Once upon a time, Leigh Bardugo wrote the ‘Grishaverse’ trilogy of fantasy books. Now, Netflix is ready to release a streaming TV show based on the first book of the trilogy, Shadow and Bone, and a companion book, Six of Crows, set in the same universe. Bardugo’s fans are excited about the upcoming series. Fantasy fans who watch Netflix are also looking forward to the new show.

British actress Jessie Mei Li stars as Alina Starkov, a mapmaker who is caught up in worldshaking events Beyond Her Ken. Her costar is Ben Barnes as The Darking. Barnes was Prince Caspian in the Chronicles of Narnia movies, Young Dunstan in Stardust, Tom Ward in The Seventh Son, Billy Russo in Netflix’s series The Punisher, and the title role in the 2009 remake of Dorian Gray, as well as Logan Delos in Westworld.

The Shadow Fold isn’t a metaphorical feature on the map of their world. Instead, it’s physical, described as “a scar on the map.” It will “take a miracle to destroy.” Something large and dangerous lurks within. Alina Starkov, the mapmaker, is more than she seems, and more than she herself realizes. Is the one to provide that miracle?

Shadow and Bone will consist of eight episodes. They’ll be released all at once April 23, 2021, for the benefit of fans who prefer to binge-watch rather than watch one episode each week. If this first series does well, there are six other novels as well as some short stories to provide material for future works.

Will you be watching Shadow and Bone? Remember that there are books to read as well, and good ones. With some good solid writing under the hood, this series will be one of the better series from Netflix in quite some time.

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