Review: A Huntsman’s Fate – Prequel

Hello everyone! How are you? We are nearing the end of June and I really can’t get it. For me, June has started now! But I can’t complain, I am waiting for July because I would have the vacations, and July is near and nearer, yay! Anyway… I have planned a couple of posts to speak about this first half of the year (a tag and one about the series) but I have also a ton of reviews to write, so I have chosen to start the week with a review! It would be a short one, because it’s for a really short book, again, but I love the idea to start a new week with a review!

I received this book on an open giveaway in exchange for an honest review. 

Title: A Huntsman’s fate
Series: A Huntsman’s Fate #0.5
Author: Liam Reese
Page count: 48 pages

This is a prequel to the series and it’s a really short novella. I would copy here the synopsis for the series.
Orphaned by an assassin’s blade, Besmir spends his youth on the fringes of society. He grows into a hunstman of some note, suitable to put food on the Duke’s table, if unfit to join the meal. His simple, meager life is thrown into chaos when he finds himself approached by Zaynorth, an illusion mage who has come in search of Besmir, bearing a remarkable truth: the huntsman is far more than he knows himself to be.

A Huntsman Fate is an epic fantasy saga of breathtaking scope, following the rise of a man of humble beginnings across time as he shapes not only his own destiny, but the fates of kingdoms, worlds, and even the gods themselves.

Little Side Note: On the author’s site you can get a free copy of this prequel, here.

As you can see from the number of pages this novella is a really short one, and I am always a little bit skeptical with novellas, because they are great if you know the series and the world, but if the first thing you read of a series is a short novella… well, it’s hard. I mean that it’s not easy to successfully portrait an entire world and introduce your characters in a good way, a way that can make them real to the reader, with a short amount of pages. Usually, fantasy books have a lot of pages, so with so few of them to go around it’s always hard to show what your series is and it’s even harder to interest the reader and to motivate him to go on and continue, or better, to start, the series for real.

But this one was a pleasant surprise! Yes, it’s not perfect, for me the ending is hurried and it could have been done a little bit better. But I enjoyed it, and I would go on with the series, that’s for sure. So I can say that this one accomplished his mission, because now I want more!

I was hooked up from the start, the first chapter dug me in and I was suddenly in the middle of the palace, following Besmir while he has to find an apprentice. He’s not happy with it and he smugly thinks that nobody in his right mind would volunteer for the position. As if! And so we follow him and his new apprentice while they grow accustomed to each other until the revelations who would change their lives for good.

I love the books in which we get a good relationship between master and apprentice, and the parts in which the apprentice is training are some of my favorites. I don’t know why, but I love the parts about school and training, always had. So the story was interesting for me, and I liked it a lot. But the best part was Besmir. I really really liked him. He has great potentialities and I am dying to see more of him! If I liked him with these few pages, what it would be when I would have an entire book in my hand??
But the story is not only about the Huntsman, it’s also about his apprentice, Keluse. And she is an interesting character, too. And I liked their relationship, even if we have just a little taste of it. I think that the bond between her and Besmir would be interesting to develop and I really hope that her training would continue in the books, too!

Sooo.. for me this one was a great appetizer, but now I want the main curse!

Have you read something from this author? And what do you think about novellas? Do you love them? Or are you skeptical like me?
Let me know!
Happy reading!
S.