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A review by seak
Shadow's Master by Jon Sprunk
4.0
In my first review for this series (for Shadow's Son), I made a big deal about assassins. The main character is Caim, an assassin above and beyond the rest. He's not only able to use the shadows around him to his advantage, but he also has an invisible friend (I said invisible not imaginary), Kit, who helps him out and warns him of hidden dangers.
By book three (that's this one), Caim and the story itself have evolved into much more than an "assassin" tale. Yes, his assassin skills continually come in handy and yes, this takes the action scenes to the next level of awesome, but Caim is a different man who's conflicted with more problems than finding his next target.
At this point in the tale, Caim is driven north by an unknown prompting, but the problem is, the north is filled with northmen. Unruly tribes battle each other for territory while all the while the shadow is slowly taking over - so much so that the sun can no longer be seen.
Caim also struggles as he loses more and more friends to his possibly meaningless quest north. Even Kit acts odd as she struggles with her love of Caim and impossible situation of being intangible. Sprunk even adds a catch-22 reminiscent of Lord of the Rings.
As Caim heads north, Josey, the empress of Nimea and mother of Caim's unborn child, decides to head north herself under the guise of ... well ... she just wants to find Caim okay. Is that so bad? As she tours the northern ends of her empire, she runs into troubles of her own with feuding nobles being the least of her problems.
Keeping up the same action-packed pace as the rest of the trilogy, Shadow's Master is an excellent conclusion to a great series. While things wrap up nicely (for the most part), it didn't feel like such a perfect wrap-up, more like a transition to the next stage and I really liked that.
The Shadow Saga is light on description and world-building, but heavy on characters and combat. No word is minced and everything moves to the action-packed climax. A series not to be missed.
4 out of 5 Stars
Book 1, Shadow's Son
Book 2, Shadow's Lure
I interviewed the author, Jon Sprunk, here.
By book three (that's this one), Caim and the story itself have evolved into much more than an "assassin" tale. Yes, his assassin skills continually come in handy and yes, this takes the action scenes to the next level of awesome, but Caim is a different man who's conflicted with more problems than finding his next target.
At this point in the tale, Caim is driven north by an unknown prompting, but the problem is, the north is filled with northmen. Unruly tribes battle each other for territory while all the while the shadow is slowly taking over - so much so that the sun can no longer be seen.
Caim also struggles as he loses more and more friends to his possibly meaningless quest north. Even Kit acts odd as she struggles with her love of Caim and impossible situation of being intangible. Sprunk even adds a catch-22 reminiscent of Lord of the Rings.
As Caim heads north, Josey, the empress of Nimea and mother of Caim's unborn child, decides to head north herself under the guise of ... well ... she just wants to find Caim okay. Is that so bad? As she tours the northern ends of her empire, she runs into troubles of her own with feuding nobles being the least of her problems.
Keeping up the same action-packed pace as the rest of the trilogy, Shadow's Master is an excellent conclusion to a great series. While things wrap up nicely (for the most part), it didn't feel like such a perfect wrap-up, more like a transition to the next stage and I really liked that.
The Shadow Saga is light on description and world-building, but heavy on characters and combat. No word is minced and everything moves to the action-packed climax. A series not to be missed.
4 out of 5 Stars
Book 1, Shadow's Son
Book 2, Shadow's Lure
I interviewed the author, Jon Sprunk, here.