A really great beginning of a vibrant series. The world-building is localised to the city of Elantra, but there are a few exciting races, a lot of magic, and a dragon emperor. The main heroine is a young Hawk (a cop) a stumbles into a lot of magical trouble where she intuitively finds a way to avoid disaster. Fun, sharp series. Recommended.

* * *

Замечательное начало лёгкой, яркой фэнтезийной серии. Построение мира сосредоточено на городе Элантра, однако он полон интересных рас, старой магии и управляется императором - драконом. Главная героиня - молодой Ястреб (полицейский) и как магнит, притягивает к себе магические неприятности, которые разрешает интуитивно. Острая, увлекательная серия. Рекомендую.

ORIGINAL READ: 6/10 (5 December 2005 - 9 December 2005)

I liked this book, despite the low rating I've given in. The main character is solidly developed and likeable, the secondary characters and varied and different (although I found Severn, the lead human male character, to be less well created and kind of boring) the story is interesting and the world and its inhabitants fascinating. I read it steadily and wanted to know what was going to happen next. I'm also still interested in reading the next in the series.

However, I felt things were just a little vague. That or my understanding was lacking. There were lots of good ideas, but exactly what was going on and what the world was like never felt exactly clear to me. The characters kept exchanging meaningful looks that told each other volumes, but the implications weren't clear enough for me to get it too, so that I only ever felt I got the drift of the story rather than the depth of it. I know my illness means I have a really terrible memory, but I'm not stupid and I usually understand what I'm reading.

That said, there were plent of things I did like, I just want to be more confident I jumped to the right conclusions, and I'm not left with that feeling. The races and history of the Empire gave hints of being very interesting, but it was never spelled out clearly enough for me to fell I know how it actually works. The author dropped us into the deep end of her world and set about explaining how it worked in context without ever spelling it out. This is a laudable idea - I like a blatant infodump as little as the next reader - but things never got clear enough for me to be certain I had understood.

The idea of the magic and the point of the symbols was a good one and I want to know more about it. The idea that the power came from names and the power of language without language was clever, but since we mere mortals are limited the language and the story is told with that language, I felt the idea wasn't quite pulled off.

I guess, the low rating comes from frustration. This book had great ideas and could have been fantastic instead of just good if things had been a little clearer - or if I'm a litte dense. I'm willing to accept it might have been my faulty brain instead of the author. I'd be interested to hear from others who have read the book if they agree or think I'm totally off track.

As mentioned above, I also found Severn kind of bland. The other characters were much more interesting, especially Lord Nightshade. I think I'll be reading the next one if only to find out more about him and what he might want with Kaylin.

So, for me, this was a good book with flaws that stopped it from being a great book.

[Copied across from Library Thing; 17 October 2012]


REREAD #1: 8/10 (13 November 2007 - 17 November 2007)

Seven years ago Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered -- and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin . . .

Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth.

But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging, Kaylin is ordered back into Nightshade with a partner she knows she can't trust, a Dragon lord for a companion and a device to contain her powers -- powers that no other human has. Her task is simple -- find the killer, stop the murders . . . and survive the attentions of those who claim to be her allies!

This was another reread for me. The first time I read Cast in Shadow I came away from it a bit frustrated. I liked the story and the characters, but I was left with a feeling that I hadn't really got the book. A friend who borrowed it and liked it, admitted that she had read it twice, and it had made a lot more sense the second time. I decided I would reread it myself some time in the future, probably before reading the sequel as I knew I wanted to continue with the story.

Due to complications of US and Australian publication and budgetary constraints, I actually got hold of volume 2 and volume 3 of the series at about the same time. So all three books sat on the TBR shelf for a while until I finally picked up Cast in Shadow for that planned reread.

My friend was right. It made much more sense the second time. I liked the story just as much as before, but I understood it better this time as well. All the same, but original problems do remain. My feeling is that Sagara has done some excellent and probably complicated worldbuilding. However, she hasn't managed to convery the details of her world to the page as well as she might have done. I had to pay attention, knowing where I'd been confused before, to pick up on things I had missed. They were there, but still not easy to find.

My other issue had been that Sagara leaves just a bit too much up to the reader. I'm all for leaving the reader to do some of the work, but if the hints and clues aren't clear enough, said reader (or me, anyway) can't necessarily pick up on them. The characters kept sharing speaking glances or having moments of understanding where there wasn't enough information for me to work out whatever it was they were realising. In some cases it didn't seem to matter, but it others it might have done and I don't know because I missed it.

But it is still a good book. It's still an interesting story with engaging characters and some very clever ideas and plot twists. I was interested in reading the sequel before and I am more so now, especially since I feel like I understand the political system a bit better and everything suggests that will be significant in book two.

Don't let my comments put you off - this is a good book. It's just that you have to be awake and pay attention. Don't expect to skim along the surface and have everything explained to you, because it doesn't work that way.

There are a number of different races in this world and it is important to come to some understanding of each one, most especially the immortal Barrani, whose past seems to be coming back to haunt the entire population. They are left deliberately obscure by Sagara, but hopefully more will be revealed as the books go on. Cast in Shadow is the first of at least four books, possibly more, so I guess if everything was explained in the first volume there wouldn't be a lot left for the later ones.

So stay awake and you'll be rewarded with a very good story. As always, I have to find the time, but I'm looking forward to Cast in Courtlight (which has the most beautiful cover) and Cast in Secret.

Cast in Shadow
Michelle Sagara
The Chronicle of Elantra, Book 1
8/10
Followed by:
Cast in Courtlight
Cast in Secret
Cast in Fury (forthcoming)

[Copied across from Library Thing; 17 October 2012]

Cast in Shadow is the first in a series (9 books so far) that I’ve been waiting to start for a long, long time. I still don’t know how long the series is going to be, but I figured there are enough books out that I could get started and see if the wait has been worth it, and oh yes it has. I'm going to have to pace myself on this one so I don't have to play the waiting game for too long.

It is a High Fantasy, but with a definite Urban Fantasy feel. It takes place in a single city, with several different races: Humans, Leontines (Lionish), Aerials (Hawkish), Barrani (flawless immortals), and Dragons (also immortals). There are a couple more, but those are the main ones we meet in this book. Each is complete with its own culture and characteristics, making this a vibrant, interesting world.

Kaylin is a Hawk (not to be confused with the Aerial species), which is a sort of police force in the city. Her interactions with her co-Hawks of various races are what really makes the story come alive with both humor and tension, setting an atmosphere that I found addictive without really being able to explain why.

The story starts as Kaylin gets pulled in on a case involving deaths of children that are similar to deaths that occurred in her orphan past, a past she has tried to ignore. What exactly happened is a mystery for a large part of the book, but once we know what happened, the question becomes why, and how to stop it from happening again.

A lot of things are a mystery, some because they aren’t revealed all at once, and some because the world-building is difficult to understand at times. Sometimes, I felt like I was missing basic background information that prevented me from following everything as it was revealed. I didn't always understand as much as Kaylin did during her discoveries - explanations and experiences that she accepted as just another piece of the puzzle were confusing to me. There was a definite feeling of being in the dark at times.

So the world-building doesn’t spell it all out, but I liked what I did understand enough that I just went with it and got the gist of things. I hoped my understanding would fill in later. And it did, more through the events than the explanations. By the end of the book, I felt like I pretty solidly knew what was going on, how the world was set up, who was in it, what the magic was - mostly. There’s still a lot that I need to learn more about, but I think I’ve got the basics down, and having plenty left to learn promises more fun reading the series.

I don’t want to put other readers off with this, because I really liked the book and can see a lot of potential in the series. This is more a warning that it could be easy to get frustrated at first. Just don’t get bogged down in trying to decipher the meaning of every detail straight away. Because even though not everything is totally clear, it becomes clear as the action fills in the picture for you. I learned much more about the world through Kaylin's relationships and through seeing what happens than anything else, which is a great way to learn how a world works. I really got into it, caught by the atmosphere and attached to the characters.

After the last page, I felt a bit lost, and had to go read the beginning of the next book to fill the void. Only the beginning though, because I’m not going to rush through these all at once. This is a series to savor, and I intend to make it last.

DNF @ 60%

I knew almost immediately that I wasn't vibing with this book. I had to restart the book like 3 times because I had no clue what was going on. And then I realized, we aren't meant to know. We aren't meant to know hardly anything.

The writing is purposefully vague and mysterious. That's fine, BUT, not knowing made me not care. And not caring made me extremely bored.

This is not a 1 star book by any means. There is a rich world with history and factions, and I'm sure the plot is good for people who enjoy the writing, but it's not for me.

n  n
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I have the terrible habit of leaving half-finished books around (either literally on the floor or figuratively on my Kindle) and since I'm gearing up for not one, not two, but THREE buddy-reads(!), I figured I probably ought to get my ass in gear and finish some of these bad boys before I get started. And lest you think I'm some sort of book wizard (which, in fact, I am), no, I didn't just read seven books in a day. I read seven half-finished books in a day. Which rounds out to maybe 3.5 books, which I still feel like is pretty impressive.



CAST IN SHADOW is actually a reread for me. I read it the first time when I was young (when the Great Wall of China was only half-built and people still talked to each other on the telephone). I remembered giving it a two, which I thought might have been a little harsh. Young Me was a lot harder to please than Old Me in some ways. Chiefly because Young Me labored under the belief that you were only as smart as the books you liked to read. Whoops. Bad Young Me! Bad!



Anyway, I started this book again for funsies and at first I was like HMMM THIS IS REALLY INTERESTING. It's one of those fantasy novels that feels vaguely medieval but the language is super modern so you're like Robin Williams in Jumanji when he's like, "WHAT YEAR IS IT." But I dug the leather pants and the court intrigue and the fact that there are not one, not two, not three, not four, but FIVE hot guys to ogle, plus magic tattoos, dragons, and a murder plot. What's not to like??



Well, this book is 500 pages. Officially I nope-quit at p.279 but I skim-read to the end because I wanted to see what would happen. Not much. It's also super confusing because there are all these names for everything with a lot of overlap (like, you can be a Leontine breed who speaks Barrani and is still a Hawklord-- decipher THAT, you peasant), and none of it ever felt really all that well-defined. The heroine is also an unquestionable Mary Sue of the "I wear leather pants and will beat you to death with grumpy sarcasm" variety that was so popular in the oughts. She also bears a pretty stark resemblance to Celery Saltine-thin from the Throne of Glass series, so actually if you like those books, you might like this as it has the same "peasant dragged up through hell and back, gone through some shit, now serving a hot prince while the kingdom potentially falls to magical ruin" vibes. #noshade



I guess I just got tired of waiting for things to click. You win this one, Young Me.



2 to 2.5 stars

n  My Review: 6 - Worth Reading, with Reservationsn

I've been wanting to read this book for quite a long time now. I was familiar with the author through LJ, and when this came out, it seemed like it'd be right up my alley. But I never got it. I waited forever, kept it on my wishlist, but never got around to picking it up. But a couple of years ago, the Christmas fairy delivered it to my doorstep, and it's been waiting on my attentions ever since. Thanks to all of YOU, dear readers, I've finally gotten the motivation to give it a go.

The world-building is fascinating, and the crafting of characters is very well done. Each of the characters stand as individuals, with their own demons driving them. Even if I don't know entirely where they're coming from, I don't get the characters confused with one another, not even the minor ones. That's impressive, because the book is told predominantly from a single POV, so there's a lot of secondary, tertiary, and very minor characters to keep track of. And as I said before, the world-building is fascinating. I was quite impressed with the way the world and its magic and races were crafted, and I can see why this book has garnered quite a lot of praise.

However, and you knew this was coming due to the rating, I can't say I ever really connected to the material emotionally. Or intellectually. It took me a while to warm up to the book. I recognized that this is well written, and Sagara doesn't bother spoon-feeding her readers: she makes you wait for your revelations, and furthermore, she forces you to figure things out for yourself. Whereas some writers would come out and just explain what's happening and why, Sagara uses character-building moments that build the tension, so that when the information is given that reveals what's happening, you really feel like you've earned it. My trouble is I felt like I was kept as such a distance the entire book that I really wanted, at some point, was for someone or something to give me a quick pat on the head and confirm what I thought was revealed. I don't need it info-dumped or spelled out in neon lights: just some kind of little confirmation in certain cases would've been great. This may be a me-thing, but it's weird when I finally think I figure out what's going on but feel unsatisfied because the author's been so deft, and so coy with the revelations that it's not like a light bulb turning on with all its dazzling brightness; instead, it's like one of those florescent bulbs that slowly brightens, but flickers while doing so and you're not sure if it's going to die or not.

But there are moments of great beauty in this book: the description of the Dragons (and they're not what you think they are) was utterly fantastic. Then there's the hard-earned relationships that Kaylin has with her co-workers: I really feel those relationships, and the end rang on a fantastic note. So while I'm not rushing out to buy the next installment, I am sufficiently engaged to consider glomming onto this series when that mythical day of my conquering my TBR passes. For those looking for a unique take in the epic fantasy sense, you should consider this.

I'm percolating my thoughts. RTC.

Solid start to a series I've been meaning to try for a while. Good world building; the main character is a little "I'm so angry at the world and also very special," but hoping that will settle a bit as the series goes on.

a rare occasion that i give a book a higher rating than the average. but i do totally understand why so many people are marking this down. they have the same issues with it as i do.

so the good - i really liked the characters, i liked the world, i liked all the different races, and the hawks/swords/wolf stuff.

however, the one thing that drove me crazy in this book (and is a huge "book sin" for me) is when an author doesn't disclose information that is needed. almost everyone in the entire book has information that is vital to kaylin and no one will tell her anything. it's an annoying, greedy, grab at extending the series. i found it to be extremely frustrating that there were lots of vague and obtuse answers constantly given about things - for no reason at all. for example -  there's no reason severn couldn't have told an adult kaylin about why he killed the kids. there's no reason that the nightlord and tiamaris couldn't disclose they suspected "the big bad guy" was an outcast dragon. stuff like that is just maddening.

but i did like the series enough to continue.

If I rate a book five stars, its usually because I love the book so much that I reread the book at least once a year. This is one of those books, that you could pick up at a grocery store (exactly what I did) and are so shocked that you've found a favorite author. I've read all of the novels in this series and reccomend them to anyone.

Michelle Sagara takes you to another world full of magic and darkness. There are two types of people that live here: immortals and mortals. Immortals are races such as Barrani(A basic description would be perfect. Tall, flawless ivory skin, long dark hair, and tend to only smile when they're killing something), or dragons (they more or less rule the world, or at least believe they control the majority of it.). Mortals are races such as Arians (Winged people. They do not like their wings touched.), leotines (In order to imagine these people, invision a lion on two feet. Their language is a series of growls and hisses), humans, and possibly a few others. Each race more or less has their own 'Cast', except humans, that is their type of government. My favorite thing about alot of the races is that they express their emotions through thier eyes; each color means something different for each race, such as red in a dragon basically means your going to die a horrible firey death. The author describes these races very well throughout the novel, and although I've tried, I can't do them justice.
What really makes the books, though, is the main character Kaylin Neya; a former street urchin from the wrong side of the tracks (in reality a bridge) that tries to make something of herself working in the law system. It kinda helps that she is constantly late for work, always underdressed, takes bets she almost never wins, learns curse words in any language whenever possible, and does her upmost to 'accidently' enrage everyone around her. She truely cracks me up.

This book has me re-examining my prejudices against traditional fantasy writing. I'm an urban/contemporary fantasy fan through and through. I found reading the Hobbit painful and won't touch the Lord of the Rings, even for bribes. I generally dislike hero-quest stories with character names that are unpronounceable and a lack of modern dialect. Anything that hints at historical fiction annoys me. And I've generally attributed all of these traits to traditional fantasy writing. This book turned my assumptions on their head. All of the names are pronounceable, the writing style uses modern language, and the lack of modern conveniences barely entered my mind as I read this story. It felt like I was reading a good contemporary urban fantasy that forgot to include guns. I really enjoyed this book. It's 500 pages long and I blew through it in a couple days.

The premise: orphan Kaylin grew up in the slums and escaped to become a novice at the equivalent of the police academy after a string of gruesome murders of children baring the same marks she has on her skin. It's 7 years later, and the murders have started back up, and she's been partnered with an old enemy and a dangerous, scholarly dragon to solve the crime. Along the way, she learns more about the healing and other powers that come with her markings and the reader is introduced to a wonderful cast of characters you can't help but find intriguing. Kaylin's "family" of colleagues and friends grew on me so much, I can't wait to read the next in the series. There is a lot of violence in this book, but none of Kaylin's closest die, which I like in a story. The variety of fantasy creatures entertained me quite a bit. Those creatures resembled humanoid lions, angels, fae, dragon shifters, humans with psychic probes growing out of their heads, and others assorted creatures that aren't necessarily sentient.

This story is about a young girl whom, after going through some tragic things in her childhood, joins a police like organization called the Hawks. Oh and she has these weird marking on her arms and legs that know one understands and aren't sure why they are on her skin. Through out the novel she is on a mission to find out why children are being killed in an outlying fife she used to live in and trying to get along with a childhood friend she now hates for some unknown reason.

Let me start off by saying I really like the concept and the relationships between the characters. However, I have to say, I was mildly confused though out the whole book. It takes nearly half the book for you to find out what her issue is with her childhood friend and when you do find out, though it answers some questions, it left me even more confused. There are a few fight sequences in the book and almost all of them are hard to follow and I don't think were explained very well. Another problem I had was with the dialog. When several people where in a room together having a conversation, I occasionally would lose track of who was talking to who. On one occasion someone started talking and I didn't even realize they were in the room until they started talking. It made dialog sequences very hard to follow and yet again confusing.

This is the first book in a series about an unknown land with unknown creatures. When starting a new novel series of this kind, things have to be explained about everything that is unknown to the reader. I felt that the author didn't want to explain these things to the reader and when the author is forces to, I could almost hear an audible sigh. There was a lot of guesswork involved and it wasn't necessary when the author could have easily explain a lot of things without much effort. Example: I would have been much happier with a decent description of what the difference between a Leontine, a Barrani and an Aerian were before meeting them. Instead it took me a long time to figure out the difference when they are drastically different. I'm still not 100% sure the difference between a Barrani and Aerian.