Shadow of the Wicked

An honest review for Shadow of the Wicked, by Douglas W.T. Smith.

First of all, a big thank you to Douglas for sending me the eArc of his novella, it got me out of a big reading slump.

Shadow of the Wicked jumps between the points of view of Jaromir and Talmage, twin brothers that are living completely different lives. One is mastering the art of magick (yes, with a K. It was hard to get used to that), while the other is trying to get rid of all magick users in the world because of some tragedy in the past.

The pacing in this novella was very well executed. Each time I was getting tired of some character the story jumped to the next and vice versa, so it was easy to read which is a great thing and the tension was kept high at all times.

The story takes place basically in two locations, an underground labyrinth and a torture room, and the atmosphere in both was great. I felt claustrophobic, I felt scared, I even felt the pain of one of the characters by the end.

I left this book feeling like I know there's so much more to the world that wasn't in here and I would have liked to see it! Somehow the world felt real, with a lot of history and legends, but there was nothing of that in the 104 pages, just tiny glimpses. By the end, I felt like we could have taken time off of some of the repetitive stuff and really justify the intentions of the protagonists with something else.

Also I would have loved a little bit more depth on Kadir's and Pius's characters, they were great but felt empty.

Overall and taking into account these two minor downsides, Shadow of the Wicked was a really enjoyable read, I had a lot of fun and I can't wait to know a bit more about The Three Kingdoms.