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A review by chronicvillainy
De laatste Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli
5.0
For more reviews, check my blog: http://bookishvillainy.wordpress.com
Asha is a princess, but also a badass dragon slayer. However, despite the fact that she’s feared and brings her father the heads of the dragons she has slayed, she’s to mary the cruel Jarek, commander of her father’s army. There is but one way out: bring back home the head of Kozu, the most powerful and eldest dragon of all who has destroyed her home town in the past. Driven by both her hatred for dragons and the desire to escape her betrothal, Asha is relentless in her hunt. However, she only has a few days before her time’s up. Will she succeed? And is there, perhaps, more to the situation than meets the eye?
Despite being the fairly angry type, Asha is a very likable character. She’s badass, tenacious, defiant, and the type of person who takes matters into her own hands. Despite this, there’s also an air of vulnerability around her. The old stories can be used to summon dragons, and by telling them she unwittingly caused Kozu to burn down her town. Her burns, her guilt, the fear with which the people regard her… all of these have resulted in her building a wall around herself; it protects her, but at the same time, it’s lonely. Yet, she cares fiercely for her niece Safire and brother Dax. She’s not perfect, initially treating slave Torwin with contempt. She’s even reluctant to save his life and only does it because her brother asks her to. She kills dragons without a second thought, because she’s driven by hatred. During the course of the book, however, Asha’s view points are challenged and her foundations of what she believes in crumble. The Last Namsara is a great example of a strong female character with flaws, who actually grows throughout the story, done right.
I also really enjoyed the world building in this book. As mentioned before, one can lure dragons by telling stories. The narrative is sometimes interrupted by these stories, which give insight in the world, its history and legends, and the beliefs of the characters within. This runs the risk of interrupting the flow and pacing of the story, but I felt it gave the narrative much more depth. The relation between dragons and the stories was also a nice touch. Nonetheless, the dragons are dangerous yet impressive, and I definitely wanted to know more about them while reading (and that’s not only because I’m generally biased towards dragons).
I did feel the romance wasn’t entirely necessary. I realize that the interaction between Asha and her love interest was important to the plot and her growth as a character, but I think the same could have been accomplished by having them remain friends. I really don’t like this ‘obligatory romance’-thing in YA. Thankfully, this wasn’t a big part of the plot and at least the characters growing closer seemed natural enough. Some elements of the story were also a bit predictable, such as the whole ‘killing dragons is wrong’-bit, but Ciccarelli’s writing style and world building were so engaging that I didn’t mind at all.
The Last Namsara is a fun YA fantasy involving dragons and a badass female character. I feel that Asha’s story ended nicely, but I’m definitely excited about The Caged Queen later this year which features a character already present in The Last Namsara as the protagonist.
Asha is a princess, but also a badass dragon slayer. However, despite the fact that she’s feared and brings her father the heads of the dragons she has slayed, she’s to mary the cruel Jarek, commander of her father’s army. There is but one way out: bring back home the head of Kozu, the most powerful and eldest dragon of all who has destroyed her home town in the past. Driven by both her hatred for dragons and the desire to escape her betrothal, Asha is relentless in her hunt. However, she only has a few days before her time’s up. Will she succeed? And is there, perhaps, more to the situation than meets the eye?
Despite being the fairly angry type, Asha is a very likable character. She’s badass, tenacious, defiant, and the type of person who takes matters into her own hands. Despite this, there’s also an air of vulnerability around her. The old stories can be used to summon dragons, and by telling them she unwittingly caused Kozu to burn down her town. Her burns, her guilt, the fear with which the people regard her… all of these have resulted in her building a wall around herself; it protects her, but at the same time, it’s lonely. Yet, she cares fiercely for her niece Safire and brother Dax. She’s not perfect, initially treating slave Torwin with contempt. She’s even reluctant to save his life and only does it because her brother asks her to. She kills dragons without a second thought, because she’s driven by hatred. During the course of the book, however, Asha’s view points are challenged and her foundations of what she believes in crumble. The Last Namsara is a great example of a strong female character with flaws, who actually grows throughout the story, done right.
I also really enjoyed the world building in this book. As mentioned before, one can lure dragons by telling stories. The narrative is sometimes interrupted by these stories, which give insight in the world, its history and legends, and the beliefs of the characters within. This runs the risk of interrupting the flow and pacing of the story, but I felt it gave the narrative much more depth. The relation between dragons and the stories was also a nice touch. Nonetheless, the dragons are dangerous yet impressive, and I definitely wanted to know more about them while reading (and that’s not only because I’m generally biased towards dragons).
I did feel the romance wasn’t entirely necessary. I realize that the interaction between Asha and her love interest was important to the plot and her growth as a character, but I think the same could have been accomplished by having them remain friends. I really don’t like this ‘obligatory romance’-thing in YA. Thankfully, this wasn’t a big part of the plot and at least the characters growing closer seemed natural enough. Some elements of the story were also a bit predictable, such as the whole ‘killing dragons is wrong’-bit, but Ciccarelli’s writing style and world building were so engaging that I didn’t mind at all.
The Last Namsara is a fun YA fantasy involving dragons and a badass female character. I feel that Asha’s story ended nicely, but I’m definitely excited about The Caged Queen later this year which features a character already present in The Last Namsara as the protagonist.