Fee Download Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling
This is likewise among the factors by getting the soft file of this Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling by online. You could not require even more times to invest to check out guide shop as well as look for them. In some cases, you additionally do not locate the book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling that you are looking for. It will certainly throw away the moment. But right here, when you see this page, it will be so easy to get and download and install guide Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling It will not take often times as we explain previously. You could do it while doing something else in the house or even in your workplace. So easy! So, are you question? Just exercise exactly what we offer here and also review Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling exactly what you love to review!
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling
Fee Download Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling
Do you think that reading is a vital task? Discover your factors why adding is very important. Checking out a book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling is one component of delightful tasks that will make your life high quality a lot better. It is not about only exactly what sort of publication Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling you read, it is not simply regarding the number of books you review, it has to do with the routine. Checking out practice will be a way to make book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling as her or his pal. It will despite if they invest money and spend even more books to finish reading, so does this publication Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling
For everyone, if you wish to begin accompanying others to review a book, this Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling is much recommended. And also you have to obtain guide Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling here, in the web link download that we provide. Why should be here? If you want other type of publications, you will consistently discover them and also Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling Economics, national politics, social, scientific researches, religious beliefs, Fictions, as well as more books are supplied. These available books are in the soft files.
Why should soft data? As this Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling, many individuals likewise will certainly have to get the book faster. However, sometimes it's up until now means to obtain the book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling, also in various other nation or city. So, to relieve you in discovering the books Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling that will certainly sustain you, we assist you by offering the listings. It's not only the listing. We will certainly offer the suggested book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling web link that can be downloaded and install straight. So, it will not need more times or perhaps days to present it and other publications.
Gather guide Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling start from currently. However the new method is by collecting the soft documents of the book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling Taking the soft data can be conserved or stored in computer or in your laptop. So, it can be more than a book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling that you have. The most convenient way to reveal is that you could likewise save the soft data of Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling in your suitable and offered gizmo. This condition will certainly mean you too often review Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling in the downtimes more than talking or gossiping. It will certainly not make you have bad habit, however it will certainly lead you to have better behavior to read book Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), By Lynn Flewelling.
With their most treacherous mission yet behind them, heroes Seregil and Alec resume their double life as dissolute nobles and master spies. But in a world of rivals and charmers, fate has a different plan.…
After their victory in Aurënen, Alec and Seregil have returned home to Rhíminee. But with most of their allies dead or exiled, it is difficult for them to settle in. Hoping for diversion, they accept an assignment that will take them back to Seregil’s homeland. En route, however, they are ambushed and separated, and both are sold into slavery. Clinging to life, Seregil is sustained only by the hope that Alec is alive.
But it is not Alec’s life his strange master wants—it is his blood. For his unique lineage is capable of producing a rare treasure, but only through a harrowing process that will test him body and soul and unwittingly entangle him and Seregil in the realm of alchemists and madmen—and an enigmatic creature that may hold their very destiny in its inhuman hands…. But will it prove to be savior or monster?
- Sales Rank: #653643 in Books
- Brand: Flewelling, Lynn
- Published on: 2008-06-24
- Released on: 2008-06-24
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.90" h x 1.20" w x 4.20" l, .60 pounds
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 544 pages
About the Author
Lynn Fleweling was born in Presque Isle, Maine, which—contrary to common assumption—is not an island. She received her undergraduate from the University of Maine at Presque Isle, where she majored in English, minored in History, and received a teaching certificate she had no intention of ever using. Since then, she has studied literature, veterinary medicine, ancient Greek among other things, and worked as a necropsy technician, a house painter, an office worker, a freelance editor, a freelance journalist (www.sff.net/people/Lynn.Flewelling/OtherWritings.html), and yes, even as a teacher now and then, an instructor of workshops—on creativity and fiction writing.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
The Stag and Otter
seregil balanced precariously atop the shard-lined wall, impatiently scanning the shadowy garden below for his misplaced partner. Alec had been right behind him when he'd shimmied out the library window, or so he'd thought.
Everything about this job had taken too long: finding a way in, finding the right room (for which they'd been given the wrong directions), then finding the stolen brooch in question, the possessor of which—one of the most vicious new blackmailers in Rh’minee—had very wisely kept in a casket with several dozen others. Seregil had to scrutinize each one by a lightstone's glow. If he hadn't been so fond of the young lady whose reputation hung on the success of this night's work, he'd have given up the whole damned mess hours ago.
Dawn was a faint smudge above the rooftops now. A weak but welcome breeze whispered through the yellowing leaves of the garden below. It tugged at the long, stray strands of dark hair
clinging, sweat-plastered, to Seregil's forehead. Summer's heat was lingering into early autumn this year. His thin linen shirt was soaked through and rank under the arms. The swath of black silk across his lower face was sticking to his lips. He just wanted to go home to a bath and clean cool sheets . . .
Yet there was still no sign of Alec.
"Hey! Where are you?" he called softly. He was about to risk calling out again when he heard a muttered curse from the shadow of a pear tree near the house.
"I dropped it," Alec hissed, still out of sight.
"Oh, please tell me you're joking!" Seregil whispered back.
"Shh! They'll hear you."
The telltale scrape of iron against stone came from the nearby kitchen as some early-rising servant stirred up banked coals on a hearth.
Seregil climbed down the lime tree they'd used for a ladder, with every intention of collaring Alec and dragging him away—by force if need be.
The younger man's dark clothing made him all but invisible in the shadows, except for his blond braid. He'd pulled off his head scarf somewhere along the way and his hair gleamed tellingly over one shoulder as he scrabbled about on hands and knees, searching frantically in the grass.
"Leave it!"
Stubborn as always, Alec crawled back toward the house instead, frantically brushing his hands over the clipped turf. Seregil was reaching for Alec's braid when the sound of a door opening sent them both flat on their bellies. Neither breathed as a young servant trudged by with reeking pails of night soil, passing within a few feet of where they lay.
As soon as he was gone, Alec was on his feet, pulling Seregil up. "Found it! Come on."
"Now you're in a hurry?"
They ran for the tree. Seregil, the better climber, laced his fingers together and gave Alec a one-footed boost up into the lowest branches. Before he could follow, however, he heard a startled gasp behind him. Turning, he found the servant staring straight at him, empty pails on the ground at his feet. They stood eye-locked for an instant, then the child found his voice and shrieked, "Robbers! Mistress Hobb, loose the dogs!"
Seregil scarcely felt the rough bark of the tree as he launched himself up. He hadn't once been known as the Rh’minee Cat for nothing. In his haste, he was careless, though, and sliced his hand open on one of the pottery shards set into the top of the wall. Ignoring the pain, he vaulted over and landed in a crouch on the pavement beside Alec. As they sprinted away, two enormous mastiffs came pelting out through a side gate, and several men with them, armed with cudgels.
"Do it!" Alec hissed, eyes wide above his mask. "Do the dog thing!"
"I'd have to stop first, wouldn't I?" Seregil panted, trying to staunch his bloody hand in his shirttail as he ran. "Follow me."
The Temple District was not the sort of neighborhood in which masked men being pursued by large dogs went unremarked upon, even at this hour. The Scavenger crews were already at work, and Seregil collided with one of them as he rounded the corner into Long Yew Street. He kept his feet but had to roll awkwardly across the top of her stinking barrow, coming eye to eye with a rotting dog in the process.
"I'll have the Watch on you, you bastards!" she screeched after them as they pelted on. And all the while, their enemy the sun was rising, and the dogs were gaining.
Seregil caught Alec's arm and steered him down a side street lined with shops. Alec pulled away hastily.
"Bilairy's Balls, you stink!"
Seregil thought that certainly summed up their night's work.
At the far end of this street, a wall screened the sacred grove behind the temple of Dalna.
"Up," he ordered, making a stirrup of his hands again.
He winced as Alec thrust a dirty boot against his wounded palm and jumped. Making the top of the wall, Alec reached down to Seregil, but once again, it was too late. The dogs came boiling up, snarling and slavering.
Cornered, Seregil thrust out his bloody left hand, first and little finger extended and turned it like a key in a lock. "Soora thalassi!"
It was a minor spell, and one of the very few he'd ever been able to reliably accomplish. But this one always worked, and he'd probably done it thousands of times over the years. All the same, he held his breath as the dogs skidded to a halt. The larger of the two sniffed at him curiously, then wagged her tail. Seregil gave them both a pat on the head and waved them off.
Judging by the outcry close behind, though, their masters hadn't given up yet. With Alec's help, Seregil scrambled quickly up the rough stonework. They dropped over the other side and collapsed, panting, with their heads between their knees. It was still dark and cool in the beech grove. Overhead, the fading leaves rattled soothingly in the breeze. A small shrine stood nearby, and a broad path led in the direction of the temple.
Seregil breathed the fragrant, herb-scented air and willed his heart to stop pounding. A few of the brown temple doves fluttered down to join them, cooing eagerly for a handout. On the other side of the wall, he heard their pursuers pound by, cursing the dogs and still thinking their quarry somewhere ahead.
"Cut that a bit close, didn't we?" Alec pulled off his sweat-soaked mask and used it to bind Seregil's hand.
The salt stung the raw skin and Seregil winced. "We're going soft. Too much larking about. So, how the hell did you drop the thing?"
Alec pulled the brooch from inside his shirt. It was a delicate piece; a tiny crescent set with pearls. "It's so small. I was trying to put it somewhere safe, so I wouldn't—"
"Drop it?"
Before Alec could defend himself, a high-pitched voice called out, "You there! What do you think you're doing? This is sacred ground!"
Seregil stood up, scattering the doves. A half-grown acolyte came hurrying toward them, his short brown robe whipping around his skinny legs.
It was force of habit, more than anything, that made Alec and Seregil both head for the wall. Before he could find purchase, however, Seregil felt something like an attack of bees shoot through the backs of his legs, cramping his muscles and halting him in his tracks. Alec let out a yelp and whirled around, slapping at his thighs and buttocks.
"Peace, brother," Seregil gritted out as he faced down the outraged Dalnan. "We mean no harm."
"Lord Seregil? Lord Alec?" The boy made them a hasty bow. "Forgive me! I didn't realize you were here. There was an outcry just now and I took you for the thieves."
"I guess you startled us as much as we did you," Alec replied, with the full force of the country-bred guilelessness "Lord Alec" was known for.
Seregil smothered a grin as the acolyte laughed. Being a ya'shel—a half-breed—Alec still looked deceptively boyish at twenty. Somehow, all the evil and hardship he'd seen in his short life, most of it since meeting Seregil, had not dimmed his innocent glow. With those dark blue eyes and that golden hair, he could charm man or woman, old or young, with no more than a smile and few well-chosen words.
"I'm afraid we came straight on from the Lower City," Seregil said, feigning chagrin as he brushed a hand over his questionable attire. "My friend here is in need of some spiritual solace, after the drubbing we took at the gaming houses. Lost the coats off our backs, as you can see, and saw a bit of fighting."
"But what are you doing way back here?" asked the boy.
"Praying," Alec replied quickly. "I wanted to see Valerius, but it's so early I thought I'd meditate a bit until he was up."
"Of course, my lord. I hope you'll pardon my interruption. I'll tell him you're here."
Seregil watched him go, then raised an eyebrow at Alec. "You just lied to a priest."
"So did you."
"I lie to everyone. You're the good Dalnan boy."
"I haven't been a good Dalnan boy since I met you. All the same . . ." Alec went to the shrine and softly sang some prayer, the picture of piety.
Seregil left him to it, steeling himself to face Valerius. He and the priest had both been Watchers, and had worked together many times over the years, but Seregil's gut still tightened as he caught sight of the man striding toward them, his black beard and eyebrows noticeably bristling.
Valerius had been the high priest of Dalna in Rh’minee for four years now, but it hadn't smoothed his temper. He went straight for Alec and gave him a sharp cuff on the ear.
"That's for lying inside the precinct, you whelp!"
"Ow! Sorry," Alec said humbly, clasping the side of his head.
Valerius knew better than to raise a hand to Seregil, but his expression was enough to make the smaller man take a step back. "All the barking and yelling that just disturbed my morning meditation would be your doing, I take it?"
"All in a good cause."
Valerius snorted and folded his arms across his broad chest. A northerner like Alec, he was half a head taller than either of them and built like a mountain bear.
And just as ill-tempered, Seregil reflected sourly. Considerably more dangerous, too, even in a good mood.
"Well, I suppose that's better than what Brother Myus thought he caught you two at."
"I wouldn't!" Alec gasped, going red to the ears. "Not here."
Valerius gave him another disapproving look. The truth was he liked Alec and had always blamed Seregil for what he deemed the young man's fall into bad ways. In the eyes of most of Rh’minee society, Alec was a minor noble of no consequence beyond his somewhat scandalous association with the dissolute and clever Lord Seregil. The fact that he'd first been introduced to society as Seregil's ward only added to the gossip. But in Rh’minee, of course, that was generally a plus.
"So you're still up to your old tricks?" Valerius rumbled as they walked back toward the temple.
"Not much else to do, these days," Seregil replied. "With Thero still in Aur‘nen, there's been no—" He waved a hand casually, thumb hooked over the top of his third finger: the sign for Watcher business.
Valerius paused near the portico and lowered his voice. "And Phoria still hasn't summoned you? It's been well over a year now, hasn't it? After what the two of you accomplished for Skala in Aur‘nen, I should think she'd want you with her spies."
"Then you don't know Phoria," Seregil muttered.
"We hope to see her when she returns from the front," Alec told him, anxious to change the subject.
"Duke Tornus wrote to her on our behalf, offering our services again."
"Ah, yes. Will you be sitting with the Royal Kin for the Progress?"
Seregil gave him a wry look. "We haven't received our invitation yet."
Acolytes were spreading the morning crumbs for the doves in the temple courtyard. A few birds fluttered up at their approach, and one landed on Alec's shoulder. He offered it a finger and it perched there, preening.
Seregil grinned at Valerius. "See? Your Maker still loves him, even with me around."
"Perhaps," Valerius muttered.
Seregil regretted his choice of hiding place. Valerius's jibes about Alec still struck more deeply than Seregil liked to admit.
Friend, partner in their precarious secret business, and talimenios—there was no proper translation for all that encompassed, or the deep bond of heart and body he and Alec shared. Seregil had taught him guile and all the tricks of the nightrunner trade, but at heart Alec was still the honest woodsman he'd found in that northern cell, and for that Seregil would always be grateful. Loving Alec made him feel almost clean again, himself.
Valerius lent them light cloaks and they set off for the Stag and Otter to change clothes.
"Well, that could have gone better, but at least we got what we went for. That's the most fun we've had in ages!" Alec flipped the brooch up in the air.
Seregil snatched it in midair and shoved it into his purse. "Are you trying to drop it again?"
"I found it, didn't I?" Alec teased, determined not to let Seregil sink into one of his moods. "Admit it. That was fun!"
"Fun?"
"Well, more fun than moping around Wheel Street, or at some noble's salon."
"And when have we been doing that? I'm quite out of fashion at court these days, along with most things Aur‘nfaie."
"Ingrates," muttered Alec.
There had been a number of notable shifts at court, following the death of Queen Idrilain two winters earlier—even with her successor, Queen Phoria, away most of the year, fighting in Mycena. Despite the obvious benefits of reopened trade with Aur‘nen, she had issued a royal decree: the Aur‘nfaie style of naming, popular since the time of the first Idrilain, was no longer used at court. Southern styles in dress, jewelry, and music were also out of fashion. Young men were letting their beards grow and wearing their hair cropped short about the ears.
Seregil's response had, of course, been to refuse to cut his hair at all. It was well past his shoulders now. Alec did the same, but braided his to keep it out of his face.
Among the general populace, however, Aur‘nfaie goods were in great demand. Whatever the nobles might do in public to please the new queen, the people hadn't lost their taste for luxuries and novelty.
The Harvest Market was bustling by the time they reached it, the huge square filled with the colored awnings and ranks of booths selling everything from cheap jewels and knit goods to live poultry and cheese. A Queen's Herald stood on the platform near the central fountain, announcing some victory on the Folcwine.
Most helpful customer reviews
124 of 139 people found the following review helpful.
Very Different From Earlier Works in the Series
By Maine Character
Think of your favorite scenes from the first three books - Alec proving worthy of his Black Radley bow, Seregil entering the snow-covered cave in the Dravnian village, Beka leading Urgazhi turma behind enemy lines, the Rhui'Auros mystics of Aurenen. Whatever they were, you won't find them here. Instead you get Chapter 39 in "Stalking Darkness," where Alec's being tortured in the hold of a ship, only here it goes on for a full half of the book.
The first three Nightrunner books are captivating and original, like a grittier Sherlock Holmes, with just the right touch of wonder and horror to the magic of the wizards. They're also dense, packed with captivating descriptions that never bog down, and laced with insight on swordplay, archery, and various espionage skills. Anyone seeking to write fine fantasy should check them out.
With this book, though, the difference is striking. For while the book's cover is gorgeous, inside it looks like a young adult novel, and worse, it reads like one.
First, there's clumsy lines like "Peering cautiously outside, he froze as he made out a line of figures outside." Every writer makes such slips, but an editor should've caught them. What really drags it down, though, are all the interior monologues. These long summaries of what everyone is feeling. "Alec was normally the most reasonable and easygoing of men; but on this one topic he always grew troubled, though he wouldn't say much about it. All Seregil would do was avoid the subject. He made no apologies for his past, but he hated causing Alec pain." And on and on, over and over again. In the earlier books you can hardly find such meandering, and always just a sentence here and there - not full pages of lovelorn ponderings.
And where is Seregil while Alec is imprisoned? Surely he's out sleuthing, tracking down Alec to rescue him. Nope, he's in another cell. So we go from Alec being groped while drugged to Seregil being groped while drugged and then back again. In the first Nightrunner book, Alec is miserable in a prison cell for just one page before he's busted out, but here all you get is Alec missing Seregil and Seregil missing Alec. "Oh tali! If you were killed, because of me..." and a hundred pages later Seregil's thinking the same thing, "limp and useless, trapped in a cell with no means of escape." Two heroes trapped in prison cells doesn't make for compelling fiction.
As for the characters, Seregil and Alec have gone from hardened, wise nightrunners with a strong bond to dopey-eyed lovers acting like amateurs. Like in an opening scene, when they're sneaking out of a mansion and Seregil looks back for Alec and says, "Hey! Where are you?" And Alec says, "Shhh! They'll hear you!" Real professional. Or when passing in front of the queen's cavalry, Micum tells Seregil, "Hush, someone will hear you!" He might as well have shouted, "He's talking bad about the queen!" Why not just have him change the subject, or make one of those hand signals that were so interesting in the earlier books? Besides that moment, Micum is the only one who acts like his old self, and those scenes are good, if still not up to the earlier books.
The dialogue, as well, is thin and clichéd, where it was previously one of the best parts of the series - witty, to the point, every scene holding its weight. So again, what's missing is the depth, the wonderful texture and realism of Flewelling's prose. (For a better look at the difference in style, check out a comparison I'll post in the Comments.)
I really hate to say all this, `cause I love the earlier books so, and Flewelling is a class act. I don't know what she was after here, but it's not a rewarding read.
Things do start to move at the end, though (even if what will happen in a battle scene is obvious before it begins), and there's also an enticing glimpse of the next book.
51 of 57 people found the following review helpful.
What Happened?
By B. Gibson
The Nightrunner Series has been a favorite of mine ever since the books first came out. That makes leaving this review really difficult for me, as I believe that Flewelling is a great author.
However, I hate to say it, but this book just doesn't live up to her previous work. As other reviewers have mentioned, there are a lot of little mistakes, such as what happened to Alec's father, various misspellings, and grammar issues, but these are small compared to the real issues.
Simply put this book is missing everything that made the previous books work. The sense of realism is gone, and a world that once seemed complete and full is now flat and empty feeling (someone mentioned a cardboard city). The same can be said for the characters. In the previous books I always got the impression that as much as we have seen of Alec and Seragil and the others, there was still more underneath. In this book they seemed to have been whittled down to their basic descriptions. Instead of real people they are as flat as the rest of world. In fact the whole book seemed to be lacking life, and character.
Lastly was the story. The idea didn't seem bad at first, but the execution was not so good. Honestly it seemed very contrived. I won't be specific as to which points I found especially troublesome, as that would be revealing spoilers, but let me just say that there are many places where the feel of the story is more like bad fan fiction than the normal type of work I had become used to seeing from Flewelling.
There were so many clichés that lead into seemingly contrived events, which read more like getting from point A to C via X (what and why?) than a real novel. There were plenty of occasions where the conclusions reached didn't match the action that took place, and the behavior exhibited did not seem in character or even remotely realistic.
As one other reviewer said, Flewelling's strong point had always been the ability to make a fantasy world seem logical and realistic. It was easy to suspend disbelief when reading Flewelling because her world, and her characters and their situations were all believable. When reading this book I never once was able to reach that point.
To say I was disappointed in this book is an understatement. Honestly, it made me wonder if my appreciation of the other books was due to some type of sentimentality instead of an actual representation of their quality. I am not sure if I will be purchasing the next books in this series, but perhaps I will. I just hope that Flewelling will be able to recapture the magic that seems to have been lost in this one.
29 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
A fun book that doesn't quite live up to its predecessors
By Kelsey Sharpe
I want to preface this review by saying that I love the first three Nightrunner books, and I enjoyed the Tamir triad very much. As other people have stated, if you liked the first three then you should get the fourth one (if only for completeness). That said, I would not agree with the sentiment that if you liked the first three, then you'll love this one too. I was ecstatic when I first read on the author's livejournal that she was writing a new book. When I read about a month before the release of Shadows Return that she had already begun writing the fifth book, The White Road, I should have been suspicious. Again, as previous reviewers have mentioned, Shadows Return is short. It also ends rather loosely, leading me to believe that perhaps at one time Shadows Return and The White Road were supposed to be one long novel. I wish that they had done that because Shadows Return is a somewhat unsatisfying read. I re-read the first three in the days leading up to the release of the fourth, and each one took me two or three days to read. I read this book in one sitting, not necessarily because I couldn't put it down, but because I had needlessly cleared two days of any non-reading activities. It seems like nit-picking to argue over length (especially when the book is short given the author, not the genre), but it's a little frustrating to wait several years for a book that barely takes an afternoon to read, then find out that the next one (essentially Shadows Return: Part 2) is coming out next year.
My disappointment over the length leads me into my next issue- this is a very simple book. The text and spacing are very large compared to the last three books. When I picked up my pre-ordered copy I stood in line to pay and just studied the cover (which is gorgeous, by the way). When I finally cracked it open, after I got home, I wondered who had put a young adult book inside my new Nightrunner novel. Now that I think of it, that might be a good way to look at this new book- it's sort of like a young adult version of the books we've come to love. Characters that used to act in unique and varied ways based on specific background and growth now have just three moods (Alec- angry, jealous, naive. Seregil- vengeful, forgiving, conflicted) for easy-to-understand characterization. Side characters and past events are given tantalizing mention and then shoved aside (bad news for Beka-lovers such as myself). Lynn Flewelling has an excellent voice in her writing, and it was so frustrating reading a book that felt like it had been put through a simplification machine. Shadows Return reads like the first three books, but with shorter sentences and chapters, and no-frills vocabulary. As an english major, I love coming across a word I've never seen before and going to look it up. That never even came close to happening in this book. The last young adult characteristic that I noted was the frequent reminders of motivations stemming from the first three books. First off, most people reading Shadows Return will have already read the first three and won't need reminders of big events. Second, you can explain the first time a character does x that he's doing it because of y- you don't have to tell us every time he does x.
My last complaints have to do with the many errors in spelling/continuity present in this fourth installment. Any book will have a few errors in its first printing, but there are quite a few mistakes in Shadows Return. Not just grammar and punctuation, but names, events, and Aurenfaie words are misspelled or suddenly different. Remember when Alec's father was tortured to death in Asengai's dungeon? Hopefully you don't because it didn't actually happen. Maybe in an early draft of the first book Amasa was with Alec in the dungeon, but by now shouldn't the author and publisher know which version they went with? The good part about these errors is that they can be fixed in later editions, but those of us with first editions are out of luck.
The reason I gave Shadows Return three stars is because there are some genuinely fun and exciting parts. There is a fantastic twist in the novel that I didn't expect at all, and which led to some very interesting passages. A newly introduced character (I'll try not to give anything specific away) does have slight overtones of a deus ex machina, but is extremely interesting nevertheless. I trust enough in Lynn Flewelling's writing ability that I believe The White Road will alleviate the concerns that usually go along with deus ex machina plot devices (i.e. nobody can die, nobody can lose). Ultimately that's why I'm writing this review- the problems present in Shadows Return are ones that are easily solved, and it's not too late for The White Road to be the triumphant Nightrunner sequel that we've all been waiting for.
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling PDF
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling EPub
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling Doc
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling iBooks
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling rtf
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling Mobipocket
Shadows Return (Nightrunner, Bk. 4), by Lynn Flewelling Kindle
