ARC SPOT: Hunter and Fox

ARC SPOT: 

Hunter And Fox
Philippa Ballantine
releases June 2012
Pyr Publishing


Pre-Order Today:   bn  /  amazon  /  bookdepository



Author On The Net:

Website: http://www.pjballantine.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/PhilippaJane
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pjballantine/
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1000381.Philippa_Ballantine

Blurb From Publisher:

In a world that is in constant shifting, where mountains can change to plains, and then to lakes, Talyn is the Hunter for the Caisah, and a wreck of a once-proud person. She has lost her people, the Vaerli, and her soul working for the man who destroyed her people. All unknowing, she carries within her a Kindred, a chaos creature from the center of the earth that wants to help bring the Vaerli back to power. However, she has lost the ability to communicate with it.She must also deal with the machinations of Kelanim, the mistress of the Caisah, who out of fear will do anything to bring Talyn down.Little does the Hunter know that salvation is looking for her, and it wears the face of gentleness and strength. Finn is a teller of tales who carries his own dreadful secret. He sets out to find answers to his path but ends up in the city of Perilous and Fair where he meets Talyn. He knows the danger and is yet drawn to her. Their fates will be bound together.Meanwhile, the Hunter’s lost brother Byre is searching for his own solution to the terrible curse placed on the Vaerli. He sets forth on a treacherous journey of his own, which will intersect in the most unlikely place with that of Talyn and Finn.The ramifications of this encounter will be felt by all the people in Conhaero, from the lost Vaerli to the Caisah on his throne.

Our Thoughts On:

   Into a shifting world, Philipa Ballantine brings us a whole new series filled with people of many races being oppressed by a ruling Casiah to the point of genocide, and a group of characters struggling through their own past and attempting to change their future. Everyone is struggling to survive in this dangerous world, and Ballantine weaves the story brilliantly to readers. With a rich cast of characters that we experience the story through, and fantastical world building, Hunter and Fox will catch readers into this world  leaving them aching for more.

    Hunter and Fox follows three main characters: Talyn, Fin and Byre as they each come into their own powers and take the roads less traveled. Talyn is the Hunter of the Casaih, she is the dark assassin feared across the land exacting the Casaih’s justice. Riding a dangerous nykur steed, a bloodthirsty killer horse, Talyn searches the land for her prey, never coming back to the Casaih empty handed. This history of hunting held true until Talyn is sent after Finnebar the Fox, one of the last Talespinner’s who can spell a story to listeners. Lately Fin has tired of the hard roads and the hard rule of the Casaih and as he begins to spin the tales of past that have been banned, stories of cruelty and genocide, the Casaih has enough and sends Talyn out to recover Fin. The chase and the interactions between these two characters will captivate readers, as a forgotten history is revealed while a relationship forms. Both Talyn and Fin are great characters, with a tortured and hard past, and through them, readers will explore a dangerous pact that aims to destroy the kingdom.

    Byreniko, Byre for short, is a Vaerli, a person lost from their gifts. This is a significant part of the Shifted World’s series is the past genocide imposed on races from the Casaih and their impact upon the very fabric of their world. Byre’s story brings the history up on a race of people surrendered to being hunted, but also left with a terrible curse. The Vaerli used to be the ruling race of people in their world making the land rich, and sharing their wealth across the world. With thriving cities and trades the Vaerli gifted the world through ages until the Casaih saw to their end. Now with no gifts inherit in them, the Vaerli have been struck with a terrible curse that forces them never to be together since close proximity immediately causes Vaerli to be consumed by fire. Now these last remaining Vaerli who walk the lands find no hospitality, no work, no trade and are left being ridiculed and hunted for just being Vaerli. Byre struggles through these complications in life, almost as he struggles with being Talyn’s brother. Cast behind the shadow of a person most fear and loath, Byre suffers his past and soon finds through even more suffering that he may hold to key to something precious in their world.

    Ballantine slowly reveals a complex set of connections through the main characters in her story, while also exposing a rich plot and a coming apocalypse that may shake the fabric of Shifted World. Hunter and Fox takes a past that is haunting the future and twisting their world’s reality, while at the same time letting readers see into the hearts of its characters. How long can people follow a ruler that cares little for his people, and how much can a story remind us of our past mistakes. Sometimes sometime something needs to be destroyed to make it whole again.

 *received a copy of this book for review by the publisher. An honesty review was typed out by me with at least three cups of coffee in my system and I hope all errors were auto-corrected or fixed by flying monkeys in residence.