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Book Review: Shadow Runner by K.J. Fieler

 

Shadow Runner by KJ Fieler

Shadow Runner by K.J. Fieler

Black Rose Writing, 2023

9781685132040

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy (pre-order): Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

 

The only negative to Shadow Runner is that eventually, like all great stories, it ends.  It would be tougher to put together a better YA fantasy/thriller than this.  Like the Harry Potter series, Shadow Runner has the ability to appeal to young and old alike, although it is oriented to the younger set.  It’s a must-read.

 

As far as genres, this is listed as “steampunk,” taking place in a Victorian-style society where fancy machines run on steam and electricity hasn’t been invented.  Shadow Runner’s basic premise is that young, born to wealth Ada is kidnapped in her pre-teen years by a group of ladies known as the Shadows.  They’re like the Thieves’ Guild in Dungeons and Dragons, taking robbery and assassination jobs from those willing to pay for it.  As Ada grows and learns the trade of the Shadows, she eventually has to make some important decisions that will determine the course of her life.  Is the Shadow life truly the life she wants, and can she compromise the values she grew up with?

 

Despite the above, this isn’t a story about robbing and killing.  At its heart, it’s a beautifully told tale of human interaction.  Ada’s adventures are secondary: the story is more about how she and her mentor, Nadine, have to come to trust and rely on each other, even though they live in a world where friendship can get you killed.  The story adds another excellent layer when Ada shows compassion for a young outcast, Dieb, who everyone else scorns.  The three of them have to decide what matters: their emotional ties to each other, or survival in an uncaring world.  It’s a back-and-forth for all of them, as none of the three characters are one-dimensional: they are all painted with shades of gray.

 

It’s how the author handles them that demonstrates serious writing skill.  Readers will feel and connect with the characters as they try to survive, which isn’t easy with a group of people to whom backstabbing is the norm.  Some parts will make you angry, some will make you cry.  When you love the characters enough that you are unhappy when the book ends, then you’ve just read a pretty special story.

 

Despite the Shadow lifestyle, the author wisely avoids any graphic material. Characters do kill each other, but the author spares readers any messy details.  It helps keep the focus on the interactions of the three leads themselves, which is where the book’s appeal comes from.

 

Bottom line: thiis is the first must-read of the summer for everyone.  There’s room for the story to continue in another book, and there will be a lot of unhappy readers if it doesn’t happen.  Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

 

Posted on May 17, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Cover art fo Saint Death's Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney

Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E Cooney.

Solaris, 2022

ISBN-13: 978-1786184702

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook. ( Bookshop.org  |   Amazon.com )

 

 

Miscellaneous Stones, born into a family known for its violence in service to the crown of Liriat, is a teenage necromancer with an allergy to violence that opens “echo wounds” when violence is done or described. When her parents die, her family is left indebted to a banker’s family with connections to Liriat’s enemy, the Blackbird Bride.

 

Lanie’s sister Nita returns to renegotiate the debt, and does so by agreeing to work for the Queen of Liriat to kill all 24 of the Bride’s consorts. Nita has returned with an unwilling fiance, a gyrgard, who can shapeshift into a falcon and usually has a soul-bonded partner. The gyrgard, renamed Mak, attempts to poison himself rather than stay with Nita, but Lanie, unwilling to experience the echo wound that would be caused by his suicide, brings him back by calling on Saint Death, one of the 12 Lirian gods.

 

In order to prevent having his memories wiped, Mak swears loyalty to Nita, and they have a child, Datu, who is raised primarily by Lanie and Mak, while Nita assassinates the members of the Bride’s parliament. Finally, the Bride kills Nita, pronounces a death sentence on Datu, and tries to seduce Lanie into joining her court. Lanie, Mak, and Datu, along with the family revenant and the entrapped ghost of Lanie’s necromancer grandfather, flee to hide in the city of Liriat Proper to protect Datu.

 

In the city, Lanie, Mak, and Datu make truly good friends willing to help with their problems. Lanie also has a romance with Canon Lir, second son of the queen, and a priest to the many-gendered god of fire. Then Lanie has a serious echo wound in public that reveals their location to the Blackbird Bride, and Mak and Datu flee. Lanie has made a promise to her family’s revenant she must follow through, protect Datu, and bring down the Bride.

 

I know Harrow the Ninth is the big name in literary necromancers right now, and she’s a much more horror-tinged character, but Lanie is my favorite necromancer character ever. Compassionate and loving to the living, dead, and undead, sometimes unwise, she honors her goddess.The allergy to violence and refusal to enthrall others, and her relationship with Lir, make her unusual.

 

This is a long book, but with surprising twists, fascinating world building, great character development, and beautiful prose. Highly recommended.

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

 

Posted on February 25, 2023 by , Reply

Book Review: The Order of Eternal Sleep by S.C. Mendes

Cover art for The Order of Eternal Sleep by S.C. Mendes

The Order of Eternal Sleep by S.C. Mendes

Blood Bound Books, 2022

ISBN: 9781940250489

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition ( Amazon.com )

 

This is the sequel to S. C. Mendes’s 2017 novel, The City. You must read The City first.The Order of Eternal Sleep will make no sense otherwise.

 

The Order of Eternal Sleep does a good job keeping the story going, but it’s a very different book from the first.  Almost all of the book takes place aboveground in San Francisco: the City that made the first book so spectacular barely shows up.  The story is a LOT more involved, with multiple plot threads, to the point that it gets confusing on occasion.  The characters have switched: the secondary characters from the first book have become the prime characters, and vice versa.  The changes don’t make it a bad book by any stretch. It’s still quite good, just different.  Overall, this book feels like a bit of a “bridge” book to the next one, which is likely to be a smashmouth finish to the series.

 

Detective McCloud takes over as the main character, while the star of the first, Max Elliot, has a much smaller role.  Ming also takes over as one of the primaries, and there are a host of secondary characters scattered throughout the book.  The main point of the story is to set up some of the details on the Mara (those lizard-men) plot to take over the world, and it has a lot to it.  There are Temples of Bone, nurseries of some sort, a black sun, and the Order.  McCloud spends most of the book trying to piece the puzzle together, finding obstacles everywhere, as the Mara have no shortage of sleazebags in San Francisco willing to do their bidding. 

 

McCloud’s character undergoes a nice evolution from the first book. He becomes a much tougher character then he was in the first book, willing to use any methods to get answers.  Ming has undergone a seismic shift as well, from a streetwise whelp to a hired assassin.  It’s a good change, as there is no way nice guys are going to beat the Mara: you have to be nasty to slug it out with them.  

 

Another change is that there is a group of people aboveground opposed to the Mara, called the Engineers of Light, although unfortunately, details on them are not forthcoming in the book.  Hopefully, more about them will be in the next book.  A good amount of the book feels like it is setting everything up for the next book, likely to be the climax to the series.  This book still holds its own, it just doesn’t offer any resolution and leaves more questions then answers.  It’s similar to how in the Harry Potter series The Order of the Phoenix was the transition book from the first four books to a blowout war in the last two.

 

Bottom line: if you liked the first one, you’ll like this as well, but it’s likely to leave you hoping the next one comes out soon.  If you’ve come this far in the series, you’ll be desperate to see how it ends.  Recommended.

 

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson

Posted on January 20, 2023 by , Reply
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