Shadowblack: Spellslinger, Book 2

De Castell’s second fantasy novel featuring Kellen, a 16-year-old mage “who combines whatever paltry magic he can muster with every trick he can learn to stay alive,” offers more of the same: a fast-paced story most likely to appeal to a teen audience. In the wake of the events of Spellslinger, Kellen, who has a price on his head, has been living as an outlaw for months, travelling with a “gambler who never gave [him] a straight answer” and the Rocket Raccoon–like Reichis, “a homicidal squirrel cat whose favorite food was human eyeballs.” The bounty on Kellen results in attempts on his life, and he meets someone who claims to have a cure for Kellen’s shadowblack, the so-called demon plague that gives him painful visions and manifests in black markings encircling Kellen’s left eye. The quest for survival and a cure, and the political machinations back in Kellen’s hometown, are familiar genre tropes, and De Castell’s variations on them aren’t novel enough to stand out. (Aug.)