Kellen’s life as an outlaw spellslinger is about to get a lot worse. 

In Gitabria, a miraculous discovery draws spies from all over the continent willing to kill to get their hands on it. Swept up in the race for power, Kellen is forced to join the pursuit. But the invention holds a dark secret-one that could spark a war.

Alright, I’m doing the thing, READING THE BOOKS, making some progress, and now I’m halfway through the Spellslinger series!!

I’m gonna take it easy on myself in this review & just kinda…get it out there. For a couple reasons. One is that I read Charmcaster at the absolute height of the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, and I was really caught up in everything & finding it hard to focus on a book. So having a familiar setting, series, and group of characters was a big help in that instance. As much as I was keyed in on everything happening in the world, there were times I needed to really remind myself to set down my phone & pick up a book for a little while. Charmcaster was great company.

The other thing with this book is…something happens in the very early going that I don’t want to spoil, but which kinda impacts the whole rest of the book. So yeah…it feels extra tricky to review this one, which I find is often the case the further along a series goes.

This adventure finds Kellen, Ferius, and Reichis traveling to a city called Gitabria, where they discover an interesting new technology that could possibly set off a full-fledged war. It definitely feels like Sebastien de Castell is laying the groundwork for some larger-scale, epic storylines & battles with this, so I’m really curious to see where it’s headed.

This one is overall a bit darker in tone, with the shadowblack continuing to take a massive toll on Kellen. But as always, things are balanced nicely with lighter & funnier moments, frequently courtesy of Reichis, the most unhinged animal sidekick in the history OF EVER.

This series is like comfort food to me at this point. There are an INSANE amount of books I’ve added to my TBR lately & so many new books coming out all the time, but I’m really hoping to keep up a decent (by my standards) pace and get this series finished soon!!