Cast in Shadow (Chronicles of Elantra, #1) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Jan 08, 2017 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: canadian-content, 2017-read

I really, really liked this book. I know that it didn't really work for a couple of my Goodreads friends whose opinion I trust, but for me, it was a fabulous start to a series.

Sagara has an economical style to her writing, which worked very well with the way the story was layered. World building and character histories are revealed through the current events of the story, which gave it a feeling of happening more in the moment.

Based on this first book I am expecting this to be a very strong seri ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Lindsay rated it liked it

I'm a sucker for stories where the protagonist has been unfairly coerced into something and has to make the best of it, but even that bias on my part doesn't save the muddle of this book.

Kaylin is a Hawk, essentially a policeman, in the City of Elantra. She was an orphan in Nightshade, one of the worst areas of the huge city, but escaped her life there in a blur of violence and murder that saw her the only survivor out of dozens of dead children, all marked with the same strange writing that she I'm a sucker for stories where the protagonist has been unfairly coerced into something and has to make the best of it, but even that bias on my part doesn't save the muddle of this book.

Kaylin is a Hawk, essentially a policeman, in the City of Elantra. She was an orphan in Nightshade, one of the worst areas of the huge city, but escaped her life there in a blur of violence and murder that saw her the only survivor out of dozens of dead children, all marked with the same strange writing that she still bears. Now, years later, she has to go back to Nightshade with two companions and investigate because the killings have started again.

There's a lot going on here. Elantra is a city peopled by various different fantasy races as well as humans, including mortals and immortals. These include a mind-reading race, a leonine one, a winged one, and an elf-analogue and more besides. There's also various different types of magic and some technology based around magic as well. And there's also a lot of deep history, as you'd expect when at least two of the major players here are essentially immortal, and there's hints of even older races, now gone.

Kaylin herself has a lot going on as well, with her past in Nightshade, magic that she harnesses for healing and destruction and her role as a Hawk in an organization that she has essentially grown up in. And then there's the enigmatic ruler of Nightshade and her companions in the investigation, one of whom she has a pretty extreme past with.

In structure the book tries for a Fantasy version of a modern cop precinct, complete with interrogation rooms, forensic examinations and the magic version of computers. There's even a fair bit of effort put into the characters of her workmates and superiors within the Hawks. It's actually a very good idea for a book, but where the book falls down is that Kaylin doesn't treat any of it very seriously and, mostly, neither does the book. The discipline of the Hawks is maddeningly uneven, the responses of the Hawk characters to Kaylin's actions almost impossible to predict and overall it's almost impossible to work out why any of the people in authority take the actions that they do other than the plot needs them to do it that way.

And on top of all that, the actions of the bad guys make no sense either. It's all great action and very atmospheric, but it takes a special type of dense to come up with their "plan". Hint: I just thought of two better ways for them to accomplish their goal while typing the last sentence. Oops, make that three.

There's a core of cool in this book. Great setting, clever idea for a book, but terrible execution. I would give it 2.5 stars rounding up to 3 because I'm hoping subsequent books get tighter. ...more

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Jan 02, 2017 Robyn rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017

An engaging main character, a fascinating world with plenty of depths to be plumbed, and many more mysteries to be uncovered. I am, for the time being, hooked.

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Apr 24, 2012 Cathy rated it did not like it

Shelves: did-not-finish

I have been pushing this book around for three weeks and only managed to will myself through 50 pages. I just feel confused and overloaded with information and can't keep the characters straight. I am sure there is a good story in there trying to get out, but it's taking too long for me to take an interest. ...more

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