A Dance of Cloaks (Shadowdance 1)

If you are considering buying this book you must know this isn't typical fantasy boook David Dalglish writes. Author himselves points out that he wanted to get out from orc, elves, high and powerfull magic etc. A Dance of Cloaks is urban fantasy book where you are thrown into world of intrigues, machinations, betreyal and violence. Characters feels real their motives too. There are a lot of twists going on, some of them you may forecast some of them not. All and all around, this is really great book with almost none boring parts - book just grabs you and never let go. The ending got me too I must say I was surprised :-) So to everyone who likes all kinds of fantasy (not only epic ones with elves, dragons, powerfull magic, dwarfs etc) I would recommand this book. If anyone expecting this book to be typical epic fantasy I would recommend just read a sample and give it a try ;)

Weak characters, vague motivations, "brilliant misdirections" that were obvious from 10 pages in, logistical issues with how many knives a person can feasibly carry or how many people it takes to search a home (mansion or otherwise) found in a walled city, as well as a lack of understanding of what kinds of injuries are or are not serious all add up to a disappointing read.

This is a heavily promoted e-book on Kindle. After having it suggested to me for aeons I decided that I would spend the same amount as a Tall Latte at Starbucks and give it read. I was pleasantly surprised the book is very readable from a general plot perspective although the intrigues are a little bland. The characters are 2 dimensional and very difficult to relate to. The prose ranges from really, really horrible to barely competent. Still, I have read worse and it is a page turner.

It started out well enough, though the number of characters and how they intertwined seemed pointless and overly complex. I noticed the Ice and Fire styling about midway through, and felt my heart sink - I knew it was going to end with most of the characters I'd come to like dying quick, pointless deaths.

If you like dark fantasy, you'll probably like this: It's full of blood, betrayal, and grit, and the ending is not a happy one for anyone. I prefer a lighter flavor of fantasy, so suffice to say I was disappointed. My kindle betrayed me!

After seeing this book a million times I finally picked it up to read. Was a little slow at the start but i plowed on to give it a chance. The characters didn't stand out to me. The story seemed to have to many components and never really built on them.

There was good material for this book. The storyline had some stretching liberties in some of the decision making, along with a constant dark undertone that made this book not as enjoyable to be. Besides these objections, the characters felt relatable and the overall book at good story flow

Within reading the first page of this book-I bought it! I didn't even wait to get to the end of the sample to know that this was a book worth reading. This book is written in a manner that just captivates your imagination and brings you rivetting to every turn of the page. This was my first book by David Dalgish, and it won't be the last! A definite read for any fantasy-action reader out there.

I bought this book because of positive reviews and a $2.99 price tag. I wont post any spoilers but to me the main character's motivations seem very weakly justified. He goes about his role as heir and son with almost no complaints and suddenly he decides to rebel and go his own way. You do not get a sense of discontentment from him most of the time. It seems like the majority of the book he willing to go along with whatever his father has planned for him with no complaints.

That said there are several interesting characters in the book and the world itself seems to have lots of potential.

I bought A Dance of Cloaks by David Dalglish and, although there are some good parts (as stated in other reviews the fight scenes have impressive attention to detail), I was not satisfied.

I am a big fan of George R. R. Martin, and I saw some parallels (names, plot set up) between Dalglish's A Dance of Cloaks and Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. Also, throughout the story it became apparent to me that Dalglish did not know when to use "whom" over "who," or at least his editor did not. Normally, neither of those alone would be enough to make me write a scathing review, but those were the small stones that caused an avalanche. Continuing the avalanche analogy, for an avalanche to happen, the ground layer of rocks, the pivotal force that is supposed to drive the story forward, must be unsteady. So it was in A Dance of Cloaks.

The characters, often very close to seeming autonomous never quite reached that point. To me, they always seemed highly archetypal, simply lacking development. Also, while there were many characters, I didn't feel that there were many personalities. About half way through the book I found myself losing interest. The only character I truly cared what happened to was Aaron/Haern and that was what kept me going to finish the book.

Truthfully, I wish I had not bought the book, I think it worthy of being rented at a library, read, returned and then forgotten.

Very worth reading especially if you love the world of Dezrel. The story of Haern is enticing and filled with action the perfect combos that make for a very awesome novel. David Dalglish has is an amazing author there is not one book i have read from him that i have not liked.

This book has potential but contains basic errors that shouldn't have been allowed past editing.

Viewpoint errors are especially galling and frequent, with the author jumping between the viewpoints of two characters in the same scene without giving any page break or signal. Sometimes he switches character viewpoint within a single paragraph - you start the paragraph thinking you are following one character - and leave it following another. That just shouldn't happen in a professionally edited book. It's writing 101 so the error shouldn't have been made in the first place, but how it got past an editor is beyond me.

The author is talented though, the characters are quite memorable - its just a pity such basics aren't done properly.

the pace started off extremely well set with the incidents occurring, but the book quickly outran itself, characters were not fleshed out more than major incidents provided for and there is very in depth world building. I hoped for more after the introduction but still enjoyed the read.

Don't be confused, the arthor is. These books were e-publiushed with the 1st 3 in one "volumn", and 3 more following. They are being e-published by a formal publisher with switched around names currently. When I pointed out this to the writer, he seems to have missed the first informal e-publishing, and said I was wrong. None the less, these are very good books. Read the new publishing. Warning: secret fact coming: The hero is killed in the "Half-Orc" series.

This is the first published fantasy I have read for a while, and was hoping for something reasonably well written, immersive and entertaining. Instead I've endured a very unpleasant read, and am kicking myself for committing to read it all the way through.

While the writing was technically fairly solid, with only a few typos or mistakes here and there, the plot often felt directionless, characters were one dimensional, combat frequently lacked all credibility (a single 13 year old rogue with a dagger taking out multiple trained armoured guards??) and then the author decides to unceremoniously kill off a number of major characters by the end.

The author, Danglish, also seems to revel in detailed descriptions of rape, torture and a LOT of murder. He treats killing callously and shapes just about every character as a bloodthirsty creature who will stab anyone who gets in their way, frequently taking a sadistic pleasure in it. While its just a book, I feel sympathy for a man who perhaps has suffered so much pain in his own life that he feels compelled to dwell on it in his writing. (or is it purely for the sensationalism? Why else would one describe attempted gang rape of a 12 year old girl, and much more besides?)

For now I will be sticking with the amateur stories i usually read, which are more wholesome, often considerably more creative and occasionally much better written than this novel.

I read fantasy novels quite often. I am usually drawn to trilogies because I enjoy continuing a story throughout multiple books. After reading the Night Angel trilogy and the Mistborn trilogy I began to look for similer books to read. After reading the reviews I felt I.may have found another like it. I was wrong. I could not even finish the first book. I pride myself in sticking it out to the end on every book I read but this one became an exception. Too many characters and too many plotlines. The writing could not keep me interested and the character development was terrible. I will not.be.continuing this series. Even at a low.price of 2.99 I still feel like I wasted money.

I was honestly not impressed by this novel. While some of the male characters are full-fleshed, too many of them are nearly Heinleinian protagonists - intelligent polymaths with an answer for just about anything. The female characters all fall into the same vein - beautiful women (weaponry optional) with troubled pasts. The plot would be decent if it wasn't for the characters involved. There is a lot of potential for real subterfuge in this world. Unfortunately, the subtlety is overshadowed by action movie heroics and too-convenient plot devices (usually driven by magic or some other mysterious force). The setting itself is fairly generic. There are elves, dwarves, good and evil, weird dark cults, and everything else you'd expect from a typical fantasy novel. There are plenty of other books/series that do a much better job of handling politics and shadowy dealings, without depending on magical plot devices.

If you are in the mood for a predictable, derivative middle-of-the-road fantasy novel with buxom heroines and deadly heroes that will deliver quick escapism without any surprises, this may be for you. If you're looking for something with more meat to it, pass it by.

So... some background. I'd been away from fantasy for awhile, until I picked up Name of the Wind. It was fantastic, and I devoured it. Then I picked up Lies of Locke Lamora, and I was pretty unimpressed by the first few chapters, but then it grew on me and I loved it. I read its sequel Red Seas under Red Skies next, and loved it just about as much.

When I picked up Dance of Cloaks, I felt the same way about it at first as I did about Lies of Locke Lamora, and I really hoped it would grow on me too. Unfortunately it just never really rang true with me. The plot is difficult to follow for the first few chapters, since every couple of pages tends to introduce a new character. These characters tend to have a great deal of similarity... they're all more or less violent, vengeful, and skilled at some form of combat. Once you have the characters and plotlines sorted out, it's difficult to sympathize with any of them, even (what I believe to be) the main character. The ending was sudden, and I felt like very little had actually been accomplished.

On the positive side, it's not a mentally difficult read. The world and social structure it creates are both fascinating and detailed. It also doesn't have the pretentiousness of a great many of the books that I've read. I genuinely believe that there's a lot of potential here, but it just didn't quite hit the right note for me.

In short, is it a match for Name of the Wind or Lies of Locke Lamora? Not quite, in my mind. Is it better than most similar books out there? Yes indeed.

"recourses of action", "a growing feel of anxiety", "He had learned another lessen [sic]...of crushing the will of another to meet your own", "He didn't answer, only nod." etc. the plot starts out well enough, but i'm giving up only a third of the way through because the writing is downright painful. at times, it reads as though written by a high-school student using a thesarus in the hope that big word=better grade, without regard for whether it actually makes sense.

mr. dalglish would do well to hire an editor with a decent grasp of grammar for his next production rather than relying on spellcheck. just because a word is spelled correctly doesn't mean it's the correct word.

I purchased this books because it was suggested after my prevsious readings and because of decent avrg. review. But it is nowhere near books of Paul Kearney, George Martin or even Adrian Tchaikowsky - simply waste of time.