Shadow Blade (Shadowchasers) [Mass Market Paperback]

This was a very promising start to a new series, and while this book on its own didn't completely blow my mind, it has set the scene nicely for more adventures to come.

Quite a substantial part of the book was devoted to establishing the world-building and the magic in use, as well as some background on the mythology, which in this series is Egyptian and African in origin. I really enjoyed this aspect. I haven't seen a book featuring Egyptian mythology since the Otherkin series by Eve Silver. It baffles me why this is so little seen in urban fantasy, when we see such an abundance of others such as Norse, Celtic and Greek. Also refreshing was that the main character, Kira, was a 5'9" black woman with blue and black braids who rides a suped up motorcycle, carries a light blade and can kill people just by touching them. How cool is that?

The only real negative for me was a slight problem with the story telling. I got the impression the author wanted to show me a lot of stuff all in this one book, rather than pacing herself and concentrating on a few specific areas of the world-building, or leaving out some of the mythology to spend more time getting to know Kira and her friends or the potential love interest character a little more. It left me with a feeling of, on the one hand being slightly overwhelmed by information, and on the other hand, being slightly underwhelmed with the amount of action. For a Shadowchaser she didn't do a whole lot of chasing. The plot was fairly gentle and there was never much tension created, either by the Big Bad or of the sexual variety.

"Children, please, As entertaining as this conversation is, can you not wait until after breakfast? A demigod likes to know he's at least appreciated, if not worshipped."

However, before I make it seem like I am picking it to pieces I will go back and repeat my initial comment, that this was a great start and has laid a good foundation for more. Especially with the potential for a new team dynamic in the next books and a promotion of sorts for Kira.

One last thing of note: Kira's ability to learn an object (or a person's) history through touch is a very interesting trait for a main character to have. And I am glad to know there are exceptions to the gift/curse in the form of 4,000 year old Nubian warrior Khefar, who was a great addition to the story, and who I look forward to learning much more about in subsequent books.

3.5 Stars!

This review is for the downloaded audible book.
As the synopsis says, this is a book narrated, mostly, from Kira's point of view, although once Khefar comes along, there's also some sections that are all his. Kira is a strong, capable, lonely and alone lass, who can never touch anyone without essentially destroying them - something of a killer when it comes to relationships and friendship. She's determinedly independent, so when Khefar comes along she's not disposed to be welcoming - indeed doesn't even know if she should be.
This was slightly repetitive initially - we hear about her childhood at least twice I think - and there's a fair amount of internal thinking and talking, but it works. I listened to this over 5 sessions, and was always keen to get back to it, it picks up towards the end, and ends well, with the sequel no doubt already written! It's fairly classic urban fantasy, in that the real world is tweaked slightly to allow for magic, a psychic vampire, demons, shadow chasers, not forgetting a nigh-on immortal Nubian. There's a lurve interest, but it's kept low key at this stage, and the principle characters aren't white, which is unusual in the genre; this isn't made a great issue of, but it's nice to move away from the classic blond with blue eyes or red-head with alabaster skin (like the heroine in my latest paper book!).
It is well read, with a cast of accents that the narrator mostly keeps up well. Her English accent was to my English ear not that brilliant, but Khefar, Anency, Kira's friends, the vampire chappie whose name escapes me and others are all well read and easily distinguishable.
I'll be getting the sequel, which is read by the same narrator, and see there is a third already available on Audible.

I wasn't expecting this book to be as an enjoyable a read as it turned out to be!

Shadow Blade is the story of Kira, a Shadowchaser and a person with exceptional powers, trained from young to fight the forces of evil (the Shadow). The story is set in modern Atlanta and Kira must ally herself with others fighting on the side of light to prevent a powerful ancient artifact from falling into the hands of the Shadow and bringing an end to world as we know it.

The tie-in with Ancient Egypt and other African cultures is a very nice touch and Ms Glass has obviously done her research for this book! I've given it 5 stars for the plot, the character development and the enjoyment it gave me reading it! I look forward to reading the other titles in the series.