#32: Cast in Secret by Michelle Sagara
Aug. 14th, 2009 12:08 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
meganbmoore.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
50books_pocAfter her adventures in court in Cast in Courtlight Kaylin Neya is happy to settle back into her patrols and more mundane crimes, and is almost thrilled when her latest assignment is investigating what seems to be a rather average theft. This, however, leads her to discovering a possible missing child, something that strikes very close to home for her, which, in turn, leads to Kaylin and her partner, Severn, agreeing to look for another missing child of the Tha’alani, an empathic race Kaylin is uncomfortable with. And then the oracles tell her the city will be destroyed in about two weeks.
This book was a bit uneven for me, I think mostly because it seems that Kaylin should have matured some, and received most pressure from her superiors, after her experiences in CiC. However, I did like the plot and the look into the city’s history, and I especially liked learning at least part of the story behind the magic tattoos on Kaylin’s arms.
One thing I was thinking about while I was reading that it was nice to be reading what’s effectively an urban fantasy series (even if it’s set in a high fantasy city, instead of a modern or pseudo-modern city) without being bogged down by the heroine having an over-complicated lovelife involving sexy others. Which is why I was amused to read Amazon reviews after finishing it criticizing the book for not focusing more on Kaylin’s love life
Though I think Kaylin and I both went “uhm…what?” when Nightshade kissed her. Also, I’ve been reading far too much shoujo lately, because shoujo has such a big thing about only the “right guy” kissing the heroine first, and as near as I can tell, Severn hasn’t gotten around to that yet, which causes me concern! If we’re going to do the romance thing, I much prefer “childhood friend turned adult partner with very different experiences and outlooks” to “sexy mysterious immortal other inordinately interested in young mortal.” One suits my preferences quite well, while the other is rather antithetical to them. Plus, I get the feeling that Nightshade is far more interested in Kaylin’s powers than in Kaylin herself, even if he doesn’t really see a difference between the two, whereas Severn doesn’t have an interest in her powers aside from how they affect her.
This book was a bit uneven for me, I think mostly because it seems that Kaylin should have matured some, and received most pressure from her superiors, after her experiences in CiC. However, I did like the plot and the look into the city’s history, and I especially liked learning at least part of the story behind the magic tattoos on Kaylin’s arms.
One thing I was thinking about while I was reading that it was nice to be reading what’s effectively an urban fantasy series (even if it’s set in a high fantasy city, instead of a modern or pseudo-modern city) without being bogged down by the heroine having an over-complicated lovelife involving sexy others. Which is why I was amused to read Amazon reviews after finishing it criticizing the book for not focusing more on Kaylin’s love life
Though I think Kaylin and I both went “uhm…what?” when Nightshade kissed her. Also, I’ve been reading far too much shoujo lately, because shoujo has such a big thing about only the “right guy” kissing the heroine first, and as near as I can tell, Severn hasn’t gotten around to that yet, which causes me concern! If we’re going to do the romance thing, I much prefer “childhood friend turned adult partner with very different experiences and outlooks” to “sexy mysterious immortal other inordinately interested in young mortal.” One suits my preferences quite well, while the other is rather antithetical to them. Plus, I get the feeling that Nightshade is far more interested in Kaylin’s powers than in Kaylin herself, even if he doesn’t really see a difference between the two, whereas Severn doesn’t have an interest in her powers aside from how they affect her.
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Date: 2009-08-14 06:05 pm (UTC)But then, maybe I got my mysterious-amoral-immortal-being-interested-in-younger-mortal-woman-with-mysterious-powers plotline out of my system with Sagara's other books.
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Date: 2009-08-14 06:19 pm (UTC)Nightshade really didn't even occur to me as a possible love interest until he kissed her, to be honest, but then I poked around and was surprised to see that there was a pretty good sized following for it. But, while I haven't read the other 2 published books yet, I don't really get the impression that he'ss being written as a viable option. Maybe it's popular because it's kinda the norm?
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Date: 2009-08-14 06:49 pm (UTC)The tattoo tipped me off that a lot of people might read him that way, but whenever they are around each other it seems so UNLIKELY! Like, any relationship they have is more likely to be quasi-religious or something. I don't know - I don't like these books quite as much as the West books, so I devote less time to obsessively theorizing over the characters.
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Date: 2009-08-14 06:53 pm (UTC)I prefer the West books myself, but like both.
SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS!!
Date: 2009-08-14 06:51 pm (UTC)SPOILER SPACE
As someone who is a Kaylin/Nightshade 'shipper to some degree, that's sort of *why* I like the chemistry between them. It's very mysterious and unsteady. I still don't really get what his interest in her is or why he's done the things he's done, and I like that. Plus there is an element of having someone who is a big dominant force sort of, I'm not sure how to say this, brought to heel(?) by someone like Kaylin. Someone who doesn't have as much power but manages to overcome.
More than that, I didn't really like the whole plotline with Severn in the previous books. First he was sort of the bad guy, but of course, he wasn't really, he did it to save her life. And then he was still in love with her and cared about her and they had the sort of predictable UST going on. For me personally, I found it predictable.
Re: SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS!!
Date: 2009-08-14 06:59 pm (UTC)In comparison "childhood friend with shared dark past" seems much less standard for the urban fantasy genre, which this fits in with much more than high fantasy, despite the setting.
I think, though, that the appeal of Kaylin/Nightshade may depend on a general level of being interested in/tired of approaches to human/other pairings, especially since variations of it are so dominant the last decade or so.
Re: SPOILERS FOR PREVIOUS BOOKS!!
Date: 2009-08-14 07:51 pm (UTC)It's more an imbalance in authority that's my particular cup of tea. I also enjoy it whenever there are non-SF/F stories which include, for instance, a person who is rich/powerful falling for someone who is not and bending to that person.
That's what Nightshade/Kaylin taps into for me. Nightshade is powerful, wealthy, dominant. Kaylin is broke, lower class, a subordinate (she's only a captain, IIRC).
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Date: 2009-08-15 07:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-16 08:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-16 08:13 pm (UTC)