Author: Anna Kashina
Title: Shadowblade
Publisher: Angry Robot
Date: 2019
Plot: A young sword prodigy must impersonate a lost princess and throw her life into a deadly political game, in this kinetic epic fantasy novel by the author of the award-winning Majat Code series
Naia dreams of becoming a Jaihar Blademaster, but after assaulting a teacher, her future seems ruined. The timely intervention of a powerful stranger suddenly elevates her into elite Upper Grounds training. She has no idea that the stranger is Dal Gassan, head of the Daljeer Circle. Seventeen years ago he witnessed the massacre of Challimar’s court and rescued its sole survivor, a baby girl. Gassan plans to thrust a blade into the machinations of imperial succession: Naia. Disguised as the legendary Princess Xarimet of Challimar, Naia must challenge the imperial family, and win. Naia is no princess, but with her desert-kissed eyes and sword skills she might be close enough…
I received Shadowblade from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I was dubious about Shadowblade as the average rating on Goodreads is around 3*. While I often feel disappointed by books that have a lot of hype surrounding them, I was pleasantly surprised to find the opposite was true this time.
Naia is an orphan with no clue to who she is. Taken in by elite warriors, she works to prove herself as a powerful fighter to join their ranks. Her temper makes her enemies, while her good heart gets her into trouble.
Naia is a likeable character. At times, her temper does seem extreme and I doubted whether someone would lash out with such violence given the circumstances. But you understand why she does. She is always anxious to prove herself, whether to her superiors or to herself. She feels things deeply; determined to protect those less able than herself and unwillingly to sacrifice the love she felt for someone even when things turn against her. She doesn’t see things in black and white, which meant her reactions weren’t predictable.
Karrim, part love-interest, part-strongest-warrior-in-the-land was my favourite character. No one can match him with weapons, but he, too, has a good heart and he lightened a number of scenes with his humour.
Moments ago, Naia felt reasonable sure nothing Gassan said could possibly made her feel even more surprised. She realised now that she shouldn’t make any more assumptions. She probably looked stupid right now, staring at Gassan open-mouthed, but she couldn’t help it.
Other characters – Gassan, the man who set the whole thing in motion, Mehtab, Naia’s teacher and Arsat, head of the Jaihar warriors – help shape Naia into the woman she becomes and you like/dislike them just the way you’re supposed to, following Naia’s emotions.
When a betrayal was revealed (I’m not mentioning names here), I was unsure of its positioning in the book, despite starting to have suspicions. However, the change in narration and switch in view point to other characters worked to keep the plot moving forward, even when Naia isn’t fully aware of a situation.
The pacing felt slow: the majority of the book is setting up Naia’s skills and chance to take on the assignment. But it meant you connected with the characters and while the tension wasn’t high, it didn’t drag. You got invested in the characters as well as the plot.
The latter part of the book had a much stronger pace and the tension was higher, helped by the changes in narration. It could have been a very strong book if this stretched for the entire thing, but I still found it enjoyable.
There are a few explicit sex scenes in the book: two in particular. The first one didn’t work for me; it completely stalled the rhythm just to explore the emotions from both parties involved, which made it feel it dragged. Again, that worried me about the rest of the book, but it thankfully picked up momentum after that. The second scene felt more natural. The scenes work if they advance the plot, but the initial one felt it was in there for the sake of it.
I enjoyed this book. It was well-developed and had a satisfying end, which makes a change from leaving it open for a sequel.
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Wonderful review. 🙂 Seems like a fantasy book worth checking out. The cover of the book is good too.
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I’m always on the lookout for new books and this one sounds like it might be my type of book. Will definitely have to keep my eye out for it!
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I really enjoyed it overall, so I hope you do as well if you come across it. Thank you!
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Ugh, sex scenes inserted in books “just because” drive me crazy! I’m glad the momentum picked back up and that the second one was more natural. 🙂
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This sounds like a really good book and I love that they took a little bit of time to develop her skills. Adding this to my to purchase list!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
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Great review! Always nice when a book wraps up with a nice and neat bow at the end.
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Glad you enjoyed the book! Books with likeable characters are definitely easier to read, I think!
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Definitely so! Thank you!
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It’s great to find you liked this book more than the average rather than being disappointed in a hyped-up novel.
I think I would like the character of Naia
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So am I! So often things just leave you feeling disappointed but this was better than I thought it would be. Thank you!
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You really are so good at putting together a review. Not my sort of book at all but your review is always so good, it’s almost enough to push me to switch genre’s!
Great post x
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Aww, that means the absolute world to me, thank you so much. I’m glad you like reading them even if it isn’t your normal sort of thing!
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[…] from Shadowblade by Anna Kashina. She’s a bad-ass fighter, not above being manipulated or falling in love. She […]
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[…] That’s a hard one. I’d probably pick Shadowblade by Anna Kashina. There was one scene that, while it wasn’t badly written, it was just […]
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[…] That’s a hard one. I’d probably pick Shadowblade by Anna Kashina. There was one scene that, while it wasn’t badly written, it was just […]
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