27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
strongest one so far in a very good series--recommended, March 20, 2010
This review is from: Shadowrise: Volume Three of Shadowmarch (Hardcover)
Shadowrise is Tad William's third and thus concluding novel of the Shadowmarch trilogy, begun in Shadowmarch and continued in Shadowplay. So in this final volume, wait, hold on, I'm being told Mr. Williams, clearly feeling a sense of fantasy author peer pressure, has decided that, yes, while this is the "concluding volume," it has in fact been split in two (hmmm, where have I heard that before), making the trilogy, in usual fantasy fashion, four books. At least. Maybe five. Who knows? In truth though, I've found the degree to which this sort of thing annoys me is in direct inverse relation to the quality of the books themselves. And I can't say I found myself particularly upset that Williams has extended Shadowmarch another five hundred pages or so. Or, you know, another thousand.
Book one was a typical starter novel: relatively slow-paced so as to introduce character, setting, necessary background information, etc. and leaving the reader with more questions than answers. It had its issues, was a bit uneven in its treatment of character and various storylines, but I found it mostly compelling throughout and found that Williams' characteristically sharp writing more than compensated for the few flaws and found ways to make even the hoariest of genre tropes feel relatively fresh. Shadowplay picked up the pace quite a bit, evened out the quality among the numerous storylines, and improved the readability of several of the more annoying or weak characters from Shadowmarch. And Shadowrise continues in that same strong vein.
Like the previous novels, Williams shifts point-of-view among several characters and plot lines, which are far too numerous and complex to go into at this stage of the series, save to say that narrative lines that seemed somewhat disconnected or even wholly separate are now starting to intertwine, in ways both expected and unexpected. The shifts themselves are fluid and easily followed, but more than in the others I felt a bit rushed through them at times and I found myself wishing Williams had let us spend some more time in each. Part of the reason for this, however, is that Williams is better here than in book one at offering up separate stories of equal narrative force.
Part of what I enjoyed so much in Shadowrise is the way he does this in varied fashion. We follow several characters preparing for small-scale battle (and a few actual skirmishes), another character's lone (save for a talking bird) trek through a strange land, another character's singular focus on escaping her captor, another's first moves into the realm of political intrigue as well as romance and so on. Each strand is compelling and suspenseful though the means of evoking that interest varies greatly.
While we're still working with some of the same-old, same-old fantasy tropes (twins, delvers, strange forests, etc.) as with the others, Williams puts enough of his own stamp on things and creates such fully fleshed characters that the standard forms don't detract from the reading experience. And they are more than offset by the segments in the twilight land where he lets his imagination run free.
I said in my review of book one that this series doesn't match the genius of his Sorrow trilogy (it was, after all, "genius") but is his strongest work since then and compares favorably to nearly any epic fantasy going now (with only a few exceptions). Through three books, I see no reason to change my mind. I'm looking forward eagerly to the book four, the concluding volume. Or, you know, not.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The best of the trilogy so far, March 5, 2010
This review is from: Shadowrise: Volume Three of Shadowmarch (Hardcover)
This has been the best book of this trilogy so far, though it ends abruptly (as though the book were cut in half, which indeed it was. But fear not, the final volume should appear in a couple of months). Many loose ends are clarified, and obviously the story is converging on Southmarch - where a king who would be god, the disenfranchised 'fairies', the missing prince and princess, and a host of other characters are coming together. A reason I particularly liked this novel: in general, my beef with the other Shadowmarch novels, and indeed most mega-fantasy/sci-fi novels these days is the rapid switching between character POVs from chapter to chapter (sometimes within a single chapter). Perhaps this is a nod to short attention spans in the modern day, perhaps it's lazy writing, who knows. What impressed me in Shadowrise was that while this usually annoying switching went on as it always has, it was done so well, each character and its experiences so interesting, that for once it was almost a pleasure and not an irritant. This by no means vindicates this writing practice - only shows that in the hands of a skilled writer, it can work well.
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
wait for paperback, April 8, 2010
This review is from: Shadowrise: Volume Three of Shadowmarch (Hardcover)
I devoured the first two novels as fast as I could. Ignoring friends, TV, and sleep I'd crammed every waking moment with reading and was tragically depressed when the 2nd novel ended. I was very impatiently awaiting the release of the third novel. In the forward, Tad Williams jokes about one day being able to write a trilogy without the third book spilling into a fourth installment. Upon reading the third book, I have one big question:
Where is his editor?
Unfortunately, and I hate to say it about a very favorite author of mine, this book suffers from a severe lack of judicious editing and restraint. Rather than be critical of a hotly selling author, they just let him publish THIS! It's not awful, but it starts very slow. There is a lot of stuff that just didn't need to be included. It could've been whittled down, sections reorganized, parts cut. I found it quite slow going and uninteresting in a lot of places.
I know, so many fans are going to rave about how fantastic it is no matter how fantastic it isn't, but I am significantly disappointed in the third installment and not very enthusiastic about the fourth one. Wait for paperback, it just is not worth $30. Those answers you were dying for are not here.
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