Image from Amazon.com

I went into Shadow and Bone with very high expectations. Written after Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows series but meant to be a prequel of sorts (though including none of the same characters), I figured this would be at least as good as Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom (the duology). I was a little disappointed. Not crazy disappointed, as I think the story and characters here stand alone as an exemplary, fantasy series, but they did not have quite the spark that the Six of Crows did. Even so, I enjoyed reading my way through the lighter, less complicated trilogy, because it did have plenty of twists and quite a lot of depth for a YA series brimming with Bardugo’s characteristic exploration of morals, bad baddies, imperfect goodies, and steamy yet never-straightfoward romances.

Shadow and Bone takes place thirty years before Six of Crows, in a war-torn Ravka split in half by the Shadow Fold: a gaping, dark wound in the landscape that is nearly impossible to cross, and impossible to cross without risking a violent death in the dark, being ripped apart by the terrifying volcra. But when two orphaned childhood friends turned army grunts make their way across, an unexpected turn of events reveals that one of them is not who either of them thought she was. She’s whisked away, then, to train under the intimidating general of the grisha (magical) army, but there is nothing that can keep these two apart forever, not even the Black Heretic. Still, plenty will get in their way, from friends turned foes to foes turned allies, the promise of power, of new love, about 100 brushes with death, loss, and not knowing themselves. Across the Fold, an ocean, underground, chasing legendary stags and sea creatures and moving from a palace to an underground city of caverns to a refuge in the sky, the love story will turn love pyramid and a girl will grapple with both power and sacrifice in a world where it’s hard to know who to trust.

Image from The Fantasy Review.

As I said, I read the Six of Crows duology first, which was written first but takes place chronologically after this trilogy (and so I have seen it recommended to read Shadow and Bone first, but I have also seen it recommended the other way. I think I would say to read Shadow and Bone first, but I would warn you that the series are actually quite different, especially in tone). I already think Bardugo is flippin’ amazing, but I will admit that Six of Crows took me a minute to get into and it was awhile before I realized I was reading some of the best modern—and especially YA—fantasy out there. When reading Shadow and Bone, however, Bardugo caught me from the very beginning. Why? Because she focuses in on the relevant characters. I don’t hate what she did with Six of Crows (jumping into the action and the world by giving us a very dramatic scene not involving the main characters), but focusing on character development while planting both feet in the world and the stakes (life or death, and love or loss from the beginning!) worked so well I would like to use it as an example for a writing course.

As I also already said, don’t expect this series to be much like the Six of Crows duology, even though they are related and in the same universe (the Grishaverse). They are similar in the world and in the excellent writing (especially for YA fantasy) as well as excellently-drawn characters that engage all the way through. However, whereas Six of Crows was gritty and edgy, focusing on criminals and outcasts in the underbelly of city life (with six POV narrators), Shadow and Bone zooms in on one girl and her hero’s journey involving abandonment, power, and romance. It is much lighter in its feel, even though there are themes of heaviness and sweeping metaphors for all sorts of evil. The series is, well, calmer (and the individual books are significantly shorter), and I can see someone like my daughter much more likely to enjoy a more focused, girl-power series than the other, though I probably liked the frenetic romp (despite the grit) better.

I don’t think I’m going to break this review down into the individual books, because they really work in concert and not at all by themselves. Also, my comments on all three are pretty much the same, which I guess means they are consistent. The first book is the titular Shadow and Bone, followed by Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. I could never keep the titles straight, for obvious reasons. Siege and Storm is a fairly forgettable book and it sort of disappears between the first and final books, though it does take us on some adventures and introduce us to some very important characters (or one, at least). I mean, that’s all fine. I life the trilogy. I really like Leigh Bardugo. And I moved quickly on to Ruin and Rising because I wanted to know what was going to happen!

Upon finishing, I was satisfied, at least mostly. As a reader, I had to give up some of my wants to make way for the story that was inevitable, even if sometimes painful. It’s good. There are some sad moments. Many things resolve. Plenty of twists. Which leads me to this: once again, I am a fan of Bardugo’s straightforward writing, her twisty plots, her engaging love stories, and her complicated characters. I am not as big a fan of her world-building, but I did find it less confusing in Shadow and Bone than I did in Six of Crows. The Russian connection to her fantasy world is much more evident in Shadow and Bone, and though that’s not my favorite choice, it worked better than leaving me hanging. I was hoping that the Netflix series would help me visual some of the things (which Bardugo is not quite so amazing at describing), but, well, you can see my review below. What I’m saying is, again, I didn’t find the Grishaverse to me very immersive or enticing, but I do find the story and characters to be very compelling. I would read it again and I would definitely recommend it, though for my part I enjoyed Six of Crows more (and can understand if that is not a universally-held opinion).

PS. Not a fan of the covers I see most in the stores, the ones I have posted here. They don’t do anything for me and I don’t think they represent the series in any helpful way.

Image from IMDB.com.

TV SERIES

I know that this Netflix series (currently in between the second and third seasons) had done pretty well. I just don’t agree that it’s a good show. I can see that Netflix sunk some real money into it, but as a fan of Bardugo’s writing, I found it really disappointing. I am not exaggerating when I say I think “they” made ALL the wrong choices. Maybe the actors could be okay, which means we’ll blame it on the material, but they sucked. The plots were so boring, which takes a lot of messing things up, because the original plots were intricate, involved, and compelling. As were the characters, which in the TV series all come across completely flat. And I kinda sorta get why “they” would want to weave the Shadow and Bone series with Six of Crows, but… it was a bad idea to begin with, driven simply by money, as far as I can guess, and it played out even worse than I feared. In order to make the thing work, they stripped back both plots to the bare bones and then, well, then they threw everything Bardugo created out in Six of Crows (at least for the first season) and half of Shadow and Bone and made these cheesy, shallow characters do really contrived, inexplicable things for some sort of laugh/recognition of the Grishaverse. Bardugo’s actual world-building is my least favorite part of what she does (see reviews), and it’s practically all that remains in this terrible series. The whole thing is a travesty, especially if you actually like the original stories at all. If you haven’t read them, well then I can’t see what would draw you to these confused, random episodes about super boring characters who haven’t a spark of genius (Six of Crows) or magic (Shadow and Bone) about them. As for real romance (which involved six, complicated pairs in Six of Crows and one girl in the middle of a love-pyramid in Shadow and Bone), don’t expect any that work well in this TV series (let alone pain, suffering, grit, even darkness). No romance for the characters. And none between you and the story. It’s just a cheap, cheesy show that completely misses the point (oh, and the entire plot) of both of the book series and left me either yawning or rolling my eyes.

Then again, we did get to see a visualization of some of the places and characters. So maybe watch an episode on silent. And ignore Alina (the main character) because she’s all wrong. Mal, kinda, too.