The book has a talking sword, okay? It says so right in the summary. We all knew I was going to pick it up.

Shadow Magic is available on Kindle Unlimited and is the first in the Darkling Mage series. It’s full of snarky characters, magic, old Gods, and a sinister mystery that remains to be solved.

There’s a prequel to this, Penumbra, available for free on the author’s website and I probably should have read it first … but I didn’t? I still haven’t. On the plus side, Shadow Magic seemed to stand alone just fine without the prequel, so it’s a nice-to-have, but it’s not a prerequisite.

What this boils down to: will I read the sequel? Heck yes.

That says pretty much all that has to be said, right? No? Fine. Let’s get into it, then.

 

❧ Did I mention there’s a talking sword?!

If you ever need to summon me: talking swords, bacon, mint chocolate chip ice cream, sarcasm. Any combination of two or more of those will work, every time.

The sword is charming and every bit as sarcastic and pithy as talking swords are required to be by nature.

“Yeah. Bit stuffy in there. Put me somewhere I can air out, will you?”
“You don’t breathe.”
“And you don’t know what it’s like being pressed up against all your underwear.” The sword gave a little huff.

❧ The main character, Dustin Graves (Dust for short), is a thief, and a darn good one, thank you very much, and he’s quite proud of it.

In the immortal words of Tex, from Red vs. Blue, “It’s important to enjoy what you do.”

Dustin works for the Lorica, an organization whose sole purpose is to make sure regular folks don’t know about the magic that exists in the world. For some reason, this always seems like a good idea, and yet, it always goes wrong. To be fair, they’re probably right, considering humans don’t need grimoires that they could accidentally destroy the world with.

Part of Dust’s success comes from the fact that he can shadow-step, meaning he can step into one shadow, walk through the shadow realm, and step out of another shadow.

Which is a fantastic way to travel, and I highly recommend it. His power is unique among the mages, and I loved it. The description of how it works and the dangers (because yes, there are dangers with shadow stepping) and the unique new tricks he learns all made the magic system feel a bit unique and fresh.

Oh, and there’s this teensy little note about Dust totally having been used as a human sacrifice in a ritual.

Minor, really. He survived. Not really sure how. On the downside, taking a knife to the heart sucks, yeah? But for whatever reason, it seemed to awaken his latent magic powers and now he can use shadows, so … win? +1 for sacrifices. I always did say they were a good idea, you know.

❧ There are gods (yes, plural) and they’re 100% aware of how awesome they are, and I think that just makes me like them even more?

I mean, being just a teeny, pesky human, I was impressed with the idea of old gods to start with. The book opens with the murder (and subsequent coverup) of Resheph, a Canaanite plague deity. Also, half man, half giant rat, so not the sort of thing you want to stumble over, dead or alive. Just saying.

Each deity has its own realm, and in order to open the door to that realm, certain sacrifices are required.

For mine, see the bit about the talking sword.

Also, sometimes these sacrificial items made perfect sense in ancient times, when these things were available, but not so much sense for the middle of a busy city. There’s a lot of improvisation is what I’m saying. It made me laugh.

The gods are powerful (duh) and they know it. They also know that we, as humans, are nothing. And they treat us as such.  Dust has to go toe-to-toe with some powerful gods to gain their favor, which takes some thought and cunning and maybe more than a little luck, and I was always guessing who would pop up next.

❧ Beyond just magic and gods, there are plenty of supernatural beings in general … but it’s not quite what you think.

I mean, it sort of is. Vampires still aren’t big fans of sunlight and werewolves are still big, furry balls of adorableness with fangs that think you’re delicious. But the supernaturals we’re introduced to here are endearing. Because shady people are endearing, right?

I loved the dynamic between the Ludica, with the mages, and the other supernaturals and clearly magical elements that exist in the world.

The book didn’t dive too much into it, but I got enough of a taste to get a feel for it, and I have a good feeling that book two will broach more of this subject, and I am so ready for it.

“Sterling.” I chuckled. “As in silver?”
“Oh,” Sterling said, cocking his head, his face more expressive than I’d seen all night. “And that’s funny why? Because I’m a vampire? Die in a fire. That’s racist.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Well, it’s prejudiced.”

❧ The tone and characters combine to form a funny, entertaining, easy read, which is just what I was looking for.

I was really looking for something funnier and not as dark after reading a lot of dark things, because while I love dark books, gosh, it can get depressing. Shadow Magic was just what I needed in that arena.

Dust is a sarcastic narrator (so, in other words, totally my sort) and when he’s not in his head, he’s basically trading barbs with other characters.

❧ The pacing just felt off in some places, which led to a climax that fell a bit short, in my opinion.

The book took a long time building up to what I was expecting to be an epic fight, and then it just sort of … fizzled? Parts of the book were great in terms of pacing. But then others dragged on, and I was waiting for them to tie together or make sense. I felt like the build-up for the climax prepared me for a roaring fire devouring everything, and instead, I got a bonfire. Not even marshmallows.

❧ There’s a big reveal toward the end, which would have been a pleasant surprise if I hadn’t seen it about a quarter of the way in and then spent the rest of the time yelling at the characters for not also seeing it.

Master thief? Yes. Observant people person? No.

The character motives also ruined this for me, because I felt they weren’t strong. They were there, but the motives didn’t feel like they matched the actions.

Have you read Shadow Magic? If I were to summon you, the gods and goddesses that you are, what sacrifices would you demand?