Many thanks to Angry Robot Books for providing an ARC for review!
Ciel Pierlot pens an atmospheric locked-room adventure full of brutal vampires, a feisty, demanding, and selfish human blacksmith, and a 250-year-ritual steeped in blood magic in The Hunter’s Gambit.
That is something else she learned from a young age – the truth gets you scraps and vulnerability; lies get your needs met.
– excerpt from Ciel Pierlot’s The Hunter’s Gambit
In just under 400 pages, Ciel Pierlot pulls the reader into a lavish, extravagant ball – one full of savage duels, sadistically saccharine vampires, and a self-centered human determined to bring them all down.
Kazan Korvic’s life has been marred by vampires – literally. Not only was she orphaned in a vampire attack as a child, but the tragedy that destroyed her family resulted in a severe scar that’s transformed her face forever. Intent on saving herself at all costs, Kazan put everything into her blacksmithing business after being denied entry to the Wardens – a tight-knit group of guards whose sole intent is to protect the human population from vampires. She’s learned to fight through cunning exchanges of skill, bits of training passed off for favors and lies and weapons, of which she makes the best around. Anointed with holy water, covered in the finest silver, and crafted with rowan, her craftsmanship is unmatched in Mavazem to the point that she can no longer make a sale within the city’s borders.
For she doesn’t simply forge swords, she learns them too – how to hold them, how to swing them, how to cut with them.
– excerpt from Ciel Pierlot’s The Hunter’s Gambit
A skilled pickpocket, cunning manipulator, and trained liar, Kazan’s quite charming even if she’s not perfect. She may not be the best fighter, but she’s got a strong survival instinct and is incredibly observant. When paired with her steadfast, stubborn nature, she’s a born survivor; she’ll do anything to protect herself, even if it means backstabbing an ex-lover, thwarting a decades’ long plot for revenge, or leaving behind her travel companions and going up against an entire vampire hunting party alone. Her tendency to lie, cheat and steal to get what she wants makes her something of an unreliable and unpredictable narrator, one that is self-centered, self-sufficient, and morally grey – something not often seen in female characters, but that makes for an exceptionally well-crafted, fast-paced narrative once she’s captured, forced to fight Adrius de Vere, and her plans to sell to the neighboring city’s High Warden are thrown into tension-fueled chaos when she is forced to become Lord Dasar’s Vampire Queen instead.
What unfolds across the three-day feast that follows is addicting, exhilarating and charming, written in a deft, incredibly detailed hand that is exceptionally skilled in building layers of atmospheric detail as we run with Kazan through the halls of Dasar’s expansive castle. Add in a strong enemies-to-lovers rival in Adrius de Vere, with whom she has something of a tense, sizzling chemistry after their initial banter-filled encounter at Madam Rask’s (the merchant’s party the beginning of a downhill battle for freedom that (in)directly resulted in Kazan’s defeat and capture), and a sultry, compassionate heiress in Aishreya, and Pierlot sets the reader up for the beginning of a seductive and charming game that promises not only a spicy vampire threesome, but betrayal, manipulation, and incredible tension that propels the entire narrative forward on multiple occasions as the countdown to Kazan’s ritual death plays out.
‘Like and dislike are such simple words,’ she teases. ‘I don’t like how much I like you, and I dislike how difficult it is to completely dislike you.’
– excerpt from Ciel Pierlot’s The Hunter’s Gambit
Split into parts, separated by days, the narrative flows at a quick, brutal pace, forging ahead alongside Kazan’s simmering hatred, which intensifies with each mocking gesture made in her honor. Stripped of her sword and her dignity, Kazan is forced to comply, trapped inside a castle teeming with hungry vampires thirsting for blood. Stubborn and fiery, she doesn’t back down – always watching, waiting, intent on creating a game of her own; she will survive, no matter the cost. She lies, cheats, and manipulates others, refusing to bend even when she is broken time and again with each successive attempt to steal her sword and escape. Kazan is her anger, which is, in itself an incredible strength. Her morally grey stance on the world – and the agency that comes from rage – make her a fascinating and uplifting character, one that is forced through trauma but perseveres time and again, despite the lies that make it hard to truly know and understand herself.
She had never thought of herself as a particularly violent person before, but she is, was, and always will be, desperate to survive at all costs.
– excerpt from Ciel Pierlot’s The Hunter’s Gambit
As she fights Dasar – and, to a lesser extent – Adrius, Kazan uncovers secrets about the manor and its hidden treasures, wherein Pierlot unearths fascinating lore on giests, spirits, and blood magic, all of which connect to Adrius, making him harder and harder to trust – at least in Kazan’s eyes. For all of his kindness and compassion, not to mention his genuine interest in her, both sexual and emotional, Kazan feels trapped, convinced that he too is manipulating her – an idea that is reinforced by her stubbornness paired with the miscommunication trope. Kazan is so focused on herself – on her survival – that she can’t fathom trusting anyone – not the shape-shifting vampire Reya, who has only showed her soft affection and compassion, and certainly not Adrius, who is gentle and caring, but has a dark reputation amongst his kind. Her distrust – understandable but frustrating, at times – is, in many ways, her downfall. It leads to messy, brutal confrontations, savage duels in her name, and an unforgettable transformation that will change her life forever.
While a romance does exist – as does a sensual and spicy threesome that unites Kazan, Adrius and Reya (the latter two co-conspirators in Dasar’s downfall and long-time lovers), it is more of a subplot: a dark, seductive undertone to the narrative that I would have loved to see developed just a bit more given the novel’s rather open-ended conclusion, but it’s addicting all the same, more lust-fueled desire than anything more concrete. That being said, there’s a strong foundation, incredible chemistry, and absolutely charming banter that really solidifies the enemies-to-lovers situationship between the trio, who genuinely admire and adore Kazan for who she is, despite her many, many flaws.
Anger is her friend. Her lover. It has made her clever, made her quick, made her strong. Dasar’s game is all vanity and ego. He doesn’t know anger as she does, hasn’t let it kiss the very marrow of her bones as she has. Where anger sharpens her, it blunts him.
– excerpt from Ciel Pierlot’s The Hunter’s Gambit
The Hunter’s Gambit is as brutal as it is seductive, and Pierlot’s impeccable attention to detail, both stunning and gritty, offers a fascinating and graphic take on vampires. The pages of this dark fantasy are filled with well-choreographed fight scenes, full of blood and gore and primal rage, initiated by vampires that truly do not give a fuck. They’re ruthless and cunning and incredibly deadly, and Pierlot grabs your attention immediately, pulling the reader into a paralyzing yet tantalizing chokehold simmering with rage and indignation alongside Kazan, who we root for and dislike in equal measure as the events of the novel playout.
Sultry, seductive and dark, The Hunter’s Gambit is an unforgiving vampire romp that is as beautiful as it is deadly: a gripping dark fantasy with a touch of romance that breathes fresh life into the brutal, savage nature of vampires in a locked-room adventure in the same vein as Gideon the Ninth, if Cytherea was a bloodthirsty vampire instead of a lyctor – and if Harrow, Gideon, and Ianthe were a throuple. Come for the vampires and stay for the fire that is Kazan Korvic on a self-serving mission to save her own life, whether it means betraying her new lovers or not.
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