Blurb
Kahlaran hasn’t had a djinn in decades. At least none that they know of.
Zaira has so far successfully avoided being found out as a wind spirit, steering clear of trouble and living the life of an ordinary human. Her luck finally runs out when she meets one of her own kind: a water djinn somehow hell-bent on evicting her for a murder she didn’t commit. Without her past djinn powers and the whole city against her, the odds of a happy ending are quite slim.
Luckily, she’s not alone. Forming a hasty alliance with fellow scapegoat and hot-headed mercenary Ezair, the pair has to navigate through the slums and shady brothels of the city, fighting guards, ghouls, magicians, and occasionally each other. But can they really overcome an enemy capable of peeking through every puddle, cup, and teardrop?
Goodreads –https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57324660-shackles-of-the-storm
Extract
Review
This is a bonus review because I was sent the book accidentally and agreed to review it as well as post the extract. I’m actually busy this week and already had a review booked in so I hadn’t planned to review this book until it arrived unexpectedly.
The book is set in an arabesque world, with djinn of the elements. Zaira is a wind djinn locked in a human body. For three years she has worked as a perfumer in the city of Kahlaran, for Osmi, a very elderly man. When one of their customers, the City Treasurer, dies after being given a new perfume, she is blamed by the Prince. A storm djinn appears to threaten her.
Ezair’s uncle is an investigator for the city guards. When his uncle is imprisoned, Ezair wants to know why. He suspects the true culprit is whispering in the Prince’s ear. But who is a mystery.
I decided by the time Ezair and Zaira met that it was the dodgy clerk who threatened the Prince’s brother, who’s either the storm djinn or his master. I’m not telling you if I was right, because that would be spoilering, I’ve read a lot of fantasy, sometimes I can pick up the story early.
I liked the characters of Zaira and Ezair, they are fun and their relationship is spiky but strong, working together to solve the case. This is a murder mystery, a thriller, racing against time to stop an unknown criminal.
The writing is decent, showing some moments of brilliance in description and flow. Sometimes collaborative writing can be disjointed, the different writers’ sections being obvious. Not in this case. It is very fluid and joined up.
The setting is stereotypically ‘Arabian’, deserts, trading, despots and djinn. It wasn’t bad as such, and the descriptions are quite evocative, but I don’t know, I feel a bit off somehow.
Overall, a decent fantasy mystery, good first novel.
Author Bio
Dar and Lory Kardenal are a pair of indie writers, and authors of the new fantasy novel Shackles of the Storm. Writing characters and creating worlds and stories on internet forums with other fantasy geeks for a decade, their first novel encompasses that experience to breathe life into the magical world of their work. In their other life they are Hungarian medical student and a neuroscientist on her way to PhD, and devoted servants of two cats.
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