Shadowblack [Apr 19, 2019]

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

This is a Buddy Read for Shadowblack by Sebastien de Castell starting April 19, 2019.

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

I’d intended to start this one on time, but for whatever reason it’s really popular at my library - I’m 11th in line!! Wtf?! Lol. All the others are available now.

[Anni]

Haha, me too! But my copy only arrived today, I'm good to go, but I also wouldn't mind to wait for you :)

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Haha it would be stellar to read it with you. How about I keep you updated on where I am in line (omg at the moment I’m 11th in line - estimated 22 weeks!? O_o), and you can let me know if you decide to read it before then? I checked like a month ago and it was available. I’ve no idea what happened!

[Anni]

I think for now it's only the two of us anyway, so I don't mind waiting :)

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Sweet! I’ll keep you posted. :)

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

My copy came in!! Sir Anni, are you available to read it or have you knocked it out already? :)

[Anni]

Hooray! :) No I haven't read it yet, but I would like to finish another book fist. I should be done tomorrow, so maybe start on Friday? I'm really excited to continue with the series!

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Friday would be perfect. :)

[Anni]

Perfect :)

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Through ch 4(view spoiler)[ So far I’m retaining most of what I read in Spellslinger, but it took a while to get settled back into this book. I’m benefitting from the fact that there aren’t many characters to remember lol. But I did forget that he had even banished. What stood out so far to grab my interest was the world building -the different regions having different metal compositions in the sand making them different colors is so cool! I love stuff like that like that. Have you ever read Jhereg by Stephen Brust? The dynamic between the kid and the squirrel cat reminds me a lot of that series (hide spoiler)]

[Anni]

So, I'm finally here as well :) I re-read the last to chapters of Spellslinger to refresh my memory (view spoiler)[ He wasn't banished exactly, he went this magic exam, helped his little girlfriend with a secret to tell the court and in his test he told them that any kind of magic isn't worth a men's conscience and left. On his way out of town he told his sister that he rather live the life of an outlaw than as a slave/ pretender or do the dirty work for their father... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 4: I think this little re-read helped a lot to jump right into book 2 and I really like the easy and witty writing style, with the short chapters the story feels really fast paced (view spoiler)[ I really like the world and the idea of the colourful desert as well :) It reminded me a little of The Neverending Story, there's a colourful desert as well, during the day there's a forest of flowers in all different shades and when the sun goes down all of them crumble and became sand, resultig in different shaded dunes... But back to Shadowblack :D I also really like the magic system, it's interesting that the hunter can follow his 'trail'of magic. The amulet would be really handy, but I like it when not everything always went well in books, makes it way more interesting.

Lucky us, there aren't too many characters, I would have been so confused as well, I like the dynamic of the whole group, I'm looking forward to learn more about Ferius.

Haven't read Jhereg, but it sounds interesting and it has dragons :) (hide spoiler)]

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Sir Anni wrote: "So, I'm finally here as well :) I re-read the last to chapters of Spellslinger to refresh my memory [spoilers removed]

Chapter 4: I think this little re-read helped a lot to jump right into book 2..."

That's a really good idea! I knew I didn't want to do an entire book reread, but it never has occurred to me to read just the last few chapters!! And it turns out I needed it haha. Thank you for the info - (view spoiler)[ I think that distinction of why he left is going to be important when he decides to go back... and I would've been confused. All that said, his exit sounds quite melodramatic so I'm surprised I didn't remember it haha. And oooh!! I've never read/seen Neverending Story, but that sounds totally up my alley. And Jhereg was fun - kind of like this series meets the Dresden Files. :) (hide spoiler)]
Through Ch 15 (view spoiler)[ I'm really enjoying the characters and like that we're meeting so many new ones! It will be fun to see how they all tie in together in later books. if i'm not mistaken, you've read his Greatcoats series recently, right? I've noticed he has a lot of the same writing styles here and I'm kind of getting tired of the constant "deductions" and "reveals" as the character figures things out every couple of pages. It's standing out to me as a pattern.
Another thing that's bothersome is the squirrelcat. You're typically not supposed to shatter the illusion of the world for your reader by adding modern terms and slang. Even though I feel like he's breaking this rule on purpose and only with the squirrelcat, I'm not a fan of how far it pulls me out of the story.
That's a lot of update lol. (hide spoiler)]

[Anni]

I'm very sorry to left you all on your own for most of this read 🙈 I've got a slight cold and was too tired in the evenings to really read... I saw you already finished, I hope you liked it :)

I'm a little more than halfway done now. In the middle of chapter 29 (view spoiler)[ I think my favorite scene so far is Kellen taking a bath with Reichis :D

Yeah, I finished Greatcoats a few months ago, the series definitely has its flaws, but overall I really liked the dynamic and friendship between the characters (the romance part not so much... It was rather strange), I guess, I'm a character-person, if I like them, I can ignore some of the flaws on other ends :)
Might be the same here, it won't become my favorite series, I would like the world to be a bit more detailed, but overall it's enjoyable.

Haha, I think me being not that versed in english works im my favor for once 😂 Slang and modern words are often lost on me, because sometimes there are phrases not so modern I don't know as well. Context wise I mostly get them (at least I think I do, sometimes maybe what's actually happen and what I think is happening might deferre) but I can't really say how 'modern' they are. (hide spoiler)]

[Niki Hawkes, I made it past GOTM... barely]

Sir Anni wrote: "I'm very sorry to left you all on your own for most of this read 🙈 I've got a slight cold and was too tired in the evenings to really read... I saw you already finished, I hope you liked it :)

I'm..."

No worries! I hope you're feeling better - I swear I'd rather have a 24 hr miserable bug than have to deal with a cold for any length of time.

I breezed through this one faster than I thought I would. I liked it, but not quite as much as the first one (view spoiler)[The longer the story went, the more I realized it was mostly dialogue and discussion of what to do, and very little of the actual doing of things. I missed the spell-weaving, learning, and mystery solving from the first book. However, around ch 24, I was at least feeling engaged with the characters. I'm looking forward to starting the next one (which I'm next in line for and should be able to hop aboard on sooner than later - I'll comment in the other thread, but I'll plan to try to stick to the 19th schedule for the rest of the series. :)). I did like all the new characters who were introduced!
I loved the bath part too! and when he kept stealing the wine while Kel wasn't looking haha. And haha - the language thing makes total sense! Sometimes I forget that you're not "versed" because you write so well. I never used to notice stuff like slang in books before I studied to become a writer - now sometimes it's difficult for me to pull myself out of critical mode to just enjoy a story. (hide spoiler)]

[Anni]

Haha yes, that would be way better, get done with it real quick instead of feeling just a little bad for weeks. I'm fine now, thanks :)

I finished the book sometime last week I think, the books are such a quick read indeed (view spoiler)[ I actually liked the first half better than the second, seing more of the world and the interaction between the trio and especially seeing other Argosi. The whole plot at the university felt a little flat, I guess? It wasn't bad at all, but it somehow gave me the feeling of a TV episode with the main characters fighting another evil each episode. It was quick and funny and there were surprises, but on the other hand everything was a bit too superficial.

I still gave the book 4 stars, I had a great time reading it and that's enough for me :) It might not keep up with other well-written books, but sometimes you just need something lighter in between :) (hide spoiler)]

Oh and thank you :) That's a really nice thing to hear, I still feel so clumsy with my words sometimes 😅

That's maybe the bad thing about studying, it makes us realize all the little mistakes in things we so much loved before... I get annoyed way too easy when things don't make sense from a medical/biological point of view, even when it's a small thing, it's really hard to turn my brain off, when it's stuff normally I need to analyze in detail in my day-to-day life...