The Office of Shadow [Paperback]

Matthew Sturges (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If 2009's Midwinter was the Dirty Dozen in Elfland, this thrilling sequel is Magical Mission Impossible. Former lothario Silverdun becomes a priest, but finds himself bored. When his government recruits him as a spy, he takes the offer and is shocked when they demand he learn extraordinary physical and magical skills. Silverdun, scholarly former soldier Ironfoot, and deadly empath Sela are assigned to discover the origin of Einswrath, the city-killing weapons unleashed in the previous Seelie/Unseelie war. Standard spy tropes—training sequences, double agents, betrayals from within—take on new life when melded with high fantasy, and Sturges has an easy ear for dialogue and character. Silverdun's backstory is nicely fleshed out in the process, though fans of the first book should be warned that the other characters appear briefly or not at all. (June)
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Product Details

• Paperback: 423 pages
• Publisher: Pyr (June 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1616142022
• ISBN-13: 978-1616142025
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,224,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew Sturges has written a number of comics for DC, including House of Mystery, Justice Society of America, and the Eisner-nominated Jack of Fables (with Bill Willingham). He has also written the novel Midwinter, available from Pyr, and its sequel The Office of Shadow, which will be published summer 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy at its Finest, October 15, 2010

By 

Jonathan Cook - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Office of Shadow (Paperback)

Some may say that Sturges has become proficient as a fantasy author, but I say he's mastered it. The Office of Shadow is a well-crafted work of art, littered with mystery and espionage throughout. The World that Sturges has designed for this novel is unique and original. The Shadows are a secret organization, only believed to be a myth by most. But what is it that makes a Shadow a Shadow? The intensive training? The secret knowledge they obtain that is absent to others? The answer is an intriguing surprise worth waiting for.

In this World, he has also provided a new spin on the idea of magic in the form of twelve gifts, labeled by their significance (Glamour, Folding, Leadership, Empathy, etc.). Along the way, the characters become puzzled by the presence of a thirtenth gift, which is beyond their comprehension. It is described in human terms as observing a colorless color or trying to divide by zero.

If imagery were a commoner, Sturges would be its King. There are times when reading that you'd think he literally visited this World, soaked it all in, and then came home to write about it. From analyst-filled offices to flying cities high in the sky, you are always right there in the middle of it with the characters - learning as they learn, training as they train, and even fighting when they fight.

The Office of Shadow is a direct sequel to Midwinter, Sturges' previous novel. Midwinter is a nice introduction to the main protagonist, Lord Silverdunn, but reading it is definitely not a necessity, as there are plenty of references in The Office of Shadow that pop their little heads up and fill you in on what previously took place. And don't be intimidated by what seem at first to be difficult to pronounce names and places like Uvenchaud and Prythme because it doesn't take long for them to start flowing with the rest of your vocabulary.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a great read, September 13, 2010

By 

Michael Thompson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Office of Shadow (Paperback)

I came across this book at an farmer's market sale by my local bookstore, and I'm really glad I picked it up. Sturges's book takes a number of rather worn-out concepts (elves, the war between Seelie and Unseelie, and a general fantasy world) and manages to give them all a fresh spin. The basic premise is that the Seelie (good) Elves have re-opened The Office of Shadow (an organization that's a bit like a darker version of the CIA) in order to prevent the Unseelie Elves from unleashing wholesale destruction on the world.

I had a little problem getting started -since it's a little slow at the beginning when all the characters are being introduced- but by the time I was about 50 pages in or so, I was really enjoying myself. The characters were all believable (especially the sarcastic, womanizing, and deadly Silverdun), and Sturges spends a lot of time crafting a world full of detail without distracting from the overall plotline.

I don't want to give any of the story away, but I will say that the combination of spy novel and fantasy epic genres was great, and if you're a fantasy enthusiast you'll definitely love this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Disreputable Hero is Recruited by a Secret Organization, November 1, 2010

By 

A. Lee (L.A., CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Office of Shadow (Paperback)

After his exploits as part of Mauritane's desperate prison recruits, Silverdun is at a loss as to what to do with his life. Life as a dissolute, drunken reveler lord only led him to losing his lands and imprisonment. Following Mauritaine led to adventure and becoming a war hero, but now what? Silverdun tries a religious life, but is failing badly when he's recruited for the Office of Shadow, a small and highly secretive operation that will do anything it can to keep the Seelie lands safe. And things are definitely not safe. The Unseelie have shown that they have a weapon of mass destruction that destroyed an entire city. For unknown reasons, it hasn't yet been used to destroy life as they know it, but the Unseelie Queen is gearing up for war, and that means that it is likely that the weapon will be utilized again. It is up to someone to stop that from happening... and most likely it is exactly what the Office of Shadow was created to do.

Silverdun was one of the more intriguing characters from _Midwinter_, so he seems a good choice to spotlight in his own tale. There is nothing quite so unique about a wastrel trying to reform... nor about someone being initiated into an undercover organization, but these themes are always interesting in themselves. His character is developed a bit more through flashbacks, but I'm not sure it ever came to some coherent whole. But the adventures and the secret workings of the Shadow Office were exciting enough to carry a reader through the book satisfactorily. I would have preferred something a bit more developed, in character- and world-building, however.