In Shadows We Fall by Devin Madson
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

In Shadows We Fall is an Asian inspired fantasy that won the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novella in 2017, and it’s a well-deserved achievement.

I was away on a one week vacation and I barely had time to read anything except during my airplane ride. For this reason, I needed a novella or something short to fill my reading needs and I chose this book randomly because guess what? You can actually get this 108 pages novella for free just by subscribing to the author’s mailing list, which is an amazing gift. I’ll try to keep my review as brief as possible because this is a short book and I don’t want to spoil anything for future readers.

In my opinion, a prequel novella should be able to spark readers’ interest in the main series without having the readers feeling lost or like they’re missing something by not reading the main series first, and this novella succeeded wonderfully on that front. Like I said, In Shadows We Fall is an Asian (mostly Japanese) influenced fantasy novella and as an Asian myself, I always appreciate authors who do their research and implement Asian culture in their novels. This novella was an engaging experience for me; although it was only an hour read, the book provided the necessary amount of information regarding its characterizations, world-building, culture, and magic system to make sure the reader is compelled to finish the book and is looking forward to reading more about this world. For example, after reading this I’m very eager to find out about what journey lies ahead for one of the side characters, the three-year-old boy (an Empath: someone with an ability to feel other people’s emotions), Takehiko Otako, who also turns out to be one of the main characters for Madson’s Vengeance trilogy.

The tension and characterizations packed into this short book was a pleasant surprise. The main character, Empress Li, is out of favor at court. Judged for being foreign-born, and because she’s past her prime age, she’s bound to be set aside soon. The story focused on her determination to not go down quietly and at the same time, her efforts to stop Emperor Lan from signing a secret alliance that’s capable of breaking the empire apart. It’s not an easy job to build a completely new and well-fleshed-out character with clear and believable motivations within the scope of a mere 100 pages; Madson executed this with finesse. The action scenes were also great, and the prose was very well-polished with no typos.

There were two minor downsides I found while reading the book (if you can call these downsides). Firstly, it was too short; I wanted more! (Like I said, not a real issue.) I also have a strong feeling that I would enjoy this novella even more once I’ve read at least the first book of the main trilogy. (Once again, not an issue). In other words: I simply need to read more stories from this world and series.

Overall, In Shadows We Fall was an enthralling and evocative read. Great Asian influenced fantasy novels are very rare to find these days. After reading this, I have a good feeling that the main trilogy will be able to satisfy my insatiable craving for more amazing Asian-inspired epic fantasy. Honestly speaking, I rarely add books to my TBR these days but this novella immediately made me add the main trilogy to my TBR upon finishing it. In fact, I’m even putting Madson’s Vengeance trilogy into my priority reading list for the year. The novella was only 108 pages long and I was completely engaged the whole time; I ignored my surroundings during my read and now I’m definitely looking forward to reading more about the characters, the magic, and the world of Kisia.

For those of you who are interested in Madson’s main series and find yourself wondering whether you should get to it or not, this novella serves as a delicious appetizer before getting to her main course; I’ll get back to you on the main course’s taste within this year once I’m done devouring them. Meanwhile, I highly recommend this novella for anyone who’s looking for a short and marvelous Asian-inspired fantasy novella to read.

You can purchase a copy of the book here, with free shipping worldwide!

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