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 ShadowMichelle SagaraThe Chronicle of Elantra, Book 18/10Followed by:Cast in CourtlightCast in SecretCast in Fury (forthcoming)[Copied across from Library Thing; 17 October 2012]
Elianne was an orphaned child of the fiefs, scraping out a living in the fiefdom of Nightshade with an older boy, Severn, and two other little girls. Then one day strange markings appeared on her arms and legs, and the killings began. Thirty-eight children are found murdered with markings like hers carved into their skin - and she knew all of them - until they suddenly stopped the same day she ran away from the fiefs, from Severn, from the horror of what she'd seen.Now, seven years later, her name has changed to Kaylin and she's a member of the Hawks, one of the three Lords of Law of the city of Elantra. She practices her healing magic in secret and under the protection of the Hawklord, a rare magic that would see her sent to the Emperor if it were discovered. But the killings have started again, closer together this time, and the Hawklord has put her on the case. He's teamed her with a Dragon, Tiamaris, and Severn, who's transferred from the Wolves.It's an uneasy alliance between Kaylin and Severn. To complicate matters, the Lord of Nightshade has marked her, and the marks on her body are changing again. To find the source of the kidnappings and ritualistic killings, Kaylin must understand what is happening to her and what the connection is, before more children she personally knows are taken.This is a book I wanted to throw at the wall every second sentence. And rip into bits. I started reading it late last year and only now decided I should finish it - all the time with a frown on my face. The only reason it gets two stars is because the plot is actually very intriguing.There are seven races in Elantra: the immortal Dragons, including the Emperor, and the austere, magical Barrani; the winged Aerians, the snarling Leontines, the telepathic Tha'alani, humans and one other that's not revealed apart from a brief aside about their agoraphobia. It's quite the busy patchwork, and a world that you're launched into suddenly. This has always been something I've appreciated in fantasy, because it makes the world feel more real and accepted, like it's always been there and you're just late to the party - but, as with everything in this book, the writing style is so atrociously bad that it spoils everything.Written in the third person but almost always from Kaylin's point of view, it has a modern, "sassy" voice and tries to be smart. Even though it's not technically Kaylin's voice, it is her voice, and it gets very annoying very quickly. The book is littered with those "climactic" stand-alone sentences that always lose their impact by being constantly used - something that made me put down the third Kushiel book before finishing it, though Jacqueline Carey wasn't half as bad as Sagara. Not only that - as if that weren't enough - very little actually makes sense. It is full of these little quippy sentences that are supposed to be meaningful - are written with meaning and intent, it's obvious - but mean nothing because they just don't make sense. Which means a great deal of the plot and motivations and characters don't make sense either. There are so many little mysteries, things alluded to but kept secret in some kind of attempt to keep tension and the reader's interest - it was complete overkill and drove me mental. Sometimes you can't even tell who's speaking, or who's present in a scene, because Sagara doesn't tell us and it's impossible to guess - when their name suddenly appears, you have to backtrack and correct your mental image of what's just been happening in order to include them. The style is very obtuse, deliberately mysterious in the worst possible way, vague at the best of times and confusing at others. Sentences often lack connections to the sentences before and after them - these ones are written to sound profound but if they lack context or relevance they're just dead space. Conversations are just as obtuse, the dialogue meant to be realistic but instead creating bigger and bigger gaps and more and more confusion. And it makes me want to scream, how many times the characters around Kaylin act all mysterious and won't answer questions, or give answers that make no sense.I know I should highlight the positives after ranting on about the bad, bad writing - but I've already mentioned the positive: the overall storyline. Oh, and the Lord of Nightshade, I liked him. He had an excuse to be enigmatic! For the sake of those two elements, I've given it two stars. Otherwise, I nearly hated it.I haven't read any of her other books (she publishes under this name, under Michelle West and Michelle Sagara West as well), but if the writing's anything like this, I'm not inclined to. The thing is, I bought the next book, Cast in Courtlight, first without realising it wasn't the first book, so I suppose I should read it since I have it. Seriously, though, this book came so close to being shredded to bits, which is saying something from someone who doesn't even like to dogear the pages.
What do You think about Cast In Shadow (2005)?
And today we have the first in yet another series I had heard much good about but avoided picking up for a variety of no good reasons. I think my reluctance stemmed somewhat from an uncertainty as to just what kind of series Michelle Sagara's Cast series was. I think at first I had the impression it was a paranormal romance, possibly an urban fantasy (the covers influenced me this way). A few chapters in I was surprised to find CAST IN SHADOW much more a mix of dark and high fantasy, peopled with a smattering of solid gold, humorous, and truly sinister characters living in a fully developed, layered, and fascinating world.Kaylin Neya is a Hawk. The youngest of that number, in fact. In the city of Elantra, the Hawks are charged with policing the streets and guarding the citizens. They share that responsibility with their sibling organizations the Wolves and the Swords. Together the three forces are headquartered in the Halls of Law. Elantra's citizens are made up of a mix of humans like Kaylin, winged Aerians, furred Leontines, and the immortal Barrani. Seven years ago Kaylin left a life of squalor on the streets of the fief of Nightshade, gave herself a new name, and made her way to Elantra in search of a fresh start. Now her past has caught up with her as a series of murders takes place in Nightshade. Disturbing in their own right, they also bear an eerie resemblance to events in Kaylin's past she thought for sure she'd left behind.CAST IN SHADOW starts at a good clip and doesn't slow down once. The writing is uncluttered and engaging and Kaylin is an extremely likeable heroine. She runs from a past so dark she has avoided revealing it to her closest friends. She has a gift for healing and will drop everything at a moment's notice to deliver a baby or rescue an orphan in trouble. It was actually kind of refreshing to read about a kick-a** heroine with a soft spot for children. So often they have an allergy to kids or have issues with some of the "softer" emotions and I loved Kaylin because she was both fierce and compassionate. I cheered her on when she was fighting and I wanted to help guard her secrets. Of which she has many. She has friends, enemies, comrades, and those who would use her for her unusual abilities, yet Kaylin remains a little aloof from them all, determined to make her own way. She's my kind of girl. Only a handful of pages into the book and I was completely invested from that point on. I loved this story and can't wait to move on to the next installment--Cast in Courtlight.
—Angie
I got a bit confused, as there's quite a few different races in here, and the bare bones of description are given. I imagined everyone as basically humanoid but some with wings, and then when the dragon changed I got a bit confused, as I was imagining him as some very handsome man and wasn't sure exactly if that was the case or not. Not like it matters, I just like to imagine handsome men, I guess. But while it's interesting to have at least 5 (?) different races, it can be confusing at first to keep the languages separate, which is only a mild point. I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked the story; you've got a plucky but traumatized heroine who isn't annoying - a bit flippant, but they make the point she's very young, and I also 100% relate to anybody who's late all the time. Which is the nice thing about this book, the characters are sympathetic and relatable without being saccharine. The complexity of the setting is more suited to a larger book, but as it's part of a series I can forgive that, as the setting (I'm assuming) should be explained more fully in the rest of the series.
—Angie
One step above painful. The plot had great promise. I have no idea what the author was writing. It was unbelievably tangential, convoluted in the extreme, and confusing. The analogies were quite often meaningless. I read passages over and over. All I could do was shake my head and move on. Large portions of dialogue would take place in which you could not determine who was speaking. And it seemed at the end of the book most of the players had already really known what was going on the whole time, and for some strange reason simply went along with the whole quest of trying to figure it out, just for the hell of it. And everyone else was "getting it" in the end except the heroine, and thus the reader. The heroine would say "I don't understand", and the others would just look at each other and shake their heads at her inability to figure it out. It was maddening! Somebody explain it!Parts of the plot were divulged (I think), but it might as well have been rocket science for all I could make of it. I've rarely read a book in which so many nouns, adjectives, and verbs have come together without actually completing a sensical thought. In truth, having read the entire book, I still don't completely understand what happened. I only have a vague understanding of it, much, I think, like the heroine.
—Gardavson
