Cast in Courtlight was *really good*.
I missed a lot, I know, because I have not read the previous book, Cast in Shadow. I bought Courtlight without realizing it was the second in the series, and it took me a while to pick it up because of that, but it wasn't a problem. I had no idea what was going on with either Lord Nightshade or Severn, but that just added to the fun. (Though I'll probably reread it after I read the first one. Reading the summary of the first on Amazon just now already cleared up a few things.)
Sagara did a wonderful job with the setting and world in this book. Every few pages, I'd stop to mutter, “That's so cool!” There's a very realistic sense of history, and the descriptions are clear without bogging down. I wish I had more of an idea of the size of the fiefs compared to the size of the city; maybe the first book will help. The Barrani are a very strange, alien but understandable, species.
The only thing that bugged me in the book was Kaylin, the main character. I liked her, but she's one of those characters whom all the other characters love. She's always late, she's rude, she's willfully ignorant of anything that doesn't suit her interests — which seems like a poor survival skill — and yet everyone loves her.
The secondary characters are great, however, and the plot was adequately twisty, and there's a lot of humor — nice sarcastic humor — and did I mention all the random cool bits?
And lucky me, when I went to the bookstore to order Cast in Shadow yesterday, it was sitting on the shelf. After I get a bit farther in I'll post something about my personal taste in beginnings of novels.
‘The only thing that bugged me in the book was Kaylin, the main character. I liked her, but she’s one of those characters whom all the other characters love. She’s always late, she’s rude, she’s willfully ignorant of anything that doesn’t suit her interests — which seems like a poor survival skill — and yet everyone loves her.’
I agree, but when I thought about it, I realised that everybody around her lets her act like that. They all know she’s special and powerful, and that they can’t really punish her in any meaningful way (except the Emperor) unless they expel her from the Hawks and they can’t do that because she’d be in too much danger — and too dangerous. Everyone wants to control her power, so they protect her and keep her where she is, and so she’s never had to actually prove herself.
She gets to fail everything because of her special powers, as they give her a pass for everything. But the people around her allow this, so it’s not really that that’s her character, but that she has been spoiled and coddled, and now she’s having to grow up.