Doppelganger by Marie Brennan

Doppelganger by Marie Brennan is lots of fun!

When a witch is born, a doppelganger is created. For the witch to master her powers, the twin must be killed. But what happens when the doppelganger survives?

Mirage, a fierce bounty hunter, lives by her wits and lethal fighting skills. She always gets her mark. But her new mission will take her into the shadowy world of witches, where her strength may be no match against magic.

Miryo is a witch who has just failed her initiation test. She now knows that there is someone in the world who looks like her, who is her: Mirage. To control her powers and become a full witch, Miryo has only one choice. To hunt the hunter and destroy her.

I really enjoyed reading this book and now I cannot wait to read the sequel. I want I want I want I want. Did I mention I want it?!

Doppelganger has some interesting characters as well as a creative Japanese-style world. The book starts out with Mirage and her friend Eclipse getting a mission to solve the assassination of a high-ranking witch. Normally, Mirage stays away from witches as Hunters tend to dislike them as she has been mistaken for one many times as she has the red hair that's usually a witch characteristic. It's this mission that's going to set Mirage on a collision course with her double, Miryo.

Miryo is a witch and has spent most of her life learning about magic and her duties as a witch in Starfall. She's apprehensive because it's almost time for her testing, which will determine if she is to come into her full abilities. Unfortunately, this is where she learns that she has a double (and why) and that she must kill her doppelganger with her own hands if she is to live. If she doesn't, her magic will become uncontrollable, killing her and most likely anyone around her. So Miryo is determined to kill it. And off she goes in search of her double.

Any more would really really head into spoiler territory. The magic system/world here is easy to understand (but there is a glossary in the back) and I liked how bits and pieces of it are shown throughout the book. You have to work to get the whole picture, but it's a fun puzzle. There's a lot of action and the fight scenes are very well done. Actually, I found everything well done. It's a very entertaining book. Some fantasy gets bogged down in the details, but Doppelganger is very fast-paced.

I loved the ending and was quite surprised in how things worked out. Of course, now I really can't wait to read the next one, since this is just the beginning of great change. And I really can't wait for Warrior and Witch later this year.