Knight's Shadow

A worthy sequel and continuing the build the next great fantasy world. A wonderful mixture of the Three Musketeers and fantasy. A must read!

4.5 stars

You know what? For all of the exciting adventures this book took me on, what kept me coming back for more was the characters. Falcio Val Mond has quickly risen to the role of one of my favorite literary heroes because he is truly heroic, despite his flaws (maybe even because of them). He's the type of person that most can only dream of becoming, and yet still remains completely humble. If he weren't enough of an incentive to start this series, well, look no further that his loyal compatriots, The Greatcoats, both old and new.
I can't imagine what sort of journey we'll be taken on in the next book, but perhaps it might be a good idea to take the day off to read it, seeing how much sleep I've lost reading the other books in the series.

What can I say? I absolutely loved this book. There was never a dull moment with non-stop action. From the banter between the characters to the thrilling sword fight scenes, it was well written and lots of fun to read.

The characters were very likeable with depth and complex personalities. There was just enough humour to balance out the darker parts. What's more is that it held my attention from beginning to end.

When forced to put the book down in order to do other things that I had to get done, I found myself wanting to hurry through them so I could get back to reading. It was a page turner for sure and one of the best books I've read this year so far.

I am rather stingy when it comes to doling out stars and so far I've not given out five to any book that I've read, until now. I feel this book was worth a five star rating. I am looking forward to reading more in this series.

The first book in this series, Traitor's Blade, was my absolute favorite read from last year (and definitely one of my favorite books ever). It has action, humor, an inventive and surprising plot, with an idealistic and capable main character. It would be hard for the second book to top the first for me, given how much I adored it. But this book was an amazing and even more action packed sequel!

The plot of this novel is darker and much more involved - "Knight's Shadow" is double the length of "Traitor's Blade"- but the plot never drags and every scene is important to the story. And that became very apparent to me as the plot took on many complex twists and turns. In this book there are conspiracies everywhere, and Falcio is hard-pressed to keep to his moral center when so many of his beliefs are severely tested. But I was thrilled with how Falcio continues to grow as a character in this story. The first book sets up his character pretty conclusively, but somehow in the second his personality and strength of character is further tempered by his experiences and it was satisfying to see how he bore all of his trials. The inner strength of many characters is tested greatly in this book and I found that study of human integrity and weakness to be fascinating.

This is a hard journey of a story because there are so many pitfalls the characters must take and some really shocking revelations. I felt so intensely invested in the characters' plights that it was almost physically painful to read what they had to endure. The storytelling was brilliant though because the way some plot developments would twist on itself was as mesmerizing as it was shocking. This was a fantastically suspenseful and engaging read - even though it was about 600 pages, I felt like I breezed through the book in my determination get to the end of every action-packed chapter.

My love for the first book could have been a fluke, but this second book has cemented my love for the series before it has even finished. It was so invigorating to go on this dangerous, and sometimes painful, but ultimately satisfying adventure with Falcio, Kest, Brasti and the rest of the Greatcoats. This is a series I recommend everyone to read!