SpellSlinger Review

Paperback, 410 Pages
YA/ Fantasy
By: Sebastien De Castell
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 3/4

“First thing you learn wandering the long roads, kid. Everyone thinks they’re the hero of their own story.”

🌟 This is the first book I read by De Castell and definitely not the last. I have been interested in his Greatcoats series but wanted to start this one first because I heard that one was better and I wanted to see how he writes for different audiences.

🌟 The writing is easy to follow, I think it fits perfectly for a YA book. There is banter, a couple of laughs here and there but sometimes it felt a bit juvenile! Now, there is something that kind of bothered me, I am usually not offended by anything in books but there were a couple of times where the author fat-shamed characters and it did not add anything to the story, it was not used in a good way. I think some readers may be hurt by this so I am just pointing it out!

“ My people have a lot of spells, but non that cure being fat and pockmarked. ”

🌟 The characters were 15 and 16 years old which is the appropriate age for YA novels, but it has been a while since I read characters this young. Kellen has a good character-development through the book and the whole magician (Jan’Tep) vs Non-magicians (Sha’Tep) thing was something I enjoyed reading about. There is a lot of secrets and characters who change in this book which is also good.

🌟 The plot is kind of predictable as usual in YA books with my experience, the fact that the covers of the rest of the series reveal more things when you start the book made things even more predictable, there are many hidden details in them so when you start to know the world, these will be more obvious. The book was fast-paced though and I miss fast-pacing so that was good. I also liked the ending and there are a lot of possibilities where this can go!

🌟 The world building is good but it certainly had more potential, the circles and magic stuff on the back cover of the book made me think we will have a complex magical system like Sanderson’s systems but it was simple and not very original! The people have 6 bands on their hands corresponding to different elements and they usually spark one of them to use magic, most spark one or two with few magicians sparking all of them, I thought we will have more magic and combination of these bands but it was much more simple than that!

“History is written by the victors,’ she said, ‘but the truth has a way of revealing itself.”

🌟 Summary: The story is a good one for the YA audience whom it is directed to, the writing was good and so were the characters but the story obviously have more in store and I hope it steps up the game in the next books! I will continue this and will start the Greatcoats series too soon!

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🌟 This short story is a once scene from book 1 and I actually enjoyed it very much! I think it should have been integrated into the story because it involves the 2 unique women in this series, I think it is worth reading for those continuing the series!