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The Thief-Taker's Apprentice #2
The Warlock's Shadow
Orphan Berren is trapped in a temple, forced to learn how to read, write and recall histories of the Saints. All he wants is a sword. Prince Sharda hires his master as a bodyguard. Dragon Monks, exotic elite swordsmen, visit, one a girl his age. But a sword is not enough. You must know who to fight.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 20, 2011
12 people are currently reading
361 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Deas
29 books185 followersStephen Deas is an engineer in the aerospace industry, working on communications and imaging technology in the defence sector. He is married with two children and lives near Writtle in Essex.
Also writes as Nathan Hawke and S.J. Deas.
Also writes as Nathan Hawke and S.J. Deas.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 18, 2013
Review from Fixed on Fantasy.
There is something so simple and comforting about this series, of which The Warlock's Shadow is book two of three. After reading the likes of N. K. Jemisin who really like to shake up their fantasy world building, it's nice to return to a bread and butter Medieval Europe setting.
The Warlock's Shadow feels oddly familiar at times, as though I could once again be reading about Pug or Kvothe. At a comparatively short 304 pages however, Deas wastes little time with the non-essentials and I think a more traditional setting has assisted him in this.
Book one, The Thief-Taker's Apprentice, had quite a low risk storyline, not really venturing into any unknown territory, but still providing an entertaining read. For this reason and the length, I would definitely shelve it amongst youth fiction.
The same can be said again for the first three quarters of The Warlock's Shadow, but by the last quarter Deas decides that he has had enough of that and completely ups the anti. As the title perhaps suggests, we see the introduction of magic, which darkens the tone of the novels significantly and adds a layer of complexity not yet seen. The story becomes somewhat more graphic with the corpse tally growing exponentially. But more so than any of that, it is the final chapter that sees the greatest change in this series - let's just say that not everything ends well for our protagonists. While book one concluded with a nice little wrap up, book two is a good old cliffhanger (luckily I have book three, The King's Assassin, sitting on my shelf!).
As predicted, there is nothing to be said against Deas' writing or story crafting, which is meticulous, well thought out and extremely easy to read.
This is such a great little series that requires little time and investment for a great return so I recommend it to all fantasy fans!
There is something so simple and comforting about this series, of which The Warlock's Shadow is book two of three. After reading the likes of N. K. Jemisin who really like to shake up their fantasy world building, it's nice to return to a bread and butter Medieval Europe setting.
The Warlock's Shadow feels oddly familiar at times, as though I could once again be reading about Pug or Kvothe. At a comparatively short 304 pages however, Deas wastes little time with the non-essentials and I think a more traditional setting has assisted him in this.
Book one, The Thief-Taker's Apprentice, had quite a low risk storyline, not really venturing into any unknown territory, but still providing an entertaining read. For this reason and the length, I would definitely shelve it amongst youth fiction.
The same can be said again for the first three quarters of The Warlock's Shadow, but by the last quarter Deas decides that he has had enough of that and completely ups the anti. As the title perhaps suggests, we see the introduction of magic, which darkens the tone of the novels significantly and adds a layer of complexity not yet seen. The story becomes somewhat more graphic with the corpse tally growing exponentially. But more so than any of that, it is the final chapter that sees the greatest change in this series - let's just say that not everything ends well for our protagonists. While book one concluded with a nice little wrap up, book two is a good old cliffhanger (luckily I have book three, The King's Assassin, sitting on my shelf!).
As predicted, there is nothing to be said against Deas' writing or story crafting, which is meticulous, well thought out and extremely easy to read.
This is such a great little series that requires little time and investment for a great return so I recommend it to all fantasy fans!
January 5, 2023
2 and a bit stars. It was okay, but I felt it suffered slightly from 'second book in a trilogy drag', and the YA feel was more pronounced. As I say, it was okay but didn't make me fired up to read more. The novel ends on a cliff-hanger which has irritated me to the point that I'm going to perversely read something else rather than the third novel. No doubt I'll come back to it in the future and then decide whether to keep these books or add them to my 'get rid of' pile.
Edit: after re-reading this, I'm about to read the third volume.
Edit: after re-reading this, I'm about to read the third volume.
August 27, 2017
"What if someone came to Deephaven right now? What if they killed Justicar Kol and every thief-taker in the city and murdered Tasahre and the other monks? What if they burned his home and … no, not that, he wouldn’t care too much about Deephaven getting burned. But what about the rest? And then they hunted him down for years, trying to murder him? What would he do if he met that man again, ten years later?"
I really enjoyed the stripped-back archetypal heroic fantasy style of The Thief-Taker's Apprentice, and this book surpasses the first in the series by some way. It is like a homage to all the best traditional fantasy quest stories, and yet the plot remains unpredictable.
Three well-woven subplots creep through the novel, all sharp with tension. In Deas' irreverent prose, the apprentice teen protagonist Berren is introduced to a decadent visiting prince. "Berren wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but certainly it hadn’t been a drunkard, stripped to the waist like some dock-worker, someone only a few years older than him, full of swagger and yet with enough chips on his shoulder to start a fire." Only a few chapters in and Berren is foiling the world's most inept assassin who has crept past all the guard's into the prince's courtyard, defeated with nothing more than a bowl of porridge. "His hand closed around the bowl of porridge for want of anything else. He threw it as hard as he could, globs of porridge flying in all directions." Now that's a "power-bowl" breakfast! But being heroic quickly gains Berren unwanted notoriety from a prince who is more than the waster he first appears. "‘And how nice it must be for them to know they died for a good cause. Oh no, wait, they didn’t, they died for me.'" Berren is sent to be trained in swordsmanship by the emperor's best. Because: "'I can’t what? Wander through your city issuing edicts that everyone is forced to obey no matter how random and whimsical they are?'"
But while Berren gets excited about training, his master is up to something. "‘You. However much I have called you dull, you do not belong here. You are rotting on the inside, and believe me, on that subject I know what I’m talking about.'" Something that involves brutally murdering foreign head-hunters in the nights, a subplot which kept me in constant suspense. "He kept seeing the man with the cane die, kept hearing what he’d said. It wasn’t that it troubled him. Rather, it had thrilled him just as the time he’d seen Master Sy kill three men in an alley over a purse that had turned out to be filled with nothing but rusty iron and a few pennies."
This would have been strong enough to keep me reading, but the relationship between Berren and his sword-trainer, a young female monk named Tasahre who has been given in obedience to the order of the Sun since birth, is really quite sweet. It starts like this: "Impressed? Disappointment and envy in roughly equal measure, that was more like it." "‘Words, not fists, Berren. That is the correct way.’ ‘Then why do you exist?’ he asked. ‘The threat of a sword so deadly means there is no need for it to be drawn.’" "'I thought all you wanted was to learn how to kill so you could strut about like the snuffers this city seems to breed like rats. And in part, it’s true that you do, and don’t try to tell me it’s not.'" Then, after plenty of very accurate descriptions of the trials of learning swords (such as holding up weighted blades and improving guard position), they have formed a bond of mutual trust and admiration for each other's beautiful honest. "‘I do not know if I will be here in the morning,’ she whispered in his ear. ‘You have it in you to be a good man. Hold fast to that.’" "‘I know our paths were never meant to join, and it makes me want to raise my fists against the gods, but I won’t do that, because I know it would make you sad.’" *Sniff!*
Not that I am at all soppy. See, here's some of what Deas does best, descriptions of action scenes told with an engineer's precision attention to motion, the feel of resistance on the flesh. "Berren flew across the gap, caught the edge of the roof on the far side with his toes, let his momentum carry him forward and then grabbed onto the roof with both hands, pulling himself up and scrabbling with his feet." The descriptions heighten the greusomeness with their objective precision when Berren realised how deeply his master has immured himself in illegal activity to seek revenge. "'I want to see your face. I want to see your pain. I want to see it wrenched out of you as though I was tearing out your heart.'" "Master Sy was hacking through the Headsman’s neck with his sword. Berren’s heart nearly flew out of his chest. He rolled away and stared at the ceiling and clamped a hand over his mouth, partly to stop himself from gasping and partly to stop himself from being sick." But Berren's curiosity draws him deeper, his desperation to find out his master's connection to the shadowy warlock Saffran Kuy who haunts the docks and can apparently speak to the dead ...
"Something rolled across the floor of its own accord, something the size of a head."
But in confronting Kuy, he has taken on a force far beyond his understanding. The mythos of the warlock is both familiar and inventive, a deadly mix of traditional horror fantasy elements with new vivid details that constantly heighten the tension. "‘You know how everyone who goes to see him leaves a basket of fish outside when they leave? That’s because he has a pact with the cats and the gulls who live there. They’re his spies. He rides inside them, seeing the world through their eyes, listening to what people say with their ears!’" Kuy appears to know the future, appears to be compelling both Master Syannis and his pursuers towards shared oblivion. And Berren? He has something unique in store for brave, devoted Berren. "'you’re to be a killer, that is certain. Great things wait for you. The Bloody Judge. Gods and ice and lightning and the bringing of the black moon, all of that.'" He cuts out part of his soul. "When he closed his eyes he could still see the web of his own soul, spread out before the golden knife." What is this guy? What has he taken from Berren; his free-will, his empathy, his dreams? There are enough answers to keep the reader satisfied, but not quite satiated.
In other reviews for this book, I have learned that this book is targeted at the YA audience, which really heartens me. It's rewarding to know that there are still authors commissioned by major publishers to evoke the 1980's whimsical fantasy without being tainted by the tropes of talentless boy-magnet protagonists which seem to have become a literary plague in the last ten years. I honestly can't say I've read a better YA specific fantasy written in the past ten years! (Although this is no The Hobbit ...)
I really enjoyed the stripped-back archetypal heroic fantasy style of The Thief-Taker's Apprentice, and this book surpasses the first in the series by some way. It is like a homage to all the best traditional fantasy quest stories, and yet the plot remains unpredictable.
Three well-woven subplots creep through the novel, all sharp with tension. In Deas' irreverent prose, the apprentice teen protagonist Berren is introduced to a decadent visiting prince. "Berren wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but certainly it hadn’t been a drunkard, stripped to the waist like some dock-worker, someone only a few years older than him, full of swagger and yet with enough chips on his shoulder to start a fire." Only a few chapters in and Berren is foiling the world's most inept assassin who has crept past all the guard's into the prince's courtyard, defeated with nothing more than a bowl of porridge. "His hand closed around the bowl of porridge for want of anything else. He threw it as hard as he could, globs of porridge flying in all directions." Now that's a "power-bowl" breakfast! But being heroic quickly gains Berren unwanted notoriety from a prince who is more than the waster he first appears. "‘And how nice it must be for them to know they died for a good cause. Oh no, wait, they didn’t, they died for me.'" Berren is sent to be trained in swordsmanship by the emperor's best. Because: "'I can’t what? Wander through your city issuing edicts that everyone is forced to obey no matter how random and whimsical they are?'"
But while Berren gets excited about training, his master is up to something. "‘You. However much I have called you dull, you do not belong here. You are rotting on the inside, and believe me, on that subject I know what I’m talking about.'" Something that involves brutally murdering foreign head-hunters in the nights, a subplot which kept me in constant suspense. "He kept seeing the man with the cane die, kept hearing what he’d said. It wasn’t that it troubled him. Rather, it had thrilled him just as the time he’d seen Master Sy kill three men in an alley over a purse that had turned out to be filled with nothing but rusty iron and a few pennies."
This would have been strong enough to keep me reading, but the relationship between Berren and his sword-trainer, a young female monk named Tasahre who has been given in obedience to the order of the Sun since birth, is really quite sweet. It starts like this: "Impressed? Disappointment and envy in roughly equal measure, that was more like it." "‘Words, not fists, Berren. That is the correct way.’ ‘Then why do you exist?’ he asked. ‘The threat of a sword so deadly means there is no need for it to be drawn.’" "'I thought all you wanted was to learn how to kill so you could strut about like the snuffers this city seems to breed like rats. And in part, it’s true that you do, and don’t try to tell me it’s not.'" Then, after plenty of very accurate descriptions of the trials of learning swords (such as holding up weighted blades and improving guard position), they have formed a bond of mutual trust and admiration for each other's beautiful honest. "‘I do not know if I will be here in the morning,’ she whispered in his ear. ‘You have it in you to be a good man. Hold fast to that.’" "‘I know our paths were never meant to join, and it makes me want to raise my fists against the gods, but I won’t do that, because I know it would make you sad.’" *Sniff!*
Not that I am at all soppy. See, here's some of what Deas does best, descriptions of action scenes told with an engineer's precision attention to motion, the feel of resistance on the flesh. "Berren flew across the gap, caught the edge of the roof on the far side with his toes, let his momentum carry him forward and then grabbed onto the roof with both hands, pulling himself up and scrabbling with his feet." The descriptions heighten the greusomeness with their objective precision when Berren realised how deeply his master has immured himself in illegal activity to seek revenge. "'I want to see your face. I want to see your pain. I want to see it wrenched out of you as though I was tearing out your heart.'" "Master Sy was hacking through the Headsman’s neck with his sword. Berren’s heart nearly flew out of his chest. He rolled away and stared at the ceiling and clamped a hand over his mouth, partly to stop himself from gasping and partly to stop himself from being sick." But Berren's curiosity draws him deeper, his desperation to find out his master's connection to the shadowy warlock Saffran Kuy who haunts the docks and can apparently speak to the dead ...
"Something rolled across the floor of its own accord, something the size of a head."
But in confronting Kuy, he has taken on a force far beyond his understanding. The mythos of the warlock is both familiar and inventive, a deadly mix of traditional horror fantasy elements with new vivid details that constantly heighten the tension. "‘You know how everyone who goes to see him leaves a basket of fish outside when they leave? That’s because he has a pact with the cats and the gulls who live there. They’re his spies. He rides inside them, seeing the world through their eyes, listening to what people say with their ears!’" Kuy appears to know the future, appears to be compelling both Master Syannis and his pursuers towards shared oblivion. And Berren? He has something unique in store for brave, devoted Berren. "'you’re to be a killer, that is certain. Great things wait for you. The Bloody Judge. Gods and ice and lightning and the bringing of the black moon, all of that.'" He cuts out part of his soul. "When he closed his eyes he could still see the web of his own soul, spread out before the golden knife." What is this guy? What has he taken from Berren; his free-will, his empathy, his dreams? There are enough answers to keep the reader satisfied, but not quite satiated.
In other reviews for this book, I have learned that this book is targeted at the YA audience, which really heartens me. It's rewarding to know that there are still authors commissioned by major publishers to evoke the 1980's whimsical fantasy without being tainted by the tropes of talentless boy-magnet protagonists which seem to have become a literary plague in the last ten years. I honestly can't say I've read a better YA specific fantasy written in the past ten years! (Although this is no The Hobbit ...)
January 18, 2021
This is the second trilogy I've started on in a short period of time where part 2 takes a complete nose-dive right down to the bottom of the barrel, which I know is a common enough problem but... really now.
I don't remember what I actually enjoyed with the first book, though I gave it a 3 star rating, but as I cracked this second book of the series open the characters make absolutely no sense. Our main character Berren is supposedly somewhere around 15 in this book, but acts like he's somewhere between nine and twelve, except of course when he hints at spending his spare coin at the brothels... *shudders* Worry not! None of the other characters make sense either! They are entirely illogical!
I will not be continuing on to part 3.
I don't remember what I actually enjoyed with the first book, though I gave it a 3 star rating, but as I cracked this second book of the series open the characters make absolutely no sense. Our main character Berren is supposedly somewhere around 15 in this book, but acts like he's somewhere between nine and twelve, except of course when he hints at spending his spare coin at the brothels... *shudders* Worry not! None of the other characters make sense either! They are entirely illogical!
I will not be continuing on to part 3.
September 27, 2024
I enjoyed Book 1. So continuing the series.........my opinion has not changed.
The thoughtless, annoying boy obsessed with learning swords, finally has. He even gets some specialist training. He is not quite so thoughtless either now.
He learns more about his Master Sy - who also isn't as great as he first thought, and his back story and starts to discover more of the nefarious goings on and gets far more caught up in them than he wants.
No Gary Stus, although he DOES get to be a decent fighter, but no silly all powerful, never misses nonsense.
And no-one is perfect. Is the bad guy actually the Evil one? Is the Good guys, whoever that is supposed to be, so good? Or is there a bit more to it....
Onto the 3rd and final book.
The thoughtless, annoying boy obsessed with learning swords, finally has. He even gets some specialist training. He is not quite so thoughtless either now.
He learns more about his Master Sy - who also isn't as great as he first thought, and his back story and starts to discover more of the nefarious goings on and gets far more caught up in them than he wants.
No Gary Stus, although he DOES get to be a decent fighter, but no silly all powerful, never misses nonsense.
And no-one is perfect. Is the bad guy actually the Evil one? Is the Good guys, whoever that is supposed to be, so good? Or is there a bit more to it....
Onto the 3rd and final book.
April 30, 2018
The second book of the trilogy is way too different from the first one. I remember when Berren and Master Sy were together and had an adventure that seemed to look abit in Young Adult style. But now it turned to be more dark, grimdark if you prefer, with a small plot-twist that i didn't expect. I'm so curious for what is going to happen on the last one and... argh, i can't wait !!!
July 23, 2014
As I will post the full FBC review in a day or two, I will put just a short comment for now c/p from sffworld: I finished Warlock's shadow the second sort-of-YA novel of Stephen Deas after The Thief taker's apprentice; I really, really loved it almost till the end, but I disliked the cliffhanger ending (which is actually foreseen and is appropriate in a way, but still I want the third novel now as the ending is annoying on its own...)
Excellent writing, descriptions and Berren is still an interesting character; while the author sometimes twists and turns in a way that only partly satisfies, his writing is really addictive so i end up giving high priority to his books
Full FBC Rv:
INTRODUCTION: Last year's The Thief-Taker's Apprentice was a very entertaining debut to a new series by Stephen Deas that takes place in the same world as his Dragon series which ended its first part with the recent The Order of the Scales. Marketed as YA and featuring young Berren as main POV, the book read like an usual adult fantasy, with less explicit content than the author's other series but with lots of gore and grit otherwise.
As Warlock's Shadow continued Berren's adventures, it was a highly awaited book for me and I got it the moment it was out and read it soon after.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Warlock's Shadow picks up some two years after the end of The Thief-Taker's Apprentice and takes place in Deephaven also. Berren is now entrenched as Syannis' apprentice and they work for justicar Kol, bringing malefactors to "justice" for the reward money. As Berren's main wish is to "learn swords", he has to attend school too with strict monk Sterm as teacher since that is the condition Syannis imposed on his apprentice in order to teach him how to fight.
However, Syannis' past as an exiled prince with a desire for vengeance is catching up as one of his main enemies known as "The Headsman" has just shown up in the city, while not coincidentally one of Sy's fellow exiles and friends, former soldier and current tavern keeper Kasmin is murdered. And to top it all, Syannis is keeping company with the warlock of the title, "witch doctor" Saffran Kuy who is described succinctly by the author as "another refugee from a kingdom that didn't exist any more".
When sword monks who belong to the powerful Sun God religious order that is currently not in the best relationship with the imperial authorities show up in Deephaven too and events precipitate, Berren gets his wish and despite Sy's deep misgivings he is apprenticed to Tasahre, a young girl his age and the most novice of the monks. And the tension starts rising and rising...
The Warlock's Shadow is a book that just flows on the page and I can describe the author's style only as "addictive" making one want to turn the pages and revel in the words. Here is the opening of the novel proper after a prologue that sets up the fatal meeting between Kasmin and the Headsman.
"Deephaven! Great northern port of the Empire, young and vibrant and alive with a wild frantic energy! While cities like Varr slipped into decadence with a fatal resignation, Deephaven ran out to embrace it and offer up its heart. Here anything was possible, here north met south, all that was Aria collided with all that was not; it was a place where swords and lives and even kingdoms were bought and sold, a place always humming with anticipation of what the next moment would bring even as it reveled in the last"
While Berren is clearly more mature and self-possessed than the young orphan/thief whom Sy took under his wing in the series debut, he is still a teen with bouts of sullen acting, headstrong and not prone to patience. The author contrasts very well his main hero with the cynical and world weary Sy and the young but very self-disciplined Tasahre.
I also liked a lot how the novel twists and turns and while the general direction - big picture events that the monks are involved in and which somehow will touch on Berren and Tasahre, interacting with Sy's quest for revenge - is clear, The Warlock's Shadow managed to keep me in the dark to its actual destination, while offering some surprises, hints of deeper stuff and quite a lot of action and drama.
Almost to the end I really loved the novel and thought it would blow away my already high expectations, but I disliked the cliffhanger ending which at least until the next installment took the series down a notch for me. To be honest the ending was actually foreseen and it was appropriate in a way, but it made me want the third novel asap as the ending was pretty annoying on its own.
Overall The Warlock's Shadow (A+) is a highly recommended novel that stands well on its own until the cliffhanger ending - the crucial facts from The Thief-Taker's Apprentice are recounted in the beginning and anyway as that novel was more of a setup with a definite main thread that ended there, said events are less important than the thread that starts here and is connected to a big picture we only dimly see. As I said in my review of The Thief-Taker's Apprentice do not let the YA label stop from reading the book since except for the lack of explicit content, the novel is as "adult" as a regular fantasy.
Excellent writing, descriptions and Berren is still an interesting character; while the author sometimes twists and turns in a way that only partly satisfies, his writing is really addictive so i end up giving high priority to his books
Full FBC Rv:
INTRODUCTION: Last year's The Thief-Taker's Apprentice was a very entertaining debut to a new series by Stephen Deas that takes place in the same world as his Dragon series which ended its first part with the recent The Order of the Scales. Marketed as YA and featuring young Berren as main POV, the book read like an usual adult fantasy, with less explicit content than the author's other series but with lots of gore and grit otherwise.
As Warlock's Shadow continued Berren's adventures, it was a highly awaited book for me and I got it the moment it was out and read it soon after.
OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Warlock's Shadow picks up some two years after the end of The Thief-Taker's Apprentice and takes place in Deephaven also. Berren is now entrenched as Syannis' apprentice and they work for justicar Kol, bringing malefactors to "justice" for the reward money. As Berren's main wish is to "learn swords", he has to attend school too with strict monk Sterm as teacher since that is the condition Syannis imposed on his apprentice in order to teach him how to fight.
However, Syannis' past as an exiled prince with a desire for vengeance is catching up as one of his main enemies known as "The Headsman" has just shown up in the city, while not coincidentally one of Sy's fellow exiles and friends, former soldier and current tavern keeper Kasmin is murdered. And to top it all, Syannis is keeping company with the warlock of the title, "witch doctor" Saffran Kuy who is described succinctly by the author as "another refugee from a kingdom that didn't exist any more".
When sword monks who belong to the powerful Sun God religious order that is currently not in the best relationship with the imperial authorities show up in Deephaven too and events precipitate, Berren gets his wish and despite Sy's deep misgivings he is apprenticed to Tasahre, a young girl his age and the most novice of the monks. And the tension starts rising and rising...
The Warlock's Shadow is a book that just flows on the page and I can describe the author's style only as "addictive" making one want to turn the pages and revel in the words. Here is the opening of the novel proper after a prologue that sets up the fatal meeting between Kasmin and the Headsman.
"Deephaven! Great northern port of the Empire, young and vibrant and alive with a wild frantic energy! While cities like Varr slipped into decadence with a fatal resignation, Deephaven ran out to embrace it and offer up its heart. Here anything was possible, here north met south, all that was Aria collided with all that was not; it was a place where swords and lives and even kingdoms were bought and sold, a place always humming with anticipation of what the next moment would bring even as it reveled in the last"
While Berren is clearly more mature and self-possessed than the young orphan/thief whom Sy took under his wing in the series debut, he is still a teen with bouts of sullen acting, headstrong and not prone to patience. The author contrasts very well his main hero with the cynical and world weary Sy and the young but very self-disciplined Tasahre.
I also liked a lot how the novel twists and turns and while the general direction - big picture events that the monks are involved in and which somehow will touch on Berren and Tasahre, interacting with Sy's quest for revenge - is clear, The Warlock's Shadow managed to keep me in the dark to its actual destination, while offering some surprises, hints of deeper stuff and quite a lot of action and drama.
Almost to the end I really loved the novel and thought it would blow away my already high expectations, but I disliked the cliffhanger ending which at least until the next installment took the series down a notch for me. To be honest the ending was actually foreseen and it was appropriate in a way, but it made me want the third novel asap as the ending was pretty annoying on its own.
Overall The Warlock's Shadow (A+) is a highly recommended novel that stands well on its own until the cliffhanger ending - the crucial facts from The Thief-Taker's Apprentice are recounted in the beginning and anyway as that novel was more of a setup with a definite main thread that ended there, said events are less important than the thread that starts here and is connected to a big picture we only dimly see. As I said in my review of The Thief-Taker's Apprentice do not let the YA label stop from reading the book since except for the lack of explicit content, the novel is as "adult" as a regular fantasy.
November 9, 2020
This is book 2 with many of the book 2 out of a trilogy faults. Not helped by the fact that I read book 1 and then mistakenly read book 3, then came back and read this. My bad, not the Author's.
August 24, 2021
This follow up was without excitement until the last quarter when magic and darkness came into it. And one big cliff hanger ending. I will hope to get the third book soon.
September 21, 2024
Awesome 2nd book. A clift hanger at the end made me pick up the next book straight away!
September 16, 2025
Didn't realise this was the second book in the trilogy, but genuinely quite enjoyable. Didn't love the whole ending on a cliffhanger thing but overall quite fun, especially in the final third.
January 27, 2012
For a while there, I had this book on my shelf, but I was kind of worried this YA novel would be too much Y and not enough A. Silly me. I should've remembered who the author is.
Having read several dozen novels since part one of this series (The Thief-taker's Apprentice) came out, I was, for the first time, happy to find these little recaps of book one. They were short, unobstrusive, and helped me really get back into the story, even if this one is less of a stand-alone than the last one. That also means I can't bloody wait for book three.
I like the relationship between Berren and Syannis. Master Sy does not become some overly righteous father figure, and Berren is not some obedient little boy with nothing but respect. They remain themselves; products of their environments. Syannis still does all kinds of things without even telling Berren about it, and Berren goes around doing all kinds of things of questionable repute.
The most annoying thing about this, of course, is that you still don't know what exactly the relationships are between the Emperor, the Sun-king and the people from Syannis' homeland. You can't help but share Berren's exasperation at the lack of understanding of how everything is connected, as Syannis is pretty much a bitter, broken man, leading to a very interesting ending of this novel, which I will not spoil.
The best thing about Berren is how he is with girls. The whole 'falling in love with the first girl you see' -which he more or less did in book one- is a staple in any boy's life, and one I was pretty much done with. Book two marks a certain growth in him in this respect. But what I love most is how his teenage mind just goes crazy whenever he glimpses breasts. And in a society like Deephaven, a little money goes a long way...
His attitude toward being trained by a girl is predictable, if understandable. Having grown up in an all-boys environment, beaten everyday by bigger boys and Master Hatchet, I suppose he would have trouble respecting a girl's martial prowess. Which makes it all the more fun when he gets his arse handed to him.
Saffran Kuy gets some new depth in this novel, and it is a disturbing abyss of depth. I'm not sure how he fits into all this, but apart from being creepy, his skills with the dead and the living alike have been giving disoncerting new facets. His skills are also the reason some of the "Adult" in "Young Adult" comes into play rather graphically.
All in all, I like how the story actually progressed. There is a real change in the possibilities of the story's end. I don't see how things could return to normal, which leaves you without the safety of knowing all will work out in the end, because really, how could it? It is not unlike the feeling I got in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, at the end of book two / beginning of book three. The uncertainty is a good think, I think. How would you know what life will bring?
Good story (unafraid to pull out the rug from under you), great ending (yearning for more), well-developed characters and suitable for YA without being bland and prudish (to the contrary, even!). Could I ask for more? Yes.
Could I have some more, please?
Having read several dozen novels since part one of this series (The Thief-taker's Apprentice) came out, I was, for the first time, happy to find these little recaps of book one. They were short, unobstrusive, and helped me really get back into the story, even if this one is less of a stand-alone than the last one. That also means I can't bloody wait for book three.
I like the relationship between Berren and Syannis. Master Sy does not become some overly righteous father figure, and Berren is not some obedient little boy with nothing but respect. They remain themselves; products of their environments. Syannis still does all kinds of things without even telling Berren about it, and Berren goes around doing all kinds of things of questionable repute.
The most annoying thing about this, of course, is that you still don't know what exactly the relationships are between the Emperor, the Sun-king and the people from Syannis' homeland. You can't help but share Berren's exasperation at the lack of understanding of how everything is connected, as Syannis is pretty much a bitter, broken man, leading to a very interesting ending of this novel, which I will not spoil.
The best thing about Berren is how he is with girls. The whole 'falling in love with the first girl you see' -which he more or less did in book one- is a staple in any boy's life, and one I was pretty much done with. Book two marks a certain growth in him in this respect. But what I love most is how his teenage mind just goes crazy whenever he glimpses breasts. And in a society like Deephaven, a little money goes a long way...
His attitude toward being trained by a girl is predictable, if understandable. Having grown up in an all-boys environment, beaten everyday by bigger boys and Master Hatchet, I suppose he would have trouble respecting a girl's martial prowess. Which makes it all the more fun when he gets his arse handed to him.
Saffran Kuy gets some new depth in this novel, and it is a disturbing abyss of depth. I'm not sure how he fits into all this, but apart from being creepy, his skills with the dead and the living alike have been giving disoncerting new facets. His skills are also the reason some of the "Adult" in "Young Adult" comes into play rather graphically.
All in all, I like how the story actually progressed. There is a real change in the possibilities of the story's end. I don't see how things could return to normal, which leaves you without the safety of knowing all will work out in the end, because really, how could it? It is not unlike the feeling I got in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy, at the end of book two / beginning of book three. The uncertainty is a good think, I think. How would you know what life will bring?
Good story (unafraid to pull out the rug from under you), great ending (yearning for more), well-developed characters and suitable for YA without being bland and prudish (to the contrary, even!). Could I ask for more? Yes.
Could I have some more, please?
August 11, 2012
Review
Ok so this isn't the memory of flames series. But i don't think it ever pretends to be. This is Young Adult Fiction, a genre that is riddled with cliched rubbish. Deas doesn't do that he doesn't talk down to these young readers and as such provides a series that is a spawning ground for imagination and draws new readers into one of the finest genres around. He provides great characters great locations a great world for you the readers to go to and forget reality. This is full on fantasy, just mildly toned down for the YA market and yet still providing a tale that me a 40 year old can enjoy as well.
Its fantastic work and recommended
(Parm)
Book description
Berren is not enjoying himself. Trapped in a temple, forced to learn how to read, how to write and how to recall the histories of the Saints, all he wants is to be given a sword. As a thief-taker's apprentice he imagined a world of daring night-time chases, glorious victories and a life of excitement. His dreams aren't quite coming true. So when a prince - the first and last prince he'll ever see - hires the thief-taker as a bodyguard, Berren is thrilled. When he hears that a troupe of Dragon Monks - exotic warriors and the best swordsmen in the world - are visiting, he sees an opportunity to learn how to fight. When one of the Monks turns out to be a girl of the same age, his future suddenly seems a lot brighter. But when a shadowy figure launches an attack on the life of Prince Sharda, Berren finds himself plunged into a world of danger, intrigue and terror. He may discover that being trained with a sword isn't enough - sometimes, you have to know who to fight. Sequel to the best-selling THE THIEF-TAKER'S APPRENTICE, THE WARLOCK'S SHADOW drags the reader back in to the nocturnal and dangerous world of Berren, orphan and reluctant hero. Perfect for readers of Trudi Canavan and Robin Hobb.
Ok so this isn't the memory of flames series. But i don't think it ever pretends to be. This is Young Adult Fiction, a genre that is riddled with cliched rubbish. Deas doesn't do that he doesn't talk down to these young readers and as such provides a series that is a spawning ground for imagination and draws new readers into one of the finest genres around. He provides great characters great locations a great world for you the readers to go to and forget reality. This is full on fantasy, just mildly toned down for the YA market and yet still providing a tale that me a 40 year old can enjoy as well.
Its fantastic work and recommended
(Parm)
Book description
Berren is not enjoying himself. Trapped in a temple, forced to learn how to read, how to write and how to recall the histories of the Saints, all he wants is to be given a sword. As a thief-taker's apprentice he imagined a world of daring night-time chases, glorious victories and a life of excitement. His dreams aren't quite coming true. So when a prince - the first and last prince he'll ever see - hires the thief-taker as a bodyguard, Berren is thrilled. When he hears that a troupe of Dragon Monks - exotic warriors and the best swordsmen in the world - are visiting, he sees an opportunity to learn how to fight. When one of the Monks turns out to be a girl of the same age, his future suddenly seems a lot brighter. But when a shadowy figure launches an attack on the life of Prince Sharda, Berren finds himself plunged into a world of danger, intrigue and terror. He may discover that being trained with a sword isn't enough - sometimes, you have to know who to fight. Sequel to the best-selling THE THIEF-TAKER'S APPRENTICE, THE WARLOCK'S SHADOW drags the reader back in to the nocturnal and dangerous world of Berren, orphan and reluctant hero. Perfect for readers of Trudi Canavan and Robin Hobb.
October 9, 2012
Berren is not enjoying himself. Trapped in a temple, forced to learn how to read & write, all he wants is to be given a sword. As a thief-taker's apprentice he imagined a world of daring night-time chases, glorious victories and a life of excitement. His dreams aren't quite coming true.
So when a prince hires the thief-taker as a bodyguard, Berren is thrilled. When he hears that a troupe of dragon-monks- exotic warriors and the best swords in the world- are visiting, he sees an opportunity to learn how to fight. When one of the Monks turns out to be a girl of the same age, his future suddenly seems a lot brighter.
But when a shadowy figure launches an assault on the life of Prince Sharda, Berren finds himself plunged into a world of danger, intrigue and terror. He may discover that being trained with a sword isn't enough - sometimes you have to know who to fight...
this is the second in a series (which i did know) and a YA novel (which i didnt, but did explain some of the writing style). over all, it didnt matter that i hadnt read the first book - Berren recaps enough to give him depth but not enough to overwhelm. i liked that the good guys were somewhat murky and the bad guy was nasty but no one guessed this til too late.
i liked that Tasahre had principles and stuck to them, even when they got her in trouble but that she did try to rescue and help Berren as much as possible - i really liked their friendship and i liked that while it could have blossomed into more, it didnt and wouldnt ... and neither character regretted that or pined etc.
i also liked the swashbuckling and adventure and Berren being a fairly credible 15 :) (ie he behaved like a teenager, who didnt know it all and didnt have superpowers)
So when a prince hires the thief-taker as a bodyguard, Berren is thrilled. When he hears that a troupe of dragon-monks- exotic warriors and the best swords in the world- are visiting, he sees an opportunity to learn how to fight. When one of the Monks turns out to be a girl of the same age, his future suddenly seems a lot brighter.
But when a shadowy figure launches an assault on the life of Prince Sharda, Berren finds himself plunged into a world of danger, intrigue and terror. He may discover that being trained with a sword isn't enough - sometimes you have to know who to fight...
this is the second in a series (which i did know) and a YA novel (which i didnt, but did explain some of the writing style). over all, it didnt matter that i hadnt read the first book - Berren recaps enough to give him depth but not enough to overwhelm. i liked that the good guys were somewhat murky and the bad guy was nasty but no one guessed this til too late.
i liked that Tasahre had principles and stuck to them, even when they got her in trouble but that she did try to rescue and help Berren as much as possible - i really liked their friendship and i liked that while it could have blossomed into more, it didnt and wouldnt ... and neither character regretted that or pined etc.
i also liked the swashbuckling and adventure and Berren being a fairly credible 15 :) (ie he behaved like a teenager, who didnt know it all and didnt have superpowers)
December 5, 2013
This was a really nice book. I enjoyed this one more than the first. Berren is really starting to grow into himself and learns some valuable life lessons at the end of the story. He is growing in a lot of ways but learns the most important lesson of all, his master has been teaching him about life and swords all along. And when realizes it, it may be too late.
What a great ending and interesting story line. Things are not as they seem in Deephaven and the intrigue and mystery in the book is very well done. Everything is revealed in the right moment.
Will Berren become the man he wants? Can he exercise the demons he has come to know? Can he come to the understanding that sometimes you jsut have to let the past go and shelf it? Only time will tell.
Saffran Kuy, what a devious little bastard he turned out to be. Can Syannis redeem himself and escape his current standing?
Deas has captured my imagination and went back to this series because of the Black Mausoleum books, his other series. I was told there were references in these books regarding the Taiteyeki (spelling) that tie into that series somehow.
I think Deas does a more than credible job here in expanding the world the book is set in. Just enough magic for the series with Saffran. Friendships come and go. But true friendships can be tested in ways we never imagine. Especially when our lives take turns we never expected them to take.
What happens next? I don't know. I just started the third book in the series. Hopefully this will continue to grow or come to a nice conclusion in this book.
Also, why is it so damn hard to get Deas's books here in the states. I know I read on an ereader. But some of these are very difficult to get a hold of. And pricey too.
What a great ending and interesting story line. Things are not as they seem in Deephaven and the intrigue and mystery in the book is very well done. Everything is revealed in the right moment.
Will Berren become the man he wants? Can he exercise the demons he has come to know? Can he come to the understanding that sometimes you jsut have to let the past go and shelf it? Only time will tell.
Saffran Kuy, what a devious little bastard he turned out to be. Can Syannis redeem himself and escape his current standing?
Deas has captured my imagination and went back to this series because of the Black Mausoleum books, his other series. I was told there were references in these books regarding the Taiteyeki (spelling) that tie into that series somehow.
I think Deas does a more than credible job here in expanding the world the book is set in. Just enough magic for the series with Saffran. Friendships come and go. But true friendships can be tested in ways we never imagine. Especially when our lives take turns we never expected them to take.
What happens next? I don't know. I just started the third book in the series. Hopefully this will continue to grow or come to a nice conclusion in this book.
Also, why is it so damn hard to get Deas's books here in the states. I know I read on an ereader. But some of these are very difficult to get a hold of. And pricey too.
August 25, 2014
Nice continuation of the series, it's 2 years since the Thief Takers Apprentice & the seemingly major open plot thread from that book has been resolved in the meantime. That might seem like a bit of a copout but it actually paves the way for a more interesting storyline that incorporates elements from the wider geopolitical scene of the world that features a visiting prince, dragon priests that happen to be master swordsman and Master Sy's past coming back to haunt him. I really like the way Berren is developed as a character, he's still training away & nowhere near being a full blown warrior/swordsman while his personality is developing wherein exposure to violence & it's effects begin to undermine his ambitions about what a life of violence really entails. The fantasy aspect of the world becomes more pronounced in this particularly near the end but it still very much exists on the fringes very much like the way sorcerers are banished to the fringes of the world's society. If the first one was a sort of Oliver Twist with swords, these feels like abit like A Song of Ice & Fire's royal one-upmanship as viewed by an outsider who only gets tantalising glimpses of the complete picture. Good stuff.
November 4, 2011
An engaging, quick read. Although Mr. Deas might be better known for his sweeping "Memory of Flames" saga, the Thief-Taker's Apprentice books are actually better. Young Berren is as compelling a character as any in the genre right now, and Deas deftly weaves is his tale with such feeling and poignancy that one cannot help but care about the little thief. This book and its predecessor are highly recommended.
January 8, 2016
Enjoyable enough (without being that remarkable) until the final 50 pages or so. After the showdown with the warlock guy it all just went a bit batshit, and I'm afraid I lost interest. Redeemed by the very end, which had a nice twist, and might just be enough to persuade me to read the next in the series (though I suspect there's going to be more of the crazy nonsense...)
November 25, 2014
Hu-humm...
February 2, 2017
Great book!
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