Published by HarperTeen on October 17th, 2017
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 432
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads
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In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be darkness—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death-bringer.
These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up learning in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.
Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.
Despite the middling rating, I really enjoyed this. I didn't have super high hopes because other books have made the same promises as this one does, but I'm very happy to report that this book actually delivers. The stories in here actually hold power. The dragons actually do dragony-type things! It really was a solid, enjoyable read. However, there were some funny parts that kind of screamed debut and a strange lack of structure and weird pacing that threw me off.
I loved Asha. I think she easily falls into the Strong Female Character archetype that people are so used to seeing, but to me, that's not a criticism at all. This type of character is important and I refuse to call it overdone. She's physically strong while mentally she's struggling to hold all these different balls in the air at once. Asha especially wants to prove worthiness, particularly to her father. What I really, really loved about her was her capability and her confidence. At one point she said something along the lines of, "Don't you understand? I am the danger." and it just rocked my world. I know saying this will get a mixed reception but she honestly brought me back to Katniss, in the best way possible.
At the risk of sounding repeptitive, I also loved the world-building. I read a review of The Last Namsara that said the world-building was non-existent which really confused me, because I found it to be absolutely gorgeous and easy to sink into. Everything from the mythology to the clothes they wore was so fully fleshed out and exactly to my liking. I mean, we even learn about their flowers and their herbs and the specific types of healing. I found the stories simply amazing as well. Every few chapters we get an Old Story from this world, and they were gorgeously written and immersive and added so much to the book.
And the dragons! The dragons are why we all picked this one up, right? I swear every time I pick up a YA dragon book I am sorely disappointed. Either the dragons are meaningless or they're hardly there at all. Or they all died off. But in The Last Namsara they are extremely important to the world, the story, and Asha herself. She is a dragon hunter, after all. I've never read about any dragons quite like these ones, either. I just loved how present they were, how much of the story was driven by the dragons' presence. If you want a dragon book, this will not disappoint at all.
However, there were parts that did disappoint. Asha is given three gifts and a task to go with each of these gifts. With this type of story, the structure is basically ready-made for you. Except it felt incredibly jumbled most of the time. At one point it felt like every scene was the climax of the book, and it would have been if it was a different book with a different writer. And maybe the constantly-rising tension works for some, but for this it didn't work for me. Because the one half of the story that was dealing with these tasks was on a whole different level than the other half of the story, which was dealing with the slaves, the politics, and Asha's impeding marriage to the villain, Jarek. Each story was a great story, but they weren't on the same page, so to speak. The catalysts, the tension, none of it was aligned and it felt very jarring half the time.
I also wasn't a fan of the romance. In Firgaard, Asha's home, there are slaves called the skral. The romance is between Asha and one of the skral, Torwin. However, Torwin doesn't get a name until past the halfway point in the book. Not only did it make for an annoying reading experience, it also felt so... disrespectful, I guess. There's a throwaway line later on that sort of explains why Asha doesn't call him by his name but it didn't fix the problem at least for me. I also never really felt the love between them. I felt the comraderie and the friendship, but it never made it past those two things. Highlight to reveal spoiler:And when we learn that they're basically fated to be together, I rolled my eyes pretty hard.
Now, those negatives aside, when I look at how I felt about The Last Namsara I really, really enjoyed it. I liked the main character, I absolutely LOVED the world she lived in, and I liked all the plot points as well as the twists and reveals. The next book is about Roa, a character I find immensely interesting and I cannot wait to read about her. If the author keeps the same writing style, with the Old Stories strewn in, even better. I definitely recommend this to those who are looking for a book in which stories actually have power and dragons really do exist.
