I love good fantasy and this first book, The Hawk and His Boy by new author Christopher Bunn has the makings of a good story. The story could have been contrived and formulaic using familiar characters – a young thief, a set of scholars in search of a long lost book, a guardian type girl – but Christopher Bunn added unusual twists and lovely settings.
My favorite character was Levoreth, the niece of a duke and far more than she appears. The scenes with Levoreth remind me of Patricia McKillip’s novels with the same attention to setting and character which make McKillip’s novels engrossing. Levoreth’s dialogue with the beasts who acknowledge her as Mistress of Mistresses and with her aunt are excellent.
The nominal hero is the young thief boy Jute, a mystery character who is only sketched in. Jute tells us himself he doesn’t know who he is and we don’t learn much more about him. The Knife is well drawn as are many of the lesser characters.
It was obvious reading The Hawk and His Boy that it was setting the stage for further novels. In fact the tagline at Amazon is that The Hawk and His Boy is volume one of the Tormay Trilogy.
The book is short at 210 pages in the paperback. I bought the sequel immediately which is longer. Look for future posts on the next two books and likely more by Christopher Bunn as he develops future fantasy worlds.
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