Broken Blade

Written by Kelly McCullough

Narrated by Paul Boehmer

Once a fabled Blade of Namara, Aral Kingslayer fought for justice and his goddess alongside his familiar, a living shadow called Triss. Now with their goddess murdered and her temple destroyed, they are among the last of their kind. Surviving on the fringes of society, Aral becomes a drunken, broken, and wanted man, working whatever shadowy deal comes his way. Until a mysterious woman hires him to deliver a secret message—one that can either redeem him or doom him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Mar 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781452689876

Kelly McCullough

Kelly McCullough is the author of the adult fantasy series Webmage and Assassin's Blade. School for Sidekicks was his first novel for young readers. He lives in Wisconsin with his physics professor wife and a small herd of cats, all of whom he adores.

[quibee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not a bad story, set in a city where the protagonist is existing after everything he held dear has been taken away from him.
Although Aral used to be a member off an elite group called the Blades who meted out justice impartially on anyone, no matter what their social status, he now only uses his talents to earn enough money to drink himself to death.
The only thing holding him together is his familiar, Triss, a shade, who pretends to be his shadow and who helps him with the use of his shade and his special darkness type qualities. The familiar idea makes this a bit different to the usual typical "ruined hero who needs to be redeemed" storyline.
Triss urges him to accept a job from a woman who wants a message delivered. From a seemingly simple job, it morphs, as expected, into something highly dangerous, but ultimately highly rewarding.
Watching the development of the human/shadow dragon relationship and magical interaction is nice. More Triss would be even better.

[kenzen-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book left me slightly disappointed. It was very entertaining at first, but it suffered from being the first book in a new universe. The author, rather clumsily, added what I felt was too much exposition. Some things should have been revealed/explained later to make for an easier read. I might still pick up the second book of this series, because I have the hope that the author could focus more on the story and the characters.