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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Cast in Courtlight takes place in the most beautifully intricate and detailed fantasy world that I have never imagined. The unique blend of races, magic, and law enforcement makes this story epic in every sense of the word.
What I Loved
Kaylin Neya is one of my favorite fantasy characters of all-time. She works on gut instinct and pushes everything else to the wayside, making her frustrating to most people in her life. She is unique, but no one is certain as to exactly how and why. Kaylin has her own moral compass that, more often than not, leads her straight into trouble and dire situations but ultimately allows her to make a massive difference in Elantra's world.
The world-building is exceptional, with every nuance detailed down to the meaning of eye color changes in the races other than human. Even some of the buildings are sentient, making them characters in their own rite.
The world feels so real like you could turn a corner, walk into it, and know exactly where you are and where you need to go. It is a complex world that holds a wide variety of races, such as Dragons, Barrani, Leontines, and Aerians, who all have attributes that resemble their names.
It is a world that is foreign but instantly relatable.
I love the mystery that has to be solved by professional investigators – The Hawks- of which Kaylin is one. She must use her professional investigator abilities as well as her newly blooming magical abilities to figure out the attempted murder of two Barrani brothers, one of which is destined to rule the Barrani people. What she discovers leads to danger and peril until she finally solves the mystery and saves the day.
I love how the story pulls at your heartstrings with Kaylin and Severn's back story that they have to work through to solve the Barrani mystery. This gives the characters so much more dimension and layers that stick with you long after the book closes. I shed a tear during the closing scene as they finally lay a defining moment to rest and move on to what will most definitely be their next adventure.
To Read or Not to Read
If you love fantasy stories, you must have this series on your shelf. It is a world you will want to visit over and over again.
What I Loved
Kaylin Neya is one of my favorite fantasy characters of all-time. She works on gut instinct and pushes everything else to the wayside, making her frustrating to most people in her life. She is unique, but no one is certain as to exactly how and why. Kaylin has her own moral compass that, more often than not, leads her straight into trouble and dire situations but ultimately allows her to make a massive difference in Elantra's world.
The world-building is exceptional, with every nuance detailed down to the meaning of eye color changes in the races other than human. Even some of the buildings are sentient, making them characters in their own rite.
The world feels so real like you could turn a corner, walk into it, and know exactly where you are and where you need to go. It is a complex world that holds a wide variety of races, such as Dragons, Barrani, Leontines, and Aerians, who all have attributes that resemble their names.
It is a world that is foreign but instantly relatable.
I love the mystery that has to be solved by professional investigators – The Hawks- of which Kaylin is one. She must use her professional investigator abilities as well as her newly blooming magical abilities to figure out the attempted murder of two Barrani brothers, one of which is destined to rule the Barrani people. What she discovers leads to danger and peril until she finally solves the mystery and saves the day.
I love how the story pulls at your heartstrings with Kaylin and Severn's back story that they have to work through to solve the Barrani mystery. This gives the characters so much more dimension and layers that stick with you long after the book closes. I shed a tear during the closing scene as they finally lay a defining moment to rest and move on to what will most definitely be their next adventure.
To Read or Not to Read
If you love fantasy stories, you must have this series on your shelf. It is a world you will want to visit over and over again.
Continuing from Cast in Shadow, Kaylin is forced to enter the court of the Barrani, something her particular set of skills are not that great for. The ever-magical Kaylin gets herself in more than a bit over her head, and ends up embroiled in court politics. I really enjoy this installment in the series, with Kaylin so very over her head.
There wasn't a whole big mystery this time around, but the book was still annoyingly long and cryptic. This series is enormous and after this one, I'm done. I don't care who she ends up with or what happens in this story universe. It's all too convoluted!
This book is getting only a 3, because here is where the author starts to fall into the same pattern of most fantasy authors. We get to see in Cast in Courtlight how 'special' Kaylin is, and while I am still enjoying the story, I like characters that are special more because of what they DO than because of what they ARE. Now granted, Kaylin is still doing things that show her tenacity, forthrightness and passion for justice and defending the weak, so I'm still enjoying the books, but I feel it's worth saying that she's not your average human citizen in Elantra.
I finally finished this book. I still didn't really like it - Kaylin seems like just a pawn, and I really, really hate politics. Even fictional politics.
It was better than the first book because it was purely interesting. The first book wasn't as easy to follow than this one. I thought that the way that the Barrani showed their emotions was very clever and the character s that the author created, had the story pulling me down whenever I try to pull away (0///0 it's true...) .
These are just addictive page-turners for me. Quite hard to stop just going straight to the next. I enjoyed learning more about the Barrani, and the developments between Kaylin and Severn, as she learns to deal with their shared history.
Great book, I almost forgot to mark this read because I immediately jumped into the 3rd book!
adventurous
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
The beginning of the book felt a little pointless and meandering. Probably could have cut 50-100 pages without much loss of substance. But once the plot gets going it's quite good, though not quite as good as the first (though it's been a while since I've read it).