Chapter One Review

 Hunter by Mercedes Lackey

Chapter One Review

Summary:

• Joy describes her train ride.
• Joy internally discusses her feelings while recalling an attack on Anston’s Well.
• Joy reveals her job title based on her abilities and powers. A Hunter.
• Joy impresses some of the train workers with her hounds.
• We are given a very detailed image about Mandalas and Summon Glyphs.
• Joy gets some special treatment to help her feel at ease.
• Joy reminisces about the Monastery while thinking about the outside dangers of the train.
• Joy gives a brief description of the history of the story and the type of dangers it contains.
• We are introduced to two big events that have transpired, the Diseray and The Breakthrough:

    
        - The Diseray being when plagues started occurring, which were eventually cured. The         
        weather became harsh and flying was so dangerous that only the Military attempted it.                           The South and North Poles switched.  Then Christers deliberately detonated a nuke.
    
        - The Breakthrough is when magic broke out into the world and when magical beasts,
        also known as Outsiders, began to appear across the world in droves.

• Joy talks about her uncle living in Apex, which is her destination.
• Joy ends the chapter with a feeling of uneasiness and being homesick.

A coming-of-age story filled with monsters, magic, social classes and religious zealots. The world of Hunter might seem bleak, but don’t lose hope because this story contains the greatest weapon humanity has against world-ending threats, dogs. More specifically, magical hounds that can transform themselves into almost anything as well as possess magical abilities the human mind couldn’t begin to fathom. As much as I whole heartedly trust any canine friend to save the world from the magical beasts in Hunter, I found myself wanting more from main character, Joy. These are the highs and lows I encountered going through the chapter.

We meet Joy on a train reminiscing about what she’s leaving behind. Her thoughts and interactions present her as a very young and sheltered teen despite the horrors and dangers she has had to persevere. In a way, this is enjoyable and at the same time completely unbelievable. Considering her flashback to Anston’s Well gives a good example of these two conflicting themes. Anston’s Well had been ambushed by monsters and Joy was roused to assemble with everyone capable of fighting to provide support. They don’t tell you how long it takes to get to Anston’s Well, but you are told that when they arrive a third of the buildings were on fire. She then describes a treacherous battle where the final outcome is only two deaths. As she reveals how this tragic event had a large impact on her, you realize with only two deaths she is much more sheltered than she believes herself to be. Joy does go into detail how every person at the Monastery is important and is comparable as family for her, we never get a chance to understand how committed she is to them. Reading about Anston’s Well was enjoyable, but I found myself wanting more about how close she was with everyone at the Monastery and how a group of people with different races, religions, cultures and family values were able to come together.

The scene where Joy summons her hounds at the request of the train workers also brought on mixed emotions. I was much more interested in hearing about the hounds and their own personalities and powers than experiencing how Joy wasn’t special but special. This scene was a bit confusing on whether Joy needs the recognition of others in order to help give her enough confidence to live up to the challenges she is setting up for herself. There is a part of her that believes that her loved ones in the Monastery are enough for her to overcome anything. However, she expresses her needs to attract attention to herself as well as embrace the benefits and admiration of being special, even though she consistently tries to convince herself she is not special. The hounds do make this scene better by expressing more human like personalities that are based on believable and clear traits and objectives that are not conflicted.