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kreela 's review for:
The Way We Were Hunters
by Brien Feathers
If you cannot get enough of dragon shifters, be aware this is a very dark, dystopian dragon vs. human war novel. It’s Schindler’s List with dragons. And it should be a movie.
The main character is a laundress, a woman who started training as a marksman but was demoted after shooting her trainer/lover. Through some pretty funny scenes where she accidentally pursues the commander, Lena manages to integrate herself into a scouting mission to find out why an encampment failed to check in.
I think she realizes just how lucky she is as a driver, backup, but not the one who discovers the landmine. I certainly am feeling every bit the horror of the front lines.
Lena sounds like a stalker. In her favor, she tries to control her feelings for Misha. I love how they are described physically. Misha has a hawk nose and ... quiet personality. Lena is barely 5 feet tall and is a brunette and apparently has a personality of tempered steel.
The romance is sweet.
⁃ “She shouldn’t be clinging onto him so much. If it was misleading him, it wasn’t fair to him. “
⁃ Smelling his panties
⁃ Wearing his jacket
⁃ Bringing him sugar
There are wartime shortages, and Lena barely acknowledges them. She figures she can cope with things. When people are torn into shrapnel around her she doesn’t react. When she finds her compatriots flayed alive or melting into a slurry, she barely reacts. The horrors have become normalized.
I find myself more engrossed with the little details of living in a society with a line for bread and eggs but only finding milk. Humans may be fighting against dragons and their kin, but they are failing utterly.
The Dragons:
Since their are Fallen, half-human children of the dragons, I can only imagine how that would work, but Fallen are the real enemies in this story. While the dragons are acts of nature, spewing poison or flames and causing havoc, their Fallen children love torture and destruction. The humans are better only in that they kill Fallen outright because they cannot control the Fallen.
Lena has a little of the racism against Fallen, but she still sees them as human, otherwise I am not sure I would like her. With her dispassionate reactions, it is surprising that she was taken off the front lines.
After Misha and Lena’s group finally discovers the remains of the scouting mission and another base, the ending is...painful and sweet. I needed a break after that.
2nd half:
Ardarion:
He interviewed Lena at the beginning of part 1, and I was not sure what his role was. Now, after the war, he is comfortable in his role and still has his Fallen powers. He blackmails Lena into a mission to retrieve her love from the place all prisoners go to die.
“people, women especially, are afraid of me.”
“Good for you.” She walked out and slammed the door in his face.”
I admit, their interactions are just as funny as fake man-and-wife as Lena’s wooing of Misha. The whole retrieval seems like he is saving Misha from death, but ... there are no heroic happily ever afters.
Lena only ever wanted to have a home and family. If it weren’t for the ending, I would have cried. Nothing in the story ever matched my fantasy. However, the ending was realistic.
This reminds me of Joe Abercrombie’s work, or Alesha Escobar’s “The Tower’s Alchemist.” It’s dark, realistically depraved, and a real change when you need something outside of your usual reading. Oh, and the writing is excellent.
This story is written in an unusual way, if you are used to romantic fantasy. It also is split into two parts, and I almost stopped completely after the first part. But the second part is important if you want to understand the man in the prologue, or just find some epilogues about the characters. Plus, the dialogue is snappy and funny.
The main character is a laundress, a woman who started training as a marksman but was demoted after shooting her trainer/lover. Through some pretty funny scenes where she accidentally pursues the commander, Lena manages to integrate herself into a scouting mission to find out why an encampment failed to check in.
I think she realizes just how lucky she is as a driver, backup, but not the one who discovers the landmine. I certainly am feeling every bit the horror of the front lines.
Lena sounds like a stalker. In her favor, she tries to control her feelings for Misha. I love how they are described physically. Misha has a hawk nose and ... quiet personality. Lena is barely 5 feet tall and is a brunette and apparently has a personality of tempered steel.
The romance is sweet.
⁃ “She shouldn’t be clinging onto him so much. If it was misleading him, it wasn’t fair to him. “
⁃ Smelling his panties
⁃ Wearing his jacket
⁃ Bringing him sugar
There are wartime shortages, and Lena barely acknowledges them. She figures she can cope with things. When people are torn into shrapnel around her she doesn’t react. When she finds her compatriots flayed alive or melting into a slurry, she barely reacts. The horrors have become normalized.
I find myself more engrossed with the little details of living in a society with a line for bread and eggs but only finding milk. Humans may be fighting against dragons and their kin, but they are failing utterly.
The Dragons:
Since their are Fallen, half-human children of the dragons, I can only imagine how that would work, but Fallen are the real enemies in this story. While the dragons are acts of nature, spewing poison or flames and causing havoc, their Fallen children love torture and destruction. The humans are better only in that they kill Fallen outright because they cannot control the Fallen.
Lena has a little of the racism against Fallen, but she still sees them as human, otherwise I am not sure I would like her. With her dispassionate reactions, it is surprising that she was taken off the front lines.
After Misha and Lena’s group finally discovers the remains of the scouting mission and another base, the ending is...painful and sweet. I needed a break after that.
2nd half:
Ardarion:
He interviewed Lena at the beginning of part 1, and I was not sure what his role was. Now, after the war, he is comfortable in his role and still has his Fallen powers. He blackmails Lena into a mission to retrieve her love from the place all prisoners go to die.
“people, women especially, are afraid of me.”
“Good for you.” She walked out and slammed the door in his face.”
I admit, their interactions are just as funny as fake man-and-wife as Lena’s wooing of Misha. The whole retrieval seems like he is saving Misha from death, but ... there are no heroic happily ever afters.
Lena only ever wanted to have a home and family. If it weren’t for the ending, I would have cried. Nothing in the story ever matched my fantasy. However, the ending was realistic.
This reminds me of Joe Abercrombie’s work, or Alesha Escobar’s “The Tower’s Alchemist.” It’s dark, realistically depraved, and a real change when you need something outside of your usual reading. Oh, and the writing is excellent.
This story is written in an unusual way, if you are used to romantic fantasy. It also is split into two parts, and I almost stopped completely after the first part. But the second part is important if you want to understand the man in the prologue, or just find some epilogues about the characters. Plus, the dialogue is snappy and funny.