Customer Reviews

The Shadow Sorceress (Spellsong Cycle, Book 4)

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

 

 

Modesitt's style has never been his strong point, but his storytelling skills are impressive. Unfortunately, while full of his usual elements--arguments, force, tense battles, exhausting travels, told at a fast pace--the individual stories have all been told before. The young Secca could just as easily be Anna of the earlier books, and her ever-multiplying enemies seem no different than Anna's in first three books. The male chauvinists still doubt a sorceress's deadliness, and countless enemies are characterized only by their enmity and ambition.

There is a minor but unexciting romantic subplot, and a more intersting moral opposition to using magic in warfare--where it can escalate to mass-destruction levels.

On the whole, if you've read the earlier Spellsong books, you'll find little new here. If not, start with _The Soprano Sorceress_.

Twenty years have passed since Anna was forcibly ripped away from her home in the Mist Worlds and sent to a beleaguered world that needed her singing abilities. In Liedwahr, singers are powerful sorcerers and Anna turned out to be the strongest, winning battle after battle until peace settled in the realm. Anna adopted Secca and taught her all she knew about sorcery.

When Anna died, a nation mourned, but Secca could not remain weeping long. An insurrection in a neighboring province needs to be stopped before anyone else thinks a power vacuum has occurred with Anna's death. In spite of her efforts, Secca has a gigantic workload ahead of her, including crushing a rebellion at several locales as the Sturinnn blockade needs breaking and the Nesera revolt needs halting, etc.

A new arc of the Spellsong Cycle begins starring a powerful but uncertain Sorceress-Protector who must follow her mentor-mother's incredible accomplishments. There is plenty of action with sword and sorcery battles even as the key characters are fully developed so their actions are understandable. THE SHADOW SORCERESS is a triumphant epic fantasy.

Harriet Klausner

I wrestled over how many stars. The book was well written, but for those of us following the series, it just didn't fit right. For one thing, there was too much missing. We know that Anna's last campaign bought 20 years of peace to Defalk and that during that time she apparently had 10 good years with Jecks before he died, and she also had time to raise Secca, orphaned earlier in the series. But other than that, what happened to all the other people?

Now Anna has died. The powers that were held back peacefully because of fear of her are now unleashed. It is Secca's turn to fight the good fight.

One problem I had was Secca was too much a carbon copy of Anna. If we're going to get a new heroine, she needs to be her own person. For one thing, we all agreed that Anna was one-of-a-kind, and this spoils it!

I also expected Jimbob (aka Robero) would grow up a little more mature. Just like Secca had that realization "oh-oh, it's me in the driver's seat" I expected a similar realization from the heir of Defalk. Secca is running around from country to country putting her life and others' lives on the line on a daily basis, while Robero sits at home and plays king. I think in Secca's place, I would have defected half way thru the novel!

I would have been impressed if Secca discovered something new about sorcery, that got the impossible done quicker. Perhaps by going to Sturin. I actually expected her to start playing around with drums... maybe even dance. Possibly discovering a whole continent and new world with new problems, new trade potentials on the other side of that world.

Well, there's still Richina. I have hopes for Richina!

I am a long-term fan of Modesitt, having read his material from his earlist days. Unfortunately, this novel, while professionally written, is lacking on so many levels that it is difficult to finish.

Yes, Secca is developed as a character... Who is just like the character she replaces, only without the anguish of separation and the difficulty of adaptation.

And the world is still nominally the world that we left in Book 3, advanced somewhat in time, but it has broken down as an independent milieu and vaguely resembles Recluce down to the white ships of Sea-Priests, the building of a steam engine and some editorial errors referencing Recluce...

And we have the obligatory dull romance... Just like the dull romances found in most of Modesitt's books... Only this time, without a central character I cared for, I found it duller and more obviously contrived than in other series'.

If you're a fan of the series, good luck. But don't expect to blown away. This is far from his best work.

This story should have been resolved in book 3 with a hundred or so pages attached. The story is about Anna and the changes she forced in an alternate society.

Most series don't really need to evolve beyond the original characters, and I believe this is one of them. This isn't a bad book, I just don't see the need for it to have been written. The Recluce series shifts gears, but it does so in a much more fluid way than this series does. I just found it a bit awkward.

Modesitt is an excellent writer, but he's not for everyone. I've yet to come up with a way to really define his style, but I'll just say sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

I think this was less than his best effort, but your mileage may vary. If you're a fan, then you should read it and see what you think.

It seems to me that what Modesitt has been engaged in during both the Spellsong Cycle and the Recluse Cycle are some extended meditations on different levels about the use of power. To this end, he uses fantasy settings and magic power to make his point.

_The Shadow Sorceress_ seems to underline this mission by abruptly removing the character to whom we had become attached in the first three books and replacing her with her young student. It is as though he is pointing out that it is the tapestry and not the thread that matters. Knowing the rest of Modesitt's books, that could very well be the case.

The character encounters similar situations with a new set of powers and responsibilities and generally has to hold a complicated kingdom together to the best of her abilities. If it sounds familiar, it should.

Perhaps I am giving Modesitt too much credit here, but it is difficult for me to believe that such an obviously talented writer could engage in such a blatent disregard for character and character development unless it were on purpose. Don't know.

On the other hand, there's the "not enough credit" argument. I have been complaining about the exact same points in all the books since book 1, and yet I am still reading the darned things. As a reader, I *like* character. I was interested in Anna/Secca far more than I was in the fate of Defalk. All the same, I buy and read these as soon as they appear.

I know of no current fantasy writer stronger than Modesitt in terms of his ability to make the details real and to make the writing compelling.

Anyhow, I will keep reading, and probably also keep complaining.

So far I haven't suspected the lack of imagination in the L. E., Jr. Modesitt, but after this book I begun to wonder. When I passed the middle of the book, I had to check that I hadn't taken one of the Recluce books by mistake. I mean, the similarities are too numerous to be accidental. The sorcerer and sorceress who fall in love, the watersprout that is created by Secca, the engine that the smith is trying to build (which is mentioned once for no apparent purpose) - all these elements are already familiar to anyone who read the Recluce series.
I also got the imperssion that to prolong the series, author is adding the elements that are not organic for these series, and they look foreign (for example all the line of the Ladies of the Shadow). In short, for me the book was a disappointment.

When I read a review I actually don't want a condensed version of the story. I am looking to read it myself. What I need to know is if the story inspired one to read on, was it entertaining, worth the time, and thought provoking? Did it take me out of this world and absorb me into the tale? ....Well.... When I opened the cover and turned to the first page with hope, this story, this entire tale (all the books) meet all of the above requirements for me.
This was like taking a vacation in another land, and I enjoyed returning there. There is more character development than one could hope for, and with lots of 'em to boot. It is more than fantasy, it is our world gone a different way, therefore we can relate to it. Get your imaginary passport ready, pass through customs,(that is, leave the customs of our world behind) and find yourself in the middle of a new land worth exploring. Oh, and for your safety, stick close to the Lady Ann.

I love these books. I just found out there's another, and it's on my list, but hopefully as an ebook.

The only disappointment was the lack of happenings with Anna after the first book, but her heir carried on the tradition wonderfuly!