I love assassins! I'll not go into the same discussion from my review of Shadow's Son, but by golly those guys are cool and Jon Sprunk is an assassin master.
Shadow's Lure [US] [UK] is the second volume in the Shadow Saga as I mentioned before, beginning with Shadow's Son. It's full of assassins, magic, and tons of action. Did I mention TONS OF ACTION!
Shadow's Lure takes up the story almost directly after Shadow's Son. Caim, our fearless assassin, is headed north to the dangerous northlands, on a mission not even he yet knows about. Josey has taken over the throne in Othir as empress amidst protests of the True Church. In Shadow's Lure, there is also an added point of view, also in third-person limited, in the witch Sybelle who is the right hand man woman of the new Duke of the North who is attempting to unite the north through subjugation.
While I enjoyed Josey's part in Shadow's Son, I really had a good time with her sections in Shadow's Lure. It was filled with political intrigue and dastardly characters trying to take advantage of her naivete, not least among them, members of the True Church.
Some of the minor problems I had, and the reason for a 4 instead of a 5 star rating, was the fact that (***Minor spoiler warning***) Kit, Caim's invisible Fae partner, is absent from Caim for much of the book. Hence, the fun, witty banter isn't as prevalent as in Shadow's Son. But then again, her parts in the book end up giving us a glimpse of what all this world Jon Sprunk's created has to offer.
I mentioned in my last review that I was really interested, after reading Shadow's Son, to find
out more about the Shadow realm. There are lots of hints, but not a lot of solid facts. In Shadow's Lure, we find out much more about this mysterious place, although it is still mostly a mystery.
The magic system in this series is really impressive drawing from this shadow realm and actually using shadows as the magic. There are lots of fantasy books/series that involve shadows, but I'd never seen one that actually uses the shadows for anything from healing to torture and even fighting. What a great concept that's used in a really unique way.
Why Read Shadow's Lure?
Shadow's Lure is sword and sorcery at its best. Fast-paced, filled with action and realistic characters, and of course...assassins! If you like Brent Weeks or Paul Kearney, you'll really enjoy this series.
4 out of 5 Stars (Loved it!)
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher
While I enjoyed Josey's part in Shadow's Son, I really had a good time with her sections in Shadow's Lure. It was filled with political intrigue and dastardly characters trying to take advantage of her naivete, not least among them, members of the True Church.
Some of the minor problems I had, and the reason for a 4 instead of a 5 star rating, was the fact that (***Minor spoiler warning***) Kit, Caim's invisible Fae partner, is absent from Caim for much of the book. Hence, the fun, witty banter isn't as prevalent as in Shadow's Son. But then again, her parts in the book end up giving us a glimpse of what all this world Jon Sprunk's created has to offer.
I mentioned in my last review that I was really interested, after reading Shadow's Son, to find
out more about the Shadow realm. There are lots of hints, but not a lot of solid facts. In Shadow's Lure, we find out much more about this mysterious place, although it is still mostly a mystery.The magic system in this series is really impressive drawing from this shadow realm and actually using shadows as the magic. There are lots of fantasy books/series that involve shadows, but I'd never seen one that actually uses the shadows for anything from healing to torture and even fighting. What a great concept that's used in a really unique way.
Why Read Shadow's Lure?
Shadow's Lure is sword and sorcery at its best. Fast-paced, filled with action and realistic characters, and of course...assassins! If you like Brent Weeks or Paul Kearney, you'll really enjoy this series.
4 out of 5 Stars (Loved it!)
A copy of this book was provided by the publisher
3 comments:
I really enjoyed Josey in this one as well. I was afraid she was going to be a weak character, but she really grew in strength here. I like when she choose to stand up and make a decision on what to do. That was when I respected her more as a character. And with going to find her would be assassin. And I missed Kit's banter with Caim as well. Caim ended up being more serious here. But I love what we get to see in the shadows and even Kit's world too. Great review! Looking forward to book 3.
Completely in agreement and Josey was just awesome in this one.
I enjoyed shadow's son up until the part where Josey was raped. Now I find out that in Shadown's Lure she's with a Bastard child and is unsure whether the child is Caim's or ...
The whole thing put me of reading the second book properly.
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