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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
well done though anticlimactic, June 24, 2008
I've been waiting for quite some time for this book to come out and, though I was initially disappointed by the sheer size of it (a rather unimpressive 388-pages, a quarter of the length of your average Harry Potter book), once I opened the book and immersed myself in its story, I was hard-pressed to pull myself back out again.
Havemercy details the intertwining stories of four very different people: Royston, a magician who has been exiled for dallying with a foreign prince, Hal, the adorable country tutor put in charge of watching over him, Rook, the lewd, crude pilot of Havemercy, the fiercest dragon in the Dragon Corps, and Thom, a young student unluckily roped into attempting to introduce the Corps to a trifling little thing like manners.
The book is extremely slow to start, spending much time, as with all fantasy novels, building up the world and introducing the characters. Action scenes are minimal (I think there were only two of them, possibly three) and the last, perhaps the most exciting, battle took place off-screen, leading to a rather anti-climactic finish. The book could have benefited from the use of a glossary as I've finished it and still have no idea what a 'bastion' is in this world, aside from functioning as a frequently used curse word. However, thankfully, the good well outweighs the bad.
The cast of characters are colorful and memorable. My favorite among them was Hal, whose bright eyes, desire to learn, and unwavering devotion to Royston make him as endearing to me as he is to the Margrave. The relationship between Royston and Hal is well-crafted (though it did bring back many memories of Nightrunner's Alec and Sergil) and I feel every almost-kiss and period of unresolved sexual tension with as much frustration as Hal himself must have felt.
The relationship between Rook and Thom, which I remain convinced had a romantic undertone no matter how many times the word "brothers" is drilled into my head, is equally staggering in its descriptive realism. You felt for them, their triumphs, their failures, the frisson that cackled between them on every page. Rook is a hard man to love, yet somehow Thom manages, and watching those walls get broken down without transforming Rook from the insensitive brute we were introduced to from the start is engaging to the very last page.
The novel is more character-driven than plot driven (which is why it seemed, to me, that the overreaching plot of war, secrecy, espionage, and conspiracy paled in comparison to how the characters reacted to them). The plot was lost in the thoughts and motivations of the characters so that it becomes less about Volstov's hundred-year battle against the Ke-Han and more about Royston's precarious relationship with Hal and Thom's struggles to not be eaten alive by the rowdy Dragon Corps.
However, Miss Jones and Miss Bennett did an excellent job of making their world and their characters fly off the page so that by the time the story was over I found myself longing for more. I hope to see more from them in the future.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll want to spend more time in this world..., July 2, 2008
Havemercy starts a little on the slow side as you jump between the four characters who narrate the tale. However, once the momentum builds this becomes a complete page turner. It's hard to categorize the book. Fantasy? Yes. Romance? Well, sometimes. Humor? It's laugh out loud funny at times. Action? Entirely, but you'll wish it had more by the time you weather your way through the final portion of the story.
The dragons you'll encounter are unlike the usual dragon-fantasy-fare. But the wildest creatures in the book are by far the Airmen who man them.
While the plot contains male/male romance, it comes across very naturally. It's sweet and well-crafted and shouldn't limit this story from being shared with a broad audience.
Ms. Jones and Ms. Bennett have crafted an amazing first novel. The dialogue is fresh, funny, and very witty. You'll find that each of the four main voices comes across unique--to the extent that it's amazing that the characters sprung forth from two minds and not four. (Or more.)
At the story's end, you'll be craving more--especially since a handful of very minor characters are absolutely begging to have their stories told.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
good but not great, August 18, 2008
I'm just not feeling the great enthusiasm. I thought "Havemercy" was an interesting spin on some SF tropes and it was really impressive as a first book. The writing was graceful but the book just wasn't more than mildly entertaining for me.
First off, the book was badly unbalanced. The plot was condensed into a few chapters. The book started out slow, which is nice for world building and all, but it took way too long for anything to happen. The action picked up about 3/4 of the way through the book. The action scenes were few but nicely handled but the ending was shamefully rushed.
Second, the world building was sketchy and confusing. The actual role magic played in the society was barely implied. We get a clear view of the power/political aspects used by the emperor but the general society was barely limned in. The three adjoining cities, bearing womens' names, were little more than caricatures. Molly was the slum. Yeah, got it already. What was trade in this society? How much, if any, social mobility was there? There were a few glimpses--young Hal escaping rural isolation, vicious Rook somehow being chosen by his mechanical/magic dragon--but overall the world building was careless at best.
Third, too many of the characters were flat and sterotypical in a novel that's very character-driven. The romance between naive Hal and older Royston was charming in an old-Harlequin-Barbara-Cartland mold. Hal was the essential pure, blushing virgin to Royston's damaged, worldly self. The slow seduction was sweet but corny because neither of the characters were anything more complex than types.
Unfortunately none of the other characters rang true as real people either. I vehemently agree with the reviewer who noted homoerotic overtones between the airman Rook and Thom the academic. The tension was explained away in a hokey long-lost-brother frill that was telegraphed chapters before. NOT convincing. The book is overwhelmingly masculine, hardly any female characters (besides whores and a nasty housewife) so the authors' weird tone deafness about men was all the more jarring. Example: hyper-macho Rook persecutes gentle Thom ruthlessly--but gently raises Thom by the chin to look into his eyes during an argument. A genuine WTF!? moment and one of too many.
I enjoyed the book, mind. The dragons were fascinating; worth a lot more development. The characters were more types than people and the world building was incomplete but the book was still a fun read. (Gorgeous cover art too.) So...a *good* book, and authors with a lot of potential.
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