Shadow of the fox

No cover — Julie Kagawa: Shadow of the fox (2018)

409 pages

English language

Published Feb. 13, 2018

ISBN:: 978-1-335-14516-1
OCLC Number:: 1048615402

(1 review)

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish--and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos. Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn. Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple's greatest treasure--one part of the ancient scroll. There are are many who would claim the dragon's wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under …

One thousand years ago, the great Kami Dragon was summoned to grant a single terrible wish--and the land of Iwagoto was plunged into an age of darkness and chaos. Now, for whoever holds the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers, a new wish will be granted. A new age is about to dawn. Raised by monks in the isolated Silent Winds temple, Yumeko has trained all her life to hide her yokai nature. Half kitsune, half human, her skill with illusion is matched only by her penchant for mischief. Until the day her home is burned to the ground, her adoptive family is brutally slain and she is forced to flee for her life with the temple's greatest treasure--one part of the ancient scroll. There are are many who would claim the dragon's wish for their own. Kage Tatsumi, a mysterious samurai of the Shadow Clan, is one such hunter, under orders to retrieve the scroll, at any cost. Fate brings Kage and Yumeko together. With a promise to lead him to the scroll, an uneasy alliance is formed, offering Yumeko her best hope for survival. But he seeks what she has hidden away, and her deception could ultimately tear them both apart. With an army of demons at her heels and the unlikeliest of allies at her side, Yumeko's secrets are more than a matter of life or death. They are the key to the fate of the world itself.

1 edition

the_lirazel reviewed Shadow of the fox by Julie Kagawa (Book 1 of the Shadow of the fox trilogy)

Review of 'Shadow of the fox' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.0 stars

In most ways, this is your standard YA fantasy novel. Plot, characters, prose, and the beginnings of a romance are all things we've seen before. While many YA fantasy readers enjoy retreadings of these things and will enjoy the book on those merits, I am exhausted by them and only want to read YA fantasy when it has something new to offer.

Thankfully, this book does. Its appeal, for me, is entirely built on reading such a standard story set in a world that hasn't been done to death. The use of Japanese mythology and folklore is a lot of fun and kept me interested when I might otherwise have found something else to read. The ending hinted at further interesting worldbuilding, too, which was a nice note on which to end the first book …

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.0 stars

In most ways, this is your standard YA fantasy novel. Plot, characters, prose, and the beginnings of a romance are all things we've seen before. While many YA fantasy readers enjoy retreadings of these things and will enjoy the book on those merits, I am exhausted by them and only want to read YA fantasy when it has something new to offer.

Thankfully, this book does. Its appeal, for me, is entirely built on reading such a standard story set in a world that hasn't been done to death. The use of Japanese mythology and folklore is a lot of fun and kept me interested when I might otherwise have found something else to read. The ending hinted at further interesting worldbuilding, too, which was a nice note on which to end the first book of a series. I'm sure the book will be very successful; hopefully, it will inspire more writers to explore less familiar worlds in which to set their stories.

As an aside, I do hope there's a glossary in the final edition; it would be very helpful for all the unfamiliar words.

Subjects

Assassins
Scrolls
Samurai
Ykai (Japanese folklore)
Fiction
Fantasy
Shapeshifting
Dragons
Demonology
Good and evil