Shadow Blade [Mass Market Paperback]

Kira Solomon works for the Gilead Commission (an ancient global organization that governs and upholds the balance between Light [angels, gods, goddesses, spirits, guardians] and Shadow [the Fallen= spawns of Chaos] in the universe) as a shadowchaser; someone of light who is trained to and uses their "extrasense" abilities to track and eradicate Shadow. Kira has the ability of the "touch"; she can see/experience the history of any person/being/object she touches. However, in the accordance with the universes principles of balance, her gift has the adverse effect of siphoning the life-force and destroying any being she makes a physical contact with.

By day Kira is a freelance antiquity expert but at night, she transforms into a shadowchaser with death-dealing tendencies. The story starts off with Kira's mentor Bernie Comstock, requesting she authenticate an Egyptian blade he speculates to be over four millennia. Unfortunately for Kira and Bernie, their find attracts the owner of the blade, Khefar, an ancient Nubian warrior who served in Pharoah's army. Khefar has been on the warpath searching high and low for his blade. But even worse, the power of the blade attracts the Avatar for a powerful fallen who wishes to possess the blade's chaotic energy of creation and unmaking. Despite Kira's many strengths, her fight with the avatar takes a dismal turn when she becomes poisoned with shadow. The infection threatens to alter the mostly light essence running through her veins and replace it with the destructive alien energy of chaos. Time is running out for Kira, and the terms failure and retreat are not in her vocabulary. Looking for an alternative, the old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend is Kira's only option when she is forced to team-up with the warrior, in order to try and defeat the avatar.

This book's idea of other dimensions of time and reality existing outside of earth and of the concept of the universal balance fascinates me. That a war took place outside of earth's reality and in the aftermath powerful otherworldly-beings, are trapped here on earth. And thus, have become incapable of manifesting in the flesh, and are forced to fuse their essence with humans and form avatars.

I was completely entertained and intrigued from my first plunge into this book until the very end. The story appealed to and satisfied my appetite for novels that are creatively authentic and dark. The background shadow creatures as such, had a menacing and eerie vibe to them; like they stalked and lurked around every corner. Kira is a kick-butt heroine and a deadly force to be reckoned with. She is powerful in her own right and always gets the job done.

For those wondering what genre this book falls into, I would categorize it as an urban fantasy with a smidge of romance. I savored this story and loved the fact that it was different from the commonly used European culture of fantasy but instead went against the grain and focused on African and Egyptian cultures. Don't get me wrong, I love the widely used European version of fantasy and myths but I also like variety.

This book was one of my highly anticipated January 2010 releases and I'm pleased to say I've added this series to my favorites list. I highly recommend this book to fellow dark urban fantasy readers, and look forward to the next book Shadow Chase due out 7/27/2010.

I also recommend:
Spider's Bite: An Elemental Assassin Book
Bitter Night: A Horngate Witches Book
Spellbent
Darkness Calls
Beneath the Skin: Book Three of The Maker's Song

The first thing I did when I finished reading Shadow Blade earlier this morning was make sure that my memory was correct, and that it was the beginning of a series and not a standalone novel. Not because I didn't like how it ended, but because I was so impressed with Seressia Glass' fully developed and vibrant world rich with ancient Egyptian and Africa history, not to mention the three dimensional characters, zippy narrative, and intriguing plot.

I'm thrilled to say that Shadow Blade hit all my happy spots. All of them. I loved it.

I'm not going to summarize the plot here, as it's been done sufficiently in the product description and in more depth in other reviews. I just need to express what I most enjoyed about it. I loved the setting, Atlanta. I was really impressed with the flawless blend of history and mythology that never - for me - bogged down the story or stuttered the plot. I found the lead character, Kira Solomon, to be a stunning blend of intelligence, confidence, and aptitude with her work (both jobs), devotional commitment to her calling, and refreshing innocence and sense of yearning with everything else. Some reviews have criticized that dichotomy, but for me, it made perfect sense. The poor girl has been able to touch exactly NO ONE in her entire life without it ending in coma or death or pain. Twenty-six years of complete physical solitude unless she's killing. The wounds on a person's psyche under those conditions are unimaginable, horrifying, and entirely well represented by Kira's responses to events in Shadow Blade. I believed it utterly and I sympathized completely with her, as my admiration for her as written grew and grew. And kudos to Glass for the masterful development of Kira through the arc of the story. And for me personally, the development of the relationship between Kira and Khefer not only worked and was realistic and believable, but it was laden with both tenderness, hope, and at one point, one of the most sizzling kisses I've read in any novel this year. Exceptionally well done, I thought.

Also tremendously well done - and refreshing for the very sense it made - was Khefer's reaction to Kira's inquiries and curiosity about his four thousand years on the planet. BRILLIANT scene and truly...finally addressed one of the most niggling issues I've ALWAYS had when books include long-lived races or individuals. I've gotten so used to just accepting that a thousand year old vampire has perfect recollection of his time as a human because that's how it almost always seems to be written. But it doesn't make sense if you think about it. A four thousand year old Nubian warrior who didn't even need to learn to read or write prior to the Roman empire?? EXCELLENT! I can't remember what I was doing fifteen years ago on this day. Why should Khefer remember what he was doing fifteen HUNDRED years ago? Brilliant! And I absolutely loved that line about history happening when you're just living your life. There were some real truism gems in that whole scene.

And while I was being impressed by the deft storytelling, the world building, and the character development, I also appreciated that the book included humor. Nansee (Anansi is my favorite secondary character in a book in ages) was a perfect foil in that regard, but even Kira had a sardonic sense of humor that tickled me.

All together, Shadow Blade is definitely standing out as one of the most thoroughly satisfying - on every level, from technical to emotional - books I've had the pleasure to read this year. I had one...not complaint, really, more like an issue. I felt the final conflict with the Avatar was never fully realized. It seemed a bit short and underdeveloped for all the build up. That one issue is not enough to dim my deep appreciation and admiration for Shadow Blade as a whole, however. If you're interested in a genuinely unique and richly pleasurable urban fantasy series, I'd highly recommend you give Seressia Glass' Shadow Blade a try.

Quickie POV: Started off with a bang and ended with a fizzle. Shadow Blade had the potential of greatness...but then it drifted and I lost interest. This really upset me, because I was really enjoying the beginning.

Review: Kira is a Shadowchaser. She was abandoned by her adoptive parents after she almost killed their daughter on accident. When Glass introduced Kira and her powers, ROGUE from X-Men popped into my head. Kira can literally suck the life out of people as she reads all of their past deeds.

When her handler is killed by a seeker demon after leaving her with a 4,000 year old dagger, Kira swears revenge and goes on a break neck adventure to get revenge on her handler's killer. She gets derailed very quickly as she comes into contact with a Nubian warrior that claims he is the dagger's rightful owner.

It was when Mr. Nubian showed up that the book went to Hell in a hand-basket. Kira went from this strong kick butt character to an unsure, softie, all contemplative because she can finally touch someone and I could have been like "Oh that's ok," if maybe they would have had a bit of sexual tension, but I found Kira showed more interested in the demigod companion than she did the Nubian. Which was odd.

The writing was excellent though. Ms. Glass has a great voice and Kira's character was well developed in the beginning. There was a lot of interesting back story, with a lot of African mythology references, which was interesting, since this is not an area I'm that familiar with (always got sidetracked by those pesky Greeks).

Recommendations: Adult, urban fantasy readers.