Title: Horde
Author: Ann Aguirre
Publisher/Year: Feiwel & Friends 10/29/13
Length:  432 pages
Series:  Razorland Trilogy #3

Overview

The horde is coming.

Salvation is surrounded, monsters at the gates, and this time, they’re not going away. When Deuce, Fade, Stalker and Tegan set out, the odds are against them. But the odds have been stacked against Deuce from the moment she was born. She might not be a Huntress anymore, but she doesn’t run. With her knives in hand and her companions at her side, she will not falter, whether fighting for her life or Fade’s love.

Ahead, the battle of a lifetime awaits. Freaks are everywhere, attacking settlements, setting up scouts, perimeters, and patrols. There hasn’t been a war like this in centuries, and humans have forgotten how to stand and fight. Unless Deuce can lead them.

This time, however, more than the fate of a single enclave or outpost hangs in the balance. This time, Deuce carries the banner for the survival of all humanity.

My Thoughts

I’ve been trying to read this final installment of the series for quite some time, and finally finished it.  I don’t know why – but when i started it back a few weeks ago, i got only a few chapters in and it wasn’t sticking.  Lucky for me, i had a long plane ride yesterday and picked it back up to read since it’s airplane friendly reading…..and i’m thrilled that i finished it.

In this third and final book of the series, we are finding ourselves hanging in the balance again – where something needs to be done to kill the Horde of freaks before they kill the humans, and Deuce needs to find a way to convince people that they need to fight.  The Huntress in her comes out full force in this story and we see her growing up quite a bit.

After making an agreement with Colonel Park to get information from one of the other settlements, she has been given permission to try to create an army that’s not tied to one town, but that will band together to fight at One.  while at first she finds little success outside of her settlement, she continues to push forward.  Through the help of traders that are trusted by the other towns, word begins to spread that they are forming, fighting small battles and winning, and somehow manage to gain more recruits.  Deuce finds herself with a set of new confidantes that are amazing resources to him.

What’s really nice about this book is that we see a lot of relationship development and that really helps bring the plot along.  there’s the continued struggle with Deuce and Stalker on how to make any friendship work or not….and how to make it work with Fade.  Tegan begins to come into her own as a medic since her skills are needed now more than ever because of things that happen in Salvation and across the land.  Deuce helps put her ‘family’ (the Oaks) back together and grows it too…and she reunites with Stone and Thimble somehow

Now i’m kind of sad to see the series end, since i really enjoyed where it took us.  There were characters that were adored that didn’t make it to the end of the book, and that made things all that much more bittersweet.

the off point for me though is that usually i find an epilogue to be really helpful and a great way to provide closure.  I’m not sure that this one really did that – or was necessary  but i get why the author wrote it.   Is it bad of me to hope that maybe there will be another novella that would give us another look into the underground and maybe where their story continues?  i feel like there’s room for it now that Topside keeps changing.  Just a thought – Enjoy!