The Brightest Shadow

The Brightest Shadow #1

by Sarah Lin, Mikael Naramore (Narrator), Elizabeth Evans (Narrator)

Tani's world has never been peaceful. Torn between the many cultures that meet on the Chorhan Expanse, the greatest threat they now face is an expansionist army of monstrous non-humans who call themselves the mansthein.

To take her place as a full warrior of her tribe, Tani must travel across the vast grasslands of the Chorhan Expanse. But she has her sights set higher than a mere ritual journey: she wants to uncover a solution to the impending war that threatens her people.

Tani believes that peace may be possible, but there are others on both sides who believe in the legends with zealous devotion. All around her, warriors have their eyes on a glorious victory with no concern for the piles of bodies they'll create on the way.

She will be joined by a killer pretending to be a healer, a mansthein commander struggling with his orders, a thief who pawned her heart of gold, and a strategist exiled from a foreign land. But none of them are the Hero.

It doesn't matter how many shades of gray might exist, some people see only in black and white. And the terrifying truth is that the stories they tell might not be just legends.


Running time => 33hrs. and 14mins.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, Audiobook, Amazon, Epic, Adult

Audible Audio

First published March 6, 2020

About the author

Hello! I'm Sarah Lin and I write various kinds of fantasy. If you want to keep up with my work, feel free to check out the following:

Mailing List: http://eepurl.com/dMSw2A
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/sarahlin
Blog: http://sarahlinauthor.blogspot.com/

Join either list to get immediate access to illustrations of all my characters, plus bonus content and previews. If you've tried my work, I'd be happy to hear from you!

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who has read my works knows that I enjoy playing with classic tropes. Among my favorites is the classic story of the Hero and the Dark Lord, equal and opposite forces destined to clash and tear the world asunder.

Most of my favorite incarnations of this trope tend to be in the form of Japanese games and literature — things like Maoyuu, for example, which is a love story between the Yuusha (Hero) and Maou (Demon King) of that particular setting. I’ve seen a couple Western stories that tinker with this trope in interesting ways — Mistborn is “what if the Hero failed”, for example, and the Traveler’s Gate Trilogy is “what if someone else from the hero’s tragic backstory village decided to do something about the Demon King himself”.

I’ve written a few takes on this trope myself. An early short story sent to my mailing list was about a geriatric Dark Lord’s surprise birthday, and I wrote a “summoned hero” style story for the Art of War anthology. I’ve even got a secret project on the way along these lines, too.

But, in spite of my general love of – and familiarity with – these tropes, I wasn’t prepared for The Brightest Shadow.

The Brightest Shadow by Sarah Lin shows us a world where humanity co-exists with a different (and sometimes dominant) humanoid species called the mansthein, or, as humans often call them in traditionally derogatory fashion, “deathspawn”.

The “Hero” is a legend of a destined human who will rise to throw off the yoke of “deathspawn” oppression, obliterating the Dark Lord and his foul servants. For some, the Hero is a source of hope, inspiration, and joy.

But for the mansthein — and those humans who are seeking peace between the species — the Hero is something else entirely. They’re a horrifying force of nature, a whirlwind of death, destruction, and insanity that consumes all within its path.

Never before have I seen the legendary chosen Hero depicted so convincingly as a monster. Every hint of the Hero’s arrival filled me not with hope, but with dread.

Would our protagonists survive the Hero’s bloody rampage? Was peace possible in a world where the Hero threatens with every breath to tear it asunder?

That, my friends, is our story—

In The Brightest Shadow, our protagonists aren’t Heroes or Dark Lords.
They’re simply trying to find a way to endure the collateral damage between them — and perhaps find a way to give the world some hope of surviving their inevitable clash.

***

With that overview done, let’s get into some details.

The story is third-person, multi-perspective. There are a couple main perspectives, as well as several peripheral ones. The author does a fantastic job of making each perspective feel subtly (or, at times, not-so-subtly) distinct, so we get a better idea of what the head space of each character might feel like.

There are two people I’d consider to be the “main” characters. Both were excellent and easy to read.

Tani is a member of tribe called the Nelee and in the midst of a coming-of-age journey to learn about the world and return to her tribe. She’s a proactive and likable character right from the start of the story, and her comparatively isolated background makes her a great lens through which we can learn about the world.

Slaten is a former swordsman who is attempting to turn his life around by working as a medic…poorly. As the story progresses, he’ll have important choices to make in terms of the kind of life he wants to lead and the people he wants to choose to support.

The characters have interesting dynamics with several other cast members, both each other and including several major supporting protagonists (and antagonists). They both have interesting interactions with the central Hero legend, too, but I won’t get into that in too much detail. That would spoil the fun.

***

For those of you who read my own books for the progression mechanics involved, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Tani, Slaten, and many of the other characters go through training, learn new techniques, and progress in power just like you’d expect to see in my stories or other progression fantasies.

Style wise, the flavor here feels very Cultivation flavored, but with interesting and distinct cultural distinctions within the setting itself. Different cultures treat their training differently, learning different techniques and having different philosophies on how exactly power improvements should work. Reading those distinctions and people experimenting with learning new techniques was a delight to me, and I think anyone who enjoys Cultivation novels will feel similarly.

There aren’t quite as clear of power level tiers as you’d see in something like Cradle or Arcane Ascension, largely because of those aforementioned cultural distinctions. There are clear power differences between characters, and there are some ways to measure them, but it’s clear that those measurements only present one part of the picture. Something like Traveler’s Gate or my own War of Broken Mirrors would be a reasonable comparison.

Personally, I found this style extremely engaging, and I found the clear improvements throughout the story to be very satisfying. In particular, a couple specific techniques proved extremely relevant to the core narrative and immensely important for the development of one particular cast member.

***

I liked Street Cultivation, one of this author’s previous works.

I loved this book. I’m absolutely hooked. The ending was fantastic, and I can’t wait to see what the future brings for this new world.

In the meantime, I’ll just have to hope that the Hero doesn’t doom us all.

[TS Chan · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Eastern-inspired with great classic wuxia elements, The Brightest Shadow is a commendable fantasy entry with impressively thoughtful worldbuilding, and an interesting diverse cast of characters.

I grew up watching a lot of wuxia classics, the most famous being The Legend of the Condor Heroes. Sarah Lin paid homage to these great classics by incorporating cultural and martial arts elements which would feel very familiar to wuxia fans into her epic fantasy debut, The Brightest Shadow. The worldbuilding in this novel is really impressive and well thought out with multicultural people that although share some common traits are quite distinct from one another. Aside from physical looks, the differences could be demonstrated from the food they eat to the way martial arts are practised. Even the concept of sien (somewhat akin to qi in our world sense) differ from one people to another.

"A person who wants for nothing, who is at peace with themselves, cannot be seduced by simple stories."

The main plot mainly deals with the enforced occupation of a species from another world called mansthein, sometimes labelled as Deathspawn as told through legends and stories of old. And above all, there is the Legend which spoke of the Hero who will rise and lead the humans in eliminating and driving out the invaders once and for all. Now, this may sound a tad tropey but I can assure you that it is not so simple. The synopsis for the book started with "The arrival of the Hero was worse than anyone could have imagined" and believe me, it's true. How could that be if the Hero was supposed to liberate the humans from these invaders? The thing is, are these mansthein or so-called Deathspawn, really as bad as they were portrayed to be? On the flipside, the mansthein also had some misconceptions about the humans. Hence, the theme of this book is heavy on the social commentary of 'the other'. It is no different from how we view other races or people who we deemed as alien to our own.

"One does not have to a bad person to commit acts of cruelty. You have nothing to fear from me, Tani. But I would suggest that you set aside thoughts of whether others are good or bad. You will find the matter less relevant than you might hope."

In order to fully illustrate the multicultural differences, Lin offered a cast of characters from the diverse races in the world of Breilin. We get four different main character POVs from the humans, and even one from the mansthein - a commander who grew weary of the ongoing conflict and violence between humans and his species. The worldbuilding is so well integrated into each character arc and through their interactions with one another.  Each character felt distinct because of their respective cultures and upbringing (or lack thereof) - it comes across seamlessly in their character voices and thoughts. Tani, Slaten and Melal are three of the key characters who are developing their sein, and hence we get a lot of the insights around the concept of sien from their training scenes. With the exception of Melal who I found extremely aggravating, all the characters are really likeable - even the badass, foul-mouthed bandit who turned out to have more of a heart that she cared to admit. I did, however, find Tani to be a bit more bland compared to the others.

"Yet another part of him could not help but ask how his grandfather could know his path he had chosen was best when he had only walked one. All of them could only guess at the paths that lay ahead of them before they chose one and abandoned the others."

With all the worldbuilding and realistic advancement that Lin has to incorporate into the characterisation, this book is a slow burn but satisfyingly so. I also have to say that some of the training sequences seemed quite repetitive, but fortunately there were enough great action scenes to shake things up as the story advances. The narrative is split into 5 distinct parts and the ending of each marked a shift in the plot to take it to the next phase. These shifts are also well spaced out throughout the book, so even though the pacing is generally slow, it is not uneven or choppy.

"Life usually takes one gift when it gives another."

As I read The Brightest Shadow, I got this unshakable feeling that the author exercised great care in crafting this world and writing its story. Do bear in mind this is a hefty book that has a challenging learning curve with all the new terms and cultures to learn progressively as the story unfolds. As such, I advise having some patience and even the right reading mood when picking this up. I believe it is worth reading if you're looking for something outside of traditional western fantasy. The Brightest Shadow incorporated the best of classic wuxia elements into an intriguing fantasy read that subverts the tropes of heroes and legends.

The above quotes are taken from an advanced reading copy and may be subject to change.

You can order the book from: Amazon UK | Amazon US

You can find this and my other reviews at Novel Notions.

[Sarah Lin]

Thanks for reading my book! I'm not going to rate my own work, so I'll use this review as an opportunity to highlight some things that may interest you. I made a series of lore posts on the TBS blog here, including maps and culture art:
https://thebrightestshadow.blogspot.com

Fans are trying to start up a subreddit here, which includes fanart for all my books:
https://reddit.com/r/TheBrightestShadow/

There's been discussion of Discord channels and wikis in the works, but I don't believe they're quite ready yet. I'll add anything here that might be of interest to a general audience.

[Rinaldo · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.4/5

I read this book as a beta/ARC reader. The following review is an honest impression of the book.

If you know me around r/fantasy, you'll know that I'm not the biggest proponent of 'relatable' SFF but heck, I feel so far this book was written for readers like me who grew up with an eclectic mixture of Western fantasy, JRPG, and wuxia. Perhaps I've just grown accustomed reading about stories unfamiliar and unrelatable to me, but reading this book felt like coming home.

Tani of Rhen tribe is on her Farwalk, a rite of passage for warriors of her people. The rite requires her to travel the world for several years, meet Rhen diaspora, and bring back knowledge and information from the outer world. However, her Farwalk brings her into the central conflict between Coran Kingdom and Deathspawn, a warrior-like and humanoid race on a conquest campaign.

Yet, the conflict is far more complicated than Tani's first impression. There are Deathspawns who actively strive for peace between two races. From the human's side, there's the enigmatic (and basically a murderhobo) Hero figure on a warpath to kill all the Deathspawns. The Hero is also prophesied to face Dark Lord, the leading figure of Deathspawn, but no one can agree on what the prophecy really says.

A Multicultural Wuxia Tale
As a worldbuilding junkie, one of my favourite aspects of this book is how it explores cultures. Very often cultures in fantasy function as cosmetic or window dressing. In this book, the characters interact a lot over their cultural differences, but not in a shallow way such as 'your culture is weird' or 'my culture is better' (well, there's that but that kind of superiority is depicted as arrogance/vice). A lot of cultural rituals, artifacts, and their significance are explored, and a lot of them are significant to the story. Of course, the enmity and amity between diverse groups of people are also touched upon. Aesthetically, I had Suikoden series visualised in mind while reading this book.

Tani, our main character, is a very open-minded young woman with a passion to explore cultures and food. While not exactly naive, she is always keen to talk to people from different walks of life about their customs and principles. Her interactions and discussions are always refreshing and enjoyable to read, especially her meal scenes. The rest of the cast is also equally fascinating to read as they keep different secrets themselves that affect the plot in significant ways.

The other main charm of the book for me is the classic wuxia elements, like the legendary mysterious pugilists who go by Four Winds (almost a shout out to Four Greats from Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy), stolen training manuals, training sessions, duels as dialogue/exchange, and fights on the rooftop. One of the climaxes in this book takes place in a rooftop and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

To Be Stronger
The wuxia element also bleeds to the magic system as it is based on something called 'sein,' a stand-in for traditional qi concept. There's also a touch of Hunter x Hunter nen in the magic system where sein types can be divined with a bowl of water. Like the morality aspect of the book, there is no single true way on how to develop sein, as there are so many martial arts styles and principles out there.

It is fascinating to observe our main cast experiment with different styles to develop their own personal style. It's also worth noting that the main cast grows pretty slowly and naturally in terms of fighting skills and strength, and personally I find this approach much more satisfying compared to instantaneous and explosive growth typical to epic fantasy. By the end of the book, the main cast is significantly stronger compared to the beginning, but they are still nowhere close to the mid-listers. Of course, there is an exception where a character grows at a very fast pace (and for very good reasons), but it makes an interesting discussion of dedication vs innate talent.

I think one downside of this book is the slightly bloated and repetitive underground training sections from around 30-80% mark, but then again the overall story is still quite compelling and the last 20% is an absolute high adrenaline trip of events and developments. As a content warning, there are also some depictions of sexual assault (both attempted and succeded) which may trigger some readers. Personally, I find these scenes are not completely necessary in developing characters or progressing the plot, but they don't entirely spoil my experience.

Conclusion
This book is not exactly a light read since it's quite hefty. It's also not exactly a standalone as the book ended with a teaser for future instalments. However, if you're up for a challenge for a book that explores different cultures and martial arts while challenging traditional wuxia/epic fantasy tropes, this might be just the book for you.

[LOLtohru · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Review originally posted on r/fantasy.)

This review became excessively long. Since no book is for everyone I'm going to begin with a quick list of some strengths that will let those who aren't interested skip the rest of the review. Anyway I liked The Brightest Shadow a lot and here are some reasons you might like it (or might not):

- It's a story that balances plot, character development, and action in ways that honestly surprised me at times. Normally I expect books this long to be a bit bloated but this one is like several books in one.

- The setting is Asian inspired but doesn't copy any specific country. The worldbuilding feels unusually well-rounded with a strong emphasis on culture.

- Tropes are handled excellently, subverted more than an obvious inversion or parody. Not a good book if you're looking for a more classical feeling though.

- The way it turns the concept of a power fantasy on its head is particularly great. Absolutely chilling at times.

- The magic feels deeply personal and uses all five senses in an interesting way. I'm not sure how to classify it but I wrote more below.

- It's a good balance between telling a satisfying story and planting seeds for future books.

INTRO
Basically I am really excited about this book and I want other people to be excited with me. :D But just raving isn't so useful so I'm going to try to write a review that says what this book is and why you might or might not enjoy it. Hopefully this review is at least useful to some people.

THEME
This might seem like an odd place to start reviewing a story that's a fun epic fantasy but I think it's a critical part of what I loved. u/valgranaire was much better qualified to talk about the Asian elements in his review and u/JohnBierce has pointed out the existentialist themes. u/Salaris got into the trope subversion but I hope I have a little bit of insight to offer.

One weakness of trope subversion is that once you know what the author intends to subvert, you can just invert your expectations and predict the rest. This book avoided this and surprised me a number of times in a way I really enjoyed.

It's not a spoiler to say that one of this story's themes is that the Destined Hero (TM) is an antagonistic and horrifying force. But though it's difficult to judge the theme of a series based on only one book, I think this one presents a clear (if complex) vision that shows strong control of the theme.

At first you might think that the antagonist isn't who you'd classically expect, but still an antagonist who could be killed to resolve the plot. Instead there's more of a sense of cosmic horror, facing a threat that seems to be beyond death. The enemy is a cosmic system that simply IS, larger than both sides and completely immune to any attempt to overcome it by violence (hopefully I won't be proved wrong here, but it's true of the first book).

This strikes me as having obvious parallels to many modern problems that are far vaster than any set of individuals. To be clear, this book isn't doing an explicit parallel to climate change or anything. But I think making the antagonist a force of nature is a way of exploring something you don't see as often in fantasy.

CHARACTER
Mixed feelings here, because I fell in love with the characters but also know they won't work for everyone. This book isn't a good recommendation if you're wanting a finished character study and complete character arcs (the one finished arc we get is tragically broken). I felt this was a good first step in character development for a series but I have to admit that part of this is trust in Sarah's characterization that was earned from other work instead of in this book.

Having said that I really love the characters. I like how Tani lives in a gritty world but doesn't fall into the "naive fool" or "amoral veteran" archetypes and stays basically good-hearted despite everything she experiences. There was some unexpected depth to the characters, like a certain Elegant Lady Thief who ended up being the surprise comedy MVP.

The different POVs are also nicely diverse: Tani's chapters are filled with rich sensory details and she's always aware of the politics while Slaten is a combat machine who always notices weapons and strategy first. The non-POVs they interact with are also diverse: some people are decent, some people are malicious, and some are deeply conflicted.

One neat thing is how the book introduces POVs: it never jumps from the story you know to someone completely new. Instead each POV character is someone you've already gotten to know through the eyes of others previously. Though there are quite a few POVs by the end I found that this kept me very locked into the characters and their stories.

There are absolutely weak points that I mentally tend to skip however. One character it would be a spoiler to name turns out to be fairly one note through the entire book. One unlikable POV is... maybe too broadly unlikable. I felt the main characters' growth was reasonable for one book but that would really need to be judged based on whether future books build on this one properly.

PLOTTING/PACING
Though I loved it, this is an area where I can see people potentially having some issues. There's no getting around the fact that the main characters are caught between forces much larger than themselves. They're not purely reactive but this is definitely not a story where the the characters want to go from A to B and do so. Also while I found a lot of the action memorable there's really less of it than I thought over the course of such a long book. If you're looking for a laser-focused action book this may not satisfy.

But personally I really loved the blend of character, atmosphere, and plot. There are a couple of twists I thought were fantastically executed. Without spoiling them... they aren't merely shocking, they change what you think you know about the characters and plot.

There are also tons of hints regarding the future that I think will be a lot of fun for theorizing. Maybe too many... but the biggest twist in this book makes a ton of tiny details suddenly make a lot more sense so I'm hopeful it will all tie together in the end. The first book holds together fairly well (no cliffhangers or anything) but it's obvious that you're beginning a longer epic.

Overall I felt like this book was balanced. You might find it to be a slow burn or action heavy depending on your personal preferences.

WORLDBUILDING
What I liked most was that it felt like an Asian-inspired fantasy instead of "[Country] with magic." Some masters like Guy Gavriel Kay can do a lot with an artfully tweaked real setting but for me some books feel like a generic version of a real country with some magic thrown in. This world feels wildly different from a western style fantasy and you'll definitely see elements taken from Asian cultures but it's all blended in a way that feels like something new.

There's some fun stuff with the two different species, but what I liked most was the CULTURES. You really get to know the different groups over the course of the novel and they're all deep enough for the book to play with the stereotypes and misunderstandings between cultures. You get so much of the texture of the characters' lives: subtle cultural beliefs, gestures, foods, leisure activities, etc. They really breathe, but it's not fluff, as differences and misunderstandings between cultures are an important part of the story.

MAGIC
People usually ask "hard or soft?" and I'm not sure what to say there. The magic is mostly physical (it's wuxia after all) and so this isn't the book for you if you want wondrous world-changing spells. You always know what the main characters can do but never the limits of what's possible.

But more important is how the magic interfaces with character. There is no "mana" that people just absorb from somewhere and it's not a fungible resource. Instead "sein" is the collection of all of a person's beliefs and experiences. It's always personal instead of a generic power source.

This also means that battles aren't just two people using magical weapons against each other but a direct conflict of their beliefs and selves. Okay... that might be overselling it as super metaphorical. But the personal nature of the magic is always relevant to training and there are a couple places where it becomes relevant to fights in a way that couldn't happen with a fungible type of magic.

The focus on magic and strength will absolutely make this book not for some readers. But I thought it related well to the themes and nobody felt like a leveling bot because the magic connects with people's personal beliefs, relates strongly to culture, and feels like something the characters truly enjoy.

SO ANYWAY
Personal Rating: 4.0 or 4.5/5 (might change after reflection)
Goodreads/Amazon Rating: 5/5

Overall I really loved this book and this review has been an exercise in not gushing wildly. If you like books that draw you into a world, spin tropes on their heads, or that have a lot of thoughtful action, then I think you should give The Brightest Shadow a try!

Then please come and speculate wildly with me. :D

[Μαρία Ν. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would like to thank the author for being so kind as to give me an ARC to review.That of course has not influenced my review.

Now on to the review:

"The Brightest Shadow" features a complex story that deals with many serious themes(such as war,prejudice,e.t.c) and its plot-twists are impactful.The story has such a beautiful flow and no consistency issues.I loved that each part deals with a specific story arc and can be read separately,as the ending of each part ties all loose ends.I really loved the mystery surrounding the Hero and the Dark Lord.The highlights of the book however are the themes of deconstruction and reconstruction.A variety of popular fantasy tropes get subverted and as you finish the book you will start to question as to whom is the bad guy,who is the good guy and if the humans battle against mansthein is all worth it.

As a warning to new readers,the author does not shy away from hurting or killing important characters.For real the main characters suffer a lot of injuries in this book *stares at Slaten*.Also,I would like to warn the readers who are going to pick up this book that it contains scenes of sexual abuse(most of it is implied and never shown).

The world building is truly phenomenal and the detail gone to it is not something you see every day.Truly the amount of work gone to the world of Myros as well as to the races(and their respective cultures) inhabiting it is immense.It amazed me that how the author shaped each character's personality and behaviour according to the culture and race they come from.The amount of detail clearly shows how much the author loved writing this book.

The characters were so developed that each one of them felt like they possessed a distinct voice.That was clearly visible by the way they speak and act in the book as well as the use of specific words and tone during each character's POV.Also,the uniqueness of each character is presented in other ways:like the disctinct use of sein and the different perception of it,the possession of a specific weapon and traits.The main cast of characters was far more larger in comparison to Sarah Lin's previous books and it took a while for me to warm up to them,but in the end as I finished the book I didn't want to leave them.Finally,each and every character contributed to the progression of the story,none of them felt unnecessary to the plot.

The writing style is a bit changed and more detailed in comparison to the Lin's previous work.Some scenes are written so beautifully and in contrast there some scenes that are grotesquely written(the mansthein birth scenes are truly traumatizing).The action scenes remind me of the action scenes from "Street Cultivation" and are written in such a way that give an adrenaline rush.

If you are a fan of wuxia and western fantasy,know that the story takes elements from both.

This book is longer in length compared to Sarah Lin's previous work,but believe me when I say that after you finish this book you will wish it was way longer.

I am really curious to see what will happen in the second book.

Edited(1/3/2020) for minor errors and for analyzing some parts of the review.
(6/3/2020) Hey guys it's me again for another edit.The ARC review on Amazon has been changed a bit so it can get uploaded quickly for the launch of the book.Just minor formatting and wording changes so both versions match.

[Tanu]

This was my second attempt at reading this, and God, the writing is clunky. It reads like a video game, only with every action and thought laboriously described. No thanks.

[Bishopza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a problem... I read way too fast. This means that I blow through a normal sized book in around 2-3 hours. So when I opened up The Brightest Shadow and my Kindle informed me of a 10 hour read ahead, my sein pulsed in a happy little pattern.

Sein? Yes, in this book Sarah Lin plays with an interesting twist on the whole cultivation genre. Instead of the standard Qi you find in most eastern fantasies, the practitioners cultivate something called sein, which allows them to perform super human feats and magic. All the rest of my favorite cultivation basics are here, with ancient masters, secret teachings on scrolls jealously guarded by villages, fancy combat techniques with names like "The Unfolding of the Four Flower Petals" and lots of training. But everything feels new, with subtle little differences between how people experience sein. I really enjoyed the descriptions of how the sein affected the senses of each practitioner, with some smelling mint while others have to deal with the taste of blood.

The story follows 4 main characters on their journey through a land on the brink of war. Each character is well developed and with viewpoints from both sides of the conflict you really get a sense of the overall picture. Each culture is also explained in detail and the world-building is quite comprehensive.

There are no shortcuts to power here and each character has to train hard to improve themselves. With one glaring exception - if you become the Hero you gain the power to shake the world. But everything has a cost and this Hero has one of the scariest powers I have seen. When the Hero comes... be afraid.

There is a lot of story here to chew through and it ends up feeling like an entire trilogy in one book. Each arc wraps up nicely though (something I really appreciate) and ties up all the loose ends before you go tumbling down the next story line. I really want to know what happens next, I hope the next book comes quick!

I will end off by saying that the book reminded me a lot of Brandon Sanderson's "The Way of Kings". Epic scope, big cast, well written characters and a cool magic system. I enjoyed it a lot and will be recommending it to all fantasy lovers.

[Cynthia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Agonizingly and terribly long

This book is way too long. It has some good ideas, which is why i bought the book after reading a sample but none are well thought out and all are hardly developed so my purchase wound up being a waste of money. The narrative is told from too many points of view and the amount of world-building is overkill and unnecessary. You could easily skip 50-100 pages and not lose any of the story that is attempting to be told. The characters are very one-dimensional and show no growth whatsoever after 700+ pages. The action is relentless and drags on and on and on with so much detail that they lose the excitement that the descriptions are trying to get at. It’s also oversaturated with these ridiculously long action scenes to the point of being boring because you just want to get on with the story. I had high hopes for this book and it was a big let down.

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

I barely got through two chapters, it's a mess on confusing terms that go unexplained and left me confused as to what was who.

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite book from Sarah Lin so far!

The Brightest Shadow is an Epic, Progression Fantasy that nails what I enjoy most from both sub-genres. It has a large fully realized world, filled with numerous cultures , beliefs, traditions etc. Reading it makes me wish I had a Wikipedia for the world so that I can track down every country, continent, city, culture and person that's mentioned and learn everything there is to know about them. The progression fantasy elements are well thought out, and flesh out the world much better than most that I've read with what's hinted at being a massive and varied system that can cover everything from the standard martial arts that is so common, to magical blasts, to transportation & technology.

Eagerly awaiting book 2!

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 rounded down to 2.

"That reminds me, what do rich humans actually do with all the money they collect? Can you eat it or something? I tried to eat a bunch of different coins and they all just tasted like metal."
"What? I... you should understand, it's just a way of- '' Ghakin began laughing uproariously and slamming his fist against the wall. "Did you... did you seriously believe...? You think we don't understand money? How do you think literally anything in our society works?"
Slaten scowled. "I was just taking you seriously."
"I told you I ate coins!"

Setting:
Lin gives us an Asian inspired setting with two major things that need to be understood. First there are two intelligent races; human and mansthein. The mansthein are mostly like humans, some are greedy and violent and some quite decent. They are humanoid and while interbreeding might not be possible, Lin makes sure to point out that they can have sex with each other.

The second important thing to understand is sein. This is the magic system we are given. Sein is a sort of all-purpose internal energy which can be used to give one inhuman speed, strength, or resistance and other more flashy things like healing wounds or hurling blasts at opponents. What can be done seems mainly limited only by knowledge and training.

Aside from these two main points, there are also some well sculpted cultures we see as the main characters move around and interact. Lin did put in the work to really make different groups of people with differing cultures.

Characters:
Tani: Tani is a young woman who has left her tribe to go on the farwalk, a right of passage among her people. She's concerned that the mansthein will bring war upon her home and she wants to better understand them and the conflict to prevent this.

Slaten: Slaten is a former soldier who is trying to put violence behind him after a traumatic event. Violence seems to be not quite done with him though.

There are many more characters, including other major players but these two are the most important.

Plot:
War sits perilously close. Some are all too eager for blood to be spilled and are looking forward to it. Others are less eager but see it as a steadily approaching inevitability. Precious few of the people around would dare and try to argue for peace. All of our key players are going to be involved one way or another whether they like it or not.

My Thoughts:
Let's start with the elephant in the room. What's that? You can't see the elephant? That's kind of the problem. You can't see the elephant because this book is large enough for an elephant to hide behind and, the real issue here, it doesn't need to be. A story should be as long as it needs to be but it also should need to be as long as it is.

The first third of this colossal tome is actually quite good. Lin sets up the world and the major conflict while making sure to give us viewpoints on both sides and show us that while the cultures are different neither is really evil, or at least no more evil than the other.

However, around 35-40% of the way into the novel the pacing gets absolutely throttled and we are given a very overlong string of highly tedious training scenes and fight scenes that feel like they have no real stakes. This continues almost until the end of the book. While it would have been almost whiplash-inducing to jump from the characters at the start of the book to where they are by the end, dragging us by the nose through every single step of their progress was rather too far in the other direction. This is precisely the scenario for which the training montage was invented. The ending does recover a bit, but by then it's just too little too late.

The magic system is decidedly soft. Those who prefer hard magic systems may be annoyed by the extreme flexibility of sein and the new applications for it the characters keep learning about. Those who do prefer a soft system will find a lot to like here. It is interesting to see how each different group has some technique that differs from others and watching the main characters slowly figure out the best styles and tricks for themselves is enjoyable.

There are definitely things to like here but the middle 50-60% of the book is so slow and repetitive it makes it difficult to really recommend.

[Georgiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was unable to enjoy this book . It seems that most fans appreciate the wuxia elements but, having no particular interest in this genre, nothing really sparked an interest as I painstakingly advanced through the pages. The writing is fluent enough, but simplistic and lacking a certain something. I did not feel any interest in the characters and the plot - the premises had potential, but the development lacked complexity. In my opinion this book is not that suitable for the mature fantasy reader, but could very well appeal to the young adult and wuxia fans.

[Bernie Paz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first heard about Sarah Lin when I stumbled over glowing reviews of Street Cultivation on Reddit, a series I also remembered seeing on Royal Road. Unfortunately, I have a hard time enjoying Urban Fantasy, so though it sounded interesting, I gave it a pass. Nothing special there, as I’ve done the same for other authors; I passed on Brandon Sanderson’s superheroes series and Brian McClellan’s UF series about supernatural debt collectors.

But it piqued my interest. So, in its place, I took a dive into what others considered pillars of the fledgling “progression fantasy” subgenre, and quickly found myself in love with the two immediate recommendations, Cradle and Arcane Ascension. I unfortunately bounced off litRPGs, deciding that I better enjoyed novels that used a more subtle blending of the tropes commonly found in tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons or anime and JRPGs.

Then I heard Sarah Lin was releasing a fantasy novel, and that it was going to be a big and juicy one, and that the main character was going to be a tribal warrior. Well, this was all getting me excited, and having exhausted most of the commonly recommended offerings (and having already wandered aimlessly through Royal Road), I was ready to make like Nintendo’s Kirby and inhale the book into my veins, and boy was I glad that I did.

The Brightest Shadow features a phenomenal blend of western fantasy and wuxia tropes and more broadly, Asian culture, among some others. In fact, I brought this up first because I think it’s easily the book and author’s greatest strength; Sarah Lin weaves together her cultures in a way that utterly leaves me in awe and is genuinely interesting. Her portrayal is more than skin deep and above the needs of the plot, which is a mistake too many novels make. In those other novels, races/nations are distinct for the sake of generating conflict without those differences ever really being explored or examined by the characters themselves. This is how you get stuff like the orcs; they look ugly, act savage, and just so happen to be loyal to the obviously bad dark lord because that’s exactly what jerks do, and that then all hand-waves why they’re the great evil lined against the poor good guys. Yes, it’s sometimes a bit more gray, less black and white, but “cultural differences” are still all too often used as simple plot devices, at best, before then being thrown away.

I wish I could say it’s unrealistic, but humanity has historically been great at finding the dumbest reasons to dehumanize each other and thus justify atrocious acts. Sarah Lin allows the people of her world be equally stupid, but then at least has her characters acknowledge and explore this very human flaw. The result is a refreshing level of cultural complexity and exploration you just don’t find in many novels, which results in situations such as the Hero in reality being kind of a freaking monster, and the supposed monsters are instead just a different people with their own beliefs, some maybe flawed and some maybe understandable, same as anyone else.

Tani, who serves as the primary protagonist, is the reader's ambassador for all this. In fact, I feel that “bridge” describes her really well for both better and worse. Her POV is just that, which also kind of condemns her to feeling a little less interesting in the face of everything around her. It’s kind of like a tour guide - a good one impresses with their knowledge and passion but still can't compete with the grandeur of the tour sights themselves. Despite this, Tani remained my favorite character exactly because it was so easy for me to experience the world through her. Pretty much everyone else is also likeable in their own way though, and it’s all but impossible for them to blur together exactly because the excellent portrayal of culture goes all to the way down to its influence on identity and how we perceive others. Of the characters, there was only one that slightly annoyed me (with a handful of annoyance peaks here and there, haha).

This approach does, however, come with some potential downsides. This book is freaking monstrous exactly because it takes the time to go deep and then deeper still, and unfortunately that lends to a pretty slow pace at the start along with a hefty introduction period of world-specific concepts.

Some have cited this as a negative, but I mostly think it’s personal taste. I’ve seen tons of people ask for books with more world-building, and this book has it. For example, food is a massive part of culture, but it’s all so widely accessible and blurred together these days that we don’t always think about it. Sarah Lin has thought about it, and frankly the food scenes in The Brightest Shadow are some of my favorite scenes in the book and really hammer home the relevance of cultural differences.

As someone who has traveled widely (both a military brat and a soldier myself), food is honestly just one of the most immediate and obvious experiences you’ll get when exposed to an unfamiliar culture, and it’s appalling how often this is missed in other books. I still remember when a friend of mine’s mother made a kind of sausage that involved quite a bit of pig or cow blood (I forget).

This is definitely not the book for you though if all you crave is a break-neck pace and nonstop high stakes action, though the action scenes in The Brightest Shadow are really, really great when they do show up, and the build up for them is focused and well written. The Brightest Shadow doesn't have an aimless plot; far from it, as characters undergo some pretty drastic growth over the span of the single book, and there's always something moving the plot forward. It's just also a book that doesn't mind letting us see more of the world than a sketch of the stage.

This is a book for the explorer, someone who wants to walk around the world, talk to its people, sample its food, learn their stories and beliefs, and do it while being told a really awesome story with some great twists, especially when it comes to deceptively familiar tropes, and the author did a great job at making it all fit together.

Overall, my only real complaint is with a few portions that, in the context of the already large size of the book, could have been trimmed down a little. The training scenes immediately come to mind here, and from random rumblings on Reddit, I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that. I’m still not going to be particularly harsh there, though. I judged The Brightest Shadow as a more traditional fantasy novel more than a wuxia novel, and I think most of this book’s readers shared that mindset. From what I understand, training scenes really aren’t rare in wuxia, and are usually a big draw - I can’t honestly say, as I’m simply not well-read enough in xianxia/wuxia outside of some western work inspired by it. But, being honest, they do get a little repetitive, just not enough to really detract from the book for me.

I’ve also had the pleasure of reading an ARC of an upcoming work from Sarah Lin, and though the story is leaner and faster, Sarah Lin’s imagination and skill with cultures still shines through once again, and I’m really, really happy to find it simply wasn’t a one-off thing in The Brightest Shadow. I personally feel that Sarah Lin writes great characters, and a good part of that comes from the matured and thought out cultures that ground them as people. If the ARC is anything to judge by, she’s only getting better at it, which leaves me really excited about her future projects.

The Brightest Shadow might not be a book for everyone, but then again, no book is. I think those who prefer a quick pace that charges right into action scenes might not enjoy it as much, but fantasy readers looking for something fresh or craving deeper world-building and characterization, especially regarding takes on developed cultures, will find much to love.

For me, this book easily smashed all the right boxes, leaving it as a super easy recommendation.

[Sunday Okafor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll give the book points for excellent writing with no errors I could identify but the story lacks real substance. Even worse, none of the characters are likable—Tani most of all, her naivety is anything but endearing.

The main characters meander through the entirety of Parts One and Two, accomplishing nothing of importance.

The book is very long, and it takes time for the plot to pick up. But when it finally does, the author chooses to explore a theme that is discomforting: mind manipulation. Early in the story, Tani and Slaten are dragged around by the so-called Hero of the book. His presence and words are enough to warp their minds, leaving them with little autonomy in both their thoughts and actions.

In Part Three, after the conclusion of the mind-warping shenanigans, the characters find themselves either imprisoned or stripped of any decision-making abilities. Once again, the reader is placed in a POV of perpetual weakness, which does nothing but irritate.

None of the characters are capable enough to make a difference, so most of the conflicts are viewed through a lens of helplessness. Does it get better? The short answer is no.

The author attempts to subvert typical tropes by playing into the well-known Hero and Villain roles. A wide cast of characters is introduced to offer different perspectives on the two opposing sides. I admire the effort, but ultimately, it all falls flat because the characters lack enough depth for the shifting perspectives to matter.

[Samrat · Rating 5 out of 5]

A definite must-read

With most progression fantasy, you get to pick two: likeable characters, interesting progression, or a compelling plot. In the Darkest Shadow and her earlier Street Cultivation, Sarah Lin removes any need for that choice.

The Darkest Shadow is an excellent read with worldbuilding that both satisfies the plot and leaves you wanting more. The characters are well-developed and continue to grow and change as the story progresses. I can't wait to read the next book in this series.

The main flaw I found is in the character motivations. [SPOILERS AHEAD] our heroes get pulled into the resistance through Hero brainwashing but continue to fight for it genuinely, for reasons that never seem to be elaborated. Unless I missed it, there is never a clear reason why they're fighting for one side as opposed to another, considering how much they all value understanding and peace.

[Seanpet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf at 20%

[Samantha Casale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Masterwork

Having read Sarah Lin's other works I had high expectations for this piece. As soon as I started reading I was struck by two things: how different the writing feels compared to the other works, and how epic this is.

Now when I say the writing feels different, I mean that every bit of it feels like it's part of the bigger picture, that every paragraph is setting the scene of this story. There's a delicate balance between explaining the world invented in this book and bogging the reader down with details, but it's done so well. What you don't know adds to the mystery of the book, and what you learn is presented in a way that feels natural and true to the characters.

This book being epic, I mean in more ways than one. This book is incredibly long, I think the longest thing I've ever read, but it is broken up into different parts, so it feels like a 5 part series all in one. But it's also epic in the sense of how grand this story is, the world that was created feels novel and different, and it's built on a lot of assumptions that are challenged and really gives a deeper feel to this story.

There was nothing not to love about this book for me, if Sarah Lin isn't already one of your favorite authors this book alone makes her an excellent candidate for that title.

[Ian Isaro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most of the attention is on all the Asian influences but the African elements deserve note as well. This is definitely not the Great African Fantasy Novel, in philosophy or aesthetic. But Lin has captured the beauty of the Serengeti quite well and the cultural pieces are more than just imported Asia.

I did not receive an ARC or promise to leave an honest review, but I was once in the same writing group as the author. Reviving this account is a gift for an old friend, in exchange for a good book.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The world, characters and events were generally good. The presentation is what took a lot away from the book for me. After coming right out of a readthrough of Discworld it's possible I set the bar high, but certain patterns and the absence of a few things kept rubbing me the wrong way. A lot of this can be summarized by the word simplicity - either in the way characters reflected about the world or in the way events were described.

The aspect of this that first comes to mind is the way a slight summary was given after most forms of activity, be it a jog or a friendly sparring match. It would go something like "Tani was tired afterwards. She got a little stronger/faster/better." almost to the letter. Showing progression is important to the genre, but I felt this book breaks the rule of "show, don't tell" a bit too often here, and it came up often enough that it broke the flow of the story. It became formulaic in a way I felt could have been avoidable by different framing, maybe bringing it up a time other than right after, or tying the improvements into the story.

This feeds into another pattern where things were stated very explicitly, maybe even repeatedly so, where I felt implication would do. One of the tings I really enjoy when reading a book is being handed pieces of information, and being masterfully led by the author towards putting them together. In this book I felt those pieces of information were often lacking, and that instead of that interplay I got handed the conclusion outright.

I spent a good bit of time thinking about what I disliked about this book, simply because there were a lot I liked, and that I really think could shine. I'm hoping to visit this world again, that I might be less critical next time, and that what I didn't like about this book will be improved by the next one.

[Bernard Dix · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very engaging read, masterfully planned out with world-building detail and characters.
The main characters, such as Tani, are developed well. The different cultures and people groups were well developed, showing nuance in that there were not cultures presented as good or bad. The cultural backgrounds were part of how each character responded. We hear about the sacred texts of the various groups and wonder who is stealing them and for what purposes. This isn't a shallow, easy read, but has real depth in the way different viewpoints and allegiances play out in the characters' decision making and strategies in attacks. I was also impressed by the detail of geographic/physical details of places in the world. The sein power is interesting in that it worked differently for each character, and they had to develop it.

[Ahuri3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I loved :

* The Sein system.
* The food descriptions.
* Kolanin ! He deserved better than he got.
* Slowly discovering the Deathspawn/Mansthein society, social classes, power scallings.
* The Hero And how frustrating it must be for the Mansthein that he just keeps coming back, and the Legend.
* The Epigraphs !

I also enjoying seeing the protagonists progress, even though I hope they get to pick up the pace a bit in the next book They progress but on their own I still feel they are hopelessly outclassed compared to a single catai.

I'm looking forward to discovering more about the Legend, about The dark one , about sein and how it works, and finally about Mansthein and how they advance !

[Janelle Garrett]

*This was assigned to me as one of my SPFBO 2020 reviews*



Just look at that cover! LOOK AT IT. I was immediately drawn to the book for this reason, and it gives hints of superhuman magic and storms and darkness, so I was excited to start this one.

First, I'll start with what I liked about it. The writing was solid, with very few errors. The author clearly spent a lot of time honing her writing skills and investing time into good editing, which I appreciate. The writing wasn't over the top, and the descriptions really put you in the moment. I also enjoyed the politics and world-building. The world was well set-up, with interesting cultures and groups, but not too many that it's overwhelming. In particular, the manstheins are a fascinating species who are more human than animal, are thoughtful, resourceful, and generally look down on humans as inferior. It was a nice change, especially when the reader gets to experience the world through a mansthein POV. There is a mansthein military leader named Kolanin, and his was my favorite POV, by far. You get a good feel for the politics of this culture through his eyes, as well as the complications of establishing a military overtaking as well as establishing a new social order. Lin gives painstaking detail to the variations of cultural differences through food, clothing, fighting style, weaponry, language, lexicon, religion, philosophy, sayings, family... I was highly impressed. The worldbuilding was exceptional, and now I'm curious just how long she researched before actually putting pen to paper.

The genre was also interesting. It has wuxia elements without being entirely so, but also had an epic feel to it - not only in it's length (this is a long read, and takes a lot of concentration and effort to follow), but also in the magic system. Speaking of, the magic was unique. There is an element called sein, which is essentially a physical element that gives substance to "the force of one's personality, experience, and beliefs" according to the book's glossary. Each people group has a different way of using it, and throughout the story, time is given to different characters from different backgrounds teaching each other different cultural ways of how sein is appropriated.

Now, to the things I was... well, perplexed about. This was a massive undertaking, and while the story itself had interesting elements to it, I found the plot severely lacking and the characters stale (except for Kolanin). There are several POV's, but the main characters, as far as I could tell, were Tani, a girl who must travel the Chorhan Expanse to take her place as a warrior in her tribe, and Slaten, a healer with a complicated past. Kolanin had a large role in this story, as well. While the writing was foundationally solid, I didn't get a good sense of flare or style. It was, for lack of a better term, a bit boring to be in most of the POVs. There was action going on, but with more telling instead of showing, and the character voices weren't as distinct as I tend to prefer. Now, this is in large part (at least, in my opinion) to the intricate detail the author gave to world-building and politics, but it seemed that plot and style were sacrificed for this. Character growth and arc was hard to follow, so they seemed a bit one-dimensional.

The plot. Ah, the plot. There were themes running throughout - a Hero of Legend, who kept dying and another would take its place (this wasn't shown or told all that well, but I eventually caught on). There were moments of "look, this is really important what's about to happen!" and then, turns out it actually wasn't and didn't move the plot forward. There was quite a lot of time spent with characters doing mundane things - not necessarily a bad thing, but again, in my opinion when too much time is spent on this (for world-building purposes, of course) it doesn't move the plot at all. There is a way to weave plot and world-building together, so that progress is made, but the story falters in this area. It drags quite a lot, and there were times I forced myself to pick it back up, only to lose interest after one chapter and put it back down.

That's not to say this wasn't a good book. It was, in a lot of ways. Where it shined, it REALLY shined. But unfortunately, where it failed, it failed epically.

Now, that being said, this book is sure to have a fan following. I'm not sure I've read an indie book anywhere, ever, that ever comes close to the thoughtfulness and detail of the world. There was action to break up the mundane, and readers who don't mind telling instead of showing won't be put off. Those who are easily put off by writing mistakes will be happy, for the editing is superb.

Good luck to the author. I'm highly impressed at the time and effort it must have taken to invest into such a detailed world and story.

[Travis Riddle · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Brightest Shadow is a long book, one that requires the reader's patience in order to reach the payoff at the end. While the pacing and structure might not be to every reader's taste, I quite enjoyed the way Sarah Lin has laid out the first part of this huge, epic story.

What's great about the length is that Lin doesn't use it to throw a ton of characters from all over the world/country at us. The cast is fairly expansive, sure, but it's still only around 5 major characters then a supporting cast, which felt right for the scope of this story. Instead, Lin takes the time to dive deep into all of these individual characters so that we can understand their perspectives and the cultures they come from. This is a major part of the story, so many people from different backgrounds coming together, and it leads to several instances of culture clashing that I thoroughly enjoyed reading about. Whether it was a tribe's customs, what they considered appropriate vs. inappropriate, or the types of food they eat, it was fascinating learning about the various differences and seeing how everyone reacted to situations outside their comfort zones.

And speaking of that, the worldbuilding in this book was great. Every culture felt fleshed out with defined histories, traditions, and behaviors. I especially loved Lin's attention to detail with food, which is something I'm passionate about in my own writing, as anyone who's read a book by me can attest, haha. I loved the subplot about bread in this, which I recognize sounds incredibly boring, but I was undeniably invested. And I absolutely do not want Coran bread.

Jumping around different perspectives, I think Lin did a great job of differentiating between the POV characters. The writing style didn't hugely differ between them, but there were minor differences between them--mostly down to word choice--that effectively illustrated the way they viewed the world. Those subtleties nicely revealed new aspects of the characters and their relationship to the tumultuous world around them. Even without identifying the POV character, you could tell after only a couple sentences whether you were reading from Veron's perspective, or Tani's, etc. It's a tricky thing, not having each character's narrative voice sound the same, but Lin pulled it off effortlessly.

One thing that tripped me up, mostly due to feeling like I was getting to know the characters so well, was a shift about a fourth of the way into the book. (Mild spoilers ahead, skip to the next paragraph to avoid.) Once the human characters started being affected by the Hero's aura, it seemed like their change in personality happened a little too quickly or subtly for me to fully understand what was happening. I do think Lin did a good job of demonstrating how much their thinking changed, but part of me wished I had seen that transformation happen a bit more or perhaps gotten a clearer explanation for why this mind control-esque thing was happening. Given the huge amount of thought Lin has put into this story and world, however, I'm confident that all will be revealed at some point. It definitely did not feel random or out of place.

I found the progression elements in this to be fairly interesting as well. I liked that they weren't super well-defined; I get the sense that Lin has a lot of the details worked out behind the scenes, but I appreciated not pushing all those minute details on the reader. I think that definitely works in some series, but would've felt out of place here. I liked the looser feeling of the sein magic system, and it was cool during the moments when we did get a peek at the deeper lore behind it (especially once people from a certain culture started dropping terms like sky sein, water sein, etc.--urging us to recontextualize what we already knew about the magic system).

The book, big as it is, does tell a fairly self-contained story while setting up a whole mess of story threads to follow in the next book. There are still a lot of mysteries up in the air, as far as what exactly is going on with the Hero and the Legend, which definitely is not what it seems. And not to mention the epilogue, which ups the stakes and the intrigue even more.

Overall a slower-paced but endlessly engaging epic tome with a sharp focus on character and worldbuilding. I'm as enthralled by Lin's tale as her characters are with the Legend.

[Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really happy I found this book!
It's a long, sprawling story with a lot of POVs and arguably all too many cultures and places, but I found myself loving the details and not minding at all the slow overall pacing.
I'm all for tightly paced stories sometimes, but I wish more books took the time to immerse the reader in the world and building up interest in the characters.
The central idea is extremely cool: in a complex, realistic conflict between two species - but with complex factions on each side and hopes for peace - suddenly has to contend with the arrival of a story-like, righteous hero who believes his enemies are the absolute evil to exterminate, *and the words literally changes to fit his vision*. It's like having two very different books colliding suddenly, and it's very interesting.
That said, the main plot advances very slowly, with lots of detours.
There's *a lot* of focus on the magical system, which has a lot of cultural variation. For most of the characters it was a wuxia-style martial arts magic, which isn't really my cup of tea, but I surprisingly enjoyed reading about their progression and different styles of magic.
The moral confusion of the protagonists, who literally don't know what they want and who they should be fighting for, was very welcome to me, especially when it's so commonly suggested in fantasy to have heroes who have "clear goals" from the first page and never have reason to actually question which side they fight for.
I also like that the story clearly sets up for much more - we get glimpses of other parts of the world, other kinds of magic, and the Big Mysteries about the Hero and the Legend, and I can't wait to know more - I'll definitely get book 2 soon.
There are a few downsides, I must say. First, I think a lot of people might be put off by the wandering plot.
Second, there's a serious lack of description and character voice, so while I can see the author put a lot of work and thought on the world and characters, at first they feel pretty bland, and even later in the book I couldn't picture much about the world, which is a pity.
Third, there was some sexual assault pretty much thrown in at random, and then mostly unaddressed and... really, would have been better without it.
Finally, sometimes I had serious problems following the characters' motivations, or their reactions are hard to understand\lacking. Which is made more complicated by the fact the Hero *in universe* makes characters out "of of character", so with the characters acting really strangely at times and never discussing it (like, they change side in a conflict and barely discuss why), it was hard to tell when something was *supposed* to be weird and when the characters' reasons were poorly communicated.

[Noor Al-Shanti · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Brightest Shadow by Sarah Lin is a progression fantasy with an epic fantasy scope and feel. The world-building in this is excellent, and despite the huge number of pages I've already read I know there's already so much built up and waiting to be uncovered and explored. I also really enjoyed most of the characters and the perspectives they bring to this story. I may be judging it a bit more harshly than necessary by giving it four stars instead of five, but I think that's partially because I can almost see the excellence that could have been, but it just fell a tiny bit short in a couple of small ways when it could have been phenomenal.

The first part of the story was excellent and I was gripped and interested throughout. Tani's Farwalk was an excellent hook into the story - it's a journey she is taking as part of her warrior training with the added goal she has given herself to observe the "Deathspawn" that have arrived on the continent near her home and figure out if they really are as dangerous as the stories suggest. This kept me interested for a while as we got introduced to the city of Bundlin and some of the other major characters such as Slaten, Kolanin, and Melal.

Where it fell apart a little bit for me was when they met Veron and the two groups that included the Hero and his followers and the Coran Resistance. When this happened the characters suddenly became aimless and there was a lot of wandering and training where I just couldn't see their motivations or see where the plot was going for a long, long time. Now, this was done for a reason, which will be revealed later on in the story, but it could have been much more effective if I had known all of their motivations in the first part so I could contrast it with this aimless period. It worked for Tani, but I knew so little about Slaten's original motivations and the very vaguely hinted at backstory. I'm not going to lie this middle section of the book felt like it would never end, but I couldn't stop reading because I loved the world-building and felt it was all going to come together. It does, but I might have appreciated the wait more if I actually cared more about the mechanics of fights and stuff (I really don't).

Right around the time when I thought the book was essentially over there was a very low-stakes going home section of it that I absolutely loved. Characters were reconnecting with their families. They were connecting with each other. We finally got to see the different tribes/villages they came from. There was eating. The bread subplot was finally resolved! There was sensory detail and description that helped me imagine the different locations and fall in love with them. It again made me wish that we had been introduced to these locations and to the characters' origins earlier on in the beginning of the story (or perhaps even through flashbacks in the middle section of the book).

The book had big fight at the end which was interesting due to the way certain characters were positioned against and with each other. The Hero storyline progressed nicely during this section, and I was satisfied with the way it ended leaving enough open for the next installment in the series, but also resolving enough of the main plotlines. I did find myself wishing, though, that I had actually cared more about the Hero's "goals" so that the interesting subversion of the whole hero trope would have influenced/shocked/horrified me more. As it is, I felt that the author was doing a great job of commenting on fantasy tropes and gaming conventions (LOVED the Ith Ire section where the Hero and his followers gathered for that reason) but I wished there was more of a deeper commentary on real life/actual wars or occupations or the concept of peace vs war in real life. As you can see, I'm just being picky and expecting more because the author clearly showed so much potential for more in this area. I'm really hoping that this aspect is developed further in later books in the series!

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to fans of epic fantasy like myself who enjoy great world-building and are not afraid of diving into a longer book. The pay off at the end is worth the length and only such a long book could get you so invested in the characters. Also, fans of more martial arts style fiction and progression fantasy would, I'm sure, enjoy it even more! I'm not an expect on the progression genre, but this book has given me a great intro to it.

[Pablo García · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although fantasy-other-world novel series are what I read every day, I did not like this fantasy novel series. The story goes on and on, like journal entries of a bunch of people fighting in a never-ending war. Because the author starts the story in the middle of this never-ending war, I don't really understand what the main theme of this fantasy book series is, where it's going or why. People basically fight because they can, they try to get stronger, get more experience to fight some more.
Even though author is apparently a woman, she narrates and describes other women in this fantasy novel series like if she were a jerk of a man (also I do not understand this). There is no real reason to treat any of the characters of this story badly, and yet, this author seems to have a chip on her shoulder about the women in this fantasy novel series???
Story series has no maps, no inside illustrations, no character summaries. No real world building, governance or ideas/history about this other world. The narrations and descriptions are above average, but I feel that this story is not really going anywhere. It's just war, every day, they fight and fight and fight without really having any rhyme or reason. I understand that most are just trying to survive in this dystopian-hell-like-place, but then why center a entirely new fantasy novel series in a hell-like-place like this one??
Every place the main characters go to is war-torn, destitute, and in anguish/famine/utter poverty. It is a very dystopian version of this other world, but again, why?? Why out of all the limitless possibilities to imagine another world, a fantasy other world, would an author create a hell-like place torn, bloodied by constant war???
The story goes on and on and on, but feels like it doesn't go anywhere, like placing all of the main characters on a hamster wheel or a war-torn/violent/dystopian merry-go-round. Maybe the main theme and main plot arcs are written at the end of this super long story, and maybe the war eventually stops, but, who in their right minds would want to read about a place that is in constant war (blood, carnage, loss, etc. etc. etc.) I don't, and I do not recommend this fantasy-dystopian-hell-like-novel-series.

[TMey]

2.5-ish, i guess.

The cultural interplay is pretty great. As is the setting and the scenario itself. I thought the core idea behind this book was great. How often do you see a hero being done like this? And by that I mean a hero that enthralls and corrupts and is a major force of and source of conflict/cosmic horror. The characters aren't too special, but they're alright, and the same is true for the prose.

Overall, this is probably a recommendation if you like cultivation, long series and slow progression.

For me, the giant elephant/deathspawn in the room is the length of the book. It's what's earned it its rating. There are over 1200 pages here and the story that gets told doesn't justify that kind of page count for. There are too many training arcs and too little focus. I like the multitude of characters, but that aspect also feels like it could have been refined. In the end, this is a 1200 page book that feels like the introduction to a giant saga and as such the conclusion of the first book honestly wasn't particularly satisfying. It didn't feel like an actual arc concluded here. Instead, a minor victory in a conflict that most likely won't matter in the end and the feat of staying alive is basically what this book was about. It feels like a very minor step in the overall story, with the focus being kinda character development. That sounds ok, but it should have been possible to do more irt the greater conflict in book1.

Anyway, i'm curious about the interpretations people have come up with for this. You can do a lot with the premise. The hero can be stand-in for a major force like climate change or religion. And the latter also works with the whole deathspawn vs natives angle + displacement/hegemony desires as allegory for e.g. the middle east n stuff.

[Francis Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I'm being honest, I actually didn't particularly like this book. The characters were difficult for me to develop any empathy for (other than the Deathspawn, more on that in a minute) and many of the training sequences felt dragged out without ever seeing any real progress.

So why four stars? Well, just because *I* didn't enjoy reading this doesn't make it a bad book. The work that was put into developing the world—not to mention the steadily ramping plot—was absolutely top-notch, and probably was the main factor that kept me going through the last half of the book. In particular, learning more about the main antagonists of the story was easily my favorite part.

In this story, humanity is at odd with a race of monstrous creatures known as the deathspawn (they refer to themselves at the mansthein). More often than not I found myself rooting for these characters over the stories other human focal points, and every tiny detail of mansthein society that I was able to wring out of the book just left me with more questions, and more interest to find out more.

Normally, I'd say that being more interested in the enemies is a bad sign, but in this case it is actually the story working as intended. Lin did a fantastic job making much of the morality of the book ambiguous. Character question their decisions constantly throughout, both those they make voluntarily or otherwise, and there is much speculation about whether these mansthein are really the enemy that everyone believes them to be. The legend of a hero that is prophesied to destroy them only further complicates the matter, as the hero is anything but what people expect them to be.

So, this book wasn't really for me, but I admire what it accomplished.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a pretty big fan of Sarah Lin's Weirkey Chronicles, so I had high expectations when I started this book. Fortunately, it did not disappoint.

This is a world with two races -- humans and mansthein (called Deathspawn by humans). The two races are at war. The mansthein are subjugating the humans, but there is a Legend that a Hero will rise and rid the world of the Deathspawn.

The main characters (both humans and mansthein) are mostly likeable and they all have a unique voice. There are multiple POVs, but not an overwhelming amount and I never felt frustrated by the viewpoint changes. This is a story of people who get caught up in something bigger than themselves and their struggle to figure out what is the right thing to do.

Sarah Lin is probably best known for writing progression fantasy/cultivation novels. This isn't a strict progression fantasy, but it does share some features. You spend time with the characters as they train to learn new skills and become stronger. One thing I really enjoy about Sarah Lin's work is that her magic is always so personal to the individual characters. I often find magic systems boring, but this book does such a good job of tying it into the character development that I can read it for pages.

Speaking of pages, this book is a chonker at over 1,000 pages, but I flew through it in under a week and it never felt like it was dragging. It is the first book of a completed trilogy.