ARC: Shadowblack by Sebastien De Castell

You might remember that a few months back I received a copy of Spellslinger by Sebastian De Castell through Readers First. It was my first physical ARC and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A couple of weeks back Readers First put Shadowblack up to request and I had enough points to claim it. I was super excited about getting the chance to read it and now I'm so glad that I did. Shadowblack was even better than Spellslinger and you won't regret picking it up.

Shadowblack is set a few months after Spellslinger and starts with Kellen and Reichis getting in trouble in the borderlands. As they travel they run into another Argosi wanderer named Rosie and her charge, a seemingly blind girl called Seneira. Kellen and the gang wind up joining the other two on their journey to the borderlands capital and there they stumbled onto a dangerous plot.




What I Liked

I basically like everything about this book, the problems I had in the first book are pretty much gone in this one and the plot is so much more enjoyable. I hate saying that as it makes Spellslinger sound bad and it wasn't, there was just something about Shadowblack that made me not want to put it down.

I loved Kellen in this book as we got to see more of him. Yes, he'd been struggling in the first book but now things are changed. He's an outlaw and a not very good one at that. With being stuck on the run, you get to see a variety of emotions and his sass levels are on par with Alex Rider's which makes me happy. As well as the good and funny you get to see the bad. He cries a lot, he feels useless and he lashes out when he shouldn't. But those are all good things to read about as it means you're getting a protagonist who reacts and feels like a real person. You also get to see Ferius teaching him things and though he doesn't always feel like he's learning things, her methods actually come in useful.

Reichis was also good in this book. Of course, you expect him to be funny and violent but he actually has his affectionate moments too. He was a little silly but I actually fell a little in love with him in this book, I wouldn't mind him being my pet. Though he'd probably eat my eyeballs for saying so!

This book is darker than the first book but I love that. You have a magical plague going on, you have kids dying and you have people hunting Kellen down. I love dark though and it just works so well blended in with the humour. It just really helped make the book and the plot twists were so interesting.

What I Didn't Like

My one issue was with how the crocodile was treated. Poor thing, it didn't deserve what happened to it.

Overall Thoughts

This book was a great sequel and like Fireblood, this was another example showing that sometimes the sequel can outclass the first book and not flop like most. Shadowblood was a thrilling read that I just couldn't put down and finished in one day.

If you haven't started this series yet then you need to go out there and do so. Even if it's just so you can admire the covers!

5/5 Stars