Just finished Clements’ Shadowfall. It’s the first of a series (trilogy?) that I borrowed from the library because I liked the cover and cover blurb.
The story didn’t disappoint. While the pace started a bit slow, it did pick up to the point where I really wanted to finish the book. That definitely puts it in the readable category for me. I don’t want to give away the plot too much, but the gist of it is, there’s a Fantasy world where Gods are real, and live with the people of each province (land?). They have abilities that they gift to humans through their..ahem.. their bodily fluids (yeah, all of them).
The problem is, someone (or multiple someones) want to mess with this arrangement, and one of our intrepid main characters gets blamed for it all. There’s some interesting worldbuilding involved, and just enough description to keep from distracting from the pace.
There was one drawback I saw. The bad guys (the real bad guys) are just plain bad. There’s no reason for their behavior, other than evil. That to me detracted from an otherwise good book. It’s a personal preference I suppose, but if someone is bad/evil, I want to know why. What’s their point of view? What’s pushing them to that state, or what ‘good’ do they thing they are doing with this behavior?
Otherwise, it feels like there’s a layer of depth missing for me. Mind you, I can’t guarantee my own villians have the depth I look for in a book, but it’s something I’ll want to keep mindful of in my next story.