Warrior

So over the weekend I finished up a book I’ve been meaning to read for at least a year now. It was a very fun read, too: DOPPELGANGER by Marie Brennan. The best part about waiting to read a book is this: the sequel’s already out, and I don’t have to wait for it to be published. ;)

Anyway, the book sounded interesting and had been recommended to me, so I bought it. And then I decided that, based on the back cover, I knew what was going to happen. So I delayed reading it. And delayed. When I did pick it up about a week ago, I had determined that I didn’t care if I knew what the ending would be, because I still wanted to read it, even if my hopes weren’t very high.

I was wrong.

Well, not entirely. I did still have a very close idea show more how the ending would work out, even if I got some very critical details wrong. (That was a nice change, actually. Not only is the way it’s written much better than the ending I had been expecting, but it’s nice to get a twist like that to an ending that you’ve been predicting.)

And I was also not wrong in my initial thought of “this looks like a fun book.” It is a fun book. Very much so. (Ooh, and there wasn’t any obligatory romance in it! Very nice change.)

I do recommend this one. It was a very enjoyable read. show less

I have had this book around to read forever. I was excited to finally get to read it. I originally thought this was an urban fantasy but it is actually more of a swords and sorcery type fantasy. I ended up really loving the world and the characters. This book was also published under the title Warrior. There is sequel to this book which was published both as Warrior and Witch, and as Witch.

Mirage is a bounty hunter who has always survived by her wits and strength. Her and Eclipse get a job to hunt down a man who assassinated a witch. Mirage tries to stay away from any job involving the witches but the money and notoriety for this job is just too much to pass up.

Miryo is a 25 year old witch who was supposed to graduate into her powers show more but didn’t. Ends up when a witch is born a doppelganger is also born; this doppelganger has no soul and must be killed at birth in order for a witch to come into her full powers. Miryo’s doppelganger was never killed and so Miryo is tasked with finding that doppleganger and hunting it down. Unfortunately for Miryo and Mirage, Mirage is that doppleganger and she isn’t going to go down easily.

The first part of this book is quite a bit of setup, but after you get through that the story really picks up and gets engaging. I really enjoyed the world-building and the detailed religion the witches follow. The whole idea behind how the witches come into their power is intriguing.

Watching Miryo and Mirage and seeing how they are the same yet different was also intriguing. I also really enjoyed Eclipse as a character, he is in a supporting role and he is awesome at it. He is supportive, smart, and respectful and just generally helpful. There is absolutely no romance in this story; so if you are looking for romanc....look elsewhere.

The action scenes are really well written and full of lots of great detail. I will admit at some points there was a bit too much detail and I found myself skimming a bit. However, most of it was well done. The story ties up nicely, but there is still more to be resolved in the sequel.

This was a very well done fantasy with some great world building, interesting magic, and engaging characters. I ended up enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. I would recommend to fans of classic swords and sorcery type of fantasy. I plan on picking up the second book in the series to read. show less

Doppelganger by Marie Brennan is the first novel in the Doppelganger series. Just so people don’t get confused, this same novel is also known as Warrior. Why the change…

My publisher wants them to have continued life; the reissue is timed for two months after the release of Midnight Never Come, to attract new readers from that book. The change in title comes about because they wanted to redesign these two to more obviously form a pair, the change in cover because everyone agrees Warrior and Witch (now Witch) has the much more arresting image.

I guess that makes sense, but it still doesn’t effect the story, so let’s get back to what’s really important. The premise of the story is really original. Basically, whenever a witch is show more born, the infant goes through a ceremony to help contain her magic so it doesn’t consume her. During this ritual, a doppelganger is born and usually killed. Why you ask…because if the doppelganger survives, then the witch will not be able to control her magic when she comes of age. For Miryo, this becomes an issue when it’s revealed her doppelganger, Mirage, was never killed and now she must go and do the deed herself. She’s not allowed to do magic and it must be by her hand. Sounds relative simple, right? What Miryo doesn’t know is that Mirage has been trained as a Hunter, a mercenary, who is considered one of the best.

I love reading fantasy novels and this new twist to a classic tale of witches and magic is interesting. The story is told by both Miryo and Mirage and it’s done really well. I’m not a fan of flashbacks or novels that jump around a lot, but Brennan breaks each point of view into chapters and she clearly marks at the beginning who is speaking. Not only does this keep me from being confused, but she doesn’t switch POVs in mid thought or while one is thinking of something. She finishes the scene and leaves you with a cliffhanger or something to think about while you read to see what the other twin is doing. This scored big points for me.

The dual storytelling doesn’t last for the whole book, because eventually Miryo and Mirage meet up. When they do, they realize that they have more in common, and not in common, then they thought they would. Miryo can’t kill Mirage. I mean, who would be able to look themselves in the eye and kill their mirror image. Especially a person who wasn’t trained to do so. The struggle Miryo and Mirage go through in order to understand the reasoning behind the need for the doppelganger to be destroyed takes the strengths from both of them and creates a really good story. Once the twins know what they need to do, and receive the answers they need, they go and do it. I’ve read a lot of books that will drag out scenes and conflicts in order to fill pages and Brennan didn’t have to do this. She had a great story being told by great characters and she didn’t need to throw in obstacles to keep a reader interested.

Overall, this was a really good novel and I’m glad my cousin recommended it. I’m definitely going to go out and add this novel (and the second one) to my personal collection. Marie Brennan was a new author for me and I can’t wait to go out and find more of her novels.

http://www.literaryescapism.com/2008/06/27/257/ show less

Summary: A witch must kill the other half of her soul, contained inside her Doppelganer, if she wishes to control her magic.

The Take-Away: I loved the set-up for this title. For the first seven or eight chapters, the point of view alternates between the two characters -- the witch Miryo and the warrior Mirage. By the time that they meet, I was routing for both to live, neither to die. I wasn't disappointed.

Instead of instantly killing her Doppelganger, as the Primes stated she must, Miryo is overwhelmed by the similarities in appearance. It is evident that her Doppelganger has a soul, contrary to her teachings. Even though Mirage could easily dispatch the witch, she doesn't. It doesn't feel right to either of them.

Instead, the rest of show more the book is their attempts to solve the dilemma between of who must live.

The only downside to this book was the names. No one has a similar name. My normal trick of identifying the character by the first letter of their name didn't work either, as both start with "M."

Recommendation: I can't wait for the next title in this two part adventure. show less

Mirage is a bounty hunter, skilled in the physical. Miryo is a witch in training, about to be tested and come into her power. But it doesn't go as expected. Miryo is told of her doppelganger, her other half that should have been killed at birth and who now stands between her and her powers. She is sent out to do the deed. At the same time Mirage has been given a commission to find out who assassinated one of the witches and who was behind the plot. She and her partner set out on their investigation. But soon these two will converge. This was full of action as well as a good world building backstory. Looking forward to the follow-up to this story which will cover the changes wrought here and the side characters.

What a creative book! Her world building is impressive, although I wish I could have read more about it than just the glossary. The artificial depth was mostly well done but It certainly felt contrived at some points. I loved the idea behind the Goddess in her five Aspects, the channel and the elements of magic. So creative, as of course I knew to expect after The Secret History of Dragons . I can hardly wait to read Witch!!!

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

I picked up this book because Marie Brennan is a graduate student at Indiana University where I also went to grad school, so I felt a connection there. Overall, Doppelganger is a good debut.

At first the story follows the separate lives of Mirage, a kick-butt warrior who has recently graduated from warrior school and makes her living by being commissioned for various dangerous tasks, and Miryo, a witch who has been in school and has just failed her "final exam" because of the existence of Mirage, the doppelganger. Every witch has a doppelganger who is supposed to be killed while they are babies so that the magic power can be controlled by the witch. Because Mirage was not killed, Miryo must hunt show more her down and kill her.

Meanwhile, Mirage and her friend Eclipse (he's also a warrior), have just taken on a murder investigation that ends up uncovering the plot of some rogue witches to let the doppelgangers live. Eventually, Mirage's and Miryo's paths cross as each woman sets out to meet her own goals which end up colliding with the other's.

Doppelganger was well-written and Marie Brennan has a good ear for dialogue. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of both Mirage and Miryo in their respective school programs. It was obvious to me that Ms Brennan is using her own grad school experience because I've been through the exact same thing. The way she talked about Mirage and Eclipse, as year mates, being like brother and sister was right on; I likewise had a male year mate who was like a brother to me during that ordeal. I could totally relate to that, and to the other aspects of school (advisors, qualifying exams, studying) that she described.

The story was interesting, but I had some issues. First of all, it annoyed me when characters didn't ask some obvious questions of their advisors or the people they worked for. As one example, why didn't Miryo ask her advisors why she had to kill the doppelganger herself? She had no travel or fighting experience and the witches had the resources to hire others to do this sort of job. At first I thought this was a plot hole and was surprised at what seemed like a graduate student's lack of logic. But, later this question was answered logically and reasonably, but I still wondered why Miryo didn't think to ask it at the beginning.

One other thing that I felt needed improvement was the description of the major characters. I had been assuming, based on the cover of the book, that Mirage had long hair, but I was surprised to find out half way through that she had "cropped" hair. Also, Eclipse was never well-described which disappointed me because, as the only "good" male character in the novel, I would have liked to have been able to visualize him. The villains (Ice, the bad witches, Wraith) could have been deeper and more impressive characters with a bit more description of their looks and mannerisms.

Lastly, the issues between Mirage and Miryo were too quickly overcome. I would have liked to have seen them hunt each other for a while (or at least distrust each other more), but nearly as soon as they met they decided to work things out. That was a bit anti-climatic. And though I did like the ending, it all seemed a bit too easy.

Despite these issues, I think Marie Brennan writes well (which is more than half the battle won) and therefore, this is a good debut from a promising new author.

Read more Marie Brennan reviews at Fantasy Literature show less