Knight's Shadow

Publisher's Summary

Following his beloved debut, Traitor's Blade, Sebastien de Castell returns with volume two of his fast-paced fantasy adventure series, inspired by the swashbuckling action and witty banter of The Three Musketeers. Knight's Shadow continues the series with a thrilling and dark tale of heroism and betrayal in a country crushed under the weight of its rulers' corruption.

A few days after the horrifying murder of a duke and his family, Falcio val Mond, swordsman and First Cantor of the Greatcoats, begins a deadly pursuit to capture the killer. But Falcio soon discovers his own life is in mortal danger from a poison administered as a final act of revenge by one of his deadliest enemies. As chaos and civil war begin to overtake the country, Falcio has precious little time left to stop those determined to destroy his homeland.

©2014 Sebastien de Castell (P)2018 Tantor

Great Follow Up!

The first book had great dialogue between its main characters. This dialogue is what really enthralled me. The second book of the series has elements of this witty banter, but in the end Knight's Shadow does a far greater job at telling a story.

The pacing was much better and this only served to improve the overall product/book.

I highly recommend this book.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

I rarely write reviews

I rarely write reviews but was inspired by this wonderful series and am now going on to the 3rd installment.
I admit I'm a sucker for a hero against all odds and this one didn't fail me in the slightest. One thing I really liked was when things went south for the protagonist we didn't have to listen to every horror inflicted upon him. I usually fast forward in these instances. Nice not to have to.
Another great thing was the comradely with the troop of great coats. They were funny and fully fleshed characters.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Infectious

The camaraderie of the Greatcoats is as infectious as the writing of Sebastien de Castell. This is a very good book and an excellent sequel. Although there were some aspects of the plot that I found predictable, it was a fun and exciting journey. Joe Jameson does an excellent job at bringing to life the words and friendship expressed in the writing of the Greatcoats. 4.3 Stars.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Such a fun series.

I listen to many books in this genre and I must admit I really loved this one for the unique aspects of it. Without going into much spoiler detail the aspect of learning things via song really stood out to me as something I never really think about in my every day but tend to use. The characters are likable and some big emotions between them. I recommend this as well as the rest of the story as this review is for the over all series not just this book.

very entertaining and enjoyable.

Love the story line and the characters of this series. Hope the next book is as good.

I don't want to like this as much as I do.

Definitely worth the money.
Also, probably the best voice talent I've listened to in the last 3 years... I listen to more books than you, so I am right you are not.

More plot less torture

I find I want to know more about these folks. I’d like less war and more story.

Better than the first.

The last book was a bit predictable. This one had a nearly perfect balance of unexpected twists and expectations met.

It had one problem that was pretty big. Ranged weapons are extremely overpowered. They have range, high fire rates and ignore armor. The superiority of ranged weapons is actually a sub plot in the book. But personally I dont feel that the lampshading helps.

First nothing really explains why swords and spears always outnumber crossbows and bows in the enemy forces. When those are the only weapons that the main characters ever care to worry about.And honestly Brustie's bow is so powerful its virtually a deux ex machina with victory and defeat of most large fights restibg entirely on him.

The climax if the final battle takes this to rediculous levels. The bow, even hunting bows, are proven to be so, so, so much more powerful than anything else its absurd that anything other then ranged weapons are used.

And I personally felt it made all of the large combat to just fall flat and feel forced and unnatural.

de castell sure does love to hate women

alright so if you are here for more witty banter between brasti/kest/falcio as they brilliantly fight their way out of impossible jams you can go ahead and forget it. keep your money, keep your blessed time, and pretend traitor's blade was a stand alone novel.

all those aspects that made the first book fun are nowhere to be found here. instead you get a "mystery" that can be solved in the first three chapters and a protagonist who spends the rest of the book running around with his head up his ass. falcio is infuriatingly stupid in both his relationships with his best friends and in his job hero-ing around tristia. i could include some examples here in order to convince you but that's not why i am writing this review. if this book was just poorly written i would have given it 1 star all around and be done with it.

but no, i am writing this review to warn you that if you foolishly thought as i did that de castell had elaine raped and fridged because he couldn't think of a better way for falcio to take on the hero's quest you would be wrong. this was not a one-off. de castell can't go five minutes without threatening his female characters with rape. put a lady character in a scene with any other character who is not brasti/kest/falcio? rape threat. doesn't matter if the lady character is a 13 year old girl, a politically proficient ex-noble, or a highly skilled fighter. she is a woman and that means de castell's gotta shit all over her. not only do we get constant rape threats throughout, but we also get a magical replay of elaine rape and murder because ... ?????

also incase anyone was wondering whether ethalia's rape of falcio gets any kind of acknowledgement/reflection in book 2 - nope. but falcio does get threatened with rape (again) while being tortured (again). maybe de castell doesn't *just* hate women, maybe he also just loves to write about rape? i am exhausted. anyways, do yourself a favor and skip this one.

Awesome series!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE these books!!! The narrator is awesome....I always know which of the main characters is speaking because he gives them all their own voice.... so very talented!!!