Tower Of Shadows (Kindle Edition)

by Jane Toombs (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
This precocious debut from college sophomore Bowling turns on the evergreen battle of good vs. evil as embodied by Corin and Cade Starcross, brothers whose childhood loss of their parents leaves Corin's morality intact but twists Cade, the elder, with a lust for revenge. Wizard Dale calls on Wren Tident, a retired adventurer, to locate and protect Corin when Cade and his minions—Sarin, One-Eye and Damon—begin hunting down the younger brother. Cade requires the blood of his sibling and a magic dagger to summon a dreadful demon who will destroy their parents' murderers. Wren takes his teenage daughter, Kayla, along on his dangerous quest and eventually unites with Dale's bumbling but benevolent apprentice, Adriel. Bowling stocks the mystical land of Ellynrie with the talismanic trappings of most classic quests—magic medallions, wizards, pirates and, of course, a dragon—but he brings an exciting pace and his own exuberant style to a novel suitable for all ages. (Jan.)
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Review
Advance praise for The Tower of Shadows

“A fast-paced, exciting adventure that doesn’t allow you to take a breath.”
–Terry Brooks

“Drew Bowling’s The Tower of Shadows is simply elegant. This young writer doesn’t waste words; he uses just enough description to engage the reader’s imagination, inviting the reader to participate in the creation of the imagery. Reading The Tower of Shadows was a very visual experience, for me, as if I were there, or watching a movie.”
–R. A. Salvatore

“Bowling’s debut is a fast-paced, accessible fantasy epic.”
–Kirkus Reviews

“[Bowling] brings an exciting pace and his own exuberant style to a novel suitable for all ages.”
–Publishers Weekly


From the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 468 KB
• Print Length: 304 pages
• Publisher: Champagne Books (March 30, 2007)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000P0JGMS
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Shows potential but definitely not there yet, March 25, 2007

By	L. S. Jaszczak "servant of the secret fire" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Tower of Shadows (Hardcover)

Unfortunately, I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how this book got such good blurbs from established writers. It's basically just a series of fight scenes held together by a very thin, disjointed narrative thread, with two-dimensional characters and a very shallow backstory.

Bowling would have used his time and space much more wisely if he had spent more of it developing the characters and plot, which was basically that the survivor of a massacre (by demons?) is trying to find his brother and use his blood to gain power, supposedly to avenge their parents' murder. He couldn't even be bothered to come up with original names, filching Ariel from Shakespeare for one of the world's gods, and the name of the knight who magically appears out of nowhere whenever the characters are in a tight spot is priceless - Sir Lancet Rhymewind. The main characters are the "good" brother who is the target, a reluctant wizard with poor self-esteem, an embittered and cynical ex-warrior, and his plucky daughter. Yawn. I couldn't bring myself to really care about any of them, and what ever happened to Kayla's artistic talent, anyway? That was a promising trait that piqued some interest in me at the beginning, but then it was just dropped.

The author has some nice descriptive touches in his writing (although "the sky was the color of a clotting wound" is _not_ one of them), and perhaps he can do better in future books, but I felt that this one was just a waste of my time.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining read, September 24, 2008

By	C. E. Dunkley - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Tower of Shadows: Book One of The Tides of Fate (Mass Market Paperback)

The Tower of Shadows was an entertaining story. Its a straightforward tale:

-A man trying to keep his daughter safe from his past, while beholden to answer when that past comes calling.

-A wizard's young untried apprentice charged with carrying out the duties his master is no longer able to.

-A young man unaware of his role in terrible events that are unfolding around him.

The author is a young man, a college student. While he still has room to grow he spins a fun tale. He does have a love of similes, but he makes them interesting and rarely dull. Through most of the book each chapter is devoted to one of the various viewpoint characters until we approach the final section of the book. From this point on the author switches between all of the various viewpoints from page to page, sometimes paragraph to paragraph. While this makes the ending a little more disjointed than it should have been the author makes it clear when he is making a viewpoint switch and to which character he is switching to.

Overall, though I enjoyed the book and look forward to seeing where the author will take the story in the next installment.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, definitely fun, but not memorable, February 1, 2008

By	Forceten (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tower of Shadows (Hardcover)

This is a typical fantasy novel - you have star-crossed twins, separated at birth, one a hero, one evil, you have the journey to set things to rights. Magic, horses, adventure...

And all of it is done well enough to make the story a quick read, a pleasant read. It's a fun book.

The problem is that it's not memorable - things are a bit too typical here, the story a bit too much like things I've read before. The characters don't linger, either. I read the book, and a few months later, saw it on the shelf and had to glance at the first few pages again to realize that I'd read it already. Not a good sign.

If you're looking for a quick fantasy read that's fun, go for it. If you're expecting a new author of a new complex series (like Rothfuss, Lynch, Abercrombie), you might want to pass.