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Cast in Shadow (Chronicles of Elantra #1)
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...more
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...more
Paperback, 507 pages
Published
July 1st 2005
by Luna
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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 na...more
Now, seven years later, her na...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Jul 22, 2012
Jennifer Jensen (Literally Jen)
marked it as dnf
98 pages in, I was wondering how I had convinced myself to read as far as I did. At least 3 times during the course of reading this, I checked to make sure that this was the first book in the series. Something just felt really incomplete about it, as if I were starting the story in the middle and didn't have all the information I needed for everything to make sense.
If I were an editor, I would have required the author to have a prologue which shows us what happened to Kaylin 7 years ago and giv...more
If I were an editor, I would have required the author to have a prologue which shows us what happened to Kaylin 7 years ago and giv...more
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 wit...more
This is the first book in this series by Michelle Sagara (aka Michelle West or Michelle Sagara West). Kaylin is a Hawk - one of the arms of the law in her world. She has an unusual ability for healing and also unusual tattoos on her arms which suddenly appeared on her when she was a child. No one can explain them. She is an orphan from the outer city (a very poor and dangerous area). When she was young she escaped this place by petitioning to be a Hawk. There is a reason she left, a really distu...more
The story was interesting enough but was often confusing. I didn't like that several times something would happen and, at the end of the scene, you wonder why the author just wasted your time with that. Much, much later you realize what she was trying to establish with the scene, but I really would have liked it if the author had made the point of the scene clearer at the time it occurred.
Also, the author attempts to create a mystery (as if there wasn't enough) by withholding from the reader in...more
Also, the author attempts to create a mystery (as if there wasn't enough) by withholding from the reader in...more
Jun 18, 2013
Eric Lamarche
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
those new to the fantasy genre
Shelves:
fantasy
Michelle Sagara is an interesting author in the fantasy genre - in her book, I noticed many things that I was unfamiliar with in other authors of fantasy: realism. She brings a realistic approach to the world of fantasy, and I know that this is sort of an oxymoron in itself for how can fantasy be realistic, right? But her technique in writing style is simple and adaptable to real-world scenarios. For example, when Kaylin the protagonist is investigating a crime that happened in Elantra (the city...more
It was a pleasant read after a long break. Wouldn't call it great literature or praise the author's prowess of the English language but it was enjoyable.
The main character is an idiot and her immaturity, stupidity and lack of self control, given her background and training, is ridiculous and tends to grate on the nerves. So does the author's perpetual and unnecessary use of the phrase "as you so quaintly put it", in one mild variation or the other. I also can't get why every character of conseq...more
The main character is an idiot and her immaturity, stupidity and lack of self control, given her background and training, is ridiculous and tends to grate on the nerves. So does the author's perpetual and unnecessary use of the phrase "as you so quaintly put it", in one mild variation or the other. I also can't get why every character of conseq...more
Jun 07, 2013
Brittneigh
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
stupid,
young-adult
I feel like I would have LOVED this book when I was 13.
As a fair warning, not a lot (ie nothing) is explained or described. The author expects you to implicitly understand the layouts of buildings and magic dealings without any explanation.
The main character is imperfect, and that is likable, but that is pretty much the only likable aspect of her personality. She is rude, impatient, whiny, and ignorant of everything around her. Every other character treats her with kindness and respect (OK, ma...more
As a fair warning, not a lot (ie nothing) is explained or described. The author expects you to implicitly understand the layouts of buildings and magic dealings without any explanation.
The main character is imperfect, and that is likable, but that is pretty much the only likable aspect of her personality. She is rude, impatient, whiny, and ignorant of everything around her. Every other character treats her with kindness and respect (OK, ma...more
Apr 06, 2013
Estara
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
lovers of urban fantasy in secondary fantastic worlds
Recommended to Estara by:
auto-buy comfort read author
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
"I liked it."
This one was another vacation read and once again it's not super on my mind, but I actually had a lot to say about it so I'm going to try and get all of that across. I borrowed it off a friend's shelf and read it while I was there because it's something I've wanted to check out for a while.
I've read and adored Michelle Sagara West's books before, but always under her Michelle West name as opposed to the Michelle Sagara name she's publishing under here, and the difference is actually...more
This one was another vacation read and once again it's not super on my mind, but I actually had a lot to say about it so I'm going to try and get all of that across. I borrowed it off a friend's shelf and read it while I was there because it's something I've wanted to check out for a while.
I've read and adored Michelle Sagara West's books before, but always under her Michelle West name as opposed to the Michelle Sagara name she's publishing under here, and the difference is actually...more
I really enjoyed West's Into the Darklands series so when I read the blurb for this series I thought I'd give it a whirl. I was so not impressed. It was strange, for one, that she basically left out everything that a reader would need to know what's going on with the plot. What were the different races? Could we have gotten a better description of how their society functioned? I wasn't really even sure if the Hawks were like some sort of detectives or if they were just random guards? What were t...more
I really wanted to give this book a four star rating, but a couple things bothered me too much to.
First, which, I admit is minor, when a character, with their supernatural powers, moved faster than a normal person the author choose to italicized "moved." Incredibly annoying after seeing the same italicized word over and over and over.
Second, the prevailing element of mystery. I like a little bit of mystery in some books, especially those that have unexplainable supernatural forces, but in this...more
First, which, I admit is minor, when a character, with their supernatural powers, moved faster than a normal person the author choose to italicized "moved." Incredibly annoying after seeing the same italicized word over and over and over.
Second, the prevailing element of mystery. I like a little bit of mystery in some books, especially those that have unexplainable supernatural forces, but in this...more
This is a good fantasy book which features a strong female character called Kaylin. She's relatively young, probably late teens or early twenties when it starts. Her "gift" if you'd call it that, is that she was born with these runes embedded into her skin. She doesn't know anything about them but they hold secret power within them.
She grew up in the fief of Nightshade, an immortal being who rules the area. She grew up basically in the slums where children who had the same marks as her were bein...more
She grew up in the fief of Nightshade, an immortal being who rules the area. She grew up basically in the slums where children who had the same marks as her were bein...more
First in the Chronicles of Elantra fantasy series. It's thirteen years since events in "Cast in Moonlight", and Kaylin has been a Hawk for a few years in the city of Elantra.
My Take
This really is good. I'd love it even more if Sagara would be a bit more clear as to who is doing what to whom for what purpose. It is at least a tiny bit more clear than the prequel, "Cast in Moonlight", and does leave us with more of a sense of ending this particular adventure. Although, Sagara is wicked with leavin...more
My Take
This really is good. I'd love it even more if Sagara would be a bit more clear as to who is doing what to whom for what purpose. It is at least a tiny bit more clear than the prequel, "Cast in Moonlight", and does leave us with more of a sense of ending this particular adventure. Although, Sagara is wicked with leavin...more
the building of the world was awsome, the plot interesting, characters deep. why only 1*? for 300 pages you absolutely, frustratingly know nothing and not because of a lack of trying to get some answers by the heroine. Every time she asks ANY damn question - and she asks a lot - people just stare at her. they say nothing. they don't answer. they look. and turn away. or she turns away. whatever. she's not even that frustrated that they don't answer any question related to her own and only freakin...more
This started out looking like a fairly standard "ex-street-urchin makes good, then her past comes back to bite her" sort of set-up, complete with "mysterious bloke that she loves and hates". It's actually a lot better than that, though.
I really liked the world-building. There are several different humanoid races, which get on together more or less well. The city is the fairly standard "divided into lawful and lawless halves" type, but is redeemed by the interesting (and plot-important) fact that...more
I really liked the world-building. There are several different humanoid races, which get on together more or less well. The city is the fairly standard "divided into lawful and lawless halves" type, but is redeemed by the interesting (and plot-important) fact that...more
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 n...more
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 n...more
I'm really enjoying this series! Sagara has created a complicated, interesting world, and a fierce, flawed, and likable character in Kaylin. This was an impressive debut, though if I had one criticism, it is this: Sagara's writing style is sometimes a little confusing. I find myself losing track over whose dialogue is whose, and I often find myself missing information that is supposed to be apparent during scenes. At first I thought I was reading too fast (bc don't get me wrong, this series is g...more
Jun 09, 2012
Caterina
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
someone less picky, more patient
I must be picky or something, because while I thought the ideas behind this were worth exploring, the execution left me wondering whether an editor had got within a mile of the manuscript. There is something distinctly fannish in nature about the words on the page, something that says "I learned how to write solely through my friends on the Internet," and while that's not wrong (I learned a fair bit that way myself), that needs tempering with a healthy dose of "This is how we do it for pay."
The...more
The...more
Seven years ago Kaylin Neya left Nightshade, the home of criminals, prostitutes and the poor, when children with strange patterns on their were being murdered. The same patterns that had appeared on her skin.
Seven years has passed, and Kaylin is now a Hawk in Elantra; she can read, write, and fight, and as a Hawk, polices her new home. But when children start dying again, with the same strange patterns on their skin, she is ordered back to Nightshade to investigate the murders and face her past....more
Seven years has passed, and Kaylin is now a Hawk in Elantra; she can read, write, and fight, and as a Hawk, polices her new home. But when children start dying again, with the same strange patterns on their skin, she is ordered back to Nightshade to investigate the murders and face her past....more
I wonder how many "I can't tell you that" I'd find if I began to count. I gave up reading so close to the end but it was an "I can't tell you that" moment that made me roll my eyes. Seriously. Every time I read that it felt like the author didn't know what the secrets were so she said "I can't tell you that" to us. That's not how you add a little mystery to a story. No one really explained the markings on her arm other than saying "I can't tell you that."
I didn't like Kaylin. She seemed like a w...more
I didn't like Kaylin. She seemed like a w...more
2.5 Stars
I feel kinda bad for giving this book a bad rating. It wasn't a bad book, the characters were very likable and it was a very fascinating story the author had created.
But...I spent most of the book being confused. The reason for this is basically an information overload. WAY too much history was mentioned, and not just with one race we get told about it's ALL the races. There's humans, Barrani, Leontine and dragons. THEN there is levels of rank and a whole bunch of political information...more
I feel kinda bad for giving this book a bad rating. It wasn't a bad book, the characters were very likable and it was a very fascinating story the author had created.
But...I spent most of the book being confused. The reason for this is basically an information overload. WAY too much history was mentioned, and not just with one race we get told about it's ALL the races. There's humans, Barrani, Leontine and dragons. THEN there is levels of rank and a whole bunch of political information...more
Young Kaylin left her home to find protection in the ranks of the Hawks, a type of peacekeeping, almost police-like force in Elantra. Sadly, she finds that she's not very good at magic, generally fails classes and is cursed with a strange gift that ties her to the past she tried to run away from. When the Elantran authorities investigate Kaylin further, her past returns and Kaylin is forced to unravel the mystery behind her strange past.
Cast in Shadow sounds like a typical high fantasy novel wit...more
Cast in Shadow sounds like a typical high fantasy novel wit...more
I'm really torn here. I wanted to love this book, and there is so much about it that is interesting, but I feel so underwhelmed after finishing it. I loved the different races and types of creatures and their mannerisms, but I felt that they were not really explained very well. From the opening pages certain people are labeled as a specific race, yet we don't know much about the races. Sure the Leonites resemble lions, but that's all I got. I felt from very early on that I was missing something....more
This book has me re-examining my prejudices against traditional fantasy writing. I'm an urban/contemporary fantasy fan through and through. I found reading the Hobbit painful and won't touch the Lord of the Rings, even for bribes. I generally dislike hero-quest stories with character names that are unpronounceable and a lack of modern dialect. Anything that hints at historical fiction annoys me. And I've generally attributed all of these traits to traditional fantasy writing. This book turned my...more
I've read most everything Michelle Sagara West has written. I read the first five of her Elantran Chronicles in a week. Her writing is excellent, her characterization the same. She brings to life the intimate tangle of human relationships with convincing ease. She drops hints and develops political intrigue with the finesse of a master.
The Elantran Chronicles, "Cast in Shadow" is the first installment in the series, is an example of urban fantasy. WAIT. Before you roll your eyes and try to claw...more
The Elantran Chronicles, "Cast in Shadow" is the first installment in the series, is an example of urban fantasy. WAIT. Before you roll your eyes and try to claw...more
This book is ... so much more than I was expecting. I think I thought it was going to be something light and forgettable. A good yarn. An episode of a TV show I like, but don't need to watch. I was wrong.
You know the adage, "don't judge a book by its cover". Well, that so completely and utterly applies here. Books with covers like these are very much like TV shows and Rodney Dangerfield - they don't get much respect (there's a reason why HBO's slogan is "it's not TV, it's HBO"). The good ones ar...more
You know the adage, "don't judge a book by its cover". Well, that so completely and utterly applies here. Books with covers like these are very much like TV shows and Rodney Dangerfield - they don't get much respect (there's a reason why HBO's slogan is "it's not TV, it's HBO"). The good ones ar...more
Book Review: ‘Cast in Shadow’ by Michelle Sagara
Luna, 2005
ISBN: 0-373-8-254-4
507 pages
It’s usually easiest to review the first in a series of books. So let me tell readers first off that ‘Cast in Shadow’ is the first a series which already has, so far as I know, at least three books (‘Cast in Courtlight’ being the next). They’re all fat books. You’ll get your $6.99 worth of reading in these books.
Kaylin is a member of the paramilitary police force Hawks who serve the Hawkmaster, one of the Lords...more
Luna, 2005
ISBN: 0-373-8-254-4
507 pages
It’s usually easiest to review the first in a series of books. So let me tell readers first off that ‘Cast in Shadow’ is the first a series which already has, so far as I know, at least three books (‘Cast in Courtlight’ being the next). They’re all fat books. You’ll get your $6.99 worth of reading in these books.
Kaylin is a member of the paramilitary police force Hawks who serve the Hawkmaster, one of the Lords...more
Ok. So... I took this out of the library once because I wanted something cheesetacular and then promptly failed to actually read it. This time I took it out of the library and actually read it! Woo! I think part of my problem with this book was the cover. WHY do female urban fantasy authors have the cheapest looking covers? I mean, I guess this is ok, but it screams Romance genre to me. And that is not what this book is! I guess I'm just a cover snob.
Aaaanyway, this was not bad! I kinda liked it...more
Aaaanyway, this was not bad! I kinda liked it...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who's Your Author?: BOM Cast in Shadow | 13 | 38 | Apr 29, 2013 01:10pm |
See also:
Michelle Sagara West
Michelle West
Michelle is an author, bookseller, and lover of literature based in Toronto. She writes fantasy novels as both Michelle Sagara and Michelle West (and sometimes as Michelle Sagara West). You can find her books at fine booksellers.
She lives in Toronto with her long-suffering husband and her two children, and to her regret has no dogs.
Reading is one of her...more
More about Michelle Sagara...
Michelle Sagara West
Michelle West
Michelle is an author, bookseller, and lover of literature based in Toronto. She writes fantasy novels as both Michelle Sagara and Michelle West (and sometimes as Michelle Sagara West). You can find her books at fine booksellers.
She lives in Toronto with her long-suffering husband and her two children, and to her regret has no dogs.
Reading is one of her...more
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“I'm missing something, aren't I?"
"Brains", he snapped. "And survival instinct. The Hawklord's been waiting for you for three hours."
"Tell him I'm dead.”
—
44 people liked it
"Brains", he snapped. "And survival instinct. The Hawklord's been waiting for you for three hours."
"Tell him I'm dead.”
“The gods where like the weather; sometimes good, sometimes bad, and either way, always beyond her.”
—
25 people liked it
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