Customer Reviews

Shadow King: A Tale of the Sundering (Time of Legends)

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

 

 

One of the many pleasures about this novel, the second in the Sundering trilogy, is its sense of inevitability. Shades of grey are a Thorpe forte. Shadow King, the story of a man (and of a people) shaped by the borderline between two cultures and the two sides of their own nature, suits Thorpe's talents superbly.

Not that Alith Anar's rise seems inevitable. GW fiction works well when it focuses on character; following Anar around through his adolescence, you see an unlikely candidate for a future legend. Dreamy and sullen, Anar's main concerns are spending long periods on his own or mooning after his love interest, Ashniel. So long as he's left alone to copy the occasional line of verse or to hunt, he's content. Such a state of affairs cannot endure, however; House Anar, normally a bastion of neutrality within Nagarythe, is forced into taking sides in the bitter dispute between Morathi's followers and those of their one, rightful ruler...Prince Malekith, champion of the Phoenix King, respected by all, admired deeply by the young Alith. Seeing this, the death of Bel-Shanaar and later the rise of the mysterious 'Witch King' through Alith's eyes, you see the convincingly bitty way history seeps through its people.

That goes for the growth of its heroes, too. During what is effectively an undercover mission, Alith is almost surprised at himself for how easily he can fit into the simpler life of a court cook. (He developes quite a hand for cutting up meat.) In an amusing scene, he finds how much easier and direct a tryst is with a lower-class female elf. Disguise, duplicity. Today the Shadow Warriors will slay their fellow elves; tomorrow they will mourn them.

If ambivalence is their failing, it's also a kind of integrity. Butchering people in their sleep is seen as the lesser of two evils; as is leaving sacrificial prisoners to their fate when a mission's success depends on it - 'such deeds as we are about to commit are so that others may not know such sacrifice.' You wonder at times whether the real reason for the Shadow Warrior's hatred is how much of themselves they see in the Dark Elves. As much as the the Shadow Warriors claim their actions have a goal, they come across as ultimately wedded to war and misery without end as their foes. Even Alith gets a hint of this, at times, and relucant to change. ("Cannot, or will not?" one character asks of him, with quiet insight.)

Most great characters are two people, if not more: their drive and energy grows out of the splits in their personalities. Shadow King, despite its mild outbreaks of heavy-handed symbolism, is a satisfyingy complete tale of a incomplete man, very much Thorpe near the top of his game, and well recommended.

Shadow King: A Tale of the Sundering
One of the best parts in reading Gav Thorpe's books is that he's a smart writer. He's a pro when it comes to hooking you right in at the first few pages. He grabs you by the nose and drags you kicking and screaming down a road that you *KNOW* is going to end badly. Especially in writing about events considered "history" in the Warhammer Fantasy or Warhammer 40,000 universe.
A lot of the time we have the broad strokes of what the story is about far in advance of the novel ever being read. The story of Alith Anar is a prime example of that. We all know that Alith Anar is the last of his line, prince of Nagarythe. His family murdered, and his revenge is eternal. Blablabla. Yeah, we know.
The Shadow King delves in to territory we didn't even know existed. He paints Morathi and the Witch King and others in vibrant colors. You get to understand a bit of the "why" of the story. You see just how far the elves had fallen in many cases and as a reader you can grasp the "why" of Alith's plight and to a certain degree understand why he snaps the way he does. It's a deep and treacherous story.
I think the main reason for this is because the characters aren't bi-dimensional, 4-color comic book toons. Alith Anar is one messed up dude. Serious. He's got problems. He's not perfect. He's not the shiny perfect High Elf lordling riding a pegasus whose farts sound like angels singing. Think of Alith Anar as being kind of like an elven Batman. His scars are deep, and revenge...brutal.
The battle scenes are epic in scale and seem tactically smart. Some thought on how forces would maneuver definitely went in to it. There is a definite feel of the mythic fairy tale of shimmering hosts, and gleaming spear tips and lances and coats of maille. Banners flying, beats on the ground and in the air. Seriously good battle than seems all mythic and shiny...and dwindles down in to the more brutal reality of the aftermath. Like it starts at sunrise and goes until a bloody sunset and a night of weeping over the dead. Really moving stuff. Then there are the skirmish-level bits: raiding caravans and Special Forces/ unconventional warfare stuff.

In Shadow King, Gav Thorpe does a great job of continuing in the expanded universe of Warhammer. When I picked up this book, I hadn't read the first book in the series, but being familiar with the universe, I found the book easy to get into, and I found myself engrossed within the first chapter. I certainly had a hard time sitting it down! If you haven't read the previous book, or ever experienced the Warhammer Universe, don't bother with this book, it simply is not for you.

Gav Thorpe is a professional and polished storyteller. He's written novels and adventure games, and he knows Warhammer inside out. So it's not a surprise that he can easily slide into this novel and move things along quickly.

After his family is killed, Alith Anar takes up his weapons and sets out to even the score. He's a man torn between two worlds, though, and Thorpe does a good job showing that as well as detailing those two worlds. I enjoyed the scenes where Alith goes undercover and unintentionally finds out how good he is at being a cook, but it wasn't really surprising because the character is one of those guys that can do anything. I think he was the only one that was truly surprised.

Of course, there's also the gathering of the heroes to stand at Alith's back when everything turns dark and ugly (and it does). I liked the second tier heroes quite well too. There's still one more book to go in this trilogy.

The writers of the ToL novels have a lot on their shoulders, attempting to combine arcana and prewritten fluff with the expectations of the readers is a daunting tasks, and few are as well executed as the Shadow King. Alith Anar, a starry eyed youth of Nagarythe, has his naivete and innocence systematically stripped from him as the civil war of the Elves continues to turn Ulthuan into a charnel house. His home destroyed and his family slaughtered, Alith gathers his remaining people and turns them into a fighting force even the druchii come to fear.

The main character is really what makes this book worthwhile. The hardest thing about most writing is making a character grow without having his transformation feel stapeled out and vestigial. Alith doesn't wake up one day suddenly a ruthless killing machine, hes made into person through years of bitter warfare. While some of the leaps forward in time are a bit much, they help to smooth over the rough edges of the advancement of the war, which does take place across an entire continent. The only real detraction is a rather tragic romance that would ahve been near perfect it weren't cut off less than 5 pages from its start.

Warfare is pulled away from rank and file conflicts, and becomes a more highland, hit and run guerilla affair, which is the intent of the story to begin with, and is executed nicely. Every battle also helps to advance the overall plot and only a few points have even a scent of being filler. Balanced with an opening rife with poltiics and intrigue, as well as the quasi game of thrones of the elven court, neither side is bled dry, and the switch works almost naturally.

Overall, Alith is a character that you root for almost the entire book, though near the end he begins to lose dimension, but not before a great ending that sews together the first two chapters of the Sundering series very nicely. Apart from the first book of the Nagash series, this is probably the best ToL book to date.

I love reading Warhammer novels.. This book was hands down one of the best Warhammer novels I have read. Hats off to the author. I will admit I am biased as I love Warhammer the game. The novel really gave an Epic feel to the struggle occurring within elven society at this time. The focus on the "shadow king" and his back story was wonderfully written and pulled you into the story. My only complaint would be the retelling of part of the story already told in the books predecessor Malekith. With that said it does provide a different perspective on earlier events and sheds some light on other players in a truly Epic tale.

I am typically not a big fan of elves in fantasy but the Warhammer series really makes me enjoy reading about them. I especially like the fact that dark elves aren't elves that are physically dark but are actually just absolutely twisted. This novel is full of tragedy, action, drama and revenge. Gav Thorpe really does a fine job of describing The Sundering in this novel and its predecessor. Look forward to the next one.

I know the series is based of long established Warhammer background material, but this is silly. There are two major criticisms I have with the book.

The first problem is that the title is somewhat misleading. Alith Anar (main character) only actually accepts the of being the Shadow King on page 420. And this being a 522 page long book it means we get less than 100 pages of him actually being the Shadow King.

The second problem is the mentally retarded and purely idiotic plot twist roughly two-fifths of the way. Malekith is brought back from the island on which he had been burned to death (presumably) in the first book. Morathi his mother is allowed to see the burned (most likely charred) body and suddenly decides to accompany the body back to Naggaroth..... and only a single guard semi tried to prevent her from leaving.... and was held back by his other guards.
Seriously, WHAT THE HELL is that garbage? I know this is unchangeable background material for Warhammer and it is tough to write about pre existing material. But letting Morathi simply go was to me the same as letting a mass rapist, mass murderer, super genius in nuclear physics and technology (and maybe even viral engineering) leave through the front door of prison because his long lost son died.
Would anyone really expect that this would never ever, ever EVER come back to haunt us?
We could not give her some insanely convoluted and traitorous escape? No, the front door was the only way we could make her leave?
In other words: if Morathi had been stopped by a door or a gate, the elves would never had it become worse for them.

These two problems are what made me give it a 3 star rating. But all is not lost.
The actual growth of Alith Anar was fantastically written and illustrated. Quite frankly I would never wish to experience such pain and lose as Alith had experienced. And the bitterness and hatred it festered within him. That was a fantastic story arc that definitely gave me as the reader a dark glimpse into the sacrifice that he had to commit and suffer.

But unfortunately it ends rather soon. Especially when he only recently became the Shadow King and started some insanely interesting shadow attacks. Maybe it will continue in the third book (starting to read it) but I doubt it.

Shadow King is the second instalment of the Black Library's Sundering saga and continues the story begun in Malekith. It's not a sequel in the usual sense of the word in that while it overlaps the story begun in Malekith, it stands alone in its own right, much like the books of the Horus Heresy series. I would recommend reading the first book in the series though to get the complete story. Also book two sort of recaps a bit but at a break neck pace. Thorpe is one of the better writers in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. This book is part of the Time of Legends series which goes back in time to the iconic characters and events in Warhammer history. Not a bad book in the series.

The Sundering second novel in the series entitled "Shadow King" shows the tale of the youngest Nagarythe noble from the house of Anar and his rise from boy to warrior to a threat to the drucii. Unlike the first book in which we get a rare glimpse in Malekith true prince of Nagarythe we are given to Alinth Anar. A young noble destined to rule his house one day when his grandfather and father have passed on. Sadly that time will never some for Morathi has brought civil war to the lands of the elves and House Anar is caught between the drucii ( a phrase his grandfather started to use) and the other nations of elves trying to stem the rise of the cults to Kaine and the pleasure cults Morathi belongs to. Alinth sees first hand the awesome power Malekith has as the Phoniex King Champion and helps in the capture of his mother. However all is not well his love the lady Ashinel is wisked away to study at the court of Malekith and help further her own father plans of a better postion. Alinth and his family are placed under house arrest by Malekith no less for possable connections to the cult of Kaine. through trickery and his skills as a hunter he escapes and goes to the phoinex king for aid. Realizing that the rest of the lands despise the elves of Nagarythe regardless of where thier loyalties were to. Soon enough Alinth witnesses first hand the true anger within Malekith as he finds the king dead. Soon enough without aid from the King he flees back to his homeland to find all is well if not without new perils in the form of refugees and growing concern for thier lands. Soon enough the drucii attack and force Alinth to flee and seek refugee amonges the other elven lands. Lost and his lands taken he has nothing left. He sees the other elven kingdoms flurishing without some much as a single coin lost. But not he. He realizes that all he has left if vengence and hatred. These tools forge him and once he aquires a bow thought to be of legend he takes the mantle of the Shadow King and beings his personal war on the drucii and all they stand for. You have to read this the second book in The Sundering to truly see how the Shaodw King rises and how he begins his long jounrey to stop the tide of darkness that will engulf the entire land of the elves.