In the Shadow of Lightning

This book is unfortunately a DNF at 25%.

The deck was stacked against this book with all the people I know who also got approved for an eARC either not really enjoying it or DNFing. I cannot pretend that I exist in a vacuum where I wasn't aware of that, and it for sure had an impact on my reading experience. And I also didn't get very far, and nothing about the book struck me as bad or egregiously done, so I cannot say I do not recommend the book. Perhaps its great. Maybe in a while from now I will try this again and be head over heels. Unfortunately, though, the reality currently is that I have spent 14 days trying to read this book and failing. In 14 days I should finish any audiobook of this length. And I just kept stopping and doing something else. Nothing about the book was sucking me in.

The magic seems incredibly similar to Allomancy from Mistborn, but without the narrative giving you enough explanation of what each type of godglass does, at least early on. I'm told there is a list in the physical version, but in the audiobook I was mostly trying to assess why something mattered and what it did. The book is primarily a murder mystery/detective novel with some elements of rebellion in the background, but I did not care about any of it. The characters did nothing to stick out to me so far. Again, none of these elements were bad. They just weren't captivating for me personally, either. I've heard very mixed things about Powder Mage as well, and this book certainly has scared me off of McClellan for awhile, at least.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy in exchange for an honest review.