In the Shadow of Lightning

I was a big fan of the two Powder Mage trilogies by Brian McClellan, his world building strikes a great tone with me. It's a level below in depth to Sanderson (but who isn't ya know?), but still McClellan does an amazing job at keeping the scope focused on a few characters yet his worlds feel large, lived in, and believable. I also have to mention if magic systems are your thing, his books are top tier!

Shadow of Lightning is equally as strong of a start as Promise of Blood in my opinion and I can't wait for the remaining installments. I loved how intimately we get to know the characters in this story; I've seen reviews slamming the character development and I hear what they are saying but in my opinion it's clear we just at the starting point and McClellan has set up a beautiful arc for us to experience in this series. My favorite part of the book was the last 20%, the climax was utterly satisfying and just enough was dangled in front of us to blow the world wide open, it took my mind in a million directions and I haven't been as excited to read a next installment in quite awhile.

This book is unfortunately a DNF at 25%.

The deck was stacked against this book with all the people I know who also got approved for an eARC either not really enjoying it or DNFing. I cannot pretend that I exist in a vacuum where I wasn't aware of that, and it for sure had an impact on my reading experience. And I also didn't get very far, and nothing about the book struck me as bad or egregiously done, so I cannot say I do not recommend the book. Perhaps its great. Maybe in a while from now I will try this again and be head over heels. Unfortunately, though, the reality currently is that I have spent 14 days trying to read this book and failing. In 14 days I should finish any audiobook of this length. And I just kept stopping and doing something else. Nothing about the book was sucking me in.

The magic seems incredibly similar to Allomancy from Mistborn, but without the narrative giving you enough explanation of what each type of godglass does, at least early on. I'm told there is a list in the physical version, but in the audiobook I was mostly trying to assess why something mattered and what it did. The book is primarily a murder mystery/detective novel with some elements of rebellion in the background, but I did not care about any of it. The characters did nothing to stick out to me so far. Again, none of these elements were bad. They just weren't captivating for me personally, either. I've heard very mixed things about Powder Mage as well, and this book certainly has scared me off of McClellan for awhile, at least.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I got an ARC and this is my honest review of it.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-9
A-8
W-8
P-9
I-9
L-9
E-10
TOTAL-8.86/10

Just an Amazing book. I loved every minute I was reading this book. I was pulling out my phone to read it anytime I had a spare 10 seconds. This was really great.

The Prologue and Epilogue were masterfully done, answering enough while asking the right questions, just great.

CAWPILE
Characters.
So many different characters, but it was easy to understand whose head you were in and what was happening. All the characters felt real and believable to me. Acting like real people would act. Having 4 characters to follow was great. Showing many different features

Atmosphere
The world is understandable, and easy to get lost in. You can tell that McClellan has spent some time figuring out how he wants this world set up. The way the city feels comes right off the page.

Writing
Not much I can say here. The writing was good. I never felt like it was clunky or using any “tricks” to get me to keep turning the page.

Plot
The Plot. Oh the plot. When starting out, I questioned how much was going to be about this or that. And how what the story was going to end on. Have no fear. Brian McClellan weaves his plot deftly around and through all the things you think and don't think are going to happen.

Investment
I was so excited by this book that like I said earlier I had a problem with putting it down. I was so invested in the characters, multiple characters just from the prologue. Then with the addition of other chapters my excitement grew by leaps and bounds.

Logic
I loved the magic system. A Medium style magic system if you will. Hard with just enough softness to cover its weakness. But you can understand enough and its explained enough that nothing feels surprising when it happens.... Well until the end.

Enjoyment
My enjoyment of this book is off the charts. I am so glad I read this. And I'm am super eagerly awaiting the next books in this series.

CAWPILECharacters.Demir Grappo, Baby Montego, Kizzae, Thessa, Idrian, Adriana, Capric, Aristanes.(Schemer), Thinking One. So Many amazingly great characters and such an interesting way they all work together or don't work together. Demir broken by Holikan on the road to recovery, finally done running away from his past. Baby Montego, I just can't get over actually calling somebody Baby in a book and not having it be weird, but it wasn't so it works. Kizzae and her Family issues. Because everything is about the FAMILY for the Ossans. With her working relationship with Demir. The betrayals that happen or happened in the past. Idrian the Breacher. Selling his life to keep his sanity. With a GodsGlass eye. Thessa a Brillant Glassblower (probably not the write term). I just loved all the interactions between all the charactersThe YUGLIDS excuse me what the heck are they and where are they from and what what what!!! I NEED to know more. Are they related to the monsters attacking the army. AtmosphereWritingLots of Chapters, but they are pretty short and go quickly. Uses the Chapters to generally signal character shift.PlotSo about halfway through the book I was thinking jeez, this war isn't working for anybody. All they are doing is destroying everything, turns out that was the plan, by the Glass Knife or the Schemer. I thought this was going to be about the Phoenix Channel and it was, and about finding the killer and it was, and leading an army and it was. And they were put together expertly so that as a reader you're not reading about things that have no interest to you. But they get revealed at the right times to make things exciting.InvestmentStarting the Sack of Holikan and the the Desperation that Demir feels so soon after a great victory, was so intense. I was invested in how Demir was going to come back and when, and what he'd been doing. Then learning about all our characters piece by piece and seeing them come together or apart, kept me very invested in learning what was going to happen to our characters.LogicThe Magic system. I love being told small things at the beginning so that we aren't as unaware and have to have things explained. Nobody would repeat to themselves what the magic does when its as familiar to them as some things are to us. The motives of the characters and the families was real and believable. I absolutely loved when Thessa learns that Demir is “responsible” for the Sack of Holikan and her parents deaths. She does leave him immediately but instead of learning the truth way later and regretting it, she seeks out someone she trusts and who knows what really happened and talks. Then immediately goes back to Demir and talks with him about it. Love it.Enjoyment10/10 loved every second of reading this bookMiscBaby Montego—I'll kill them. And then Killing the ANGRY ONEFear Glass Shackle GlassThe Prologue The Epilogue 2 Yuglids arguing.The Use of Wit GlassThe Glass Monster on top of the roof.Idrian stealing Cinderite and climbing a chimney.So much more
I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://libromancy.podbean.com/ on 07/27/2022

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for providing an ARC copy of this novel.

For most of In the Shadow of Lightning, I thought it was your typical, sort-of generic, kind-of-typical fantasy book. And...then I got to the last five percent of the novel, and, uh, everything changed? Now, don't get me wrong, In the Shadow of Lightning was never boring. It has a fantastic, unique magic system, interesting characters, and a plot that kept my attention. There were little hints, though, throughout the book, that not all was as it appeared. The ending, however, is just bizarre.

Look, I'm going to be completely honest. I'm struggling not to spoil this one, and I absolutely refuse to spoil it, because I feel like it will ruin the book for many people if I do! So if this review is vaguer than it should be, that's my explanation.

At it's core, In the Shadow of Lightning is a book about a mystery. Who killed Demir Grappo's mother, and why? The answer is given, at the very end of the novel, so don't worry about that. To get there, though, is quite the journey. We travel through an active war zone, through the city streets, and into nitty-gritty situations, all to figure out the why of the murder.

There are four POVs in this book, each bringing their own merits and opinions to the story. There's Kezzie, a childhood friend of Demir, who he puts in charge of looking into his mom's murder. Kezzie is frequently badass, and manages to figure part of the mystery out quite quickly. There's Thessa, the siliceer who Demir rescues and sets to figuring out how to save spent godglass. She is incredibly competent, and she knows it. There's Idiran, a grizzled warrior who's going slightly insane after using too much godglass. He's tired, and ready to retire, but he can't. Not yet.

And finally, of course, there's Demir.

Demir is a fantastic protagonist. He struggles with severe PTSD as a result of a backstabbing that killed thousands of people during a war campaign that he led. He frequently borders on being ‘too' good at what he does, but eh, you forgive him, because he's rather charming. He reminded me FREQUENTLY of Locke Lamora, from The Lies of Locke Lamora. I wouldn't be surprised if McClellan was highly inspired by that character. Demir is a glassdancer — someone who can control glass, kind of like how an elementalist can control the elements. People with this talent are generally thought to be extremely dangerous. They are also incredibly rare. Demir doubts himself almost constantly, but it helps pull back on how good he is at, well, what he does.

There's a lot to like in In the Shadow of Lightning, and I enjoyed reading it. I just wish, maybe, there had been slightly more clues as to where the ending was going. There are some, but they are few and far between, honestly. Overall, somewhere in the four star range...maybe a little over.