The first book in this series, Notorious Sorcerer, was a wild reading experience. I had absolutely no idea what was going on with the world or the city or the magic system or anything, but the story and characters and little details were so much fun that “no clue how this world or magic works” got downgraded from a dealbreaker to a minor annoyance. I was willing to read book two not because I expected something really coherent, but because I anticipated it being quite enjoyable in addition to being mildly confusing. 

In the beginning, though, it was very much not. In fact, I very nearly gave up on it because it started out vastly different from what I expected. The ending of book one left Siyon, if not respected, at least grudgingly accepted as a valid sorcerer person. He immediately used this to get people’s using-magic-improperly charges dismissed and attempting other political-type things. Which is very much in character for him but also very much not interesting to me. For a bit I was afraid this book’s story was going to be “we sorted out all the magical shenanigans, now let’s look at how that influenced the political and social order of this world.” Which is interesting as a fantasy book concept, but not a book I actually want to read. 

But even though politics remained an element in the story, we eventually got back to the magical shenanigans that I came here for. Now that the Mundane has a Power again, it’s got weird stuff happening as it tries to figure its place out again. Nobody really knows what’s going on, but it’s all highly readable. Many of the side characters had subplots, including one with Zagiri’s older sister that I absolutely adored. It introduced some new characters, all of whom were solid and engaging, though varying degrees of likeable. The Bravi were surprisingly involved, considering that Siyon isn’t one anymore and Zagiri is barely one, so it had more of their antics as well. 

The weirdest thing about this book to me, though, is that even though the crux of the plot is that everything the characters thought was the foundation of their world has become untrue (or maybe was never true in the first place), I somehow actually started getting a sense of the rules of the world. I still couldn’t entirely explain to you how magic works or what, precisely, happened to the part of the city that fell into the sea but is also still there. But I at least feel like I understand the basic foundation of this world and its magic system and who and why the Azatani and the Bravi are and whatnot. It only took one and a half books for me to start actually wrapping my head around all of this basic worldbuilding stuff. You’d think that would be a problem, but the story is quite entertaining and fun so all things considered, not as big a deal as you would expect. 

I really don’t have a ton to say about this book. It was fun. I was entertained the whole way through. I can’t say Shadow Baron was better than, or even necessarily as good as, Notorious Sorcerer. But I had a good time with the reading. This series has so far read like a series designed to be chock full of things that are fun and entertaining and interesting, with a few things dashed in to give it just enough depth to keep from being dismissed as silly and shallow. But if you’re looking for a fun time and you’re okay if it’s not always easy to follow the details, you’ll enjoy it. I for some reason had it in my head that the Burnished City series was a duology, so I was a bit surprised when I got to the end and nothing was actually resolved, but I enjoyed this one enough to read book three.