Master storyteller Julie Kagawa concludes the enthralling journey into the heart of the fantastical Empire of Iwagoto in the third book of the Shadow of the Fox trilogy. As darkness rises and chaos reigns, a fierce kitsune and her shadowy protector will face down the greatest evil of all. A captivating fantasy for fans of Sabaa Tahir, Sarah J. Maas and Marie Lu.
Kitsune shapeshifter Yumeko has given up the final piece of the Scroll of a Thousand Prayers in order to save everyone she loves from imminent death. Now she and her ragtag band of companions must journey to the wild sea cliffs of Iwagoto in a desperate last-chance effort to stop the Master of Demons from calling upon the Great Kami dragon and making the wish that will plunge the empire into destruction and darkness.
Shadow clan assassin Kage Tatsumi has regained control of his body and agreed to a true deal with the devil—the demon inside him, Hakaimono. They will share his body and work with Yumeko and their companions to stop a madman and separate Hakaimono from Tatsumi and the cursed sword that had trapped the demon for nearly a millennium.
But even with their combined skills and powers, this most unlikely team of heroes knows the forces of evil may be impossible to overcome. And there is another player in the battle for the scroll, a player who has been watching, waiting for the right moment to pull strings that no one even realized existed…until now.
My Review
Thanks to the gang at HQ for sending me a copy of this book and organising the blog tour. I haven’t read either of the other books in this trilogy, so it was a bit of an adventure.
I realised by about chapter three that I will be buying the other books. I like the characters, they all seemed to bounce well off each other as companions; I found the ronin’s comments and banter with the shrine maiden very funny, and the alternating viewpoints of Tatsumi and Yumeko worked really well to tell the story of their developing relationship. Yumeko is so innocent and Tatsumi seems to be so conflicted, although it is obvious that he can control Hakaimono when he needs to and with Yumeko’s help.
This series is very immersed in Japanese historical culture, religious traditions and mythology. I am not going to make any assumptions, but I think the author has some Japanese heritage. I have been trying to read fantasy from different cultures than the European tradition that I grew up reading, and so far I have Japanese, Chinese, Indian and African authors on my TBR pile. Recommendations are always welcome. Especially Queer and/or Autistic fantasy/sci-fi, and Own Voices authors.
The plot is initially very simple. The company need to stop Genno from summoning the dragon on the last night of summer, and to do that they have to get to the coast and across to the island of the Moon clan. But things are not so easy. Genno has traps waiting for them. Tatsumi’s former clan head sends people to murder them. There are zombies and blood magic witches. There are nasties in the ocean. And that’s before they even get across to the islands.
It just gets worse after that.
It’s been a while since I read any YA fantasy but I used to read a lot, the genre got me through the worst years of my adolescence, I do go back to it now and then, since Tamora Pierce’s Immortals and Lioness Quartets are my comfort reads. Night of the Dragon is a damn good addition to the YA Fantasy corpus. It’s intelligent, funny, has depth and is really well written. I like the characters and the plot is complex enough to keep the reader entertained.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 