This book gives the same vibes as JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Ring series as the narrator recalls his epic tale of battles against an evil villain and various magical creatures. Cetrik is a young, foolish boy who sets off on a hunt for a mysterious assassin he has read about named Locan A'Shadow. Cetrik finds Locan, and they travel on grand adventures through the North lands, chasing after an ancient Vampyre who utilizes elven magic and blood magic to strengthen himself. Locan and Cetrik must work together to stop the Vampyre from conquering the world.

The story moves quickly and has interesting twists that keep the reader on the edge of their seat, eager for more. With tropes such as found family, epic quest, ragtag heroes, good vs. evil, and misguided mentor, this is a fantastic novel for adult readers beginning to enter into fantasy reading. While many themes are young adult, there are gory battles, blood magic scenes, and graphic child murders that are intended for an older audience. The epic tale, magic, and creatures drew me into this story. Though it is a slow starter, the story pace increases steadily, leading to the final battle.

A very good story well told. The story is told by Cetrik who, at 18, has heard and read many stories about the assassin Locan A'Shadow. Cetrik decides to go and find Locan, to meet the legend. Well, he does find him, even if it is completely by accident, and gets drawn into an adventure he could never have imagined in his wildest dreams. Great characters. Cetrik is really naïve to start with, but comes into his own eventually. Locan is a very morally grey fellow. He may be the best assassin but he's also very selfish, only doing something if he'll get something out of it for himself. The battle scenes are well described and exciting. The author is new-to-me and I enjoyed this so much I'll be going to look for his Erland Saga series so I can enjoy more of his work.
Thanks to Netgalley, Second Sky Books, and R.S. Moule for the free ARC. All opinions are my own.

This was a solid story. I am a sucker for assassin stories and I couldn't resist. We have vampyre and elves and assassins...come on! What's not to like!

Looking for a book about cynical assassins and naive, but sympatic nobels plus some mysterious elves? This one is for you! I read the whole novel in 3 days and it was the best book in months. Fans of Tad Williams and Patrick Rothfuss will very likely love this high fantasy quest narrative that combines beloved tropes and changes them in surprising ways. Great story!

First time I've read anything by this author but I completely enjoyed it even though it does start at slow but I tend to find that when a fantasy does that it not only helps with the world building but also with the characters as well as the plot of the story. Because it helps you to see the world and the characters come to life as well as getting to understand them a little bit better. And sometimes even make the story an even more enjoyable reading experience which in thus it worked.

Solid debut by an emerging author, slower beginning, but compelling ending.

I've read Mr. Moule's other series a while back, and enjoyed that plenty. (Seriously, check out the "Erland Saga", this is Game of Thrones on a smaller scale, but wrapped up and completed after 2000 combined pages of skilled storytelling). I was pleased to see that he is now creating a new series with comparisons to Jay Kristoff's work, so I was easily confused to give this a read too. I liked this well. It wasn't perfect, not at all, but it is a decent first book that has me interested in the forthcoming sequels (the ending hints at some interesting stuff too). My main nitpick was that the book took a while to get going, and it took some time for the main characters to really grow on me. But all eventually worked out well, and the last 20% of this book shined.

"The Assassin's Shadow" follows a young nobleman Cetrik (who is more than your usual dandy) who teams up with seemingly nihilistic assassin Locan A'Shadow to combat an old enemy of the latter- this being a cruel vampyre hell-bent on ravaging the tribes and villages of Narlond. Their relationship is tense, in more ways than one, but their goals remain the same to slay the vampyre. Other notable characters show up- such as Urlissa the elf healer, and Elbows the religiously devout tribesman. These side characters (including some notable spoiler ones that show up more than halfway through) were developed well too. In regards to the story, there wasn't much that I haven't seen before, but Moule enhances much of this, crafting unexpected plot twists (his specialty in his previous series) and writing quality action.

Once again, a solid debut. Hopefully more exciting adventures to come!