I have to admit something before I start. I'm often very skeptical to read books in the Christian Fantasy genre.
Yes I am a Christian. I'm not trying to be a hypocrite. My honest personal reasoning for my decision is this:
Religion is very personal and should be treated with the utmost respect. Everyone has the right to worship as they choose without judgement or partiality. I don't like when writers create a story under the assumption that every Christian believes or worships (or should believe or worship) just as they do. I much prefer it when they follow C.S. Lewis's advice that your beliefs are the under current of the story, a basis of who you are that comes out in your writing style, not preachy with calls for repentance and other such nonsense--preaching should be left to the non-fiction genres where the readers are looking specifically for that.
If I read a Christian fantasy book (or any kind of fiction written by a Christian), I want to find the similarities and comparisons in the story and characters based on my own ideas of Christianity, but it will not be a story that could be offensive to someone who was not Christian, that to them it would just be a really great story about good versus evil, like The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings. So as you can see, given my own personal preferences, it's not always safe for me to read something labeled Christian, because to me, it often feels like a ploy for the author to use creative license to be more on the preachy side than I'm comfortable with.
Rant over.
Huntress, does reference God and Satan, but it does not point to any specific religion or belief system, just the overall idea that there is a God and a Satan or Good and Evil.
I liked this book for a few key reasons.
Audrey, our heroine, has died and crossed over to the other side. Once there she learns she is meant to be a demon hunter for the rest of eternity. What I liked about Audrey's story: Because she can't remember her earth life, she has to re-discover who she is, and what she believes. There's no pressure for her to be a certain way, think a certain way, behave a certain way. In fact, freedom of choice seems to be a big theme in the book. I appreciated this approach. I also enjoyed Hall's depiction of what heaven is like and how people relate to one another there--its very much like earth, simple, beautiful, but far more advanced in some really fun ways (think instant wall color change just by your thoughts and preferences, and superb food that just magically appears in your room. And even cooler is the materializing armor that is stronger than Mithril that withstands demon claws:).
The idea for the need of demon hunters: On earth Satan wants nothing more than to destroy the race of men, with the help of his demonic minions. "Demons grow stronger by destroying the people here on Earth. They latch onto people and encourage them to do all sorts of things that ultimately hurt them in the end. The more lives the demons ruin, the greater they grow, but their hunger doesn't stop with the living. If the lives of the living are food to them, then we're (the demon hunters) a drug. Sometimes they even seek us out because of it...like an addict looking for its next fix. It makes some demons very unrpredictable and even more dangerous." God's solution? Send down members of the deceased with advanced training and skills to destroy the demons before they can destroy his children. Hunters, demon hunters. Armed with a flaming sword, our weak protagonist grows in power, strength, and skill in her destiny. A clean love story, good characterization, zero profanity, mixed in with some cool fighting made this a good read.
I laughed out loud at some of the authors explanations for things such as: What happens when a demon hunter who cannot be seen by humans bumps into one. "They trip." Ever wonder why sometimes you trip over thin air? Could be you just tripped over a demon hunter:).
And some of her thought provoking insights: "We're not supposed to be looking to the right or left to see how we measure up."
"Life, and even the afterlife, is a dance between being prepared and letting go. The wisdom is knowing how to prepare and when it's time to let go."
"I believe the plan for my life was greater than the one I lived out."
"God uses all situations for good in the end, but we have the freedom to royally screw up."
"Everyone falls. You have the opportunity to be built up even stronger than before..."
"It's not the kiss that does it, its's the covenant--the promise to one another."
"I created you with both a heart and a head. And the reason fro that was for you to use both. When you try to follow one without considering the other, you will make bad decisions..."
My only misgivings were these and they are probably just me and were minor enough that I couldn't put the book down and bought the second book right after I finished.
Audrey's sometimes cluelessness can make her seem more stupid than naive. The reader usually will figure things out before the character in books, but some things were just so obvious it just made her look like an idiot. For the most part her character growth was believable, but sometimes her flaws felt more contrived than natural.
There were moments of info-dumping that came uncomfortably close to preaching, but based on what I said above, it really is just my opinion. It might not seem that way for those who regularly read Christian fantasy. But it pulled me out of the story several times. I liked the underlying message she was trying to portray, but sometimes it wasn't so underlying. This increased in the second book to the point my review for Warfare goes down to four stars.
It was often hard to reconcile the "heavenly" ideas, teachings, and realm living, with the darker demon hunter side of the story. The "hunter" action was always short lived and could be slightly repetitive with the same things happening to Audrey in nearly every battle. I would have preferred seeing a little more of the hunting on earth, their protection in action--this does increase in book two, but still not enough for my liking.
It's definitely worth the read. I couldn't put it down, despite the things that bugged me just a bit. The editing is good, the story fleshed out, and they have beautiful covers--three things that can be hard to find in Indie published books.
Huntress: Life After, Book 1
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Great fantasy read! 💓💓💓 What will happen next?
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2017
This was an awesome fantastic read.I join the read along on Facebook. This really kept me going threw the hole book. How can somebody die and have no memory at all of her life when she passed. She was in heaven. After a while she became the Huntress, a person who is assigned to hunky Logan has her trainer. He getting her ready for what to come her way. Audrey is special! The question to everybody is will Audrey ever get her memory? What will you do if you had no memory of your pass life on Earth?This was a great fantasy story. The setting and theme was well put together. Love all the characters! The whole storyline was well put together and it was just perfect. I highly recommend everybody get this book. It was a delight to read. I enjoyed it very much. Can't wait for book 2.What gonna happen with Audrey and Logan?💖💖💖💖
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2017
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