BOOK CLUB
The Deck Of Omens // Lady Of ShadowsWWW.SCIFINOW.CO.UK Tell us what you’re reading on Twitter or Facebook | 075The Deck
Of Omens
Hostile terror-tree
Release 21 April
Writer Christine Lynn Herman
Publisher Titan Books
Price £8.99This sequel to last year’s The
Devouring Gray picks up where
that book left off. Its teen heroes
have all come into their powers,
but none of them know how
to control them. Something is
threatening the creepy woods
beyond the town, as the trees start
attacking locals. And their parents
are all lying to them.
The strand of tree-based body
horror is pretty effective, and the
idea of corrupted nature taking
revenge feels pretty fi tting in
the era of climate crisis. But it
doesn’t really get enough space
to breathe. There’s a decent-sized
chunk of allegorical colonial guilt,Lady Of
Shadows
Wizards beware
Release 16 April
Writer Breanna Teintze
Publisher Jo Fletcher Books
Price £16.99After the events of Lord Of
Secrets, Corcoran Gray fi nds himself
dealing with the fallout and the effect
it has on his relationship with Brix.
However, he soon gets swept up in
Guild business. There’s a plague
killing wizards and amulets similar
to his own appear connected. Gray
is arrested by the Guild wizard Dace
and, together with Brix, they journey
to a city that might be the source of
the plague but is also connected to
Brix’s past and Gray’s future.
Lord Of Secrets was a fun start to
Gray’s story, one that established the
wise-cracking wizard with a reluctant
heart of gold, and his habit of
tangling with gods has not abated.The plague setup allows Breanna
Teintze to explore the politics of
this world further by travelling to a
city where Guild wizards are not
welcome. Gray’s outsider status still
works to provide an audience entry
point, his wry commentaries and
insights helping to establish those
political machinations. Teintze also
feels more comfortable handling
an ensemble of characters. The
secondary characters such as Brix
and newcomer Dace are afforded
more development with their
connections to the social structures
important to the city setting. Their
relationships with Gray are used
cleverly to highlight their differences,
and their similarities in a world with
rigid ideas and regulations.
With a decidedly creepy horror
element and a writer gaining in skill
and confi dence, Lady Of Shadows
shows an upward trajectory not only
for the character, but for the Empty
Gods series as a whole.
Becky Lea
as the kids fi nally fi nd out the
truth about the town’s founding
families, and there’s a lot of stuff
about intergenerational confl ict.
But then there’s also a teetering
pile of coming-of-age angst and
arcane mythology to get through.
Really, it’s too much for one
novel. The way the narrative
jumps doesn’t help – it’s admirable
that each of the central characters
has their own set of problems
and powers, but they’re all pretty
samey. There’s so much jammed in
that the overall effect is like binge-
watching a TV show where all the
characters look alike. None of the
fi rst book’s creepy atmosphere has
carried over, and it all starts to get
a bit exhausting.
If a dialogue box popped up
halfway through this book to ask
if you wanted to keep going, it’d
probably only be the inertia of not
wanting to get off the sofa that’d
get you through to the end.
Sarah Lines
074-075_SFN_170 4xBooks.indd 75 17/03/2020 18:33BOOK CLUB
The Deck Of Omens // Lady Of ShadowsWWW.SCIFINOW.CO.UK Tell us what you’re reading on Twitter or Facebook | 075The Deck
Of Omens
Hostile terror-tree
Release 21 April
Writer Christine Lynn Herman
Publisher Titan Books
Price £8.99
This sequel to last year’s The
Devouring Gray picks up where
that book left off. Its teen heroes
have all come into their powers,
but none of them know how
to control them. Something is
threatening the creepy woods
beyond the town, as the trees start
attacking locals. And their parents
are all lying to them.
The strand of tree-based body
horror is pretty effective, and the
idea of corrupted nature taking
revenge feels pretty fi tting in
the era of climate crisis. But it
doesn’t really get enough space
to breathe. There’s a decent-sized
chunk of allegorical colonial guilt,
Lady Of
Shadows
Wizards beware
Release 16 April
Writer Breanna Teintze
Publisher Jo Fletcher Books
Price £16.99After the events of Lord Of
Secrets, Corcoran Gray fi nds himself
dealing with the fallout and the effect
it has on his relationship with Brix.
However, he soon gets swept up in
Guild business. There’s a plague
killing wizards and amulets similar
to his own appear connected. Gray
is arrested by the Guild wizard Dace
and, together with Brix, they journey
to a city that might be the source of
the plague but is also connected to
Brix’s past and Gray’s future.
Lord Of Secrets was a fun start to
Gray’s story, one that established the
wise-cracking wizard with a reluctant
heart of gold, and his habit of
tangling with gods has not abated.The plague setup allows Breanna
Teintze to explore the politics of
this world further by travelling to a
city where Guild wizards are not
welcome. Gray’s outsider status still
works to provide an audience entry
point, his wry commentaries and
insights helping to establish those
political machinations. Teintze also
feels more comfortable handling
an ensemble of characters. The
secondary characters such as Brix
and newcomer Dace are afforded
more development with their
connections to the social structures
important to the city setting. Their
relationships with Gray are used
cleverly to highlight their differences,
and their similarities in a world with
rigid ideas and regulations.
With a decidedly creepy horror
element and a writer gaining in skill
and confi dence, Lady Of Shadows
shows an upward trajectory not only
for the character, but for the Empty
Gods series as a whole.
Becky Lea
as the kids fi nally fi nd out the
truth about the town’s founding
families, and there’s a lot of stuff
about intergenerational confl ict.
But then there’s also a teetering
pile of coming-of-age angst and
arcane mythology to get through.
Really, it’s too much for one
novel. The way the narrative
jumps doesn’t help – it’s admirable
that each of the central characters
has their own set of problems
and powers, but they’re all pretty
samey. There’s so much jammed in
that the overall effect is like binge-
watching a TV show where all the
characters look alike. None of the
fi rst book’s creepy atmosphere has
carried over, and it all starts to get
a bit exhausting.
If a dialogue box popped up
halfway through this book to ask
if you wanted to keep going, it’d
probably only be the inertia of not
wanting to get off the sofa that’d
get you through to the end.
Sarah Lines