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veronica87 's review for:
The Shadow Throne
by Django Wexler
3.5 stars
He could feel something coming. The city was like a dog growling deep in its throat, not quite ready to leap but not far from it.
The King of Vordan is dying and Colonel Janus Vhalnich, fresh from his successes in the first book, has rushed back to Vordan accompanied by his right and left hands, Captain Marcus d'Ivoire and Lieutenant Winter Ihernglass. The King's sole surviving heir is his 19 year old daughter, Princess Raesinia, and there are some in Vordan's government who see a chance to exert control over an inexperienced, young ruler. Chief among these is Duke Orlanko, the Minister of Information, who operates using fear tactics and brutality to keep his enemies in check and expand his base of power. It is this that Janus hopes to stop...but he's not the only one. There are stirrings in the city that point to a growing dissatisfaction with Orlanko and his foreign backers and even the seemingly all-knowing Duke may find himself tested against the rising revolutionary sentiments. It's a political tipping point with the fate of the country at stake.
This was a fairly good follow-up to the previous book, [b:The Thousand Names|15810910|The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)|Django Wexler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355441268l/15810910._SY75_.jpg|21536059]. Marcus and Winter continue to be the main POV characters but Raesinia also gets her fair share of POV time. There are even a few Orlanko POV chapters sprinkled in there. Even though Janus is a pivotal character in determining outcomes, he's never been a POV character. Instead readers' only insight into him comes through the perceptions of those around him. It's an interesting tactic - and not necessarily wholly reliable - and I'm not sure the reasoning behind it except that it's a deliberate move by the author to keep readers out of Janus' head. We're not meant to know what he's thinking, much as Marcus and Winter never really know what he's thinking...much to their frustration.
Janus is my favorite non-POV character (Marcus is my favorite POV one) so I hope my faith in him doesn't come back to bite me in the backside. For now, there wasn't enough Janus in this book for me. I highly enjoyed the Janus-Marcus dynamic in the first book and sorely missed it here. But there were a lot of relationship dynamics from the first book that are almost wholly absent from this one. In their rush to return to Vordan, Janus, Marcus, and Winter took a faster ship than the rest of the 1st Battalion. This means that Marcus and Winter spend the book operating without the likes of Fitz, Graff, Folsom, Feor, and Bobbie. Instead, Marcus and Winter have to rely on an all new cast of characters as they try to carry out the arguably vague missions Janus has assigned to them. I ended up missing the old cast more than I thought I would, especially when most of the new ones failed to inspire much caring on my part.
On that note, I was disappointed with Winter's part of this story. I had about as much investment in her romantic troubles as I had in Marcus' liaisons in the first book, which is to say none at all. I didn't like the developments in this part of the story and, by the end, I especially didn't like the direction the story seemed to be pulling Winter. I appreciate the effort at creating strong female roles but lets at least aim for plausible, 'mkay?
I also have quibbles with the use of the demons in this series. I mentioned in my review for the first book that I was concerned with the level of immunity against consequences with which the magic imbues certain characters. That concern is definitely boosted in this installment to an almost ludicrous degree. But I'm just going to try to go with the flow because, when all is said and done, I do truly enjoy the author's writing style. He's created an interesting world and set it down in the middle of political unrest centered around a suitably crafty bad guy. It remains to be seen how well the author integrates the enlarged cast of characters. I for one hope that the book one cast doesn't fall by the wayside, crowded out by the less lovable book two cast (Raesinia being the exception). And, of course, I hope to see more of Janus flummoxing Marcus. Because that's just fun.
"If sometimes you cannot quite see the way clear..." His smile was there and gone again in an instant, like a lightning bolt. "Sooner or later we all must take something on faith."
He could feel something coming. The city was like a dog growling deep in its throat, not quite ready to leap but not far from it.
The King of Vordan is dying and Colonel Janus Vhalnich, fresh from his successes in the first book, has rushed back to Vordan accompanied by his right and left hands, Captain Marcus d'Ivoire and Lieutenant Winter Ihernglass. The King's sole surviving heir is his 19 year old daughter, Princess Raesinia, and there are some in Vordan's government who see a chance to exert control over an inexperienced, young ruler. Chief among these is Duke Orlanko, the Minister of Information, who operates using fear tactics and brutality to keep his enemies in check and expand his base of power. It is this that Janus hopes to stop...but he's not the only one. There are stirrings in the city that point to a growing dissatisfaction with Orlanko and his foreign backers and even the seemingly all-knowing Duke may find himself tested against the rising revolutionary sentiments. It's a political tipping point with the fate of the country at stake.
This was a fairly good follow-up to the previous book, [b:The Thousand Names|15810910|The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns, #1)|Django Wexler|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355441268l/15810910._SY75_.jpg|21536059]. Marcus and Winter continue to be the main POV characters but Raesinia also gets her fair share of POV time. There are even a few Orlanko POV chapters sprinkled in there. Even though Janus is a pivotal character in determining outcomes, he's never been a POV character. Instead readers' only insight into him comes through the perceptions of those around him. It's an interesting tactic - and not necessarily wholly reliable - and I'm not sure the reasoning behind it except that it's a deliberate move by the author to keep readers out of Janus' head. We're not meant to know what he's thinking, much as Marcus and Winter never really know what he's thinking...much to their frustration.
Janus is my favorite non-POV character (Marcus is my favorite POV one) so I hope my faith in him doesn't come back to bite me in the backside. For now, there wasn't enough Janus in this book for me. I highly enjoyed the Janus-Marcus dynamic in the first book and sorely missed it here. But there were a lot of relationship dynamics from the first book that are almost wholly absent from this one. In their rush to return to Vordan, Janus, Marcus, and Winter took a faster ship than the rest of the 1st Battalion. This means that Marcus and Winter spend the book operating without the likes of Fitz, Graff, Folsom, Feor, and Bobbie. Instead, Marcus and Winter have to rely on an all new cast of characters as they try to carry out the arguably vague missions Janus has assigned to them. I ended up missing the old cast more than I thought I would, especially when most of the new ones failed to inspire much caring on my part.
On that note, I was disappointed with Winter's part of this story. I had about as much investment in her romantic troubles as I had in Marcus' liaisons in the first book, which is to say none at all. I didn't like the developments in this part of the story and, by the end, I especially didn't like the direction the story seemed to be pulling Winter.
Spoiler
I know the whole Mad Jane storyline is meant to be wrapped up in Girl Power! but the idea of a gang of all adolescent girls ruling the seedy dockside with anything resembling authority is just hard to believe.I also have quibbles with the use of the demons in this series. I mentioned in my review for the first book that I was concerned with the level of immunity against consequences with which the magic imbues certain characters. That concern is definitely boosted in this installment to an almost ludicrous degree. But I'm just going to try to go with the flow because, when all is said and done, I do truly enjoy the author's writing style. He's created an interesting world and set it down in the middle of political unrest centered around a suitably crafty bad guy. It remains to be seen how well the author integrates the enlarged cast of characters. I for one hope that the book one cast doesn't fall by the wayside, crowded out by the less lovable book two cast (Raesinia being the exception). And, of course, I hope to see more of Janus flummoxing Marcus. Because that's just fun.
"If sometimes you cannot quite see the way clear..." His smile was there and gone again in an instant, like a lightning bolt. "Sooner or later we all must take something on faith."