The Shadow Casket (The Darkwater Legacy, #2) by Chris Wooding

  

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Off page torture, Off page sex, Unwanted pregnancy, Murder

 

A BAND OF REBELS.
A TRAITOR IN THEIR MIDST.
A REVOLUTION ABOUT TO BEGIN.

It's been three years since Aren seized the Ember Blade. Three years since they struck the spark they hoped would ignite the revolution. But the flame has failed to catch. The Krodans have crushed Ossia in an iron grip of terror. The revolution seems further away than ever.

Far in the north, the Dawnwardens seek to unite the fractious clans of the Fell Folk and create a stronghold from which to retake their land. But even if they can overcome the danger of treachery from within, they still have to contend with the dreadknights. Only the druidess Vika can resist these near-unstoppable foes, and there's only one of her.

But what if there was a weapon that could destroy the dreadknights? A weapon of such power it could turn the tide? A weapon that, if it fell into the wrong hands, might mean the end of all hope?

The Shadow Casket has returned from out of the past, and it will save or damn them all.

 

After reading The Ember Blade several Years ago and then doing a reread of it earlier this year, I was looking forward to reading this book and finding out what happened next. Despite my reread earlier this year, I still needed a reminder of how a few people and things fit into the story, but I quickly caught up. 

While the first book in the series had some dark elements to it, it felt very much like a traditional Lord of the Rings type fantasy. This book ended up going even darker, with quite a few deaths, betrayals, and murders. And that doesn't include the horrible things the Krodans do in the book. It got a little depressing for a while, but I stuck with it.

 

“Treachery was an axe, not a scalpel. It was hard to make a clean cut.” 

There were several new characters added to this book, some I never really warmed up to. Most of the characters in this series have been very gray, with a lot of them motivated for their own self-serving reasons. This made it hard for me to really like some of them. Grub is still my favorite, as he provides the much needed comic relief, and I very much enjoyed reading his point of view. 

 

 ‘Right now, all the people want is a leader, a warrior: the hero with the bright blade. Hope is simple, and they want hope. But afterwards, after we’ve won– they’ll want to know every piece of it. Then your tale will be told. Grub the Cunning. Grub the Strong. Grub the Brave. And it will be passed from one generation to the next, just like Orica’s song will.’ 

 

Fen's character irritated me throughout most of the book, and I felt her character in particular, did not go in a direction I liked. In the end I was ok with her but there were some things concerning her character that were just skipped over. She went from very upset and uncertain (to put it mildly), to happy and content without the reader getting to see how that came to be. We are just told a brief explanation. That didn't work for me at all. 

Surprisingly, I liked reading about Klyssen, who might be on the wrong side of things, and may have done some bad things, but his love for his daughters was something I couldn't fault him on. He's one of the best written characters in the series. I really would love to see him switch sides!

 

“The things we value make us weak, he thought. Or they can make us unstoppable.”  

 

In the end, I'm on the fence about continuing this series. I would like to see how a few things end up playing out, but I didn't love this book as much as I wanted to, so I'm hesitant to continue. I doubt I need to hurry and decide though, because I've probably got several years to think about it before the next book is published.