Saturday 28 June 2014

The Shadow's Curse by Amy McCulloch

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

My thanks go to Netgalley and Random House for providing me with this e-ARC

Pages: 323
Publisher: Random House Children's Book Publisher 
Released: 3rd of July 2014

Raim is no closer to figuring out the meaning of the broken vow that sentenced him to exile for life. But with his former best friend now a tyrannical Khan who is holding the girl Raim loves captive, he finds it hard to care. Every day, he and Draikh learn more about their powers, but it quickly becomes clear that he will never be able to stop Khareh and free Wadi unless he can free himself from the ultimate taboo of his people. Reluctantly, Raim begins the long journey down to the dangerous South, to find the maker of his oath.

In Khareh's camp, Wadi is more than capable of devising her own escape plan, but she's gradually realising she might not want to. The more she learns about Khareh, the more confused she becomes. He's done unquestionably bad things, horrific even, but he's got big dreams for Darhan that might improve their dire situation. What's more, rumours of a Southern king massing an army to invade Darhan are slowly gaining ground. Only if the Northern tribes can come together under a single ruler will they have the strength to fight the South - but what if that ruler is an impulsive (albeit brilliant) young man, barely able to control his ever-growing power, and missing the one part of him that might keep him sane? Whoever conquers the desert, wins the war. And the secret to desert survival lies in Lazar, which is set to become the heart of a great battle once again.

What I Have To Say


I feel like this book was better than the last, everything was much tighter, although I'm not sure I liked the storyline so much. It was good, but didn't surprise me as much as the first book did.

One thing I really liked was the way that the Seer-abilities worked. The fact that the Seer could see the possibilities and the ways that the future could turn out rather than just what would happen. It's a much more believable way of manipulating and Seeing the future.

It was also good to see some of the things that Kareh was doing because the last book had quite a sudden change between Raim's friend an the murderous dictator that he becomes.

I think that Raim was a little too dependent on Draikh though. Especially towards the end of the book when he shouldn't really have been. He grew a little but I'm just not sure it was really enough. 

Still, I really liked the ending. It felt like a natural conclusion. Both books are really worth reading. 

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