Blood Red
Mercedes Lackey
Rosamund is the first female Hunt Master. When her first elemental teacher is killed by a werewolf, Rosa is spirited away to a Hunt Lodge where she will make her fame and fortune hunting down others like it. She doesn’t expect to met anyone friendly who might ever have been a werewolf, and holds this prejudice against all werewolves – even cute ones 😉
Nothing breathtaking to see here. Another elemental masters series novel, nothing new and exciting. It covers a new range of geography than previous novels, but didn’t really give me enough to hang on to. A long uncomfortable train ride is nothing new, and a tree falling on the tracks isn’t exactly something that tells me fascinating details about the surroundings.
All of Lackey’s females tend to be of the fighting type, so it’s not like Rosa is adding anything to the stable. Personally, I much prefer the protagonist in The Fire Rose. You don’t have to be all brawny and mannish in order to win your way through obstacles!
I felt myself grasping for something more. The first half of the novel was nothing but social backchat, and I felt like I hadn’t gotten anything! The action occurs right near the end where you’ve basically already give up hope of anything happening. Something that could have been a ‘twist’ just seemed inevitable.
No magic basically, only what you can do with silver shot. I wonder what Rosa does when forced to combat with normal enemies – she doesn’t appear to have any body strength in her besides what it takes to deal with the backlash from her gun. Since one of the favourite parts of these novels is seeing what magic can do next, it’s pretty boring from that perspective. And it was never really explained how the Earth magic that Rosa has lends itself to attack.
Yes, it’s an eligible addition to the Elemental Masters series, but I don’t think it adds anything significant to the body of Lackey’s other works. Pleasurable to read like a sweet candy, but leaves your tummy hungry for something a little more substantial. I’ve got two more Lackey books lined up from the library, so I still have hope.
I didn’t find myself disappointed by what this novel had to offer, but that was mainly because I was already primed to have low expectations. Lackey has been losing her style lately, and dragging novels out to where they are no longer sustainable. If you’re like me, and determined to hang on to the romantic notion of all Lackey’s novels being good, borrow it. Don’t buy it – I don’t think you’re going to want to read it more than once.