Falls the shadow by Melissa Sasina - Review by Jane

4 Stars

With the help of  Lynkin, his brother Connor and a very ‘annoying’ pirate named Ril, Maeja is determined to keep the treasures out of the hands of the Empire. They had stolen so much from her already and she would do all she could to stop them getting their hands on the rest. Once Severus has his hands on the Brynhilds book and all the secrets it contains it becomes even more important for them to succeed in their quest.

The cover art to this novel is very pretty and the addition of a map at the beginning of the book is a nice touch. We are given in depth background information at the start about the ‘Life Tree’ the history of the Gods and of Midgard  which shows the writer paid a lot of attention to detail and has great understanding of her chosen subject.

This author is very fond of metaphors and similes which can become a bit tiresome, slowing the pace of the story. Another annoyance was the added information on so many sentences i.e.’Imperial mines ran deep through the mountains. Like veins stretching through the stone where mythril, a silvery metal that was harder than steal, and half the weight, was harvested’. It just seemed unnecessary and again slowed the pace and bulked the story without being relevant to the plot. That aside it is clear that MS is a practiced writer, and used all her knowledge to create a world that is easy to visualize without much of your own imagination needed. All the characters are fully developed, and the dialogue is fitting for the time (the year 848)

 This, the first book in a five part series, is very well written with a complicated plot, the ending is open but not with a breath taking cliff hanger, (phew!) We are given action, humour, Gods, portals and hidden worlds in this imaginative Norse myth fantasy and I would recommend it to all fans of the genre.

Copy supplied for review.