PotsandPlots

When is a sequel not a sequel? When it’s Our Lady of Blades, book 2 of Sebastien de Castell’s Court of Shadows. I enjoyed Play of Shadows, the first book in the series. There has also been a prequel, Crucible of Chaos, that has little impact on the series, other than to pave the way for the mysterious and malevolent force that rises during Play of Shadows.

Our Lady of Blades, as far as I can tell, bears no relation to either story. Apart from being set in the same universe, it seems not to advance an overarching story at all. Perhaps more will be revealed in future books, but I found the lack of cohesion to be a disappointment.

And, honestly, that’s just one of many.

Growing Information:

Plant With: Fantasy, Swashbuckling, Intrigue

Grows Into: An overlong, overcomplicated story of family vengeance.

Rating: Garage Flowers 🌻(Check here for rating information.)

Available now in hardback (affiliate link).

The Review:

I wanted to enjoy this book a lot more than I did. I like De Castell’s breezy writing style, and his characterisation is usually spot on.

This time, the novel is darker, which I can cope with, but it does mean I missed out on the breeze. The characters felt unreal to me. Flat caricatures of spoiled aristocrats, plucky victims and dastardly, almost moustache-twiddling, villains.

Our Lady of Blades is a tale of two sisters, not by blood but by adoption. Tazia was rescued from indentured servitude down a mine and adopted into a rich family in the ducal city of Rijou. She was to protect her siblings by adoption – Kareline and her sickly, bullied brother, Farren.

The story has two shifting timelines, one moving forward from the present and another moving forward from 9 years earlier, when Tazia is first adopted. It’s a story of sibling rivalry, friendship and then, when the family is outmanoeuvred politically, betrayal.

It’s long and complicated, featuring several warring families that will stop at nothing to gain the upper hand. Pulling the strings is an utterly amoral contemporary of Kareline and Tazia, who is secretly controlling everything.

After their family’s betrayal, Kareline and Tazia are separated. They won’t see each other for another seven years. In the meantime, all sorts of complicated shenanigans occur, including personality wiping and switched identities. I found it hard to follow what was going on, to the point where I began not to care. Especially when the novel’s denouement played exactly what I thought it was going to be some 450 pages earlier.

There are some good bits. The novel has a lot to say about the power of elites to manipulate the system. There’s a Trumpian flavour to the way in which the system and sycophancy help bring the villain’s evil plots to fruition. As you would expect from a de Castell novel, there are some great set pieces and some quality dialogue.

Ultimately, this novel failed for me. The flat characters meant the darkness of the book wasn’t justified. The coercion and misery heaped upon them felt gratuitous, particularly as the author is male. Which is not to say a man can’t write these sorts of storylines. I just think they have to do it better than this to avoid making it seem exploitative.

So a fluffed address to the Court of Shadows, though a cursory glance of other reviews suggests I’m in the minority here. I have enjoyed enough of de Castell’s books to still want to read book 3 in the series, but I don’t anticipate it with as much relish as I had upon finishing Play of Shadows.