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!