Review – Warrior and Witch (Doppelganger, Book 2) by Marie Brennan (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 430 pages
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: August 01, 2008
ISBN-13: 978-0316027069
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Doppleganger series
Source: Swapped through Paperbackswap.com
Rating: 3/5 stars

This is the sequel to Doppleganer (also published as Warrior). It was a well done fantasy and does a pretty good job of tying up all the loose ends from Doppelganger. I would recommend to those who enjoy traditional fantasy with a lot of magic and politics.

Mirage and Miryo have merged back into one soul known as Mirei. As a result of Mirei’s revelation the laws governing Starfall have been changed; no witch is allowed to murder a witch child’s doppleganger…instead both children are to be raised and trained and then rejoined. Unfortunately there’s a faction of witches that disagrees with the overturning of tradition and they have left Starfall and started hunting down any surviving doppleganger children. Mirei is sent on a quest to find these warrior doppelgangers and bring them to Starfall to keep them safe.

However there is another matter of concern that is close to Mirei’s heart; her long time partner Eclipse has gone missing and is assumed kidnapped by the witches. Can Mirei save both the doppleganger children and Eclipse before it is too late?

I really enjoyed the idea behind this story but I thought that this book was a lot more wandering than the first book. The story is told from a number of different POVs and I really don’t think it needed to be; all these POVs just slowed down the story a lot.

I enjoy Mirei and Eclipse as characters but didn’t enjoy the surrounding characters as much. Unfortunately we hear from the surrounding characters a lot more in this book than we did in the first book. The story wanders quite a bit and at times it feels like Brennan isn’t quite sure where the story is going.

In the end everything is wrapped up pretty well. I did enjoy the idea of the dopplegangers and thought what we saw of the world was interesting. I think Brennan has potential has a fantasy writer, but that this story could have been tightened up quite a bit.

Overall a decent conclusion to this series. The story wanders some and feels very long at times. The multiple POV’s serve to draw the story out longer rather than add more interest. Still I did enjoy the main characters and I thought the concept was interesting. The story is very traditional fantasy and I enjoyed the writing style. I do have the first book in Brennan’s Onyx Court series, so I will probably check out that series and see how I like it as well.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge