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Havemercy

by Jaida Jones and Danielle Bennett

Reviewed by Coral


Volstov and the Ke-Han empire have been at war with each other for so long that no one can really remember how it all started. Ke-Han’s recent conquest of the Kiril Islands was as unexpected as it was surprising, resulting in a momentary lull in hostilities.

During this unofficial cease fire, Rook, a member of Volstov’s renowned Dragon Corps – an elite group of 14 airmen who fly the country’s robotic dragon into battle – and Royston, a high-ranking man with magical abilities, find themselves embroiled in political scandals. While Royston is exiled to the country, Rook and his fellow airmen are sentenced to be rehabilitated and turned into polite members of society.

But when the war starts up again, the Volstov’s ruler will have need of all of his Dragon Corps and his magicians, no matter how out of favour they are. Because this time, the Ke-Han may have finally found a way to win the war.

The authors’ style of writing drew me into the book and its world right away, which may be why it took me so long to realize just how slow moving the plot actually was. It seemed like more than half of the book was spent on setting up the characters before the war actually picked up again. And even then a lot of what was happening was in the background, kept from the four main characters we were following – although in two of their cases, they knew something was wrong and either didn’t care or forgot about it – so that when everyone was on the same page it seemed like everything was resolved quickly and a little too neatly.

Early on in the book they explained to us that the robotic dragons are limited in the distance they can travel because of the amount of fuel they can carry – it’s the main reasons the dragons have never been sent to attack the capital of the Ke-Han Empire, because they wouldn’t make the round trip. Yet later in the book the dragons are sent on a long mission and nothing is mentioned about their fuel or how it will most likely be a suicide mission. Though it’s not clear in the outcome, I think the authors’ may not have stayed consistent with this point.

I have found there to be too few well-written gay characters in the fantasy books that I have read, so I liked the fact that two of the four characters we followed were gay and neither was a stereotype. That said, I didn’t really like the progression of their relationship, which felt unbalanced in some ways.

The character of Rook was hard to read. He was a bully. Though I can appreciate the fact that not everyone is perfect and that the authors’ did a good job writing him and his inner voice, his chapters always slowed me down.

There was a twist near the end, a surprise revelation about a couple of characters, that wasn’t surprising at all. I figured it out a lot sooner than any of the characters.

Despite everything I’ve written, I did like the book. Maybe now that everything has been set-up, the next book will move a little faster.

 

Grade: B