Cast in Shadow

Cast in Shadow is set mainly in the City of Elantra, which is governed by an Emperor Dragon and occupied by citizens of various species (races?): humans, the winged Aerians, dragons, Leontines, and the immortal Barrani.

Kaylin Neya, the troubled, heroine is marked by mysterious symbols--sigils and curves. She fled the fiefs when she was young when a terrible event occured in the fiefs; children bearing the type of markings she bears were being slaughtered.

Years later, it is up to Kaylin, who is a member of the Hawks of the Houses of Law, who police the city, along with others, including a dragon and a man from her past, to stop the slaughter of children, which is once again occurring.

Kaylin has a power that she does not understand and show more cannot herself control. Will her power lead them to finding those responsible for the slaughter of innocent children, or will it destroy her and others along the way?

Cast in Shadows is Michelle Sagaras' first book in The Chronicles of Elantra series. It's a fascinating tale that keeps you guessing at every turn. It's fast paced, and everyone has their secrets, so the intrigue is well-layered throughout the text. I really appreciate books that keep the reader guessing and keep the suspense built until the end.

Sagara does an excellent job at world building. She has a good eye for including little details that make the fantasy world she has built seem complete and real. She also does a great job of creating a flawed heroine, with some annoying traits, but those annoying traits make Kaylin seem believable.

I really enjoyed the book and am looking forward to the next book in the series. show less

Seven years ago, Kaylin fled from the city of Nightshade to escape the mysterious and brutal deaths of children who just happen to know Kaylin in some way or another...they also bear the same unusual marks that Kaylin happens to possess.

Seven years later and Kaylin is a Hawk serving under the watchful eye of the Lord of the Hawks and in turn the Emperor.

But when the killings begin again and secrets are revealed to Kaylin, she is forced to return to a place of horror and nightmares to try and find answers to a mystery that could destroy Kaylin and people she has grown to love.

This book had one of the most intriguing plots I have read in a long, long time. It was original to say the least. It started off as what seemed like so many show more different things going on at once - which kind of made me scratch my head in confusion multiple times - but then, towards the end of the book, it all connected and was suddenly relevant like putting together a jigsaw piece by piece (I know lame analogy right?).

An example is Kaylin's past with Severn; at the beginning of the book we learn that Kaylin hates Severn with a passion and longs to kill him...but we don't know why. It was constantly mentioned throughout the book which made me want to throw the book across the room at times because this past was refusing to be revealed (God Severn, what did you DO?!). It was only towards the end when Kaylin brings to light this past which was so much more than I was expecting. It was like a light went off in my head. It was a flawless point in the story that made me say 'oh, so that's why!'. A marvellous turning point that enables you to connect the dots, if you will.

What I also loved about this book was the writing style at times. It was almost poetic, particularly during a fight scene or when Kaylin happens to use magic. It took my breath away.

Having said all that, I thought there were far too many characters involved in the story. It got to be too much at times and I had to go back to the beginning to figure out who was who. It happened too many times for comfort.

As well as there being loads of characters, their names were too similar! It got really frustrating trying to figure out what role each character played, who they were and what they did. It made the story drag and considering how long it was in the first place, that's saying something.

I also thought Kaylin's magic and marks could have been explained a little better at points in the book. I know there are still a lot of unanswered questions that will inevitably be answered eventually but for what was accounted for; it could have been better.

On the whole I enjoyed this book. It set the scene for the next book in the series, Cast in Courtlight, and left me with a whole load of questions that I definitely want answered. show less

I really enjoyed this book. Sagara has created a really unusual world, with a lot of back story and a lot going on, and done it without one single info-dump! If you read as much alternate world stuff as I do, you realize that this is really unusual, and high praise indeed.

It's the characters that really make this book work. Kayla is more of less a cop, and she has a history. She is put in a situation where she is facing down monsters, of what shape isn't clear, to her or to the reader. But she doesn't give up.

I liked the fact that she has skills, and she has allies. She's not dumb enough to try to do everything on her own, but she's willing to put herself out there for other people (of whatever species) and they reciprocate. She's not show more super smart, and not everyone likes her. She's not beautiful, and doesn't use sex to lure in the bad guys. She's funny, and faces consequences, and cares. She's a girl well worth spending time with.

The writing is good, although the big confrontation at the end wasn't. This is a book that has been all about show, not tell. In that scene, it all fell apart. I got what Sagara was trying to do, but it wasn't done well. On the other hand, the dialogue is excellent. She is able to do whole pages without tags, simply because each character has such a clearly distinct voice that they aren't needed.

I will definitely be following this series. show less

My Review: 6 - Worth Reading, with Reservations

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 show more 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. show less

I ended up reading this whole series in one ...well, weeks-long sitting. I had book two sitting on my to-read shelf at home, and just decided to dive right in. Little did I know it wouldn't let me up for breath.

I really enjoyed this. I enjoyed the fact that the books are set one right after the other, not with several months in between. I enjoyed the fact that Kaylin just couldn't seem to catch a break, and that even though she had GREAT COSMIC POWERS they were still greatly flawed. She's stubborn, hard-headed, temperamental and insecure. And I enjoyed the fact that Kaylin seems to have to confront her prejudices and insecurities and fold them into herself, and that even after she learns better she's not entirely "fixed."

Anyway. Cool.

The first book in the Chronicles of Elantra introduces Kaylin Neya. She is the youngest member of the Hawks - one of three branches of law enforcement in the city of Elantra. She was born and raised in the lawless fiefs but escaped them as a young teen ager. She bears strange and potentially dangerous marks on her arms and thighs.

She left the fiefs after her protector. an older boy named Severn, killed the two younger children who lived with them. He believed that their deaths were necessary to save Kaylin from being found and sacrificed because of those strange marks.

Kaylin has made a new life for herself among the Hawks. She has learned to read and write. She has learned the two languages she needs for her job as a Hawk. She has show more learned weapons. She has also learned to use her magical ability to heal even though she doesn't understand it. What she hasn't learned is magic or politics or anything else that she doesn't believe has a practical use in her work as a Hawk.

But now the murders of children have begun again in the fief of Nightshade and Kaylin is sent back in with a dragon named Tiamaris and that boy she ran from now grown and also a member of the Hawks. She has to deal with the Barrani outcaste who is Lord Nightshade and she has to track down the ones who are killing children.

To do her job, she has to confront her own magic and learn more about it when little more is known by anyone currently alive.

This was an excellent start to a new fantasy series. I combined reading this one and listening to the Audible recording of the book. Khristine Hvam did an excellent job with the narration. I liked her distinctive voices for the characters. The pacing was also excellent. show less

This book probably should only have 4 out of 5 stars because of a few things I’ll mention in a bit, but I enjoyed the story so much I bumped it up to 5.

The things I didn’t like about this book are (1) it’s really complicated, (2) it’s really confusing, and (3) there wasn’t a whole lot of character development. BUT the good things were so entertaining that I sorted of just ignore all the bad things. The book was really, really confusing. The character doesn’t know all that much about what’s going on so we’re in the dark with her. But I did kind of like gradually finding out things as she did, even when they didn’t make sense to me. There’s a lot happening in this book. First of all, there’s a lot of races. There’s show more bird people, elvish people, humans, tentacle people, magic people, cat people, dragon people, the list goes on forever. I guess technically it’s just a lot of shapeshifters but it gets confusing remembering what every one can do. I kind of like learning about all these races though. It’s something new and fresh that we don’t see very often. I know pretty much all the myths about vampires but not a lot about these shapeshifting creatures.

The only character development I found was with the main character Kaylin, and she didn’t even change that much. Yet. I found that this book hints that she will change in the future, it’s just going to be really slow. For everyone else we don’t know a lot about them but I think we’re going to learn things a little bit at a time. While all the character things were slow, the plot wasn’t. There was lots of action and mystery to keep you busy and distracted from not knowing anything. Also there wasn’t a love triangle in this book! I’m very impressed about that. There was no romance at all really but I think there’s going to be in the future. There’s some hints at it!

Even though it seems like I’m giving it a really bad review, I found I really enjoyed reading this book and didn’t want to put it down. To me, that’s more important than all the technical things. The most important is the writing in general and I liked the writing style of this author. I’m looking forward to reading more. show less