Date Complete: October 28 2016
Page Length: 560
Goodreads

I’ve learnt to be wary of books with a character index at the beginning. I’ve also learnt to be wary of books with prologues or epilogues or those over 500 pages. Shadow of a Dark Queen has all of these things but it was also a gift. In fact it was my first birthday present from my wonderful boyfriend, who, knowing I like fantasy, learnt the name of a few fantasy authors and went out to buy me a book.

I won’t pretend that despite the above hurdles this book blew me away and I will never again judge an epic fantasy by its epilogue, but I did enjoy it… in the end.

I found it slow to get into. In part because it was slow to get into but also because I was resistant to enjoying it knowing that if I did, there were 3 other big books in the series to get through.

Once I was into it, there were so many characters floating around, being introduced and reintroduced (no I didn’t use the character index) that I wasn’t engaged with any of them. So when it came time for some of them *SPOILER* to die, I wasn’t that bothered.

There were other things that bothered me here and there but it proved to be a pleasant romp in the epic fantasy genre. An area I’ve probably been absent from since my friend lent me Finnikin of the Rock (not a fan). There some standard tropes; blacksmith protagonist who also happens to be the bastard of a nobleman, his trickster-ish BFF, a looooong journey, the sexy sorceress chick, the evil sorceress chick, no other chicks to speak of. But sometimes that’s what you feel like and as a reader of mostly female led stories this was an interesting change.

While I can’t scream its praises, Shadow of a Dark Queen has still managed to leave me considering reading on. I just need to know what happens next. In the mean time I’ve started reading Red Shoes by Carmel Bird, hopefully this one doesn’t take me 8 months to finish.