict/situation. As such, the plot is well-paced, with ample space for world-building and character development.

Bonnin presents a fascinating world here. I was particularly compelled by the armour magic system (how armour functions and how it is governed), spreading trees, and the death rites of the People. Bonnin also never info-dumps; she spreads her world-building across the narrative.

The story is told from multiple POVs, which was incredibly effective. Mostly we read from Seri’s POV, but we also get Eshai’s and Tsana’s. This meant that the story had a clear focus driving it (from Seri), but could dip into other perspectives to give broader context. The character work within these three POVs was excellent. Seri had some of the most natural, yet significant, character development I’ve ever read. Across the story we see her evolve from secretary to warrior, yet there is never a clunky moment where this change is sudden. Eshai was really interesting to read from as she embodied the reluctant hero trope: all she wanted to do was explore and be in love. Tsana was also compelling, as her development was driven by her marginalised position in her own society, and also her abusive relationship with her mentor.

There is a romance between Seri and Tsana, and I enjoyed it. They pushed each other to be better. They also saw the ugliest parts of each other and still wanted to be together regardless. The romance is very much a side-plot, so don’t go in expecting anything swoony.

All this is disseminated through Bonnin’s writing style. It very much reminded me of how adult fantasy is written, letting the reader interpret the story, characters, and theme. I also appreciated how well Bonnin wrote the action scenes; I was genuinely gripped by them, and they were conveyed really clearly.

Despite all these positives, I have a big criticism of this book. That is that the theme of war was executed muddily. The book was simultaneously trying to depict war as futile and unnecessary while glorifying the valiants, who are essentially a military. I understand that the valiants were not aware of what their actions signified, but that doesn’t make these actions okay or heroic, which is how they were painted to be right til the end of the book. I also found it hard to view the conflict the valiants were involved in as a war, because the beasts’ side was fuelled by self-defence of their territory that the valiants are encroaching upon. The villain on their side is purely a lone agent. So painting the conflict like both sides have good reasons to fight didn’t make sense to me. I understood why the valiants needed to take down the lone agent villain, but the narrative kept justifying their overall fight against the beasts as good and heroic, because they were protecting the People. Protecting them from what? The consequences of their own colonising?? I really wish the book had been about rejecting the way of the valiants. As I said before, it’s not like Seri ever realises the folly of their ways; she just keeps on praising the military. Right at the end,

it’s just the Hollows making reparations for the war. The valiants keep wearing armour, which might I remind you is constructed from dead beasts! And the valiants themselves continue to exist, even though they were formed to fight the beasts - now there is no fight, why do they still exist? A force like that can’t be “reformed.” They should have been disbanded.

(By the way, I don’t know if I’m completely misinterpreting everything here, and I’m happy to adjust this review if I am.)

Despite my criticisms here, giving this book less than four stars didn’t feel right. I would ultimately recommend it with the caveat that the theme may not play out well for you. I’m really looking forward to reading more of Bonnin’s work in the future.

Rep: lesbian (word not used) Filipino-coded MC, sapphic Filipino-coded LI, Filipino-coded SCs

Content Warnings

bluejayreads's review

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4.75

In my last library trip, I picked up two books, and this is actually the one I was less excited about. Both the cover and description seemed weak and just a tiny bit corny. However, the concept of the beasts that may not be as antagonistic as previously thought and the Filipino inspiration were enough that I decided to give it a shot.

And oh boy. It sucked me in within just a few pages and I blazed right through almost four hundred intense and rich pages. I had to go back and read paragraphs again sometimes because I would inadvertently skip huge chunks of the text in my excitement to find out what happens.

We'll start with the simple - the world. The rainforest where people live on platforms on huge trees is not a very complicated setting, but it's unique and vivid and very cool. There are some very neat details about society, as well, such as "marks" (which I gather are something like tattoos) to commemorate important things in your life and the way every city, town, and settlement is just … a single tree. There may not be a ton of depth to explore, but the breadth is spectacular. The characters do a lot of traveling and there are always new interesting sights for the reader and the characters. There was almost no exposition, but I still understand and appreciate the beautiful, lush, dangerous rainforest and the society built in the trees.

And in this society we have Seri and the valiants. Seri's growth is spectacular. She starts off relatable in a quiet way. She ends up as an aide to a legendary commander not intentionally, but because she took the first opportunity she could to run away from the memory of something painful. But as the story goes on, just by virtue of doing her best and dealing with what's put in front of her, she becomes the stuff of heroic legend - braver, more confident, and powerful (with just a touch of the overpowered protagonist trope I love). She's in her late teens during this story, and it really feels like she matures into an adult.

Other valiants thread through the story, but Eshai is the one consistent through the whole book, and she played a much bigger role than I anticipated from the back cover. And I loved the whole concept of her. She's a huge legendary folk hero, but in real life she's disorganized, has a temper, good at what she does but still feels like she's a little over her head, and not really excited to be a folk hero but if that's the role she has to play she's gonna do it. I also adored the dynamic between Eshai and Seri. It's hard to describe, but it was very good.

If you like action, this book has quite a bit of action. Almost all of it is large-scale battles, with our protagonists and a bunch of unnamed or briefly-mentioned side characters facing off against beasts. The battles themselves are great - it's warriors with superhuman abilities against beasts with other weird abilities, so it's bound to be great. But this book also does something impressive: It makes these large-scale battles actually have consequences. Seri herself is rarely at risk of actually dying. But someone dies in every fight. And when they die, there are rites for the dead. There is grief and guilt and hurt. Even though we really don't have much doubt that the people we care about will survive, even the deaths of minor characters have profound effects on our protagonists, and that makes the danger feel real and ensures the fights never feel cheap.

But after all of these great things, my absolute favorite thing is all the moral complexity in this story. At the beginning, everything is straightforward - the beasts kill people, so people need to defend against the beasts. But the more Seri learns about the beasts and Tsana's people, the more unclear everything becomes. Maybe the valiant aren't actually the good guys. There is eventually a single antagonist, but even there the morality isn't strictly black and white - he may be doing horrible things, but I can understand his reasoning. The main tension for Seri is trying to do the right thing when it's not clear what the right thing is, because for most of the book it's very unclear what is right. Neither "side" is truly good or evil. There's also a settler-colonization element that was good, if a little muddled.

This review got long, but that's because there's so many great things to say about it. It was a thrilling, engrossing read with a vibrant world, good characters with great growth through the story, and some really awesome battles. And it has a happy ending - I love a dangerous, violent book with a happy ending for the primary characters. I'm very glad I gave it a chance, because it was completely worth it.

Content Warnings

knockoffrainbow's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

qraveline's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

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