Friday, October 26, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller




  Mask of Shadows is the first in a Young Adult Dark Fantasy duology by Linsey Miller, with the second book in the series having come out this year.  It's a low fantasy story - in a world where magic once existed but no longer does - featuring at its heart a competition of assassins and a protagonist with a heart dead set on revenge.

  It is also a great example of a book with a meh plot saved and made good thanks to an excellent lead character: a young gender-fluid hero seeking vengeance, whose inner voice and first person narration is fantastic, and who is very easy to root for in a dark book filled with bad people.  If you're looking for a book with a great LGBTQ hero, this will definitely be up your alley, and if you don't particularly care about that, well this hero is still fantastic to read, making this book worth your time.

  Note: I listened to this as an audiobook, and the reader is generally excellent.  There are a lot of foreign-ish sounding names in this story that you can confuse without being able to check back as easily as you can with a written book, but other than that, it's a fine choice if you're looking for a new audiobook.    

 More after the Jump:

--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
When Sallot "Sal" Leon was a child, their homeland of Nacea was caught in the middle of a war between its two neighboring powers - Erlend, which controlled Nacea's territory, and Alona.  But when Erlend lost control of its terrifying magical creatures weapons known as "Shadows," it withdrew its army from Nacea and left the people of Nacea to be completely slaughtered...including Sal's entire family.

Years later, Sal works as a thief robbing noble carriages on the road for a local mob boss, and Sal is a damn good one.  Yet Sal still harbors a deep rage for the Erlend nobles who left their people to die.  So when Sal discovers that the Queen of Igna, the country that formed after the war, is hosting a competition to find the new Opal - one of the master assassins who act out the Queen's wishes and dispatch traitors, Sal sees this as the opportunity to finally get their vengeance upon the Erland nobles directly responsible for the tragedy.

But the competition to find a new chief assassin is one to the death - and while Sal is intelligent, quick, and an excellent thief, they are not experienced in many manners of killing and if they don't learn quickly, they may find themselves not surviving very long.  And then there's the young Erland noblewoman Elise, for whom Sal finds themselves having feelings they have never quite felt before...feelings that could result in Sal making a fatal mistake if they're not careful.
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In a memorable early part of Mask of Shadows, Sal is asked about any pseudonyms and other names they might have and Sal responds simply that they are "Sal.  Sal. Sal."  And if the reason you should read Mask of Shadows is simply that:  Sal. Sal and Sal.  Sal is our first person narrator, and they are utterly fantastic.  Sal's wit as they deal with the other competitors, whether that is through killing them or through trying to deal with them in other ways, is just great.  Not to mention Sal's behavior when confronted with authority figures, especially when those figures don't meet with Sal's expectations.  And then there's Sal's growth as they learn what it means to actually care and fall in love with someone, something they've never done before - it's really well done.

You may note I've been using "they" to refer to them in this review, but Sal is gender-fluid and uses all three gender pronouns (He, She and They), depending upon how Sal is feeling at the moment, with the appropriate gender being made clear by Sal's dress at any given point - when Sal spends a good portion of the story wearing a dress, Sal's a she;  when Sal is wearing men's clothes, Sal's a he, etc.  (Given that I don't have such context for this review, I'm using "they/them" here).  It should be noted that while this gender-fluidity doesn't seem to be particularly common in this setting (and at least one antagonist is noted to misgender Sal, to Sal's annoyance), it isn't considered that strange either.

Now while Sal makes this book worth reading, the plot is a bit more ordinary.  It's not necessarily bad - indeed the structure is fine, if slightly ordinary, and most things fit together well to form a cohesive story.  Still, there are a number of moments that are utter headscratchers that break or almost break the suspension of disbelief.  And naturally as this is the first half of a duology, the ending ends on a pretty big cliffhanger.  Still, the plot functions well to perform a satisfying backdrop for Sal's story, which is enough to make this book worth reading.   

Again, I know i'm explaining it poorly, but Sal is one of my favorite protagonists I've read this year, in their rage, in their determination, their intelligence, and their growth and development, and do make this book well worth reading, and I expect to be getting to the sequel by the end of October.  They make Mask of Shadows well worth your time.


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