Debbie's Spurts
Just an avid reader. Mostly SF/Fantasy, some hobbies, paranormal, urban fantasy and lighter, fluffier things.
Currently reading
Review of "A Dance of Cloaks" (Shadowdance, #1) by David Dalglish
I will be reading the next book in this series—which is probably the best indication of how I felt about the read. (No, this book did not end with a cliffhanger).
It's fairly usual for fantasy genre gone a bit dark with thieves, assassins, corrupt folk in high places, religions, magics and a whiff of larger worldbuilding with snippets of other countries and races. Yet also orginal.
Frantic almost in the pacing and everything that happens. Somehow managed to not be chaotic with all the new characters that show up. Great story arc — something many first-in-series books miss.
Yet that "frantic" kept me from rating higher because it meant I was slower to get into specific characters and the worldbuilding stayed pretty light (for example, new magics show up with no explanation; kinda video game-ish because as soon as one character seemed too powerful *poof* here comes an opposing power). Even the main character did not really get a great deal of "on stage" time.
I read the traditionally published (Orbit) reissue of the self-published book. Lo and behold, I had actually downloaded and shelved the self-published one when free (partly because the series had several books in it but mostly because liked the sample). I won't be curious to read the self-published version — but, the author added a note to the new edition about how the self-published one was even more frantic with even more stuff thrown in. I'm having trouble imagining ...
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