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A review by branch_c
The Shadow Pavilion by Liz Williams
4.0
Having read the first and second in the series, I seem to have missed the third and skipped to this one when I found it at a used book sale. But it doesn't seem like I missed anything critical; the characters here were still familiar and interesting, and the setting continues to be innovative. The plot in this one was a bit more cohesive than The Demon and the City, and while all three have been roughly comparable, I'm rounding up to four stars here for the most successful execution of the concept so far.
There was still a sense of "anything goes" with regard to the magic and physics of this universe, evoking a comic book action style of storytelling, but the occurrences largely made sense in the context of the framework. The diverging subplots kept the numerous characters separated for large parts of the story, but that worked well, and switching between the storylines contributed to the pace. Chen was a bit bland in this one, but the other major characters rose to play larger roles and the tiger goddesses and Sefira the deva added surprisingly effective sensual element to the action. The badger in particular is a clever point of view character, so I was glad to see him playing a larger role in the story.
A fun read with just the right mixture of light humor and dark(-ish) drama; truly stylish and evocative writing - I'll plan on tracking down the others in the series when I have a chance.
There was still a sense of "anything goes" with regard to the magic and physics of this universe, evoking a comic book action style of storytelling, but the occurrences largely made sense in the context of the framework. The diverging subplots kept the numerous characters separated for large parts of the story, but that worked well, and switching between the storylines contributed to the pace. Chen was a bit bland in this one, but the other major characters rose to play larger roles and the tiger goddesses and Sefira the deva added surprisingly effective sensual element to the action. The badger in particular is a clever point of view character, so I was glad to see him playing a larger role in the story.
A fun read with just the right mixture of light humor and dark(-ish) drama; truly stylish and evocative writing - I'll plan on tracking down the others in the series when I have a chance.