Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising (A Grishaverse Trilogy)
MINOR SPOILER ALERT IN EFFECT! (But you should know by now I keep away from anything major).
The Shadow and Bone trilogy is the gateway series into the Grishaverse, a world created by one, Leigh Bardugo.
I read this series in three days.
Shadow and Bone follows the story of Alina Starkov, an orphan conscripted into the First Army of Ravka. First Army may sound important but they are just cannon fodder compared to the Grisha Elite, The Second Army led by The Darkling.
Grisha are gifted and practice the small science. Some may call it magic. Their abilities divided into rankings.
Corporalki – manipulation of the body
Etherealki – manipulation of the elements
Materialki – manipulation of physical matter, metal, chemicals etc.
Then there’s The Darkling. Can you guess what he can do?
The children of Bardugo’s world are tested in their youth. If you’re marked as Grisha? Your whole life changes.
The story begins when Alina’s unit, assigned to the First Army as a Cartographers (map makers) are sent to The Fold.
The Fold. Where darkness is made real and the monsters hide in plain sight. It has split Ravka in two for hundreds of years. Crossing it means certain death almost every time. Almost.
Joined with fellow soldier, orphanage companion and best friend Mal, a skiff is sent into the fold with Alina and Mal on board and out of their depth.
The crew is attacked.
And let there be light.
The attack of Volcra (the monsters who inhabit The Fold) triggers an ancient power in Alina that she didn’t know she had and very few believe existed.
She is a Sun Summoner.
Now whisked off into the world of the Grisha, Alina is told in no uncertain terms by pretty much everyone that she is Ravka’s new great hope.
No pressure.
I’ll hold the explanation there. I haven’t told you anymore than you can learn from the back cover, the map page or the language descriptor. That’s a cover, and two pages of book that don’t have any plot on them, so try not to complain.
Now…
Leigh Bardugo is a genius. Despite how often I seem to use it on here, I don’t use that word for just anyone. But Bardugo’s work is special.
But… I will be the first to admit that Shadow and Bone is not the best collection of works in the Grishaverse. But that doesn’t mean it’s not amazing. It just means that as the world grew and her writing progressed, Bardugo’s work went from great to astronomically brilliant.
And while the plot is obvious incredible, I think it is Leigh’s characters that make her work so loved. Definitely in Shadow and Bone and even more so in her Six of Crows and King of Scars (two later duologies set in the Grishaverse).
Let’s see who we’ve got…
Alina is our everyman. The world of Grisha, power and Ravkan politics is new to her so we learn alongside our heroine. But she’s no wilting flower. Alina is smart, sharp and a little bit prickly, a product of her prior status in the world.
The Darkling. Impossibly ancient and unfairly attractive. (But maybe I’m biased because Ben Barnes plays him in the Netflix adaptation.
Mal. Personally, I think Mal gets a bad wrap as character. In terms of favourites, it would certainly seem that to a lot of the fandom, he is not one. But I like him. Like Alina, his story is wildly upended by the revelation of his best friends powers. But unlike Alina, Mal has no power. No special gifts except being the most skilled tracker in the region. Mal is just Mal. And I think that as well as keeping Alina grounded, he does the same for us. Mal is what is at stake for Alina, both figuratively and on occasion, literally.
Those are the three main bois.
There’s also my favourite, Genya, a one of a kind Grisha who you can never be sure what angle she may be playing. She’s smart, sassy, beautiful and she knows it. She doesn’t hide from her power but under it all, she just wants to be accepted, as even among the Grisha she stands out.
She has no colour.
The worldbuilding in Shadow and Bone is exceptional. Bardugo has created an entire world with countries, political systems, social hierarchies, culture and language and her characters fit so effortlessly into both the world and the plot that it supports.
I’d recommend this book to everyone, especially if you want a starting point to dive into the Grishaverse.
And also, it’s always worth reading the books first before diving into the Netflix series. Not everything is as it seems on page and/or screen.
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