Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Review: Shadows in the Starlight by Elaine Cunningham

  I quite enjoyed Shadows in the Darkness, the first novel in this series. This one isn’t as good as that one, but still has many of the same qualities. It is a fairly mature story, can’t easily fit a genre and doesn’t have many good things to say about the police and other dominant forces in society.
  Gwen, the main protagonist is still searching for the truth about her life and origin. She isn’t human and struggles to come to terms with what she is: an elf, another species that have existed side by side with humanity for a very long time. They have a different and occasionally cruel set of rules and motivations compared to the human society she grew up with, and she has trouble reconciling herself with that.
  She is a former cop with a rather strained relationship with many of her former colleagues, also a good thing to cover, and strangely enough not an angle covered much.
  I do think the story is too short. The reader has just taken a bite or two of the juicy action and then it’s over. I feel like I’ve only read the first third of a book or something. It ends too quickly, very much where the action should have started.
  I still appreciate the author’s attempt at creating something different, also with a strong woman as protagonist and strong, multi-level black characters, though. It’s way too rare in today’s mainstream marketplace.
  Hey, Elaine, I’m still waiting for the next book in this series. If no one wants to publish it, try self-publishing. I’m told it’s easy and inexpensive in this digital age.

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