A Sense of Shadow [Paperback]

Kate Wilhelm (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Pocket (August 1, 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671441167
• ISBN-13: 978-0671441166
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,062,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born in 1928, Kate Wilhelm the author of more than thirty novels including Where Late the Sweet Bird Sang and The Unbidden Truth. Her work has been adapted for TV and film and translated into twenty languages. She has been awarded the Prix Apollo, Kurd Lasswitz, Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. In 2003, she was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Her short fiction appeared in landmark anthologies such as Again Dangerous Visions, Orbit, The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women, and The Norton Book of Science Fiction. A cofounder of the Clarion Writers' Workhops, she continues to host monthly writing workshops in Eugene, Oregon.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I expected, September 16, 2009

By 

Laurie N. Kuttner "Rabid reader" (Oregon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Sense of Shadow (Paperback)

I am a big Kate Wilhelm fan. I have thoroughly enjoyed all her Barbara Holloway novels, as a mystery writer she is FAR above average. As a sci-fi writer--not so much. This disjointed tale of spiritual possession is so confusing as to be almost incoherent. The blurb on the back leads the reader to expect a tale of a dead father, some murdered wives, and four children attempting to meet the terms of their fathers will by staying for one week in his huge Oregon home. Psychic phenomena and high drama are promised. What appears is more a mishmash of group hysteria, unexplained weirdness, horticultural mayhem, and partially recovered memories. Nothing that happens makes sense, or is ever explained. Nothing that happens is beyond the realm of confused adults remembering being confused children. Nothing happens to make these characters either believable or likeable. The story ends with a suicide, but since the character's motive is obscure and his personality lackluster, the reader passes off this "high drama" with no more than a yawn. I have no idea what Ms. Wilhelm meant this book to be. For a writer of her skill to have produced this clunker is the TRUE mystery.