Review: The Shadow Wand

The Shadow Wand by Laurie Forest
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The first two books in the The Black Witch Chronicles have given us interesting worldbuilding and a number of unique characters. Both books were told from protagonist Elloren Gardner's POV and as such, we've been limited by Elloren's age and inexperience. In this book, in contrast, we see a variety of POVs, including Elloren's, Yvan's, Aunt Vyvian's, Tierney's, Trystan's, Wynter's, and Thierren Stone's. The action is complex, taking place in both the Eastern and Western Realms, and we see a number of familiar faces, from the delightful Valasca and Chi Nam to the vile Marcus Vogel. The decision to keep Elloren and Yvan apart, so that they can train safely until they are ready to move against Vogel, seems early on to have been a very smart one. Yvan is attacked and the Vu Trin are quickly appalled by the extent of untrained Elloren's powers. In fact, they are so appalled there is dissent in the ranks and many of the Vu Trin want Elloren dead. The others, fewer in number, see her potential as a weapon, perhaps the only one, that can stop Vogel. Elloren is left with the difficult decision of returning to Gardneria and the "protection" of her fastmate, Lukas Grey, who she's been assured by her Vu Trin supporters, is honorable and friendly to their cause. Wait a minute... what?! In the first two novels readers may have found that the somewhat bland-seeming Lukas didn't seem very dedicated to Marcus Vogel's cause (that would be complete domination of Erthia) but it turns out that Lukas is a far, far more subversive Level Five Mage than one would have expected. And, though he's willing to confer his protection on Elloren, he is struggling with his feelings for her. Meanwhile, Elloren is lost in her feelings for Yvan. (Major spoilers therein, readers.) Elloren is still untrained, and though she possesses the Wand of Myth- the Zhilin wand- she's still having issues using it, both from her fear of a lack of control and from the wand seeming to be dormant. Marcus Vogel has far fewer problems with his wand, however. The Shadow Wand, and its shadow fire, grow in their terrible power. How will Elloren learn to fight and control her magic without giving away her identity as the true Black Witch of prophecy? The short answer is, she won't.

This third installment was less successful than the first two novels for me. The plethora of POVs made me feel that the central plot was getting muddied with a lot of subplots (some were interesting but we don't even see the Lupines in this one!) and the novel was very heavy on the romance angle between... Elloren and Lukas. (Telling you why would be a major spoiler.) I do have to say that Forest has built out the character of Lukas to be more interesting and to have greater depth than I expected. The hypocrisy of his family turns out to be as unpleasant as Elloren and her brothers' experience with her Aunt Vyvian. (And if you thought you hated Vyvian before, just wait until you see her in this one.) Additionally, I felt rather frustrated with Elloren herself. On the one hand, she spent most of her life dealing with being Carnissa Gardner's granddaughter and assuming she had no power because she was wielding a blocked wand. Suddenly she finds out she really does have great power and doesn't know anything about how to use it since she was never really trained. On the other hand, she was regularly feeling and accessing all kinds of fire and earth energy, could tell what kind of tree any kind of wood came from, and now she can wave a splinter and set the world on fire. (A bit of an eyeroll, reader.) She still cowers and wails about being afraid of everything but she's bold enough to punch Fallon Bane in the face? (Cheers!) Oh, and by the end of the book, she's like a warrior. Yes, it's quite the evolution over the last 100-150 pages of the novel. Similar abrupt changes are also seen in her relationship with Lukas, who just seems so much more mature for his age than Elloren. (It's true that she was so wrong about him...) Let's just say that Elloren is good at making the best of a challenging situation. Thank goodness for sanjire root... But fans of Yvan, don't despair. It's not what you think.

As Forest builds toward the endgame, she takes the reader on a rollercoaster ride over the course of 640 pages that felt scattered and with some plot digressions that felt as if the editing could have been tighter. But I'm still looking forward to the conclusion (presumably in the fourth book) in which Ren finally wields her Zhilin wand for the good of Erthia, hopefully with the full support of every tree still standing.

I received a Digital Review Copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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