Customer Reviews

The Shadow Roads (The Swans' War, Book 3)

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

 

 

The Shadow Roads bring the Swans' War to a somewhat satisfying close, but its many weaknesses lessen the impact it might have had. The strength is the backstory--the sense of myth surrounding the three children of Wyrr, Death walled away into his own world, stories of loss and transformation. When Russell spends time in this area, whether in detail or just tangentially, it lends a sad sense of grandeur and depth to the work as a whole. Unfortunately, this strength is negated by too many weaknesses.
One is that the characters become more pallid as we come to the end of the story, rather than more intense as should be the case after having spent three books' worth of time with them. Shadow Roads follows the by-now-familiar multi-stranded structure of most fantasy, with frequent shifts of perspective and setting. But none of them really catch fire. There are so many characters that the individual impact of any one is diluted, and we are all too often too quickly whisked away from one to the other. It isn't that the story is too complex (except one area to be discussed), but that it's too thinly spread. We simply don't spend enough time with any of them to care much about them. And some characters are simply dragged along with little to say or do, so that one wonders why the editor didn't tell Russell to either kill them off or send them home with a message.
The plot is mostly two-fold: the quest to beat Hafydd to a place where he can set in motion the release of Death and the quest to resolve the ongoing and more mundane war between the Renne's and the Wills. The first story is pretty straightforward though it suffers from a somewhat plodding pace (too much time describing river travel that is too similar to previously described river travel), some superfluous characters and plot-lines that are mostly just dropped in and forgotten (perhaps setting up future works?), and an abrupt close with a deus ex machina resolution that is very anti-climatic. The second story, dealing with the more mundane war, suffers from complexity for complexity's sake, where too many people with the same last names have double-crossed or pretended to double-cross too many other people with the same last names who also double-crossed . . . and so on. It's unnecessarily complex and simply slows the pace and lessens the impact. And here again, the ending is a bit too pat.
All the way through this series, it felt as if it had greater potential than it was actually achieving, with strong prose and at times strong character/myth creation lifting it up out of the sense of average fantasy one often had while reading it, just in time to keep the reader going. The Shadow Roads keeps the strong descriptive prose (too much so at times) and the myth-sense is as strong as ever or even stronger, but it can't save the book from its other flaws. It isn't a bad book, but one certainly feels it could have been much better. Something I'd say about the series as a whole.

Have you ever read a book where the author is so vivid in describing a setting that it affects your mood while reading it? Say you're reading about a festival and the author is so good that you not only feel like you're there, but you feel your spirits rise as the author describes the surroundings? Sean Russell is that kind of author. Unfortunately, it can work against him, too. In The Isle of Battle, a large part of the action takes place in an oppressive swamp, so dank and dreary that it affects the reader as well. That's the only explanation I can think of for why I disliked that book so much. Perhaps I was a bit too harsh on it. I still stand by the review, but perhaps the tone was a bit too critical.

What can account for this change? I just finished The Shadow Roads, the final volume in The Swans' War. With one book, Russell has made up for everything that was wrong with The Isle of Battle. The prose is still evocative, but this time the story keeps up with it. While Russell still doesn't give us the story motif that I so loved in The One Kingdom, he also doesn't just pay it lip service as he did in the second book. I was amazed at how good this book was, and it seems all Russell had to do was get the story out of the swamp.

War between the Renne and the Wills has exploded with an invasion of the Isle of Battle. While this conflict simmers, however, a war of a different kind is taking place. A war to prevent the specter of Death from washing over the One Kingdom. Three ancient sorcerers, their spirits inhabiting new bodies, have awoken and vie for the power over Death itself in a war that goes back thousands of years, to the formation of the One Kingdom itself. Hafydd, dark knight and the new host for the evil Caibre, is trying to awaken Caibre's father and open the gateway to Death's domain. Caibre's brother and sister, inhabiting bodies of their own, race through the shadowy lands to stop him. If they can't, it won't matter what happens between the two families. There won't be anybody left in the world to worry about it.

There are so many things to recommend about The Shadow Roads, but the best thing is still the prose. Russell has a way with description that I have only seen matched by Barbara Hambly, but in a much different way. Hambly describes the everyday surroundings of her characters. Russell concentrates more on the world itself.
Russell doesn't just evoke the setting, though. His descriptions of battle scenes are vivid, too. They make you feel like you are there, experiencing everything the character is.

The characters are another strong point in The Shadow Roads. They all grow to some extent, and all have three dimensions. The Valemen, who were innocents in The One Kingdom, have grown hardened to the violence that they have been forced into, yet they still contain that kernel of their former selves, sickened by what it is they must do to survive. None of them come through this crucible the same as they went in. It affects them in logical ways, with some tragic consequences as well. Cynddl, the Fael storyfinder, is also extremely well done. As they journey through the shadows, he is almost overcome with the horrible stories that he can feel emanating from the ground that has been host to many atrocities through the ages. His final act in the book is extremely touching and fitting the character that we've seen throughout the series, a final gift that is logical in hindsight but one I never saw coming. There are too many characters to name, but not one of them is a cardboard cutout.

The only mild complaint I have about The Shadow Roads is the climax of the story, which is comes a little out of left field. I didn't think it was necessary for the character who commits the final act to have done so, as I found the character's arc interesting by itself without having to have been involved in the ultimate resolution. Also, while I think the story motif came full circle in this book, it still felt a little detached. In The One Kingdom, the motif was as much a part of Russell's narration as it was a part of the story. This time, it's an element of the story but Russell doesn't really get the reader involved in it. There's no message to it like there was in the first book, where Russell appeared to be saying that life is a series of personal stories that sometimes interact with others' stories. This time, Cynddl's storyfinding is just part of the plot.

Sean Russell has saved his Swans' War series with this conclusion, making it well worth getting through the second book to get to it. His world-building is wonderful, his descriptions of the various lands our heroes travel through put you into the story, and the politics in the "real world" make an interesting contrast to the mystical elements that everybody else is dealing with. I was reading a discussion of George R.R. Martin and his Song of Ice & Fire series, and somebody said that The Swans' War series took some good influences from Martin. I can't help but agree. Go out and get this series now. You'll be glad you did.

David Roy

The Shadow Roads, Sean Russell's conclusion to his first trilogy is truly wonderful. I was so sad when the book ended, even though I ripped through the last 100 pages in one sitting. I am not going to describe what happens in this story - you can find a summary in lots of places. Instead I will tell you why this is such a great story.

Other's have mentioned Russell's incredible prose and ability to describe the world and write believable characters. I agree with this completely and would add how much I love his ability to create such intricate and convoluted plots. Just when you think the story is going to go one direction, it turns on a dime and heads off down another path. For example, at the end of the second book (Isle of Battle), Hafydd, a sorcerer, gets a magical jewel that starts to change him. I was sure this was going to develop into a major change in his character and affect the plot. Instead, Hafydd realizes that this jewel is affecting him and he gives it to another character to study its affects on that character. This is just one example. This book meanders like the river that runs through the story. There is nothing sentimental about the characters and their relationships, just real camaraderie, real anger, real love, real danger, and lots of real action!

I only have a few complaints about this particular book. One is that it seems not quite done. I am sure the efforts it takes to make a deadline are difficult, but it is clear to me that this book needed some more work. There are places where the wrong character's name is written by accident (Tam for Carl), and their are places where the plot skips in a jarring way - like there was a sequence that Russell intended to write, but then never did. In spite of these minor annoyances, I am glad the book was released as is. I have been waiting for it for the last two years and when I saw that it was to be released two days after my birthday, I jumped for joy. What a great birthday present!

Another complaint I have, is that this book - this series really, has so many characters and so many complicated plot twists, Russell fails to develop them all to a satisfying degree. The first book (The One Kingdom) is most in control, and the most well developed. The second book introduces and/or develops a whole different group of characters, which continue into the third book. There are even few more characters added in this book. Russell has done an amazing job tying it all together. Particularly the end I thought was amazingly successful. However, there is a lot here that feels unresolved, or too simply resolved. It seems like he just bit off more than he could chew, or he needed to chew it a bit longer. I am sure the publishing industry has no patience for that, but I would love to see him refine these books more - especially the second one, but this one too as an extension of the second one. If he could improve the stories at little bit- bring it up one notch, I would say this trilogy would rival Tolkiens.

In spite of these few complaints, I loved this series. The books thoroughly engaged me and I am depressed that they are over and I have read all of Sean Russell's other books. It is mind boggling how he conceived and developed such an amazing, complicated, character rich, magical, epic story. Go Sean Russell!

To have taken the time to read the first two books, and then to stop reading 1/3 of the way through this one is a huge disappointment to me. The book sat on my nightstand for days and days, untouched, and I finally realized I had given up.

In a lengthier review of The One Kingdom (to which I gave three stars), I said that the reader needs to know what's at stake in order to be drawn in to the story. We didn't learn what was at stake in The One Kingdom until we were well into the story, and I'm absolutely certain that Russell lost readers because of it.

My "at stake" comment applies to this book even more. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, the stakes change. Death and Time are introduced, and there is an immense fear that Death - a realized character in the second book - will escape and roam the world. Something that nobody wants to happen.

That's when he lost me. It's when he angered me. It's when I stopped reading the book, because I just didn't care anymore. When a writer doesn't let his readers know what's at stake until the last book of a trilogy, he/she has committed an "epic" mistake.

If there was some good stuff in the last two thirds of the book, well, I guess I missed it. But I don't regret it. There are only nine (now ten) reviews for this book. It seems that he lost more than this reader along the way.

I'll start this off by saying that I have respect for Sean Russell as a fantasy writer. As much as some critics would like to dismiss him, he has genuine talent (read the River Into Darkness books if you must have proof). This trilogy, and particularly this conclusion, was not his strongest effort. And hey, we're all human, I think we ought to cut him some slack.

That being said, I'm glad I bought the paperback.

This book was essentially wet gunpowder. Potential that got soaked, either with editing, publisher deadlines, a loss of passion, or the fatal accident of writing oneself into a corner. The writing was generally good in describing settings, mood, etc. The only real complaint I had here was the often tedious and sometimes laughable use of metaphore, and the 'over-acting' of some of the characters. (So you were going to kill your cousin, Dease. Get over it, and for goodness sakes stop staggering about. Most the characters in this book got bashed in the head at some point, and YOU are the only one who can't seem to get better from a simple cranial impact after one and a half books! Geez...)

Sorry, I digress.

Anyhow, my major bone to pick with this book was that pretty much everything that drew you into the first (and to some degree the second) installment simply ended up being irrelivant in the end. Everything we cared about, all the dialogue, character development, and whatnot that we liked to read was cast aside for an inexorable march to the end in which a bunch of stuff happens in quick succession and things hit you blindside that were only hinted at before and then there's some swords and arrows and remorse and redemption and wizards and fire and lots of stuff about the river and death and then they all live happily ever after, except the bad guys, who die with a confounding lack of extravagance. A run-on sentance of melodrama and unwanted plot twists that simply had to exist to bring this story to a close within the publisher's desired page count.

The ending, in short, felt weak. Very weak. Cynddl said it best when even HE (an integral character in the story...until he was forgotten halfway through book three) even he could not begin to tell another character in the story what was going on. And the man is a Story FINDER. It almost felt like Russell was offering some sort of apology to the reader when he wrote that dialogue (page 402 of the mass market paperback if you're curious).

In conclusion, don't write off Sean Russell, the man can write when he wants to. But if you've just finished the second book of this trilogy, save yourself the disorientation of this finale and make up the ending you like best. That's what I did...but that was because I thought book two was the last book of a duology...which kinda makes me an idiot.

Peace out

It was hard for me to believe that the Swan's War books were written by the author of Initiate Brother. The first two books were pleasant and interesting enough that I bought the third, The Shadow Roads." Unfortunately, I found that instead of reading a story about endless war fueled by the weaknesses of human character, as detailed in the first two long novels, I was reading about a supernatural love triangle, which caused endless war as a side effect. The climactic resolution was effected by characters who had less than 10 pages of development out of a thousand, and all of the subplots and story lines were revealed as irrelevant.

If I had not previously read outstanding work by Sean Russell, I would give up on this author.

A bit of a tragedy; and I don't mean the story but this very disappointing 3rd & last volume of the Swan's War series.
After reading the first two books I held out hopes that I had found another author to add to my list of "must buy their stuff" but now I wished I had waited for the paperback version.
Russell has either rushed through this one to get on with something else or the book has been edited to death, I can't tell which.
The patient build up of the previous volumes is missing here; you have the feel the story is constantly being pushed right up until the disappointing ending. On the ending, Russell should have read a few "David Gemmell's" to get an idea of how to finish a book with some style. The story becomes totally disjointed as the author tries to force a conclusion on ever thread of the tale he so carefully weaved in the previous books and the flow of story therefore is lost. I made sure I read the previous book again before starting this one and was unable to match the tow up.
It's very sad as a reader to see this happen to a story you high hopes for. Maybe a fourth book would have a better plan than this rushed mess.

Hardened fantasy readers will of course want to buy this one to see how it ends, take my advice and wait for the paperback version.

For over a century, the Wills and the Renne have fought over who will rule the One Kingdom. Alliances constantly shift as treachery and intrigue are the norm in this 100 plus year old war. Making matters worse, the constant battles have awakened the sons and daughters of the Wyrr, powerful sorcerers who have slept for decades in the Wynnd River.

The Wyrr siblings hate each other and unless they can be stopped from fighting one another, the world will be destroyed in a battle to end all battles. Elise Wills and Alaan, host of two of the less belligerent sorcerers join forces to cast out their brother Caibre from Haffydd as he has made a compact with the most malignant sorcerer ever, the darkest of beings, once bound in another realm for the safety of everyone else. Caibre will released this evil from his imprisonment to abet his war efforts; in exchange for that malevolent assistance, the wickedest one will have freedom to experiment with the blackest of magics. The sorcerers battle with magic of pandemic destruction.

In a world troubled by constant wars, the two sorcerers team up to fight their brother and by doing so begin to turn towards the light. They are the heroes of THE SHADOW ROADS as they could have joined forces with the sibling to easily conquer and rule the world. Mankind plays a role in the fate of this embattled realm as humanity must turn the swords into plows or else continue to feed the dark. Thos trying to bring peace are the unsung heroes working to end the crisis. Sean Russell has written an enthralling work filled with deep characters in a world on the brink.

not becase it's a bad book..but because it's a great book...a fitting ending to a great trilogy...

this is how fantasy should be done...as with the previous two entries in this series, it's a character driven story..as I said before, even though it's based in fantasy, the reader can relate to these characters..people driven by fate..fighting a war that they didn't want a part of..fighting battles the cause of which started before they were even born...

there are alot of characters and situations going on in this book though..which is why I didn't rate it a bit higher..sometimes I found it easy (especially if I had to put it down for a few days) to lose track of who's with what party, etc, etc..but overall, it doesn't detract from the main part of the story...

the ending definetly leaves you wanting more...how does it end? I'm not telling..all I'll say is that there could be more...and I hope there is...

Sean Russell is fast becomming one of my favorite writers in a genre that I never got into previously...fantasy...and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of his works!

Oh, how good you could have been, dear "Shadow Roads." You could have been awesome. Even after "the Isle of Battle" was a letdown you could have been amazing. Instead, we got everything that made the second novel bad, but twice over. Characters in the group completely disappear in the group yet again, sometimes for pages, and when they do pop up, there is almost no character to them, just a name and dialogue. Even Alaan suffers. The "whist" is so serious and plain in his delivery here that the trickster archetype that so many people love is completely removed. And the other characters didn't have a chance.

Poor Fynnol and Cynddl again. The original group of four worked so well for Russell in the first novel, he never should have expanded it beyond a couple more. Eber, Llya, Rabal, Slighthands, all those characters just never stuck like the first ones.

The other major problem of the second novel also popped up. The "are we close to him or are the others closer?" Which is just boring. It drags the pace down. The same feel can even be found in the Prince Michael part of the story. So often his is just "are we going to get caught? But no we found a hideaway. And another. And another." Argh! Its suppose to be suspenseful but its not because in Russell's world, no one dies really. Or if they do, its very anti-climatic, or they come back to life. Its worse than Jordan with the Forsaken.

The one bright point of this novel is Carrel Wills and Llyn Renne, both of which are very sweet characters. Though at times it gets too sappy with Russell's love of the melodrama. Every scene of these two is good, has been since the beginning, which is why its so bizarre that after the first few chapters they just disappear until the very end of the novel to wrap things up. Yes, they were kind of out of the action, but they could have been more involved. Especially if Torren, Dease, and some of the others would have stayed instead of going off and getting lost in the group of more interesting characters.

Novels are like chess in some ways, you have to put your pieces in the right places and you have to sacrifice some to win. Russell wouldn't sacrifice any and he wouldn't put them where they could have been useful, that was this novel's biggest weakness, and thus, the biggest weakness of what I believe could have been a great High Fantasy series.

Final Thought: Unless you are really into metaphor and melodrama, you probably should stay away from the trilogy.