Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass

Product Details
Pub. Date: January 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 352pp
ISBN-13: 9781439156797
ISBN: 1439156794

Synopsis
For Kira Solomon, normal was never an option.


Kira's day job is as an antiquities expert, but her true calling is as a Shadowchaser. Trained from youth to be one of the most lethal Chasers in existence, Kira serves the Gilead Commission, dispatching the Fallen who sow discord and chaos. Of course, sometimes Gilead bureaucracy is as much a thorn in her side as anything the Fallen can muster against her. Right now, though, she's got a bigger problem. Someone is turning the city of Atlanta upside down in search of a millennia-old Egyptian dagger that just happens to have fallen into Kira's hands.

Then there's Khefar, the dagger's true owner — a near-immortal 4,000-year-old Nubian warrior who, Kira has to admit, looks pretty fine for his age. Joining forces is the only way to keep the weapon safe from the sinister Shadow forces, but now Kira is in deep with someone who holds more secrets than she does, the one person who knows just how treacherous this fight is. Because every step closer to destroying the enemy is a step closer to losing herself to Shadow forever....

My thoughts:
I continue to be impresses with the fantasy/science fiction choices made for the Sci-Fi Pocket Blog book tours. I think perhaps I have had the wrong impression of fantasy books for a long time or didn't quite realize what was in the genre. Kira's character really intrigued me. When I started it I was reminded of one of the X-Men characters, I've never read the comics but saw the movies. Anna Paquin played her and she was a girl who couldn't touch anyone with her bare hands because she would drain them of energy (or something like that, i was never totally clear on what she was taking from them). Kira has a similar affliction, because of her powers she cannot touch anyone with taking away their energy and possibly killing them or putting them into a coma. Can you imagine how lonely it would be to go through life never being able to touch anyone in anyway? No kisses or hugs, no holding hands or anything more.

Kira was a likable character who really wanted to do the right thing. I enjoyed Nanse as well, he was quite the character but I don't want to reveal anything that might take away from the story for another reader. I wondered from the ending if Glass was setting this up to be the first in a series, she makes it seem as if Kira has some more battles to fight and goals to meet but nowhere on the book does it say it is number one of a series. Perhaps it depends on how well the first one sells whether or not the publisher will release a second one.

I find that I am liking these stories with people who have special powers. It adds a new element to my reading! Also I liked how gods and myths were pulled in to add to the story. I would recommend this book to other readers and as I said in the first sentence, I am so glad I was introduced to this author and had the chance to read her book. On my own I might not have picked this one up (although that might have had more to do with my towering TBR piles than the book not appealing to me!).