Luck in the Shadow opens with evil wizards unearthing tombs and massacring witnesses, but the prelude is just that, and the real story is how Alex, a 16 year old kid wrongfully imprisoned, becomes an apprentice spy through meeting Seregil, a dashing thief, master of disguise, agent to a powerful wizard, and man of many secrets.

Flewelling has a dense setting with some cool twists. The protagonist kingdom is a Queendom, relating to an ancient oracle, and women serve in the military with men. Most people are apparently casually bisexual. There's geography, and history, and a little economics, and it all holds together okay.

The problem is that it's mostly Just. So. Generic. The plot never rises above the level of minor intrigue. While the evil magic is appropriately spooky, nothing else seems particularly noteworthy, or even really authentically non-modern. Alex is a blank slate as a teenager, who has exactly one interesting character moment at the end of the book when he is tortured about using a servants sexual feelings for him to manipulate her. I mean, it's fine, the characters are all nice people, but the book felt at least 100 pages too long, and a lot of stuff was set up without much payoff. Maybe groundbreaking 20 years ago, but these days just average. I'd rather have reread The Lies of Locke Lamora.