Review of KINDLE Ebook Warrior – Book 1 of the Doppleganger duology by Marie Brennan #Brainfluffbookreview #Warriorbookreview

I am a real fan of Brennan’s work, especially her wonderful Lady Trent series – see my review of A Natural History of Dragons, The Tropic of Serpents, The Voyage of the Basilisk, and Within the Sanctuary of Wings and the first book the spinoff series, Turning Darkness into Light. Also her intriguing historical fantasy The Onyx Court series – see my review of Midnight Never Come and In Ashes Lie, as well as the novella Cold-Forged Flame. So I was delighted to discover that Himself had bought this offering, along with the second book. He really is a keeper…

BLURB: Mirage, a bounty hunter, lives by her wits and lethal fighting skills. She always gets her mark. But her new mission will take her into the shadowy world of witches, where her strength may not be a match against powerful magic. Miryo is a witch who has just failed her initiation test. She now knows that there is someone in the world who looks like her, who is her: Mirage. To control her powers and become a full witch, Miryo has only one choice: to hunt the hunter and destroy her.

I was just in the mood for this intriguing fantasy story all about identity in a world where both witches and bounty hunters are brought up in sequestered surroundings involving intensive training. Clearly both professions allow women above average freedom in this medieval-sounding era where horseback is the main form of transport, while swords and arrows the main type of weapons.

Brennan manages to give each young woman a distinct identity in this dual narrative, which is harder to do than you might think, given the strong similarities between them. I loved the premise and was interested to see where the author would take this one. Full of incident, with plenty of intrigue and surprises, the pages flew past as I wanted to know what would happen next. And – no… I certainly didn’t see that ending coming! There is also a strong supporting cast, particularly Eclipse, who is a companion and graduated alongside Mirage. The fight scenes are enjoyable and clearly written. I liked the fact that neither Mirage or Miryo took deaths for granted, although they are a regular part of Mirage’s job. Recommended for fans of entertaining and well written swords and sorcery.
8/10