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A review by aingealwroth
The Outstretched Shadow by James Mallory, Mercedes Lackey
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
3.75*
Hasn't aged the best, but its an epic fantasy written awhile ago and the fact that it just followed the genre without adding any additional insults keeps it readable. While they can sometimes go a but long on the strife bits, there is always a realisation or resolution that keeps it worth the effort of slogging through. A classic of tropes in the genre, but one of the first to have the "messy" things be the right things in life.
Narrator is not the best. She's easily understandable, but she doesn't do well about differentiating voices and only has 3 accents that she employees to try distinguishing different species. (-0.5*)
(TW note: there is a lot of dark topics in this book and you do get POV from the bad guys, so please protect your mental health. Specifically there is war, enslavement, torture and incest mentioned in general detail.)
Hasn't aged the best, but its an epic fantasy written awhile ago and the fact that it just followed the genre without adding any additional insults keeps it readable. While they can sometimes go a but long on the strife bits, there is always a realisation or resolution that keeps it worth the effort of slogging through. A classic of tropes in the genre, but one of the first to have the "messy" things be the right things in life.
Narrator is not the best. She's easily understandable, but she doesn't do well about differentiating voices and only has 3 accents that she employees to try distinguishing different species. (-0.5*)
(TW note: there is a lot of dark topics in this book and you do get POV from the bad guys, so please protect your mental health. Specifically there is war, enslavement, torture and incest mentioned in general detail.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Genocide, Misogyny, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Incest and Abandonment