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Doppelganger by Marie Brennan
Oct. 22nd, 2006 11:23 pmI promised May that I would read and review Brennan's Warrior & Witch now that it has arrived, so I dug the first book, Doppelganger out of the TBR pile first. Started it Friday and finished it yesterday, so I should be able to start W&W now. I like the universe that Brennan established in Doppelganger but I have a few qualms about it right now. The basis of the conflict in the series is whether or not a witch's doppelganger must be killed at birth in order to ensure the witch's control of her power. Normally this is done by the witch's mother while she is still an infant, but occasionally there are doppelgangers who survive. In order to come to full power, the fledgling witches must hunt their twins and kill them by hand.
Can you tell that I didn't care for the witch (Miryo) much? She struck me as a bit naive and self-centered, especially in the way she accepts that she has to kill Mirage (the doppelganger) in order to become a full-fledged witch. Little questioning. Little wondering. Unthinking acceptance, without considering the humanity of Mirage or the morality of what she is doing. Mirage is a Hunter, and a killer in her own right when necessary. But that didn't bother me, because it what she was trained to do from childhood. If I disliked one character for being ready to kill in order to "balance" things and preserve her own powers, shouldn't I dislike another for killing when necessary?
The heart of the conflict in Warrior & Witch, according to the backblurb at least (and we all know how accurate they are), is the schism between witch factions: those who stick with the old belief that the doppelganger must be killed and those who believe that there is a way to balance power without killing. And Miryo/Mirage is right in the middle of the conflict, of course.
Can you tell that I didn't care for the witch (Miryo) much? She struck me as a bit naive and self-centered, especially in the way she accepts that she has to kill Mirage (the doppelganger) in order to become a full-fledged witch. Little questioning. Little wondering. Unthinking acceptance, without considering the humanity of Mirage or the morality of what she is doing. Mirage is a Hunter, and a killer in her own right when necessary. But that didn't bother me, because it what she was trained to do from childhood. If I disliked one character for being ready to kill in order to "balance" things and preserve her own powers, shouldn't I dislike another for killing when necessary?
The heart of the conflict in Warrior & Witch, according to the backblurb at least (and we all know how accurate they are), is the schism between witch factions: those who stick with the old belief that the doppelganger must be killed and those who believe that there is a way to balance power without killing. And Miryo/Mirage is right in the middle of the conflict, of course.
