Cast in Shadow

Chronicles of Elantra, Book 1

By: Michelle Sagara

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 14 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

Seven years ago, Kaylin fled the crime-riddled streets of Nightshade, knowing that something was after her. Children were being murdered— and all had the same odd markings that mysteriously appeared on her own skin….

Since then, she's learned to read, she's learned to fight and she's become one of the vaunted Hawks who patrol and police the City of Elantra. Alongside the winged Aerians and the immortal Barrani, she's made a place for herself, far from the mean streets of her birth.

But children are once again dying, and a dark and familiar pattern is emerging. Kaylin is ordered back into Nightshade with a partner she knows she can't trust, a Dragon lord for a companion and a device to contain her powers—powers that no other human has. Her task is simple—find the killer, stop the murders… and survive the attentions of those who claim to be her allies!

Spellbound? Listen to more Chronicles of Elantra.

©2011 Michelle Sagara (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Good until the end.......

I purchased this novel because I listened to the four hour Novella that was the prequel and I really loved it. I listened to this novel and loved about 12 hours of it. After that It seemed like it was just dragging on and on and on! I didn't even really pay attention to the ending. I was soo dissapointed! I really liked the begining of the book, the mystery, and the intrigue. But by the time I got to the end I just couldn't wait for it to be over. I am not saying that the ending was bad, but somewhere between the 12th and 14th hour I just lost faith and didn't really care what happened as long as it ended. Sorry, but I don't think I will be purchasing the next book in the series unless it happens to be listed on one of the $4.50 sales.

Vague world building and dim witted heroine

Wow, we just jumped into a world with no background information or descriptions of the universe we landed in. You never get much of one either.

I also couldn’t identify with the lead character. She asks questions constantly, even when it’s clear she is risking her skin to do it, and she’s asking questions of other species/races who are incapable of giving her straight answers anyway. It was frustrating. She’s also, both bananas powerful and self-admittedly pretty dim witted (she failed all her classes but languages and fighting). She has magic, but never learned a thing in her classes on magic.
Maybe it’s all supposed to make her approachable and realistic, but I found it to be tedious, inaccessible, and in the end annoying.

Waist of time, and I regret the purchase.

Endearing Tale!

I've had this on my wish list for awhile and am entirely happy with this purchase. I wasn't able to read the book all at once and this tale really kept a good pace. It drew me in and got to some action right away, which I love, and kept the flow of it all throughout. When I purchase audio books I'm always concerned with how the narrator can at times distract from the story. With this book the narrator was awesome! Different character voices really gets you into the story, so Bravo!!!
Overall a great great book and I will be reading the next in the series. Thank you to the writer and also
narrator for taking me to a different world 😊

Love this series!

What did you love best about Cast in Shadow?

I enjoyed the way the story flowed. I have read the book but it was wonderful to hear it as well.

What did you like best about this story?

I love the main character, Kaylin.

What about Khristine Hvam’s performance did you like?

Her voice just made the book come alive for me.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, it's just a great story.

Love it!

I love the series. Some phrases are said over and over and they can be unimpressive, but I understand what the author was trying to convey. The main character is great. She is strong and becomes stronger as the book progress. The story can be confusing at times, but the author clarifies those parts as the story goes on.

Absolutely fantastic

What made the experience of listening to Cast in Shadow the most enjoyable?

I read this because I like the narrator as I had never heard of Michelle Sagara before. I was enchanted and engaged with the novel immediately. It creates a whole new community with rich details. Read them all, Read them in order, and I hope Michelle Sagara writes more of them. I just downloaded and read the latest book.

What other book might you compare Cast in Shadow to and why?

Sherrilyn Kenyons Dark Series as it creates an entire community and is very much a neck and neck run on which one was best. Although Acheron which is book one for the Dark Series does slant things completely for a win. Either way you can not lose reading these books. You will like them.

What does Khristine Hvam bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The voices and characters. I have read for many years and love it easily making the book real in my mind when I do read one but she has a real talent.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Leave the book title alone, it rocks as do the graphics on the cover of each of her books. Please do make a film.

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to the next book.

Excellent

This is the third time I have read this book,. I just can't enough it.

loved it

What made the experience of listening to Cast in Shadow the most enjoyable?

great listen worth a more than 1 listen i recomend it to anyone who likes fiction

Addicted to the series, but leaves you hanging...

I read this entire series back-to-back so I'm only going to comment on the first book's board.

I'm obsessed with this series. It's definitely addicting...but by the end of the last book I'm still hanging and holding out for some major relationship development of the heroine. The author basically teases you throughout the series. You keep feeling like "Okay, this book will be the one", but then I'm disappointed by the end and left hanging.

The first two books were my favorite, especially book 2. Book 1 was hard to get into at first, because the world and its many casts of people are very difficult to grasp at first. By book 2, the confusion subsides. But book 2 is definitely worth working through the complicated world development of book 1. Book 2 is AMAZING!

I'm in a love/hate relationship with this author. I love her world (Elantra) and I love the characters. I even love the struggles and challenges and the main story lines. There is so much adventure and mystery! On the other side, it's sooooooo wordy!!! You're in the middle of an intense action/climatic scene and I feel like the intensity and build up get overtaken by the wordiness. It's almost like the author starts out on the right path of being wordy to tease and build up your emotions, but then just keeps going and going until you're like, "enough already, just get on with it...I get that the 'word' is complicated" (you'll know what I refer to when you read it - - not a spoiler).

The narrator is great, though! I'm definitely a huge fan of Khristine Hvam! She does a great job with all the character voices, keeping them separate and recognizable without needing to tell us who's speaking. After soooo many books and a building mass of characters, I'm amazed she keeps pulling out new voices.

I'm a critical person, so don't let my negative comments fool you. I definitely loved this whole series and recommend it. Just brace yourself for difficulty establishing the world and its characters at first, and then dealing with climatic wordiness with each book. If you can get past those, you'll really enjoy the action and adventure. Here's hoping the next two books (I read on the author's blog that book 8 will now be split in two because she had too much to say) will focus more on the heroine's relationship/romantic development. It's about time!

Agree with other reviewers

It started off really promising and I was excited for it for maybe the 1/4 of the book, but I didn’t ever really bond with the characters and near the end I really didn’t care who died mostly, and it was really vague even near the end of what exactly was going on, and I love books that don’t just spell out everything for you but this was different, the more the book went on the less I cared