In the Shadow of Lightning is the first book of the Glass Immortals series by Brian McClellan. Released 21st June 2022 by Macmillan on their Tor/Forge imprint, it's 576 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. Paperback format due out in second quarter 2023. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats.
This is a beatifully rich and vibrantly complex world, building on a magic system based on silica/glass manipulation. It's an epic political/war fantasy with a well rendered protagonist and a complex huge cast of secondary characters. I was perhaps most impressed with the level of detail and precision in the writing. The dialogue is never clunky or awkward, the action is well controlled and moves the plot along at a good clip despite the impressive "door-stop" length. As if that weren't enough of an assignment, there's a subplot which is a seriously creditable murder mystery and investigation which added another level of enjoyment for me.
The author is adept at his craft, and I never found my interest waning or found myself being yanked out of the story by clunky dialogue. For sensitive readers, there is quite a lot of graphic violence (it's a book about war and murder where the primary magic users can manipulate shards of glass to cut people to *literal* ribbons).
Four and a half stars. Although it's not derivative in any way (quite the opposite), the level of detail and plot arc control and character development reminded me a lot of Joe Abercrombie, Brandon Sanderson, Joseph Malik and the other boys in the band. Fans of those authors will feel right at home here. Definitely looking forward to the next book(s). There's some info about a crowdfunded novella sequel up on the author's website currently.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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