Hunter by Mercedes Lackey is a thrilling mix of dystopian fantasy and adventure. It follows Joy, a skilled Hunter protecting humanity from deadly monsters known as Othersiders. With magic, action, and suspense, Joy’s journey is filled with danger and mystery as she uncovers secrets that could change her world. Perfect for fans of intense, monster-hunting fantasies with a strong heroine.

Hunter (Hunter Book 1) by Mercedes Lackey

4 Stars

385 Pages
Publisher: Disney Book Group, Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 1, 2015

Fiction, Teens, Young Adult, Sci-Fi, Fantasy

All Hunters have at least one Hound. They work together as a team to hunt monsters. Hunter Joyeaux Charmand is on a train to headquarters. It is attacked and she must use her skills to fight. Although she is only 16 years old, she has been hunting for years and has the most Hounds. She meets Psimon Josh who becomes her escort and later her friend. Her uncle is the Prefecture and has enemies. He warns her to be careful and to stay alert. She does not believe things are as dire until the Hunters begin dying. Hunter Ace blames her for his brother’s death and things go from bad to worse.

The book has a fast pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the first-person point of view. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and look forward to reading the next two books in the series. If you like young adult fantasy books, you may enjoy reading this series.

Epub file on my kindle corrupted (lost old one and had to redownload everything from Amazon) so am unable to access - thank you for the opportunity.

First off, gut reaction: I really enjoyed this book!

That out of the way - the main premise of this story could have easily been seen as over played, yet, handled well, it became an interesting play on a classic fantasy trope: young kid found to have powers out of the ordinary is called upon to save the world basically. See? Could have EASILY been run into the ground and b.o.r.i.n.g. Yet, happily, it was not.

The major draw to this story was the emphasis places on the political intrigue. Sure, some people were special, some were not, but those with real power were those in charge, and their plans and desires trump all. It's a classic power struggle handled well, and even though all the dispute elements were common in the genre, all together it really worked.

I definitely like that this book, while an introduction to the series, was fleshed out on it's own. I didn't feel let down at the end at all - I still wanted more, so job well done there, but it was a complete novel on it's own, which I appreciate. I would definitely have this book in my classroom, as I feel it could appeal to a wide range of readers, including adults.

I have to admit I haven't read much (any?) of Mercedes lackey's work, even though I know she's a prolific author, and I'm very pleased with the quality and content. Will definitely be trying more in the future!

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley. Thank you for the opportunity!

This is a story that keeps you turning the pages and, unlike many of Lackey's recent works, does not suffer from horrendous pacing problems. However, the first 20% of the book is literally the main character explaining the world. If there had been more "show, not tell" this would have been a much better, and shorter, book.

I liked Joy from the beginning. She was good at what she did but wasn't arrogant about it. I also like that being from the mountains, she knew things that the others didn't. Carley was an okay character and I didn't mind her death that much. At least not as much as I think was intended. I would have missed Knight/Mark more. I trust him a lot more than Josh. Something about Josh just bothers me.
I like the idea of the book and that it mixes all these different creatures into one story though they come from different cultures. It was fun to see what would come next. Ace was always a threat but I didn't think he would actually try to kill her. I mean, he was cocky but not crazy. Once again we have a corrupt government, or at least really shady one. That seems to be the running theme with YA now, even in fantasy. I have a feeling her uncle is going to be a victim eventually. Really eager to see what the Elites really do

Been going through my old netgalley requests and seeing what I have forgotten to give a review to and what I still need to read. I don't recall requesting this book or why. I haven't read the first book in the series and reading the synopsis present me doesn't have the same interest in this title as past me did.

I thought the pacing on this one was a little slow, but the moments that were action filled were quite good. The world building was great(it's Mercedes Lackey, so yeah, duh). By the end I did feel a little underwhelmed though, and at this point have honestly forgotten portions of the story. If I decide to continue with the series I will definitely need to do a reread, so it will be interesting to see what I think about the book a second time through it.

Mercedes Lackey's story of a country monster killer brought to the big city to hunt Fey enemies for a living combines high fantasy thrills, futuristic technology, and intriguing character development.

I love this series. Of course, I love most books by Mercedes Lackey so I am bias. I've recommended this series to readers of Hunger Games, Eragon, and Ready Player One. It has a great blend of fantasy and distopian elements. The characters are interesting and most have dimention and depth.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

They came after the Diseray. Some were terrors ripped from our collective imaginations, remnants of every mythology across the world. And some were like nothing anyone had ever dreamed up, even in their worst nightmares.
Monsters.
Long ago, the barriers between our world and the Otherworld were ripped open, and it's taken centuries to bring back civilization in the wake of the catastrophe. Now, the luckiest Cits live in enclosed communities,behind walls that keep them safe from the hideous creatures fighting to break through. Others are not so lucky.
To Joyeaux Charmand, who has been a Hunter in her tight-knit mountain community since she was a child, every Cit without magic deserves her protection from dangerous Othersiders. Then she is called to Apex City, where the best Hunters are kept to protect the most important people.
Joy soon realizes that the city's powerful leaders care more about luring Cits into a false sense of security than protecting them. More and more monsters are getting through the barriers,and the close calls are becoming too frequent to ignore. Yet the Cits have no sense of how much danger they're in-to them, Joy and her corp of fellow Hunters are just action stars they watch on TV.
When an act of sabotage against Joy takes an unbearable toll, Joy uncovers a terrifying conspiracy in the city. There is something much worse than the usual monsters infiltrating Apex. And it may be too late to stop them?

Another special girl saves the world after an apocalyptic event. Add monsters. Stir it up so it doesn't resemble The Hunger Games or Divergent too much. Add a dash of romantic triangle and you have every YA dystopian novel written in the last 10 years.

Just not written as well as some of the others.

I won't read more of this series.


Paul
ARH

This book annoyed me so much. The extensive world building got extremely boring because it was purely an info-dump. I couldn’t keep track of it. The writing style is very weird. I don’t usually like being addressed when I read a book. I don’t like it when a character talks to me as if I am a part of the conversation. She says, “you know?” at the end of sentences so many times, which makes me think she’s questioning my ability to understand her. I hated the use of “certain-sure.” That phrase is used a lot, and it bothered me so much! And it’s used like, “I need to make certain-sure...” That’s not a direct quote, but it’s close. I can’t pinpoint why exactly it bothered me, but it really did. I guess if you’re going to make up a phrase, don’t make it sound so redundant? The author, through the main character, also basically tells readers to go and read about a creature in another book (Through the Looking Glass) because she didn’t feel like describing it herself. That felt like a cop out to me, and kind of lazy writing. Describe your own creatures, and don’t tell the reader you practically copied someone else’s work!

I grew up reading Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series and I devoured them. I was so excited for a new series but I have to say I was not a fan of Hunter and probably won't continue on with this series. It was a very slow start with just a lot of information being told and not shown. I couldn't connect with the main character which affected how much I cared about the events of the story. All in all, I think I'd rather go back and read about Talia, Kerowyn and the like instead of continuing on with this series.

2.5 stars

I have tried to read this several times, but it always fails to grab and keep my attention. This was just not for me.

Didnt enjoy this book at all, i found it boring and it didnt hold my attention.

HUNTER is one of those books where you have to immerse yourself and give the book plenty of time to fully take off. The beginning is very slow, almost painfully so. The world building is immense and full of info dumps, which slows the pacing a great deal. However, waiting for the payoff is worth it in the end. The book, once it takes off is very impressive, and I was fully hooked, it's just a matter of being patient through all of those early info-dumps. It's a bit of a shame, because I feel like this book had incredible potential, but the beginning slowness will likely deter many. Once things are set up, the fascinating world and interesting characters truly stand out, making me wish the early parts of the book would have been tightened to allow this new series to truly shine.

Joy was a really strong and interesting character for me. At the start sure, she seems very Mary Sue, however, as the book progresses, she starts to come out of her shell, and her strength shines. Of course, she's very special, which is a common theme in YA novels, but I didn't find her overtly so, or unrealistic. She's a game changer, and I can't wait to see how the story progresses as she makes her mark.

Slow beginnings aside, all in all HUNTER was really entertaining read. The perfect blend of dystopian, scifi, fantasy, and paranormal all in one, HUNTER earns a recommendation from me

So this book is set in our future, which makes it in my opinion a dystopian novel. In said future, things were going horribly wrong and people thought the Apocalypse was coming. But not fast enough. So some religious extremists bombed the world to further the Apocalypse somewhat. The only thing they achieved though, was creating a world in which Othersiders, monsters, can come through. The only positive aspect is that some humans now have the ability to do magic as well, and they bond with Hounds -the only friendly creatures the Otherworld has brought us.

This first book in the Hunter Series is a bit of a challenge as it often feels similar to many post-apocalyptic dystopian YA novels. However, there are many aspects that will make this series enjoyable for certain readers.

Joyeux is a Hunter, confident of her skills, but reluctant to be called to Apex, the center of power. She's wary to be constantly in front of cameras showing off what she does to protect the post-disaray citizens. The subtle linguistic word choices can be annoying to read in print, until one stops to think of how such a linguistic shift could happen if there was such significant technological upheaval. For Joy as a character, the first book was frustrating for this adult to read. I wanted to smack her a few times and was thankful when her hounds gave her some much needed info. Yet at the same time, I could see a YA reading this novel and worrying about her future: what would moving to college be like, should she participate in social media as she gets to be older, what is popularity and at what cost? Love? Family? Friendship? Education/training? As for plot, yes it can feel that Lackey visited a dystopian plot generator, but that's ok. It's a fun splurge read.

Joy has lived on a mountain with the monks, being trained as a Hunter. She is a protector of the Civs (civilians) and schooled at fighting monsters. When called to leave the mountain and go to help her uncle in the city, she obediently leaves her home. Joy proves her prowess as a fighter and begins her new job as a city Hunter. The job is more complicated than she expected since more monsters are seeping into the city and the surrounding territory. She discovers there are mysterious forces at play that may be contributing to the chaos.

Lackey spends a tremendous amount of time filling the reader in on the background of Joy’s training and the work of a Hunter. This makes the story drag on at a snail’s pace. When Joy does confront monsters, the encounters are too swift and not as integral to the action as the protracted explanations.

On the bright side there’s Joy’s hounds. They steal each scene they are in. These fantastical creatures are creative and unique additions to the book. They are more fascinating than the characters who are shallow and one-dimensional. Joy’s personal life fails to generate drama but her relationship with her hounds is strong.

The plot has potential and one can hope that the action will take center stage in the next book. What we need to see is more passion, character development and thrilling battles.

DNF. Unfortunately, this book had too much info dumping and not enough action throughout the story. I was really hoping this book would have been spectacular due to the well-written blurb but it fell short for my reading tastes.