WoW: Siege and Storm and Audiobook Review: Shadow and Bone

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

So this post is a two-in-one. It's a Waiting on Wednesday for one of my most anticipated reads of 2012... AND a review of the book that precedes it.

So I'm impatiently waiting for:

Siege and Storm

by Leigh Bardugo

To be published by Henry Holt

on June 4, 2013

Okay, if you've read Shadow and Bone, you're probably dying for this book too.

If you haven't read Shadow and Bone, you've got to!  Luckily, you still have time before Siege and Storm comes out.

Book one, Shadow and Bone, was SO good. And you know that I don't even love fantasy all that much. So here's an....

Shadow and Bone

by Leigh Bardugo

Published by Henry Holt

on June 5, 2012

Length: 8 hours, 55 minutes

Narrator: Lauren Fortgang

Source: bought from Audible.com

My summary: Many years ago, The Dark Heretic sliced the nation of Ravka in half. The so-called Shadow Fold is a no man's land, the domain of fearsome, carnivorous beasts called Volkra. Supported by the largesse of a duke, Alina and fellow orphan Mal join the military, Alina as a mapmaker and Mal as a tracker. One day, they are both on an expedition across the Shadow Fold when their party is attacked by Volkra. To Alina's astonishment, she is suddenly able to conjure up the power to save Mal. She's told that she is a Sun Summoner and whisked to live among the elite Grisha and trained to fight and use her magic. Alina becomes the protégé of the handsome, mysterious Darkling, who tells her that together, the two of them they can eradicate the Shadow Fold and liberate Ravka. That is, if Alina can survive the pressure of court life, her insecurities and the Darkling's seductive pull.  

My take: I don't read a lot of fantasy, but I LOVED this book. It has elements of magic, fantastic creatures, make-believe lands... but it's also just entertaining storytelling at its best. Don't miss it. I'm serious!

Alina, the orphan, discovers she is the Sun Summoner.  Whisked into a new life, she encounters mentor figures and training sequences and magical objects and scheming rivals and difficult trials -- all the usual fantasy stuff. She starts out weak and self-pitying, and has to grow tremendously as a character by the end, facing impossible choices. She's also pretty snarky, which I find hard to resist.

Then there's The Darkling.  I imagined him as sort of the hot younger brother of your favorite bad boy of choice: Darth Vadar, Voldemort, etc. He's ruthless, charismatic, fearsome, and yet seems utterly alone.

As if that weren't enough, there's also court intrigue, the creepy flesh-eating Volkra, and a scene in the dark winter woods that made me gasp out loud. All of this is mixed together and infused with a Russian-inspired atmosphere. It's flat-out addictive. By the end of the prologue, I was hooked.

Lauren Fortgang, the narrator, did an amazing job with the audiobook, giving each character a different voice without sounding cheesy or weird. She did an especially good job capturing Alina's slightly snarky, self-deprecating personality.

At first, I felt at a slight disadvantage with the audiobook because I'm a very visual reader and felt frustrated that I couldn't picture some of the unfamiliar words in my head. Grisha, volkra, oprichniki, etherealki, corporalki, materialki. But pretty soon I figured it out. After I finished listening, I checked out a few reviews and was amused to discover that those who had read the print book wanted to know how the words are pronounced. I know!

If you love audiobooks, this is a great one. If you have already read Shadow and Bone and need a refresher for Siege and Storm, I highly recommend the audiobook.

And let's hope that my Waiting on Wednesday good luck holds out, because I am DYING to find out what happens next in this story!