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A review by foxholebookcourt
Spellslinger by Sebastien de Castell
4.0
Spellslinger by Sebastien De Castell
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
‘First thing you learn wandering the long roads, kid. Everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story.’
I really want to thank my friend for recommending this book series to me, and Amazon for having a set of the series for 36 euros, because damn, that was really intriguing. It says a lot for me (who has been in a reading slump for over a year now) to have finished this book in only a day. Admittedly, it’s not a hard book to follow, even if it can get a bit confusing with the world building at times.
The plot is pretty much your standard magical world and special kid who’s trying to find his place in it. In a way, it reminded me of V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, only, I enjoyed Spellslinger a lot more. Mostly because it made me connect with the protagonist a lot more and feel strong emotions about the entire cast of characters. What I found lacking was the villain, and I hope the following books will actually explore the actual bad guys (no spoilers here) a lot more. There’s tons of potential, and of course, I’ll be continuing the series and see where it takes me.
Like I said, a thing that this book achieved marvellously to do, was to make me enjoy the characters. Some in a good way, some in a bad way. Kellen, our protagonist, appears to be a stupid and yet loveable soon to be sixteen year old. Which, on its own, makes him a pretty compelling and easy to like character already. But he gets more and more intriguing as the story progresses, and while I usually don’t enjoy first POV books, it definitely made sense for this one to be in first POV. Our female lead was also strong and I loved her attitude, and I’m hoping I’ll see more of her. The bit of romance that was there was, well, unnecessary. For my followers, this book is unfortunately not queer, but romance is not the focus of it either way.
The world building and the magic system were also very impressive, although another reason I removed a star was that it sometimes got a bit confusing for my small little brain. In any case, I would definitely recommend this book to the fans of books full of magic and witty characters.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
‘First thing you learn wandering the long roads, kid. Everyone thinks they're the hero of their own story.’
I really want to thank my friend for recommending this book series to me, and Amazon for having a set of the series for 36 euros, because damn, that was really intriguing. It says a lot for me (who has been in a reading slump for over a year now) to have finished this book in only a day. Admittedly, it’s not a hard book to follow, even if it can get a bit confusing with the world building at times.
The plot is pretty much your standard magical world and special kid who’s trying to find his place in it. In a way, it reminded me of V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, only, I enjoyed Spellslinger a lot more. Mostly because it made me connect with the protagonist a lot more and feel strong emotions about the entire cast of characters. What I found lacking was the villain, and I hope the following books will actually explore the actual bad guys (no spoilers here) a lot more. There’s tons of potential, and of course, I’ll be continuing the series and see where it takes me.
Like I said, a thing that this book achieved marvellously to do, was to make me enjoy the characters. Some in a good way, some in a bad way. Kellen, our protagonist, appears to be a stupid and yet loveable soon to be sixteen year old. Which, on its own, makes him a pretty compelling and easy to like character already. But he gets more and more intriguing as the story progresses, and while I usually don’t enjoy first POV books, it definitely made sense for this one to be in first POV. Our female lead was also strong and I loved her attitude, and I’m hoping I’ll see more of her. The bit of romance that was there was, well, unnecessary. For my followers, this book is unfortunately not queer, but romance is not the focus of it either way.
The world building and the magic system were also very impressive, although another reason I removed a star was that it sometimes got a bit confusing for my small little brain. In any case, I would definitely recommend this book to the fans of books full of magic and witty characters.