Book Review: The Whisper King: Daughter of Shadows by Wil Radcliffe

Goodreads Synopsis: Beyond the maddening edges of creation lurk nameless horrors greater than the Whisper King himself.

To find his kidnapped daughter and save his hometown David Kinder must face these horrors, even as he tries to untangle a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the Whisper King’s empire in the Shadow Mountains.

Along the way he reconnects with old friends, makes new alliances, and discovers that sometimes to destroy monsters you must become something… worse.

 

Author: Wil Radcliffe

Title: The Whisper King: Daughter of Shadows

Publisher: Necro Publications

Date: 2016

It took me a while to get into The Whisper King, mainly because of the crude language from the start. But you adapt to the writing style and get swept up in the story. The originality of the first book, plus the fact I thoroughly enjoyed it, meant I was eager to read Daughter of Shadows and see how David’s story progresses.

First of all, there is very little of David’s daughter in the book, despite the title. The whole plot stems around his desire to rescue her, first from the Whisper King, then from new and unexpected enemies. He gets a little side-tracked on the way by Yeller creating monsters out of average human beings and unleashing chaos.

David adapts to being human again, and isn’t prepared to let that stop him. Although human, he is far from average as he can still make it back to the Shadow Mountain for a duel with Ned and a couple of chats with the Whisper King. You do witness him becoming a leader though. He is also fighting for something more than himself – he has Donna and Adam to protect now.

Something strange was happening on the Night Road.

F**k. Something strange was happening pretty much everywhere I set foot.

Donna herself isn’t a driving force in the story. Her sister, Sam (introduced briefly in the first book), is a force to be reckoned with and a cool character – she takes everything in her stride and goes along with anything in order to keep people safe. The sudden relationship between Pitch and Sam felt a little off though – far too fast and sugar-coated for the tone of the rest of the book. These guys may be monsters, yet it was this romance that felt unreal for me.

Pitch, Lump and Dreck, along with Ned and some new Cuthachs are there to back David up. Their characters develop in the book, but they still remain, very much, the side-kicks.

Th pacing is steady despite the level of violence throughout the book. Two missions are underway: find David’s daughter, and stop the Mac Tire corporation from messing up the world. There is a lot of time going back and forth between worlds while the characters figure out what to do. Although this is interspersed with some fights along the way, the pace remains steady.

I knew what I was getting myself into with this book. But for some reason, I found the level of swearing annoyed me. It works in the first book; it matches their situation. The swearing didn’t add anything to the dialogue this time, it just felt as if it was there because Radcliffe knew he could get away with it.

It works as a shock-factor for the first book, setting the tone for what is about to come. But this is the second book – we know what to expect and if you start noticing the language, it isn’t working naturally. So what’s the point?

I enjoyed Daughter of Shadows – even if David’s daughter was a bit of a disappointment when we met her! Radcliffe is an original writer!

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