Eventually (we’re never quite told how) she escapes this area of Elantra and manages to enrol in the Hawks, where she becomes an up-and-coming investigator.

Think urban gang warfare in a pre-industrial city.

Kaylin used to be an impoverished child, orphaned after the death of her mother, living in the fiefdom of Nightshade. The plot itself is simple enough to understand. Indeed I did-except I never felt like I got a payoff at the end. Sometimes, when an author does this, it’s to build tension and make the audience yearn to know more. Time and again, characters will be poised on the brink of a big revelation, only for them to stop up their mouths and say, “No, you aren’t ready for that.” Half of this book consists of various people from different species alluding to aspects of their culture that never gets explained. The first few chapters are an almost overwhelming soup of names and information then the flow diminishes to a mere trickle for the rest of the novel. Sagara is inconsistent in how and when she chooses to deliver her exposition. But it’s not.Īs others have singled out, the problem is one of context. With all of these components, Cast in Shadow should be an awesome urban fantasy thriller. And Kaylin’s stake in this case is personal, with all the attendant baggage and issues one would expect. Amidst all this, Sagara gives us a female protagonist who has clawed her way up from poverty and destitution to be the youngest member of the Hawks, the crime-solving unit of Elantra’s judiciary. Elantra is a city like many others in fantasy, poised on that brink of industrialization, the throbbing heart of an empire riddled with corruption, magical or otherwise. It’s populated by all sorts of fascinating species: the immortal Barrani and Dragons and Tha'lani, the mortal humans and Leontine and Aerians. Michelle Sagara has clearly come up with a creative, perhaps even compelling world. From the other reviews here on Goodreads, I am relieved to see that I am not the only one whose dominant feeling while reading Cast in Shadow was one of confusion.

Cast in Shadow by Michelle Sagara