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A review by sunsoar25
Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk
3.0
*Note: I won a free copy of Shadow's Son through the Goodreads First Reads program.*
While reading Shadow's Son I found I really enjoyed Sprunk's writing style - fast-paced, no holds barred, and very readable - and his world-building - familiar but laced with the fantastic the more one delves into the story. The world building's not overly excessive since it mostly takes place in one city, but it's very clear there is a lot more to Caim's world. Sprunk's really good at keeping those pages turning because to be honest Shadow's Son is a bloody fun read.
All that said, I don't feel comfortable giving it more than 3 stars. Mostly because it's stuffed full of fantasy cliches. Usually Sprunk manages to hit the right notes with them in the story, but as a result Shadow's Son felt pretty predictable. I don't know if I would go so far as to say unimaginative, but I let's just say I wasn't all that surprised by the "twists" in the story.
As for the characters, Caim is essentially an assassin with a heart of gold, or at least that's how I read his character, because I also kind of got the impression that he was supposed to be very hard at first and then becomes sympathetic with the introduction of Josephine. So for me, Caim didn't develop all that much as a character, sure he learns a little more about himself and his family, but he still felt like the same guy at the end. I also thought Caim was supposed to be in his 30s rather than only 24 as we learn.
In the beginning, I didn't care for Josephine but as the story progressed I'll admit she grew on me. However, from her introduction I never would have expected her character to change as much as she did - from a useless pretty little rich girl to spoiler alertthe freaking empress of the city who can really hold her own . As for Kit, she's a very fun character, but I didn't really grow that attached to her. Her relationship with Caim seemed to exist primarily for the purpose alerting the reader to Caim's otherness. On a similar note, Caim's hits and other character deaths didn't seem to have enough emotion behind them to pack enough of a punch. In a way, it reminded me of a video game where you just keep jumping from target to target as the game dictates.
Overall, Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk is an action-packed read full of mindless bloody fun for fans of sympathetic assassins, swordplay, and magic. It was very interesting to read this so closely after [b:Darkly Dreaming Dexter|17231|Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1)|Jeff Lindsay|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1334404607s/17231.jpg|2113743] which allowed me to draw some interesting parallels between Caim and Dexter.
While reading Shadow's Son I found I really enjoyed Sprunk's writing style - fast-paced, no holds barred, and very readable - and his world-building - familiar but laced with the fantastic the more one delves into the story. The world building's not overly excessive since it mostly takes place in one city, but it's very clear there is a lot more to Caim's world. Sprunk's really good at keeping those pages turning because to be honest Shadow's Son is a bloody fun read.
All that said, I don't feel comfortable giving it more than 3 stars. Mostly because it's stuffed full of fantasy cliches. Usually Sprunk manages to hit the right notes with them in the story, but as a result Shadow's Son felt pretty predictable. I don't know if I would go so far as to say unimaginative, but I let's just say I wasn't all that surprised by the "twists" in the story.
As for the characters, Caim is essentially an assassin with a heart of gold, or at least that's how I read his character, because I also kind of got the impression that he was supposed to be very hard at first and then becomes sympathetic with the introduction of Josephine. So for me, Caim didn't develop all that much as a character, sure he learns a little more about himself and his family, but he still felt like the same guy at the end. I also thought Caim was supposed to be in his 30s rather than only 24 as we learn.
In the beginning, I didn't care for Josephine but as the story progressed I'll admit she grew on me. However, from her introduction I never would have expected her character to change as much as she did - from a useless pretty little rich girl to spoiler alert
Overall, Shadow's Son by Jon Sprunk is an action-packed read full of mindless bloody fun for fans of sympathetic assassins, swordplay, and magic. It was very interesting to read this so closely after [b:Darkly Dreaming Dexter|17231|Darkly Dreaming Dexter (Dexter, #1)|Jeff Lindsay|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1334404607s/17231.jpg|2113743] which allowed me to draw some interesting parallels between Caim and Dexter.