A Tale of Stars and Shadow

I love hidden gems. Little personal secrets, books or other things that are just so good you don't want to share them with anyone else save a couple close friends. Curiosities that maybe aren't the most universal, but connect with you in a deep way.

I stumbled across this book on a reddit thread. It was mentioned in a comment with one upvote. I looked it up, read some reviews, and decided that this was either going to be awful or incredibly good.

And I'm so glad I picked this up, because god damn this is the best fantasy book I've read this year.

The genre of this is still unclear, and I think that's wonderful, because it digs at everything someone who loves modern fantasy could ever want. Competence porn. A ragtag group of misfits banding together. Swashbuckling raids and adventures. A huge assortment of magics and people who can fly. A slow burn romance. And an overwhelming sense of immersion that drags you into the story from the first page.

ATOSAS finished fourth in the 2019 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, behind three novels that have gone on to become very famous. It scored an 8.5/10 in that competition. This book probably reads much better post-pandemic, with the trend towards cozier, more optimistic fantasy, and slightly tropier, guilty-pleasure elements becoming the norm in some popular books. Make no mistake, this is very modern genre fantasy. Don't go into this expecting some literary masterpiece - this is just setup of a very nice world and plotline, and flawless execution.

And I loved it. You probably won't like it as much as me, but I still think you should read it.

Rating: 9.5/10
Comparisons: somewhere in between Eli Monpress (but more serious), Mistborn (but lighter and faster-paced), and Fourth Wing (with good writing and without the sex).

royalty

28/01/2022
Honest Review:
This story was exactly what I wanted to read and I love the book so so so much i-
don't know how to explain it LOL

I picked up the book on a whim after seeing a tumblr post about one of the characters in the book, and after seeing all the positive reviews, I was curious about the story.

Sometimes you just want to read a type of story which doesn't fit any one category, but is instead a masterful blend of several genres. THAT'S what this book is. It's (High) Fantasy and Mystery and quite realistic, despite the magic/fantasy components.

I love the way the story unravelled and I was thoroughly engrossed in the adventure. I literally could not put the book down, and while I have been reading quite a bit, those readings weren't quite like the way i BINGED this book (and the 2nd, and now the 3rd LOL).

There were a few times where my assumptions about the trajectory of the story were subverted, and if I hadn't already known about the ending, I would have been thoroughly blindsided because DAMN ... EVEN DESPITE KNOWING THE ENDING I kept doubting it!

Sometimes the Fantasy genre can be confusing, because of all the new terms/lore; I think the author has done a very clever job with this book, and I'm interested in seeing how the rest of the story will pan out.

After finishing the book, I couldn't help but compare it to the other Fantasy books I'd been reading. One of the discomforts that I have with the YA Fantasy genre is that FMC is usually a teenager while the MMC is literally ancient x.x

Or sometimes, the YA protagonist could totally be an actual young adult between the ages of 18-30 but for marketing reasons I guess? they make the protagonist way younger? which can take away from the reading experience. Or, now there's this whole subgenre of New Adult which features characters in that age demographic but it's dominated by (idealistic) contemporary reads – NOTHING wrong with that, but sometimes that's not the story you're in the mood for, yenno?

ANYWAY - all of this is to say: it was nice to read a story that reads like it's for actual young adults, and not only because of the characters' ages. Maturity doesn't take away from the character, but adds a level of depth, making the character more relatable, and maturity doesn't mean that the character can't have fun.

While the story follows some storyline tropes, it was still a refreshing read, and that's why I wanted to add an extra star - not because it's going to be a perfect read for everyone, but it was a perfect read for me.

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26/01/2022
I'm going to update it from 4 stars to 5 stars

because, thinking over it, it's actually better than a lot of the other books I've been reading lately, and instead of the veneer of idealistic hopefulness + a m.c. who's 16/17, this actually had a maturer protagonist

okay wait tbc - just realized I'm comparing what's essentially an adult fantasy with YA

BUT THE THING IS: it's... what i wish YA/NA would be, in that, we have a story about a an adult/young adult, and it's about more than just finding the love of their life. in fact - even if that's what this story wanted to tackle, at least the characters are realistic enough and compelling

again, the genres are different, so direct comparisons can't be made... brb