Astrid is having trouble coming to terms with her ancestral calling. On one hand, she can't let the unicorns slaughter innocent people. On the other, she doesn't feel right hunting the unicorns to extinction. So when Astrid is offered a job protecting a herd, she views it as a chance to get away from the Cloisters and try to understand the animals better. But she also learns that everything comes at a price and someone is always the loser.
As one, the unicorns bowed before me, touching their horns to the earth, and I released my hands. I was a goddess. I was Diana, the Huntress, the Mistress of the Animals. p.215
I actually found this one a little more compelling than
Rampant. It explores the moral implications more of taking a virtually extinct and once thought mythical creature and either hunting it to extinction or using it like a lab rat. Neither are really going to work, but how do you solve a problem like man-eating unicorns? Astrid doesn't know but then neither does anyone in her world. And Astrid does not think a lot of herself and her powers so I liked seeing her explore them more along with her ability to "communicate" with the unicorns. There is understandably some killing and a lot of action, but it was nice to not to have it
hunt, kill all the time like in
Rampant. Astrid certainly has a lot of questions that need answering as do I. The ending set up nicely for another book but without a dreaded cliff-hanger.
I really enjoyed reading the first book and I'm glad to hear that the sequal isn't a let down. I love action in books, so yay that it got that! ;) Looking forward reading this book.
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