Shadow Dawn (Shadow War) [Hardcover]

George Lucas (Author), Chris Claremont (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1997 | Series: Shadow War

The ascension of Princess Elora Danan, was to have heralded the dawning of a new age of peace and prosperity. But the fearsome Thunder Riders and the Lord of the Dance lurk in the shadows. All collide in a struggle that threatens the storehouse of dreams - the world's population of dragons.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The collaboration of Claremont, a comic-book writer, and film and computer game maker Lucas yielded the best-selling Shadow Moon (Bantam, 1995). This follow-up offers more dragons, magic, and war.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From the Inside Flap

From George Lucas, creator of Star Wars(r) and Indiana Jones, and Chris Claremont, author of the bestselling X-Men adventures, comes the thrilling sequel to Shadow Moon, taking readers deeper into a stunningly original world of magic, myth, and legend.  

The momentous Ascension of Princess Elora Danan should have brought peace to the Thirteen Realms.  Instead, an intense Shadow War rages, spearheaded by the evil Mohdri.  He has dispatched his dread Black Rose commando assassins to capture Elora and her sworn protector, Thorn Drumheller.  But Mohdri himself is just a facade for a more dangerous entity: the Deceiver.  But who--or what--is the Deceiver?  And how can Elora, Thorn, and their ragtag band defeat this unspeakable force?  The answer lies in a perilous journey to a land undisturbed since the dawn of time.  A journey that will end at the unbreachable citadel of the dragon, where a chilling betrayal will change the fate of Elora, Thorn, and the Thirteen Realms forever.   --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Bantam Press (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0593040562
• ISBN-13: 978-0593040560
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,384,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars As compelling as it is vivid., November 20, 2000

By 

Christopher Ware (Fremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shadow Dawn (Chronicles of the Shadow War, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the second book in the CHRONICLES OF THE SHADOW WAR (after SHADOW MOON), the sequel trilogy to the movie WILLOW. Being the second book in the series, I was expecting a lot less action and a lot more character development than in the first book. While the character development was definitely there, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of action and tension that it contained. Chris Claremont takes his 17 years of writing X-MEN and developing those characters and applies that experience here with an expansive brush and colorful palette. Two years have passed since the end of SHADOW MOON and, although we missed out on the maturation of Elora Danan in those two years, this book gives the reader a vivid picture of how she begins to come into her own as a person and begins to discover what it means to be the Sacred Princess. As she and her companions begin to puzzle out who the Deceiver is and what his goals are, we see the little girl we knew in the first book start to become a young woman. By the end of the book, Mr. Claremont has turned her into this fiercely passionate woman who knows what must be done, if not how to accomplish it. Throughout this journey, the author populates the book with vivid and engaging characters. Each one is unique in their personality and in their relationship with Elora. We especially get a good look at Rool and how he relates to Elora without the smothering presence of Franjean. The characters are what drive this portion of the story, although the tension and action is there as well.

The battle scenes in this book aren't as grand as in the first book, but they are just as compelling. The sacrifice of friends, the fight against all odds, and the trust shown for those guarding your back, Claremont ties all of these themes into each of the fights that our protagonists encounter. While the majority of the book was character and plot development filled with beautiful and compelling prose, the action scenes in between were gripping and had me turning pages at a hectic rate. Heart pounding action that left you wondering who would live and who would die.

My one major problem with this book was the fact that one of the songs that Elora sang was a blatant ripoff of BRAVEHEART.......the film preceded the book by two years.

Despite this bit of plagiarism, this was a compelling book. Almost better than the first one in terms of readability and reader involvement. I truly cared about the characters in this novel and wanted to see them succeed. A definite must read for any fantasy fan.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Cool!, May 25, 2002

By 

Dr.||\\//|| "To Hope is to do Magic" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shadow Dawn (Chronicles of the Shadow War) (Audio Cassette)

This is like getting dropped into a fantasy world, an instruction manual on their magic or an encyclopedia on their culture or maybe a museum display of their creatures-Fun and Fantasies. George Lucas must have realized, though, that this would eventually bore many people, so he nicely wove it together with a lot of wild action and really dramatic magic; the outcome was a quite wonderful book, and a great chance to slip into another world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An OK continuance of the story, but not as good as the first, December 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shadow Dawn (Chronicles of the Shadow War, Book 2) (Mass Market Paperback)

"Shadow Dawn" continues the new "Willow" saga fairly effectively, but the major problems in the book lie in the abilities of the writer. Overall, the story could've used a bit more polish and a pinch more originality; an entire scene in the book is blatantly stolen from the film "Braveheart," while clumsily palliated in a story-within-the-story. While "Shadow Moon" gave us the future of the Willow saga so many of us had grown to love, "Shadow Dawn" stumbles along until finally reaching a morass of odd story twists and dragged-out characterization.