eBook The Shadow Queen (Black Jewels, Book 7) ePub

When an author can evoke strong emotions from her readers as they connect with the story and the characters, that's above and beyond good writing, that's literary magic. Of course, when that connection is so strong that the reader wants to slap one, or more, of the characters upside the head, well, that's the sign of a really good story. I strongly recommend falling into this one.

I can't begin to add any commentary or review on The Shadow Queen without first mentioning that in all my many years as a reader and all the thousands of books I've read, whenever I think of my favorite reading experience, The Black Jewels trilogy is what I think of. I'm not saying those three books were the best ever written - fantasy isn't my favorite genre, so there are some inherent issues I have to begin with, and there were things in each individual book that I wasn't crazy about - but as a whole, the reading experience of the Black Jewels trilogy is the pinnacle of reading enjoyment for me (though I'm always looking for more). There was something about the way those books, read together, wove characters and plot, worlds and wars, evil and redemption, power and weakness, that struck such an awed chord in me - with attention to detail, ingenuity, phenomenal creativity, and indescribable depth - that as yet has been unmatched.

Even by Bishop herself, and especially including The Shadow Queen.

I enjoyed the story of Jaenelle and Daemon...and I'm truly interested in the evolution of their relationship, given Daemon's exceptionally devastating and at times crippling history as The Sadist, and Jaenelle, with the haunting aspects of Witch and the undefined scope of her true latent power.

I more than enjoyed the characters of Lady Cassidy and Gray, and actually loved seeing the hesitant maturation of a queen who is coming into her own. I detested Theran, finding little redeemable in him at all, and I was a wee bit squigged out by Cassidy's relationship with Gray when he's still sort of child-like, but I'm willing to put my feelings aside on that for now in the hopes of seeing more of Gray's personal development in the next book. I'm also willing to give Theran a chance to evolve.

I ALWAYS love seeing the ties that bind - Saetan, Daemon, Lucivar - three males that will always draw my attention whenever they're on page together.

Unfortunately, the two threads - Daemon and Jaenelle/Cassidy and Dena Nehele - were discordant and disparate, failing to blend together and enhance each other, as the multiple plot lines and character focuses in the Black Jewels trilogy ALWAYS did. And that is where The Shadow Queen falters as a complete novel. Two essentially short stories with solid separate plots and a thin thread of connection...that should have either remained separate OR been blended a little more seamlessly.

3.5 stars for The Shadow Queen. I'll be looking forward to more of Lady Cassidy and her reign, and I'll be eternally thirsty for more of the magic of the Black Jewels trilogy.

I am very excited about this book. After the Black Jewels Trilogy was finished, I often wondered what happened to the people of Terreille after the "taint" was removed. And at last I got to find out a little bit. I must say that I agree with many of the other reviewers here in that I loved Cassidy, and found her endlessly fascinating, but was less thrilled with the chapters concerning Daemon, Jaenelle, and Saetan. I loved the Trilogy, have read it several times, and I love those three characters. But in this book the stories involving those three seem forced, as if the author tried to insert mini-plots about them after the fact. I imagine some editor or something at the publishers saying, "But everyone loves those characters. You have to include something about them. You have to provide drama for Daemon, Jaenelle and Saetan." And the author forcing some undeveloped plots into the book as a result. Also, the dramatic conflicts provided for those three characters contained nothing new. Daemon is tortured again over the sexual abuse he suffered as a pleasure slave. Saetan is tortured again over losing his sons because of a manipulative woman's machinations.

But what I found to be most objectionable was that after reading every book in the series and feeling like I really know these characters and what makes them tick,this book contained actions that seemed out of character for them, particularly Daemon.

Spoiler Alert!!!

In other words, I simply cannot believe that Daemon Sadi would ever under any circumstances not recognize Jaenelle. He could be enspelled; he could be drugged; I think he could be given a frontal lobotomy and I would not believe for one second that Daemon would mistake Jaenelle Alexander laying on his bed for any other woman, much less try to hurt her. It seemed ridiculous. The subplot where Saetan killed a woman that reminded him of Dorothea was the same kind of thing. It didn't seem like something Saetan would do. In other books, Saetan's MO in dealing with people he feels are guilty and deserving of punishment is to wait til they are in hell and under his jurisdiction and then paying them back for whatever it was they did.

Aside from those issues I really enjoyed the book. I loved The Invisible Ring and I think the author was able to tie in this story to the last one very cleverly. The idea of the treasure and the clues and the letters from the characters of the previous book was really fun, as well as giving the reader an idea of what happened to characters we cared about. Another bright spot is Vae, the sceltie. I have to say I adore her; she is so funny. And if readers were allowed to vote on the contents of future books, I would vote -- More Kindred!

I've heard that there is going to be a sequel and I am delighted. I'm very curious about what happens to Cassidy and Grey. And I am hoping the author will develop more of the Dena Nehele characters in depth. In a lot of ways, most of the them besides Cassidy, Grey and Theran are caricatures, and I think they could be really interesting. And if the author chooses to include Daemon, Jaenelle, and our other favorites from the series I'm hoping they play more of a support role like Lucivar did in this last book, or that the challenges they face are something new.