Blades of Winter (Shadowstorm, #1)

by G. T. Almasi

[Beth C.]

Alix is a Level - an enhanced human killing machine created by the government to fight in the shadow wars. These are battles that take place between the four main governments in an alternate history where Germany took over Europe during World War II and there are now 4 world powers that dominate. She is the youngest, and is incredibly talented - no surprise, since her father was a Level as well. When Alix decides to worm her way into an operation that she never should have been involved in, all hell breaks loose and she suddenly finds those she loves compromised from a past she never could have seen coming.

Honestly, I'm a bit torn about the book. If I could offer 3.5 stars, I would. I had a really hard time getting into the story initially, and the necessary suspension of disbelief failed me at times. Alix was continually assigned missions that, in any sort of reality, she would have been considered too close to the target to be given. In addition, her impulse issues continually caused problems, and yet she was sent right back out in the field. To complicate things further, the reader is quickly thrust into this alternate version of history with little but occasional bits of information to take up the historical back story. In fact, had pages 120-126 been introduced as the second chapter, then that would have clarified things tremendously. I highly recommend that everyone read those pages either first, or after the first chapter - it does not affect the story in any way, and gives substantial information regarding the history that comes up during the first half of the book.

Having said that - I did find myself drawn more into the story after the historical explanation, and as the plot really began to wind up. It didn't make things more plausible necessarily, but I was less concerned about it. I finished the book actually interested in the fact that this seems to be the first in a series involving Alix, and curious enough about the next book to read the short excerpt in the back. I would probably be interested in reading it, particularly now that I feel more of the history makes sense - and now that Alix seems to be less the immature girl and more the woman she is capable of being.

Overall, it's a pretty good story, particularly as a debut novel. I think that the author will continue to develop Alix as a person, and that the biggest issue with this first book was more the timing of the release of historical information than most anything else. I would be interested in reading the next book to see how things progress. It's definitely worth checking out.