rclz's review against another edition
5.0
This is the second book in Seressia Glass's Shadowchaser's series. Really a good series. I burned right through this. Kira is so many things, a smart heroine, a broken child, and so many other things. I really love her and her 4000 year old warrior lover, Kehfar. The secondaries are really well done as well. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the next one.
liatrek's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoying the reread of this series. In the second book we get a lot of personal growth for Kira as she learns more about her past and learns to work as a team with her friends, a demigod and her immortal protector. This series has great world building and I love learning about Egyptian Gods and Goddess.
tylovesbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
andrewfontenelle's review against another edition
5.0
With new revelations about Kira, this story was just as exciting as Shadow Blade!
intisarspeaks's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
schomj's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed the first book in this series quite a bit, but had a hard time with this one. The first 100 or so pages are filled with introspection and grieving (and some info-dumping about what happened in the previous book, but that wasn't too bad). While I think those elements were important, the overall story would have benefited from having those parts mixed in with the action a bit more; the pacing just dragged.
The second half had a lot more action and the pace was a lot faster, but by then I had already given up emotionally, so it didn't have much impact. Also, while the relationship between Kira and Khefar progresses in this book -- and I'm fine with a romance building slowly throughout a series, but... it was kind of flat. I was actually a lot more intrigued by the little we saw of Demoz and his Light-touched assistant (I'd love to know more about that relationship!). At this point, I'm kind of conflicted about whether or not I want to pick up book 3.
The second half had a lot more action and the pace was a lot faster, but by then I had already given up emotionally, so it didn't have much impact. Also, while the relationship between Kira and Khefar progresses in this book -- and I'm fine with a romance building slowly throughout a series, but... it was kind of flat. I was actually a lot more intrigued by the little we saw of Demoz and his Light-touched assistant (I'd love to know more about that relationship!). At this point, I'm kind of conflicted about whether or not I want to pick up book 3.
lynseyisreading's review against another edition
3.0
Kira and Khefar are back in this second instalment to the Shadowchaser series. It picks immediately at the point where we left off in the last book; at the dinner celebrating Kira and Khefar's revival and new goddess-blessed statuses.
I was looking forward to hopefully getting to know both of the main characters more this time around and also trying to form more of a connection to them since that was slightly lacking in book one. I'd initially put that down to "book one syndrome" because of all the world-building that had to be done etc, etc. But now I'm thinking there may have been more to it than that because at the end of this book, I still find it quite hard to muster up much excitement for either of them in the same way I have with other characters in the past. And the excuse of it being the first book in the series, which will sometimes allow me to give it a free pass to fail in certain areas, no longer cuts the mustard.
It's a shame to have to say that because I really want to like this series. And it should, by rights, be very good. All the possibilities for exciting plots are there within the Egyptian mythology base. Unfortunately, there's just something about it that's leaving me cold.
I was also a little disappointed with the slow start. It took almost to exactly the midway point in the novel for Kira and Khefar's mission to become completely clear, for the book to give me that hook. I think the goal for the storyline should have been established much earlier on than this. I don't like words with no purpose. Get to the point.
Also, the fade-to-black sex scene was a little disappointing since the main bit of interest with regards to Kira as a main character is her inability to touch anyone. Ever. She literally has to go around with gloves taped to her wrists. So to then have Kira find the only person she can touch, having sex with him would surely be quite a monumental occasion for her, and yet it was skipped over with the barest of detail.
And, no, that's not me grumbling because there was no smut in the book. There was none in book one either but there didn't need to be because it wasn't time. Here, it was time, and it should have been part of the book.
The second half of the book was much, much better it has to be said, but by this point I think I'd already made the decision to see the book out to the end then stop reading the series. At this moment I don't see myself picking up the next one, the interest in the characters just isn't there.
3 Stars ★★★
I was looking forward to hopefully getting to know both of the main characters more this time around and also trying to form more of a connection to them since that was slightly lacking in book one. I'd initially put that down to "book one syndrome" because of all the world-building that had to be done etc, etc. But now I'm thinking there may have been more to it than that because at the end of this book, I still find it quite hard to muster up much excitement for either of them in the same way I have with other characters in the past. And the excuse of it being the first book in the series, which will sometimes allow me to give it a free pass to fail in certain areas, no longer cuts the mustard.
It's a shame to have to say that because I really want to like this series. And it should, by rights, be very good. All the possibilities for exciting plots are there within the Egyptian mythology base. Unfortunately, there's just something about it that's leaving me cold.
I was also a little disappointed with the slow start. It took almost to exactly the midway point in the novel for Kira and Khefar's mission to become completely clear, for the book to give me that hook. I think the goal for the storyline should have been established much earlier on than this. I don't like words with no purpose. Get to the point.
Also, the fade-to-black sex scene was a little disappointing since the main bit of interest with regards to Kira as a main character is her inability to touch anyone. Ever. She literally has to go around with gloves taped to her wrists. So to then have Kira find the only person she can touch, having sex with him would surely be quite a monumental occasion for her, and yet it was skipped over with the barest of detail.
And, no, that's not me grumbling because there was no smut in the book. There was none in book one either but there didn't need to be because it wasn't time. Here, it was time, and it should have been part of the book.
The second half of the book was much, much better it has to be said, but by this point I think I'd already made the decision to see the book out to the end then stop reading the series. At this moment I don't see myself picking up the next one, the interest in the characters just isn't there.
3 Stars ★★★
lit_and_lore's review against another edition
3.0
There is so much about this book that I want to love; diverse characters, a kick-ass heroine and lots of worldbuilding based on Egyptian mythology. I had to knock stars off because the pacing is wonky and the author spends a lot of time repeating what Kira is thinking and restating facts that readers should have picked up. It's unnecessary to explain how Kira's magic works for the umpteenth time when we're already 3 thirds of the way through the book. It gets repetitive and slows everything down. Which is a shame because when things happen it's decent and if the character moments didn't keep rehashing the same ground it would be a stronger book.
eliwray's review against another edition
2.0
Content warning for the bury your gays trope.
In the previous book, gay and trans folks were kept entirely out of all worldbuilding, all characterization, all language used, in a rather airtight way. This time we get a genderqueer god briefly mentioned, and two minor gay characters... one of whom we meet as a dead body. The other gay character is in the same line of work as the protag but is just jarringly incompetent at his job... levels of incompetence that throw me out of the story several times. It's a really unpleasant set of representation choices.
It's a real shame, because the plot, romance and worldbuilding are all developing, if not in a flawless way, certainly in an intriguing, enjoyable direction. I'd love to be able to focus on that and finish the series. I like the leads enough to want to continue. But I'm not gonna stick around as a reader if I'm being treated as disposable because I'm queer. I could handle not being represented at all, no author is perfect. But this kind of rep is demeaning.
In the previous book, gay and trans folks were kept entirely out of all worldbuilding, all characterization, all language used, in a rather airtight way. This time we get a genderqueer god briefly mentioned, and two minor gay characters... one of whom we meet as a dead body. The other gay character is in the same line of work as the protag but is just jarringly incompetent at his job... levels of incompetence that throw me out of the story several times. It's a really unpleasant set of representation choices.
It's a real shame, because the plot, romance and worldbuilding are all developing, if not in a flawless way, certainly in an intriguing, enjoyable direction. I'd love to be able to focus on that and finish the series. I like the leads enough to want to continue. But I'm not gonna stick around as a reader if I'm being treated as disposable because I'm queer. I could handle not being represented at all, no author is perfect. But this kind of rep is demeaning.
carol26388's review
2.0
I hate flying. A lot. Though this was a library book, I brought it along on the plane because I thought it would distract me from the thought of a firey crash in a North Dakota cornfield. It turns out, I was both wrong and right; while it did distract me from negative thoughts about flying, part of the reason it worked is that it focused my negative energy on the book.
Glass is still struggling with pacing, and this feels like the process of disembarking a plane: shuffle, shuffle, quick grab carry-on, shuffle, dash up the ramp and hustle over to the gate board to find the transfer. Although the book's description focuses on the plot of recovering an artifact and returning it to it's place of origin, the first quarter to third of the book is cleaning up back-story from the first book as well as some origin story. Upon re-reading, the first 30 pages contribute almost nothing for prior readers, with Kira and Khefar each having small bits of dialogue and then doing lots of thinking in between. As a reader, it just wasn't a pace that felt natural to an urban-fantasy that is supposed to focus on chasing evil. Redundant to those of us that read the first book, and redundant to the storyline, it was a section that should have been cut. While I like thinking characters, this was overbalanced into the 'telling' category of narration.
Action starts to take off in London and moves better from there on out. Just like once you've reached the Badlands in your cross-country flight--you know you're over the first bit and are finally making some headway. From London we head to. As a result, it almost feels like three novellas mashed into a novel. I don't mean to sound like a disgruntled airline passenger, but I'd really prefer my ride a little smoother.
Still, I do like the multi-culti characters and their start at complexity, especially the tumultuous relationship between Kira and her 'mother.' Nansee remains my favorite character, providing the Wise Old Lecherous Man note with aplomb. Near the end, plotting started to feel contrived, as if we were segueing into every flight action movie ever, the one where the elite gang gets together to accomplish some impossible task. Granted, it was more exciting than the Skymall catalog, but I couldn't help thinking it wasn't a far enough step up.
On re-read, several more problems with the writing started to stand out, especially redundancies. Each character continues to be described (past initial introduction) in the same terms. Thus on page 67, when we are meeting Balm, Kira thinks "She wished she could talk to Balm--really talk to Balm as if the head of Gilead truly was her mother, and not the woman who'd become her guardian after her adopted parents dumped her on Gilead's doorstep. She wished she could talk to Balm about the innocent people she'd killed while strung out on Shadow." Never mind that Kira's already had this thought in conversation with her friend Wynne ("Have you forgotten what happened a couple of days ago? I almost killed you and Zoo!") and in conversation with Khefar ("This was all after Kira had been drugged by Shadow and, while out of her mind, killed more than half a dozen innocent people and almost taken out her best friends as well.") Enough, already. Have her think something else, or at least advance beyond repetition.
There's also language redundancy. For instance, in a conversation with Balm, she refers to Kira on every page as "my daughter," "daughter," or "my child." One, it seems inconsistent with the leader of a world-wide organization, as Kira is forever pointing out. Two, it is redundant. Boring! Three, real people don't talk like that unless they have a (pathological) point to make about possession and relationship. Then there's the phrasing seems to come straight from Romance 101: "emotion swirled in her eyes: anger, hurt and abrasive grief."
In retrospect, this is not a book that holds up well. Good for one fast, desperate, distracted read, especially if you don't want to think about turbulence.
Glass is still struggling with pacing, and this feels like the process of disembarking a plane: shuffle, shuffle, quick grab carry-on, shuffle, dash up the ramp and hustle over to the gate board to find the transfer. Although the book's description focuses on the plot of recovering an artifact and returning it to it's place of origin, the first quarter to third of the book is cleaning up back-story from the first book as well as some origin story. Upon re-reading, the first 30 pages contribute almost nothing for prior readers, with Kira and Khefar each having small bits of dialogue and then doing lots of thinking in between. As a reader, it just wasn't a pace that felt natural to an urban-fantasy that is supposed to focus on chasing evil. Redundant to those of us that read the first book, and redundant to the storyline, it was a section that should have been cut. While I like thinking characters, this was overbalanced into the 'telling' category of narration.
Action starts to take off in London and moves better from there on out. Just like once you've reached the Badlands in your cross-country flight--you know you're over the first bit and are finally making some headway. From London we head to
Spoiler
an alternate reality/ another world which feels a little like the plot from The Mummy, and culminates in an Indiana Jones adventure-style endingStill, I do like the multi-culti characters and their start at complexity, especially the tumultuous relationship between Kira and her 'mother.' Nansee remains my favorite character, providing the Wise Old Lecherous Man note with aplomb. Near the end, plotting started to feel contrived, as if we were segueing into every flight action movie ever, the one where the elite gang gets together to accomplish some impossible task. Granted, it was more exciting than the Skymall catalog, but I couldn't help thinking it wasn't a far enough step up.
On re-read, several more problems with the writing started to stand out, especially redundancies. Each character continues to be described (past initial introduction) in the same terms. Thus on page 67, when we are meeting Balm, Kira thinks "She wished she could talk to Balm--really talk to Balm as if the head of Gilead truly was her mother, and not the woman who'd become her guardian after her adopted parents dumped her on Gilead's doorstep. She wished she could talk to Balm about the innocent people she'd killed while strung out on Shadow." Never mind that Kira's already had this thought in conversation with her friend Wynne ("Have you forgotten what happened a couple of days ago? I almost killed you and Zoo!") and in conversation with Khefar ("This was all after Kira had been drugged by Shadow and, while out of her mind, killed more than half a dozen innocent people and almost taken out her best friends as well.") Enough, already. Have her think something else, or at least advance beyond repetition.
There's also language redundancy. For instance, in a conversation with Balm, she refers to Kira on every page as "my daughter," "daughter," or "my child." One, it seems inconsistent with the leader of a world-wide organization, as Kira is forever pointing out. Two, it is redundant. Boring! Three, real people don't talk like that unless they have a (pathological) point to make about possession and relationship. Then there's the phrasing seems to come straight from Romance 101: "emotion swirled in her eyes: anger, hurt and abrasive grief."
In retrospect, this is not a book that holds up well. Good for one fast, desperate, distracted read, especially if you don't want to think about turbulence.
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