A review by daffodilcherry
The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-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

4.0

I really enjoyed this queer, Māori, solarpunk sci-fi & fantasy adventure. As a sci-fi with fantasy elements, this book would be a good bridge for anyone looking to move into either genre from the other. I've had this book on my TBR for ages, but always found it difficult to start, partially because the first chapter is more of a prologue with a POV we don't see again. But the narrator, Anna Coddington, absolutely blew me away and heightened my enjoyment of this series with her New Zealand accent. I love an audiobook I try to listen to as much as possible. I loved the kiwi-isms as well, which gave the worldbuilding a refreshing twist. 

My one gripe with the book is that the action and plot is a little choppy due to its pace. This might be exasperated by reading this book as an audiobook. My only wish was that Stronach took a little more time to flesh out the world and to let the action happen over a longer period of time, the book's timeline takes over the place of a week (emphasised in the final chapters) which just jam packs all of the action. Maybe pacing the book over a month would have helped with the choppy feeling, if not for this aspect this book would have been a total 5 stars. 

Wheelhouses: queer main character (bisexual woman) who actively has sexual attraction for other ladies, complex and complicated main character, main character development arc, homophobia that is actually woven into the worldbuilding as opposed to being the assumed normal (not that I like homophobia), cop character
who has to reckon with that ACAB
, ACAB, fantasy/sci-fi that tackles systemic oppression issues, pirates!!!!, gay lady pirates!!!!, mushroom based horror elements.
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