Okay. This cannot be the same person that wrote the Shadow and Bone trilogy. It just cannot be. While I did like those books, I didn’t love those books. I adore this one. Honestly, I decided to read this first book in the Six of Crows duology just to catch up before watching the Netflix show which apparently blends both series. I had read that these books were better but was flabbergasted by how much better. I don’t mean to harp on Bardugo here but where was this level of writing in the trilogy? Were the first three books just a great big learning curve?
Six of Crows is a gritty fantasy brimming with mismatched plaid, steampunk and magic. Often described as a “heist” story (and heisting is involved), it was more of a love story to me. Messy, complicated, impossible L-O-V-E. Unlike the Shadow and Bone series (yes, I will continue to harp on this), it wasn’t bogged down with too many weird fake-y Russian words. The seedy Barrel and the pristine Ice Court were rendered so much more clearly than Ravka and the little Palace ever were. I kinda want her to go back and re-write those books with this level of detail, character development and CHEMISTRY.
It’s so weird to be writing a review like this. I’m not sure that I have ever been so blindsided by an author. I had too look up the publication dates.There are only 3 years between the first Shadow and Bone book and Six of Crows. What happened??? If ever there was an example of practice, practice, practice…here it is folks. This book was fantastic and I cannot wait to read the second in this series.
