A review by wealhtheow
Hostage by Sherwood Smith, Rachel Manija Brown

3.0

The town of Las Anclas won a battle, but they're still in danger of being conquered by the king of Gold Point, Voske. Voske is smart and ruthless, and he kidnaps the one person who turned the tide of battle the last time: teenaged orphan prospector Ross Juarez. He's sure that through bribery, threats, or torture, he can convince Ross to use his Change power for Gold Point instead of Las Anclas. In response to Ross's dire situation, his friends kidnap Voske's eldest daughter in hopes of a prisoner exchange. But of course Voske has no interest in negotiation, and so Ross is stuck in Gold Point, and Kerry stuck in Las Anclas.

I am in love with the concepts of this novel. I love the post-apocaplyptic desert setting, I love the thoughtfulness that clearly went into the logistics of food, defense, waste management, etc for the towns, I love the character concepts, I love the variety of characters' backgrounds and motives. If I were much younger, I would adore these books. But perhaps because I am well past the target audience, I was mostly endlessly annoyed by how stupid many of the Las Anclas characters were, and how unlikely I thought the happy ending was.

I was annoyed when a band of teenagers who had just lived through a battle for their lives then immediately befriended the crown princess of the army that just battered at their gates and killed their friends and family. They literally see her once as she's being brought to the jail, and immediately feel SO BADLY that she's being kept prisoner that they plan a secret party just for her. Their naivete is made all the worse because we see Kerry's perspective, and all the while she's smiling and trying to get their sympathy, her inner monologue is all about the evil things she'll do to them once she's back in power. But hey, I'll buy jejune teenagers. But then the town elders, all of whom have dealt with Voske and know just what kind of tactics he uses and would train his daughter to use, agree to let Kerry wander the town, with no guard or protection other than another teenager girl who they know has absolutely no fighting skills whatsoever. So Kerry gets to see all over the town, hear all sorts of chatter about their defenses, capabilities, and personalities, and the only thing stopping her is an absent minded teenager. COME ON WHO WOULD DO THAT. Even that I could deal with but then at the end Kerry has a change of heart that I just didn't buy. She turns against her father, all her privilege, her city, and her entire way of life for no real reason I could see. It seemed like she'd been a prisoner of Las Anclas for at most a week, although a reference to Ross being captive for 3 months makes me think it was supposed to be longer. But in that bare amount of time she apparently was so overcome with the freedom and generosity she found in Las Anclas that she decided committing treason (which she was pretty sure would get her killed) was worthwhile. And even THAT I would have bought if there'd been more to her pov chapters, but as it was it felt very unearned. Even more unearned was the whole happy ending, wherein Voske loses his gunpowder, Changed spy, and basically most of his ability to attack Las Anclas.

I like the characters and setting a lot. But I think this series is not to my taste, for no problem of its own.