Customer Reviews

The Dark Shore (Dominons of Irth, Book 1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The world of Irth hangs beneath the Abiding Star, source of all magic and gateway to the Beginning. From the Star comes Charm, the power to alter reality, to create great works, to avoid the Tides that steal the dead and unconcious. It is at the top of the universe, a place of wonders, and marvels.

It is also a place in danger. A cruel and evil man has returned from beyond the dark Gulf in which Irth hangs, seeking revenge against those who cast him there. He brings warriors from another world, immune to Charm, a petty man drunk on power, planning to conquer the world - and worse - with the power of a god.

Flying cities fall. Thevies conspire. A nobleman flees to find love. Young royalty seek vengeance. Those marked as man-beasts make alliances, and the Dark Lord plots while a mysterious sage contemplates why this is happening, and knows that it can be blamed on a tragic death so long ago . . .

This is, simply, an impressive novel. It has its own mytholog! y, own physics, own religion, own ecosystem. It could practacally be a documentary - from the economy of hex-gems to the sexual rituals of two religious groups, the detail is astounding.

Unfortunately, it is a rather distant novel. The emotional impact of various events and characters, except for the brilliantly detestable Dark Lord (who is shown to be every bit as petty as many Earth tyrants), produce little reaction. There is a lot going on, but I found it easier to hate the villains then like the heroes. It's easy to produce visceral disgust then like, admiration, relation, and so forth.

Still this is a novel worth reading, for the sheer breadth of imagination. Not perfect, but for a first entry in the field, utterly astounding.

Adam Lee's The Dark Shore is, in the end, a magnificent piece of epic fantasy. All of the various plots and characters come together to defeat the Dark Lord. It's another classic good vs. evil battle.

Minor quibbles: The book takes about 50-60 pages to fully get into. Lee's fantasy world is so rich and full that it takes nearly that long to understand the various terms and characters. To Lee's credit, he doesn't have an exposition chapter where he explains everything. The reader is left on his/her own to discover exactly what 'Charm' is.

In all, The Dark Shore is an excellent read, one that I found myself unable to put down.

I'm currently re-reading this book (it's really offbeat and fascinating). But I really want to recommend it to fans of A.A. Attanasio - since Adam Lee is his pen name (I figured this out by noticing the book's published in Britain under his real name).

Seemingly beginning as a mysterious Scandanavian folk tale, The Dark Shore by Adam Lee takes a bit of work to get into. Mr. Lee invents an entire socio-economic culture that initially throws one off the tale that begins to form. However, once you have a firm grip on the world of Irth, the characters and the imaginative scenery surrounding them unfold beneath your eyes. I sensed that the author put great effort into putting aside the well worn geographries, facets, and common modeling of most present fantasy novels and tried to come up with a world unique unto itself without abandoning those who truly love the magic, the lore, and the medieval quality of exceptional fantasy novels. I believe he succeeded quite well.-Brian Giffi

I never heard of Adam Lee but this writer is now within my top ten list. When I first read this book, it sucked me into a magical world beyond my own imagination. At first, I tried understanding this world than rather getting on with the story. Then, I just kept reading and I was amazed by this writer's creative imagination. I really love this book! It one of those books that I can read over again. Those who gave this book a bad review I think don't have a good imagination. By reading this book I felt my own imagination was the canvas and his writing was the colors of paint. I have to say this is a work of art. A true masterpiece!

I have never read anything so fasinatingly odd. Once you start,Wow. The Dark Shore is the most original epic tales ever spun from the human imagination. A definite five star novel.

I read this series over 10 years ago, and in the hundreds of books I have read in my life, it stands out as a truely unique story. It does take a while to get into the language, but the discovery of a whole new world and how its mechanisms work kept me reading. I struggled but just kept plugging onward even if I didn't understand something, then went back and re-read. It's like waking up on alien planet and trying to figure out how to communicate and survive. The story line is great, and I wish there was a kindle version because I would buy it in a heartbeat.

ADAM LEE is a pen name for Alfred Angelo Attanasio. I do not know how anyone could give this book a low score. It has abstract concepts and works well for those who like ADAM LEE's style of writing.

"The Dark Shore", Adam Lee's debut novel, is is simply fasinating. Mr. Lee does an excellent job of creating a puzzle that at first glance seems insolvable, but in the end Mr. Lee puts the pieces together wonderfully. Mr. Lee also uses magnificent description making the reader feel as if he is actually part of the story. For any one who likes Fantasy, this is a book for you.

The Dark Shore has a wonderful plot and good characters, but it was very difficult to read because of all the description. True, description is important, but most of it (in this book) didn't really fit with the mood of the story. It took me over a month to read (which is a very long time for me).