Customer Reviews

Shadowplay (Shadowmarch Trilogy)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I read the first book in this trilogy and enjoyed it, but sometimes the second book in a trilogy falls flat. Not so with this, it was even better! What a feat. Very entertaining, great plot lines and character development. Also, a good balance of some characters in "traveling" mode and others progressing in plot from one general location. Many Fantasy books overdo the travelling from one place to another. Also, in these long books, I often spend time flipping through the pages of filler, conversations and other types that just go nowhere. Not with this one. I enjoyed every page. I was truly sorry when it ended.

The wonderful pleasure in reading Tad Williams books is in knowing the characters, all with such complexity and depth, with the stamps of their many fantastic cultures, and to see them develop and unfold and weave into each other's destinies. What a feat, and what a feast for the reader! Even characters one can't help but want to slap into shape a bit will get under your skin, so that you will somehow want them to survive. And the villians are the most enigmatic, repulsive and deeply mystical creatures yet. When compared to the Dragonbone series, it seems these Sidhi had a similiar origin on the same fantasy planet but a different, darker evolutionary pathway. It was a wonderful read, over too soon, and as Williams does, we are left with many questions and worries about our beloved characters, and unquenched apprehension about the unstoppable tyrannies and simmering betrayals to come. I hope he doesn't take too long with that next one...

Author Tad Williams' second installment in the Shadowmarch trilogy shows definite improvement over the first, the latter of which left me somewhat unimpressed.

Here, Briony continues her flight from Southmarch and the family who have all but usurped her family's throne. In the process, she's rescued from starvation and the predations of the wilderness by a demigoddess (somewhat reminiscent of Geloe, of "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn"), eventually joining up with a traveling troupe of entertainers whose day job may be acting, but some of whose members have a more cloak-and-dagger midnight shift. Barrick travels with Capt. Vansen and Gyir, the latter bizarre by even fairy standards, and has an unfortunate meeting with a demigod of his own. We encounter captive King Olin at last, a prisoner in a reputedly impregnable city, as the mad Autarch batters at the walls, putting the city's claim to the test. Finally, the Minstrel Tinwright, ever the opportunist, finds being court minstrel to the usurpers a bit more dangerous than he thought, especially since he becomes romantically entangled with the concubine of one of the more ruthless of them - a lady who asks Tinwright to assist her in escaping her captor through death. The mysterious fairy folk, called the Qar, have all but vanished into the city surrounding Southmarch castle - their presence undetected, but the castle under siege nonetheless.

William's character development picks up in this second installment, and it's a welcome change from the first. While Barrick continues to be as annoying and whiny as in the first, Briony comes into her own and is turning into quite an interesting character - not at all the minor role I expected her to play. Tinwright, though unctuous and opportunistic, finds himself squirming in a trap of his own making - and is also proving to be one of the more interesting characters in the series, his moral ambiguity belying the tendency of William's characters to be somewhat two dimensional as regards their morality. Less emphasis is placed on the Qar, with the exception of Gyir, perhaps the most interesting of the Qar aside from the changeling Kayyin, formerly the halfwit Gil. This lack of focus actually benefits the story, as I never found the fairy army a particularly menacing threat from the beginning. The shift in focus in book two from the Funderlings to the sea people is also a benefit, the Funderlings being a bit too much rock-candy-coated Oompa-Loompas compared to the ambivalent natures of the sea folk. Still weak are the Autarch, whose Nero/Caligula-esque behavior seems all too much stock fare relative to someone of Williams' talent, and Chert, the hen-pecked Funderling who seems more a dwarven version of "Step-and-Fetch-It" to be truly credible beyond a fantasy allegory to the old negro stereotype.

All said, a strong follow-up to a weak beginning. Here's hoping the final book follows suit.

Tad Williams has shown that he is a master of Epic Fantasy with his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series, as well as his Otherland books. His first book in this new series, "Shadowmarch," continues along these lines. It is truly epic fantasy. This second novel, "Shadowplay," is the second novel in a trilogy. Unfortunately, it reads like a second novel. The writing is excellent, the characterization of the main characters continues to be superb, but the story in general, is a bridge between the major events of the first book, and what I assume will be the major events of the third book.
Regardless of this fact, the book is well worth the purchase price and, in addition to Shadowmarch, is a wonderful 2/3 of a story that I can't wait to finish. I eagerly await the last novel.

This is a really long book and even voracious readers will need some time to go through it. Hey, I like that about a good book! Thankfully there was little in the way of refreshing readers' memories by having characters do over-long reminiscing or recounting to other characters about what has passed before, because that can get so boring. When the author feels you might need reminding about something, he handles it more gracefully than most. Still, you might want to re-read Shadowmarch just for the pleasure. My only quibble so far is that the pace of Shadowplay sometimes bogs down, but Williams' fine writing and the introduction of new characters (Skurn!) helps make up for that. I'm glad this is a trilogy and not longer.... I'm eager to read the last one!

I had ended up being a BIG fan of Tad's Otherland series, and so far this series is nearly as enjoyable for me. In this Shadowmarch series, the physical and cultural world he has conjured from his imagination is the real star. Although most of the characters do not have really complex personalities, the story narrative has plenty of zigs and zags that I had not seen coming around the corner.
Similar to the Otherland series, this Shadowmarch series has a strong volume 1, with volume 2 devoted more to exploring the characters and the world set up in the first volume. As such, there is less action in ShadowPlay, but we come out of it with a deeper affinity for the characters.
The one suggestion I would have is to read volume 1 (Shadowmarch) and volume 2 (Shadowplay) back-to-back. The writer does not spent much time getting us back up to speed on who is who and what has happened in the first volume, so the one year time lag I experienced between reading the first volume and this second volume had me a little disoriented for awhile.
I recommend this series. I am rating Shadowplay only 4 stars because when compared to Shadowmarch I would say that the story would be helped if it moved along a little faster in the middle sections of the book.

I was drawn to this series after reading Williams in the Legends II fantasy anthology. His sophisticated prose was original and "otherworldly" but never turgid; his ideas were bracing, his plots intricate and deftly handled. I read "The War of the Flowers" with delight and became eager to try more of his work. I started the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, but got sidetracked by the appearance of a new Williams novel, "Shadowmarch." Now after finishing "Shadowplay," I agree with other reviewers that the second book delivers on the promise of the first, expands its horizons, and deepens the emotional depth of the characters. Read this book if only to meet Gyir, the Storm Lantern, a new character whose interactions with Prince Barrick and Ferras Vansen become more and more revealing of the series' themes.

There are a number of novels which deal with an encroaching Dark Time or an approaching Shadow or mist-filled land, but Williams never relies on cliche, and the archetypes he invokes are handled with fresh energy. The epigraphs to each chapter, providing excerpts to the fantasy documents "Qar's Book of Regrets" and "Book of the Trigon" would make interesting stories on their own. They slowly unfold the mythology underlying the larger tale, with the added texture of two differing points of view within the fictional cosmos.

While I am waiting for the next book in the Shadowmarch series, I am looking lovingly at my thick pile of Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn paperbacks, and ready to dive back in.

It took me a while to become a true Tad Williams fan, but with this second installment of Shadowmarch, send me my fan club decoder ring because I am in!

His characters, world, and plots are intricate and detailed. But not so much that you get bored, or begin skipping pages (i'm talking to you Robert Jordan!). Instead you just get lost in a story that is well told and compelling. I recommend this series to anyone who loves the "epic fantasy".

I find book 2 to be better written then book 1, maybe because the characters' trials have made them more sympathetic and interesting. There is still a lot of mystery left and some things made a little clearer. Which makes the anticipation of 3 all the more exciting!

Shadowmarch Castle is in crisis. Barrick Eddon is missing, presumed killed in battle, whilst his sister Briony has also vanished from the castle, leaving it under the redoubtable stewardship of the ambitious and scheming Hendon Tolly. An army of the Twilight Folk has occupied the landward side of the fortress but not besieged the castle proper, but far to the south the great city of Hierosol is under attack by the armies of Xis, threatening the safety of both the fugitive Quinnitan and King Olin Eddon, a captive of the city's rulers.

Shadowplay is the second volume in the Shadowmarch quartet and carries the series past its halfway point. As with the first volume it's a competently-executed, traditional secondary world fantasy, but as a novel it's even slower-moving and more badly-paced than the first book.

The book is divided into several widely-separated narratives: Barrick and Ferras Vansen's adventures beyond the Shadowline, Briony on the run with a bunch of theatrical players, Olin as a captive in Hierosol, Chert the Funderling trying to help his amnesiac, adopted son and various characters in Southmarch living under the new regime. Unfortunately these narratives aren't really tied together well. They also vary wildly in quality and execution. The autarch's assault on Hierosol is tense and well-handled, but Briony on the road with the travelling players is dull. Even worse is Barrick's adventures beyond the Shadowline, where Williams aims for a kind of surreal mysticism and ends up with turgid boredom (though a few moments are genuinely unsettling). Chert, the most interesting character from the first book, is also hugely reduced in importance and gets little to do here.

The book's biggest problem is that whilst we have some big battles, some ominous scenes and some intriguing (if sometimes soap opera-ish) developments, the overall storyline doesn't develop very far. For only the second in a four-book series, it feels like Williams has far too many balls in play and is only able to move each of them forward a very small amount rather than the whole thing forward decisively (probably a reason why this trilogy expanded to four volumes).

The book is somewhat frustrating as Williams is still a good writer and some storylines and characters are well-handled, but overall the book's pace feels misjudged and there are no real surprises here.

Shadowplay (***) is a competently-executed fantasy novel, but the plot is slow to develop and there are too many storylines which feel extraneous or badly-handled to be really satisfying. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.