Hello bookish people,
For this new episode of the Book series & Me, I will talk about the Spellslinger series by Sebatien de Castell.
An overview of the series
This series is a six books series that follows Kellen, a Jen’Tep who doesn’t have the power he should have and is exiled/run away because he wore around his eye the Shadowblack. This series was written by Sebastien de Castell and published by Hot Key Books and Orbit.
Book by book
Book 1: Spellslinger
Summary: Magic is a con game. Kellen is moments away from facing his first mage’s duel and the start of four trials that will make him a spellcaster. There’s just one problem: his magic is gone. As his sixteenth birthday approaches, Kellen falls back on his cunning in a bid to avoid total disgrace. But when a daring stranger arrives in town, she challenges Kellen to take a different path. Ferius Parfax is one of the mysterious Argosi – a traveller who lives by her wits and the three decks of cards she carries. She’s difficult and unpredictable, but she may be Kellen’s only hope…
Book 2: Shadowblack
Summary: It’s a few months since Kellen left his people behind. Now aged sixteen, Kellen is an outlaw, relying on his wits to keep him alive in the land of the Seven Sands. He misses home, he misses family and more than anything, he misses Nephenia, the girl he left behind.
Then he meets Seneira, a blindfolded girl who isn’t blind, and who carries a secret that’s all too familiar to Kellen. Kellen and Ferius resolve to help – but the stakes are far higher than they realise. A Shadowblack plague is taking hold – and Kellen can’t help but suspect his own people may even be behind it.
Book 3: Charmcaster
Summary: Kellen has begun to master his spellslinging and the Argosi tricks for staying alive, and he and Reichis have found a career that suits them both: taking down mercenary mages who make people’s lives miserable. But Ferius is concerned that Kellen is courting disaster . . .
Book 4: Soulbinder
Summary: Kellen and his murderous squirrel cat, Reichis, are on their own. They’ve heard rumour of a mythical monastery, known as the Ebony Abbey. It’s a place that outsiders can never find – but Kellen is getting desperate. He’s been told that the monks inside the Ebony Abbey know more about the Shadowblack than anyone else – and that they even know how to cure it.Then Kellen and Reichis are separated and for the first time, Kellen must face the world alone – and venture deeper into shadow magic than he ever knew he could.
Book 5: Queenslayer
Summary: Kellen and Reichis have just finished fighting a duel in the desert when Kellen inadvertently smears blood on the Daroman flag – an act of treason for which the Marshals have no choice but to arrest him. Just before he’s put before the Queen to be executed, Kellen is given a strange piece of advice from one of his fellow prisoners: kill the Queen and he’ll be given clemency by those who take power. But when Kellen comes face-to-face with the eleven year-old monarch, he realises she’s vastly smarter than he expected – and in a great deal more danger.
Book 6: Crownbreaker
Summary: Kellen and Reichis are settling into their new lives as protectors of the young queen and dealing with the constantly shifting threats to her reign and to her life. For the first time in his life, Kellen feels as if he’s becoming the kind of man that his mentor Ferius had wanted him to be. Even Reichis has come to appreciate having a noble purpose – so long as no one minds him committing the occasional act of theft from the royal treasury.
But what seems to be a simple card game between Kellen and an old man is soon revealed to be a deadly game of wits in which a powerful mage has trapped the queen’s spellslinger in order to kill him.
Did I like it and is this series worth it?
The series is, for me, divided into two parts: the first with the first three books and the second with the last three ones. My favourite part was the first one and especially the third book Charmcaster.
I start reading this series during Becca’s 48H Bookoplathon. I decided to read it as Jade from Jaderaeread loved this series, and it seems like a good one. So I started to read it, and as I liked the first book, I decided to continue with the pace of one every two months. However, after the third book, I didn’t have time to read the fourth one on the due month, so I changed the month. The problem was that I couldn’t read it like at all, so I decided to read it in mixed media: physical and audiobook. I really liked the audiobook, so I decided to continue the series. In January of this year, I decided to finish this series, so I read book five, and the disappointment was here. The thing is that it didn’t make me want to read the sixth and final book. I finished by DNF it as I realised that I don’t care about the series anymore.
It’s not that it’s a bad series or bad books, just that it wasn’t for me. Many people liked this series, and it can be a great series when you start in the epic fantasy genre as you have a very complex world. However, I think the repetitions in the dialogue or the construction didn’t help me dive into this world.
So worth it? Yes and no, for this one, it will only be you reading this series who can say if it’s or not worth it.
Full reviews: book 1, book 2, book 3, book 4, book 5, book 6
Do I will continue to read Sebastien de Castell’s books?
No, I won’t, I know there are some .5 in this series, and he has another series, Greatcoats, but I won’t read them. I’m not interested, and his writing didn’t stay with me. They may be good series or books but not for me.
To know more about Sebastien de Castell and his books: https://decastell.com
Did you read this series? If yes, what your thoughts about it? Are you interest to read it if you didn’t?
See you next time,
Liz.
Books & Reviews 