In the conclusion to the Hunter series, things are more tense than ever in Apex City. Joy and the other Elite responsible for keeping the Othersiders at bay are working overtime – way overtime – keeping the city safe, and the suspicious head of PsiCorps isn’t making their jobs any easier. If that weren’t enough to deal with, the appearance of a mysterious Folk Mage will make Joy question everything she’s ever believed about the relationship between humans and Othersiders.
If it’s been a while since you read Elite, the second book in the series, or if you happen to be picking up the series for the first time, it might take you a little while to get into the groove of life in Apex City, since Apex picks up right in the middle of the action. And once you’re in the groove, hold on for dear life, because it moves fast!
Once you’re going, though, you won’t want to stop. Apex has it all – magic, battle, intrigue, robots, romance, social critique, and more. In less capable hands, it might seem like too much for one book, but Lackey handles it all so masterfully that I could only manage to be impressed.
The obvious comparison to make is to Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games or Veronica Roth’s Divergent, so I’ll go ahead and second those endorsements. Joy is a bad-ass fighter, there’s lots of gritty action, and not everyone makes it out alive. If you enjoyed both of the above series but also have a penchant for stories about the treacherous fae and the danger of trusting them, this book is for you! I was primarily familiar with Lackey’s work in the more traditional fantasy genre, and I was really impressed with how she incorporated many of those ideas and tropes into a future dystopian war zone.
I can’t promise that by the conclusion of Apex you won’t be hoping for more Hunter books, but I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed with this one.
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for review.
