Way too much exposition. ( )

This was fantastic. I'm hoping Glass continues in this world.

One thing I loved: main character of color. That's right, a tough, kick-ass chick wielding a magical blade who fights for the Light, and she's African-American.

Another thing I loved: Kira's innate power makes it so she cannot touch anyone without killing them. She's moved on and focused on what's important in her life. She doesn't mope, yet she hasn't cut herself off from all human relationships. She simply does not touch.

Through her work as an appraiser of magical antiques Kira comes across a very dangerous dagger. Then the dagger's owner, a 4,000 year old immortal Nubian warrior, and his sidekick, come looking for it. But they aren't the only ones, because the Shadows would like to get their hands on it--and Kira--too. ( )

'Shadow Blade' is the debut of a new urban fantasy series by author Seressia Glass, and this book is pretty awesome. It has the normal concept good vs evil, light vs. dark, etc with a bit of an Egyptian twist. It was very interesting to learn a bit about Egyptian mythology as well, and it is well researched and presented in the book. I had a slight problem of getting lost in the book, I enjoyed it immensely but could easily put it down and come back to it.

The characters are pretty awesome as well, they all pretty much kick butt and play with crazy mysterious magics and of course the main protagonists are hot. Duh. The emotions the characters felt are real as well. I felt like I could feel what they were going through and how they went about everything inside their heads. I enjoyed this book and I will look out for the next book in this series. ( )

Kira was born with a power – she knows things and people by touch. One touch and she senses thought, emotion and experience. And she drains their power, their life force and sometimes leaves them injured or dead.

An orphan, her powers quickly confused and frightened her foster families – until she was taken in and raised by the Gilead Commission, a secret organisation that polices the magical beings of the world – and leads the forces of Light against the chaotic destruction of the Shadow. Kira was brought up as a member, a warrior, a Shadowchaser, one of the elite of the Commission to hunt down the most powerful agents of the Shadow.

And there is one of the most powerful agents in Atlanta, hunting down a 4,000 year old dagger of incredible power. Her mentor died to bring it to her and the immortal owner of the dagger, Khefer, has followed to retrieve and protect it. Kira must fight through her grief, protect her friends and work with Khefer to banish the Fallen and stop more lives being lost- and to stop her own descent into the darkness.


I found the story generally good – agent of light fighting the shadow isn't exactly original, but nor was it done in a way I found dull or boring. There is a growing romance between Khefer and Kira but, despite my worries, it never takes over the plot beyond odd moments of Kira's shock that she can touch him. The plot remains focused (to a degree) on the actual plot and decent characterisations. It was interesting and kept me engaged and never once made me think I should be cleaning the bathroom or some other unpleasant task to help me avoid reading

My main complaint with this book is one of pacing, especially towards the middle of the book. There's a time when there are no leads and no particular direction and Kira and Khefer just seem to drift around not doing a whole lot. There were a few incidents like that throughout the book – and it's exacerbated by the fact that they don't actually do a whole lot until the end. They wait for something to happen, then react – there's not a lot of pro-active activity from the protagonists, even though they're not passive people. Given the severity of the threat they're facing, it feels vaguely like picnicking in the path of a tsunami.

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3.5 stars ( )