fantasy book reviews science fiction book reviewsurban fantasy book reviews Seressia Glass Shadowchasers 1. Shadow BladeShadow Chase by Seressia Glass

The back cover blurb for Shadow Chase promises an adventure story revolving around the Vessel of Nun, an Egyptian artifact that has gone missing and, unless restored to its proper place, will unleash a worldwide flood.

This storyline, however, doesn’t start until after the 100-page mark (though there is one brief hint that foreshadows part of it), and this is to the detriment of the book. In the early chapters, most of the page time is taken up with introspection, discussions, and arguments about the events that occurred in Shadow Blade and the issues these events raised. The same concerns are raised repeatedly. On the one hand, this could benefit readers who haven’t read Shadow Blade and are starting with this installment. But readers who did read the first book may be impatient for this book’s plot to get rolling.

And once it does get rolling, it’s a great deal of fun. We travel with Kira, Khefar, and friends to London, Cairo, Aswan, and an eerie alternate dimension, and Seressia Glass puts them through the physical and emotional wringer several times. In terms of the adventure aspect, the Egypt sections could have used a little more description to help “transport” the reader there, but nonetheless the story is enjoyable. We also get plenty of development on the romance front. Shadow Chase reminded me a bit of the GRAIL KEEPERS series Evelyn Vaughn wrote for Silhouette Bombshell several years ago, with its combination of archaeology, romance, goddess mysticism, and a strong heroine. If you liked those books, you will probably like the SHADOWCHASERS books too.

Shadow Chase would be a stronger novel if some of the talk and introspection were cut from the early chapters. The plot is a good one, but it takes an unusually long time to get there.

Shadowchasers — (2010-2011) Publisher: Kira Solomon’s life is a delicate balancing act. By day she specializes in identifying and defusing ancient ceremonial magic objects. By night she’s a Shadowchaser — a bounty hunter in service to the Guardians of Light in the eternal struggle against the Shadow of Chaos. She resents her superiors in the Gilead Commission for allowing her previous handler to die, but there aren’t a lot of career choices for a woman who’s unable to touch another living thing without devastating consequences. Then she meets a man she can touch — a 4,000 year-old Nubian warrior. Problem is, she doesn’t know if he’s her salvation or destruction — especially since someone’s turning Atlanta upside down in search of a mystical blade. An Egyptian blade that happens to be four millennia old, sentient, and looking for its master. Kira’s not giving anything up without a fight, and when the gloves comes off, she’s always the last one standing.

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  • Kelly Lasiter

    KELLY LASITER, with us since July 2008, is a mild-mannered academic administrative assistant by day, but at night she rules over a private empire of tottering bookshelves. Kelly is most fond of fantasy set in a historical setting (a la Jo Graham) or in a setting that echoes a real historical period (a la George RR Martin and Jacqueline Carey). She also enjoys urban fantasy and its close cousin, paranormal romance, though she believes these subgenres’ recent burst in popularity has resulted in an excess of dreck. She is a sucker for pretty prose (she majored in English, after all) and mythological themes.

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