Monday, November 17, 2014

The Falconer


Today’s post is on The Falconer by Elizabeth May. It is the first in her Falconer trilogy. It is 378 pages long and is published by Chronicle Books. The cover has the main character holding a dagger with her long red hair. The intended reader is young adult but if you like stories where the fairies are what they are in the old legends then give this one a try. There is language, no sex, and lots of violence in this book. The story is told from first person close of the main character. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- One girl’s nightmare is this girl’s faery tlale.
She’s a Stunner.
Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything that a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title- and drop-dead beauty.
She’s Lair.
But Aileana only looks the part of a aristocratic young lady. She’s leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sithichean- the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans- and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them.
She’s a Murderer.
Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her abilities and her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons- from flying machines to detonators to lighting pistols- ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother.
She’s a Falconer.
The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killed the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother’s murder- but she’ll have save the world first.

Reivew- This is an interesting and well written historical fantasy. It’s like Buffy the Vampire Slayer set in 1884 Scotland. The Fae are as unhuman and ruthless as the old stories have them. Aileana is a good and interesting heroine. She has weakness, faults, and she has growth. Aileana wants to kill the fae that ate her mother to the point of blind madness. The side characters add color to this story that would otherwise be just blood red. The story happens very quickly with everything going south then ending with everything still up in the air. Normally those kind of cliff hangers annoy me because I think that good writer’s do not need to do that but not this time. I think that this is where the first book just ended for the writer. I am interested where this story is going because there are so many ways. I hope that the love triangle does not take center stage. I personally am pulling for the human but that is because I have read the old stories about the Fae.

I give this book a Four out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

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