Cast in Shadows by Michelle Sagara

I wanted to like this book. And in some respects, I did but it’s not a story I’ll carry with me. I’ve heard people singing the praises of Michelle Sagara (or Michelle West or Michelle Sagara West) for a long, long time but never picked up any of her books. Finally I actually read a synopsis of Cast in Shadow and it sounded really interesting. Awesome female lead, murder mystery, fantasy, different races, a Dragon Lord. I thought: this sounds perfect!

But it wasn’t. It had such promise, such potential but it just fell flat for me. I enjoyed the characters, though Kaylin did get on my nerves. Loved all the brooding, dark male characters. But the way Sagara told the story irritated me and almost to the point where I didn’t finish. I understand it’s a mystery and the author has to lead us along with hints and whispers but it got to a point where the next character to purposefully “stare silently” and NOT answer ANY questions made me want to throw my Kindle across the room (an advantage of paperbacks I miss). Sagara withheld so much information about character backstory and plot that I just flat out did not care about any of them. What? Kaylin’s in a berserker rage? Why? Don’t care because you never made me care. I can’t care about why she wants to kill Severn since you never let me know until over halfway through the book.

And the physical back and forth got old as well. In a 500 page novel we basically only went two places: Nightshade and the base of the Hawks. It felt like questing in an MMO: go talk to this person, now go back and talk to this other person, rest at the inn, go back and talk to the first person, report to the second person you talked to, ect. I was too aware of the back and forth movement. It made it feel like the story never progressed. Do you know that technique in television shows when characters have conversations as they walk down a hall to give the scene a sense of moving forward even if they’re talking about burritos? Sagara needs to watch more TV.

That being said, there were some good points. I did like the characters even though I wasn’t too invested in them. I hope that the overall premise develops through the rest of the ongoing series. Someday I would like to revisit Elantra (and Tiamaris) but it will probably be quite some time.

Recommend: Poison Study by Maria V Snyder 

Darkfever by Karen Marie Moning