Obsidian had potential. I liked the idea, the set up and the premise. I just didn’t feel it quite delivered on those things.
The characters were difficult to like. You didn’t get to know any of them, and their motivations were clouded.

Our ‘Black Witch’ was particularly hard to connect to. She has this supposed reputation although you never know exactly where this has come from. She also appears to fall in love at least three times in the space of a relatively short book. Her emotions made her fickle: it was as if her driving force was just finding who she could have next. She’s also extremely stubborn, to the point of brashness and arrogance. I have no idea why everyone is so loyal to her.

I also didn’t understand the magic system. Or, rather, I did, but I didn’t understand the rules. It felt like magic was the solution to every problem and their powers seem to manifest themselves in ways (or at convenient times) to just fix whatever it was going wrong. Lose someone you think you might love? No problem: you can suddenly access a power you’ve been avoiding your entire life and turn back time. There needed to be more structure to what this magic was capable of and how it should be wielded.

That being said, I did like the premise. There was also a genuine ‘good guy’ feel to the characters and they were trying to do the right thing, not just for themselves, but for everyone. There was tension and danger, and some actions were unpredictable once the magic got involved.
Not as satisfying as I wanted, but a book with strong potential.

This sounded like a fun, interesting read, and I’m always on the lookout for more queer fantasy, but this one just did not jive for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of the book. It's been a while. While the premise of the book was quite intriguing, it felt sluggish, the pacing was off, and I believe it could've been shorter.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me access to the advanced copy of this book to read.

To Angry Robots,

This book has now been on my shelf for more than a year, and I have been waiting for the right time to pick it up. However, it's now been 12 months and I haven't felt this book calling to me at any point. I am therefore deciding to finally take this book off my tbr.

I really apologise for the inconvenience.

"star rating is not accurate"

I was drawn to Obsidian because of the premise. It's a fascinating world of blood magic where a woman dares to defy the existing power structure to protect outcast clans. While Obsidian eventually turned into a good read--it gets better toward the middle and end--it was slow to start. Additionally, it was difficult to overcome the feeling of being thrust into the middle of something without enough information. For instance, Nox is working toward creating a veil but it takes a while before a veil is properly explained. I had assumptions about the veil but was still extremely frustrated by this because the story is all about being able to raise a veil. Once I was able to overcome this, I learned to appreciate the unique world and the characters, even if many remained two-dimensional. (3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars)

Shade Nox is wielder of blood magic - a Bloodwizard, known as the Black Witch by most. Her intent is to create a Veil over her community to protect them from all sorts of danger, especially the Unseen. But no one has raised such a Veil in over a hundred years. Also, Veils are controlled by the Brotherhood - a coterie that doesn't like others creating Veils - especially witches.

To create blood magic, witches (and wizards) must draw blood using a blade made from a special gem or mineral material. Shade wears obsidian daggers on her hips and she's highly skilled with them, able to draw blood and wield magic with the best of the Bloodwizards.

Shade doesn't lack for confidence, as evident by her plans to raise a Veil unlike any ever raised in living memory, and she's created more than a few enemies in her time, and she'll need to watch her back while she's forging ahead. Fortunately she's got a friend, Raiden, who is dedicated to Shade - but their affections for one another could also be a detriment to her work.

This book started off with a really powerful first few chapters that really set up Shade nicely I liked her confidence and the sense of always moving forward. The magic - culled from the blood of enemies and taken with a handmade blade of rare gems (or unusual rock, in the case of obsidian) was a nice touch.

But ultimately the book doesn't live up to the solid opening. The character of Shade doesn't grow through the course of the book. She remains a bit a of a two-dimensional character - with just a touch of romance mixed in the story.

The story itself is also a bit two-dimensional. It's rather singular focused with just minor disruptions acting as sub-plots.

The self-confidence of Shade we see early on, becomes cockiness or even arrogance as the book goes on and of course every male in the book is highly attracted to her - which in many ways makes her fighting skills with the obsidian blades very easy because she manages to charm them first. This has worked for a few characters throughout literary history, but typically there's more to the characters to really make this appear natural. That isn't the case here.

Ultimately, this doesn't stand out.

Looking for a good book? Obsidian, by Sarah J. Daley, is a fantasy with a lot of promise (of character and story) in the early pages but doesn't deliver a satisfying follow-through.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A fast paced fantasy about a young wizard who rebels against the expectations of the world she lives in while trying desperately to become the person she had always wanted to be

The premise was super interesting but this was a bit slow to start and sadly, felt like it packed proper pacing. I found the world not quite as detailed as I needed to help fill in the gaps and overall just wanted more action to keep me hooked and invested.

I wasn't sure what to expect coming in to this, but the synopsis sounded interesting so I gave it a go. It wasn't that it was bad—it just read like an early draft. The pacing was off and the characters weren't fully fleshed out. I wish I could give it a better rating because there were some parts I enjoyed, but overall it was still a two star read.

The cover intrigued me. I really enjoyed the magic system and the world that Sarah Daley created. The themes that are explored in Obsidian are ones of friendship, power and sacrifice. I am interested to see what comes next for Sarah Daley

It took me a little while to get into this with the writing style, but found the further in you got the more it flowed. I really enjoyed the magic system in the book, but it does come with a TW of cutting. I found myself invested innthe characters and loved Shade, a confident kick arse female mc.

Obsidian – Sarah J Daley



I was given a copy of this book by the publisher in order to provide an honest review.



Sarah J Daley is an American author who hails from the Chicago area. She was previously a chef but now enjoys writing full time. “Obsidian” is her first novel.



Malavita is a land affected by the blight. A taint left on the land, a remnant of the long ago battle between the Sicani, ancient and powerful magic wielders, and the Unseen, demons that work in the shadows.

There are those who are doing what they can to stop the blight’s progression across the lands of Malavita. The Golodrina tend the fragile qaraz, the magic lines, that help protect the land and the people against the blight. But the more it is polluted by the blight the more the land and the people suffer.

The only solution is to erect a magical veil that will help protect the land and the people of Malavita. The only problem with this is that the raising of a veil requires immense power and a set of magical stones – stones that are closely guarded by the Brotherhood. An order of priests who over time have slowly lost their way and true purpose – now they are corrupted by the very things they supposedly strive to protect the people from.

Only one person in Malavita stands a chance of erecting a new veil – Shade Nox, or as some know her, the Black Witch. She will have many obstacles and prejudices to overcome if she is to achieve her dream and save Malavita. But what will she need to sacrifice to achieve her dreams, is it something she is prepared to pay....



“Obsidian” is a dark fantasy tale that has a very intense story line. Shade Nox is your heroine who has been painted into a box that does not fit her and has had to fight for what she has and to live the life she has chosen – but she has a past that still haunts her. Raiden Mad is the seventh and most expendable son of an Emperor, exiled to Malavita on a mission that would most likely mean his death. I liked the journey the author took us on with Raiden and with Shade – they had good character growth and had relatable issues, dark past and parental issues. Overall the story was intense and spell binding with lots of action that seized the readers’ attention from start to finish.

Shade Nox is the only witch in a land of wizards – a fiend, a rogue, a wanted criminal.

Defying those who think her an abomination, Shade wears her tattoos openly and carries obsidian blades at her hips. For years, she has protected the outcast clans who wander the blighted Wastes, but the land is growing more unstable and her blades are no longer enough.

To save her people, Shade vows to raise a Veil of protection – a feat not accomplished in over a hundred years. But the magical Veils are said to belong to the Brotherhood church; if she succeeds in raising one, it will expose their lies. They swear to see her obliterated first.

Treading a dangerous path where allies can be as deceitful as enemies, and where demons lurk in the shadows, Shade chases a vision which could lead to her people’s salvation… or her own destruction.

-------------------------

It's a dark epic fantasy book. I'm a huge fan of grim dark fantasy and somehow this book just felt flat to me. I want to enjoy it but it's so bland. The main character, Shane, is definitely a badass. But it feels like a YA fantasy with all the attraction everyone has for the main character and also the wishy-washy feelings.
Thanks to Netgalley for the e-ARC

Thank you to Angry Robot and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I started out quite enjoying this book. I liked the Italian mafia/gang-inspired setting with historical aspects, plus the dustpunk element was pretty cool. I was interested to see how this portrayal of colonisation would play out, and I thought the different levels of stakes the characters had in the plot were established. That's unfortunately where my enjoyment of this book ended.

These are some of the more minor things that I didn't like:
- There wasn't an adequate explanation for why Shade was so angry about her father's death when by all accounts--including her own!--he was pretty horrible to her. It gave the impression that they were very close when they clearly weren't.
- This one might be a little nitpicky but it took me out of the story a bit: why is Shade even called Shade? Her last name being Nox is fine because it's Latin, but I don't think wanting to give a character a "cool" name justifies breaking the language conventions of your world.
- The climax of the plot hinges on the Wild Power, but we never get a good explanation for what that actually is, so it fell a bit flat.

If the only issues with this book were the minor ones listed above, it would have been a much more enjoyable read. Unfortunately there were some major issues that need addressing:
- I could tell that the author was attempting to avoid it, but this still ended up essentially being a white saviour narrative. This could have been partially avoided if Shade hadn't spent the whole book talking about how she was going to be the one to save everyone etc etc., but I think there still would have been elements of it.
- There was never an explanation for why Raiden isn't affected by the magic in the same way as the other characters (who are all native to the nation the story takes place in), and also for why he's a preternaturally good swordsman. The Bhaskar Empire already felt "Asian"-coded and Raiden is very much coded as East Asian ("fine black hair", "delicate features", etc.), so this felt very uncomfortably close to "ninja" stereotypes.
- Speaking of the Bhaskar Empire, we did not get enough information on it for it to feel fleshed out at all. And the way it was coded was pretty bad too. Bhaskar is a Hindi word and yet Raiden (who is from the Empire) is very East-Asian coded, so this ended up coming across as yet another story by a white author who ignores the incredible diversity within Asia and so lumps all Asian identities together indiscriminately.

- And finally, the friendship and romance coding between Shade and Matteo was all over the place. Matteo confesses his feelings for her and they begin a physical relationship, which is fine and I did appreciate that a female lead character got to explore more than one relationship, but the level of feeling Shade had for Matteo after that was frankly pretty unrealistic. At most she's attracted to him and she's maybe starting to develop a bit of romantic interest in him, but there's absolutely no way her feelings for him were strong enough by that point to literally bend time and change events for him when he dies, so it all felt very "insta-love" to me which I hated. And then after all that they claimed to be "just friends" but also "beyond lovers". I understand that they bonded through shared trauma/experiences, but if there wasn't intended to be a romantic element to their relationship, it shouldn't have been so strongly coded as such. It's possible to write female/male friendships that even become friends-with-benefits relationships without romantic coding.

The fact that the pivotal events of the book were dependent on the strength of a relationship that was established far too late in the story to be deep enough and for us to care enough about it for that to work was a bad ending to a book that already had many issues.

I loved the fantasy vibes and world building! But the rest wasn't really for me. I definitely think this book will have it's own audience - it just didn't work for me, personally. I didn't quite connect with any of the characters and I need that to keep me really invested. Would definitely try the author, again, in the future though!

The world building & magic in this book was amazing, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters at all. They just lacked a lot of development. I just wish the story and characters were worthy of the world they were set in. I will read more from this author for the world building alone though. It was that good.

For me this was a slow start, but once you got into the world building — wow! Seriously intricate world building really turned the book around. Plot moves nicely after about the halfway mark. 3.5 stars rounded up from me.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this book. This is my honest review.

Author did a good job. Characters were okay.

I’m rather frustrated to say this but Obsidian had such promise but ultimately it didn’t make me particularly feel anything lasting. That’s not to say this is a bad book, it really isn’t, it’s just also a little, well, average.

Shade Nox is the main character, she’s the Black Witch, she’s also beautiful and defiant, misunderstood, a brave hero etc, on paper she’s a character I would love, but she very much feels like a character written with all the best qualities of a heroine. The problem with this is that it’s too obvious, Shade doesn’t develop as a character, she’s great fun, don’t get me wrong, and if you take this book at face value, you probably will still enjoy yourself, I just don’t particularly like it so obvious the author’s intentions for me to like someone (as pedantic as that sounds). Also frustrating is that Shade, while created like some feminist heroine, is largely described by her looks, near every male character is in love with her and lusts after her – and within the book she sleeps with 2 of these characters and another one longs for her. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that, part of empowerment is that a woman has as much right to want and enjoy sex, but emotion is also thrown into the mix and it gets a bit confusing whether Shade just wants to enjoy herself or needs to be loved, especially when the 2nd man is because she can’t have the 1st one and it’s just an instant thing with no building! The supporting characters, also, are interesting in theory, just not developed enough to be gritty or engaging. This part of the frustration, the characters have potential but they’re just not complex enough.

To be less negative, I found the premise interesting. I didn’t particularly understand how the magic worked, how the tattoos channel magic, or the stones that people have in their swords etc, again it’s very surface level when I’d prefer it deeper, but it’s still an interesting concept and there is some good action on the page and I did still enjoy Shade. The writing style is also easy to get on with and this is a quick read.

Thank you NetGalley for the copy in exchange for an honest review