Stray Shadow

Oh Sh*t! Wrong Side of Heaven! (Arachnomancer, Book 2)

By: Dustin Tigner

Narrated by: Qarie Marshall

Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Heaven sucks. It most definitely, undeniably did not live up to the expectation of a paradise in the clouds, not with the talking spiders, evil priests of Light, and war, lots of war. Those of Light simply wouldn’t leave the fledgling village—Dedu Tedu Novus—alone. Peace was not on the menu. The seven declarations of war made that point crystal clear.

Worse, in a series of unfortunate and escalating events, our stray King of Shadows finds himself where he really ought not to be. But maybe . . . this is a good thing? Probably not. Dhane, Dhane, Dhane . . . what ever will you do next? Uncover forgotten truths? Form alliances with monsters? Take a stroll in the most dangerous places a Shadow can be? Probably.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2021 Dustin Tigner (P)2023 Dreamscape Lore

Reactive and No Adult Skills

I continued this story, thinking it would be more engaging than the last one. The MC would be more active in his role with his new responsibilities. However, I have been thoroughly abused by this notion. The MC acts like a child with no thoughts seeming to pass through his skull. You might wonder what he does for this to be such a significant impact. Well, every time he doesn't have more than a minute to think, he babbles random nonsense and comes up with shit ideas. Mind you, he is supposed to be a grown man who has mastered multiple languages and has a grasp on the etymology of English. There is no possible way that his thinking skills, much less social skills, would be this terrible. Every mildly pretty woman distracts him beyond the belief of ADHD because when escaping for your life, you are very engaged and might be hyperfocused on that issue. All of these would be somewhat alleviated if the MC actively engaged in the story, attempting to prevent the village from being discovered by setting up false villages or recruiting monsters for when they are attacked. No, he just stumbles into it and reacts to the situation in the worst way possible. This is exemplified when we spend chapters of his trying to escape a city he was thrown into for no reason other than the author having nothing better for him to do.

I enjoy some things, like the performance and some mild story revelations. It has so much potential, but the style of writing taken for this book doesn't mesh well with the character and makes it a struggle to listen through. I'll continue with the series, but only if the second book doesn't rain in some of these faults; I might have to drop.

Feels incredibly frustrating to get through.

I want to like this more but it feels like the author doesn't really know what to do with the plot. There is very little story progression in this whole book almost everything of note happens in the last hour. The few times when anything exciting happens the story suddenly stops so we can hear the MCs inner monolog or describe the situation in painfully long detail to the point where you forget you're supposed to be in the middle of a fight or tense situation. Finally the story gets weirdly obsessed with the MC crossdressing at one point. I think its supposed to be a joke but it goes on waaaaaaay to long and then gets brought up again later and again for waaay too long I'm talking chapters of this "joke" not just a quick scene. On top of all that at some point in the story the MC learns a secret that is completely world shaking and makes no real effort to try to spread it only telling a few people near the end of the book. It's such a glairing plot hole that it really takes you out of the story.

With all that said I'll probably still get the next book because I really want to like this story and hope it bounces back but I'm not very hopeful.

great story

absolutely love this series, I can't wait until book three comes out. I am really enjoying the world building in these books, and I can't wait til I can see more of the universe in these books.

A fun mixed bag worth your while.

Before the actual review I want to say I do recommend this to people.

To start the review, we need to get the cons out of the way. Other reviewers have the right of it in some ways. If you read them, you will notice most talk about the off humor and sometimes way too detailed “thought process”. These are not thoughts, thoughts are not a paragraph. The world has stopped for several seconds for this guy to think, there are other small annoyances I could detail but I am not attempting to write my own novel here. To summarize, the finesse or execution of the story needs refining. Jokes and monologues to me are execution and this author does seem to be improving but still as far to go. This does bring up the good.

The overall structure and skeleton of the story is really good. I like the design of how the MC gets into and out of trouble. For the most part they find actual solutions and when they are making a stupid decision over escaping or fighting (which is way smarter) there is a legitimate reason behind it. No “and then a stone was smacked by a fish and hit my head knocking me out at the worst time” here. Some lucky encounters persist of course but predominantly it feels like the MC is actually working through the issues with some idea of what they want to do and how they will do it. Another point to me is the way characters feel fairly real. They are most of the time rounded with wants and flaws. Could still use some more work but are a step above other stories I’ve read. This world and plot are interesting and though there are major flaws in that some people seem to unquestionably believe the mustachioed and comically sinister villains, there is at least a substantial amount that do not.

The good news is that this author does seem to be improving with their flaws over the last book. Interested to see if they continue to develop.

Tldr: it’s a really fun story with great bones and decent characters but is held back by wonky execution (jokes, cartoonish villains, and monologues) and only 80% of the time does it seem like the author considered the consequences of everything.