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Dominions of Irth #2
The Shadow Eater
A gnome wanders among strange worlds of immeasurable beauty and terror on a quest for magic to restore the health of a goddess. If he fails, all creation will dissolve. And so he must dare anything to succeed, even trespass a realm of terrible darkness, pain and dread sorcery — Earth.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1998
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183 people want to read
About the author
A.A. Attanasio
47 books360 followersI’m a novelist and student of the imagination living in Honolulu. Fantasies, visions, hallucinations or whatever we call those irrational powers that illuminate our inner life fascinate me. I’m particularly intrigued by the creative intelligence that scripts our dreams. And I love carrying this soulful energy outside my mind, into the one form that most precisely defines who we are: story.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 16, 2018
Following up "The Dark Shore", despite it being the first book of a stated trilogy, probably wasn't an easy task. After all, when you've managed to do an entire trilogy's worth of work in the first volume by having the world be put into dire peril, devastated and then rescued, what the heck do you do for an encore? While two books devoted to people cleaning up the mess that was made is probably realistic, its not exactly the kind of heroics people gravitate toward fantasy for. We want to read about dragons messing stuff up, not about all the palace staff who has to sweep up the guts afterwards.
But with the main threat presented to us in the first book taken care of and all the world shattering presumably peaking since they've hit their quota for the decade, Lee does decide to do almost exactly that to some extent, focusing in the moments when he loops back to members of the original cast exactly what the cost of all the fighting was and what everyone is trying to do to get back to at least zero so they can move forward again. Its a fascinating approach (and I'd argue he does more with it in the third volume), akin to the "Lord of the Rings" adding a fourth book dealing with all the towns that got stomped flat when marauding orcs and trolls from Sauron's army marched through.
Of course, anyone who read the first book remembers how decidedly weird Lee's fantasy world is and he sure doesn't skimp on that here. Right from the get-go when we're taken to a mystical garden where a pregnant woman lounging around claims she can no longer feel her child moving around and if he doesn't revive soon she's going to have to "wake the father" and essentially destroy all of creation its very clear we are not in normal territory. Thanks to his prose he's got a way of writing scenes that always feel a little bit off balance even when people are having what would be normal conversations even if it wasn't abundantly clear these are gods and gnomes and they're talking about hitting a reset button on all of existence.
To that end a gnome named Old Ric is tasked with heading down to the lower worlds to figure out what happened to the kid. To say nothing goes right is perhaps understating a bit and its not too long before Ol' Ric ticks off some elves, is beset by crazed dwarves, has to contend with an ancient devil worshipper and gets to sport some nifty new jewelry, one of which is an arrow through the chest. He's also accompanied by a Radiant One, who despite sounding like he should be a member of a boy band, appears to be a living star that is pretty good at killing people and none too humble about it. But then, he considers all of us a part of the lady's dream and nothing bad ever happens in dreams, right?
To say this is way stranger than the first novel is like saying sometimes I'm not very concise and anyone who jumped on board expecting the same level of action this time out is going to be surprised and not totally in a good way. Lee's not quite at his best with resonant characters to begin with and giving us a figidity gnome who doesn't want to be there, assisted by an elf that's along because of a sense of obligation and a star-person that would REALLY rather be anywhere else is either the recipe for the greatest road-buddy comedy the world has ever seen or the formula for a rather clotted experience. It makes the early sections of the book rough going because while the overall structure of the worlds are interesting the actual quest mostly seems like spinning its wheels while everyone complains.
However, stick with it and things do improve. The book eventually makes it to old hangout Irth and with it the reintroduction of two of the more personable characters from the first go-round Reese and Jyoti. Jyoti's presence in particular livens things up considerably as she's consistently competent and able to drag the plot into something resembling discipline. Once that cast is put together the book gains a bit more drive and becomes easier to follow.
That's helpful because since the default of this series is gloriously weird there's quite a bit of strangeness to parse. If you thought the basic premise was kooky enough you'll probably get a kick out of an antagonist whose name is "Duppy Hob" (it doesn't get less silly sounding no matter who says it or how many times its repeated) or Lee's fantasy inversions like having the dwarves created from maggots and returning to their pale crawly origins when killed. He also gets a great deal of mileage out of slyly terrifying occurrences, like when people's shadows start disappearing.
Of course, he can't quite overcome the fact that once you set aside your concern for the characters you care about getting hurt, its still hard to get emotionally engaged in the story, as it boils down to more items from Lee's Catalogue of the Fantastique (this month's featured item being the Necklace of Souls). The coasting on the off-kilter fantasy helps probably more than it should and I actually enjoyed the hints to how our Earth fits into this scheme (which vaguely reminded me of CS Lewis' "Out of the Silent Planet" for some reason, despite really having nothing to do with religion at all). But he goes zero for two on gripping climaxes, with one solution calling into question a character's common sense and the resolution almost coming across an afterthought. Worth sticking with because you are rarely going to read fantasy this idiosyncratic (and the third book doubles down in a good way) but your enjoyment may depend on how well you're able to suppress a giggle at the fearsome name of "Duppy Hob, devil worshipper".
But with the main threat presented to us in the first book taken care of and all the world shattering presumably peaking since they've hit their quota for the decade, Lee does decide to do almost exactly that to some extent, focusing in the moments when he loops back to members of the original cast exactly what the cost of all the fighting was and what everyone is trying to do to get back to at least zero so they can move forward again. Its a fascinating approach (and I'd argue he does more with it in the third volume), akin to the "Lord of the Rings" adding a fourth book dealing with all the towns that got stomped flat when marauding orcs and trolls from Sauron's army marched through.
Of course, anyone who read the first book remembers how decidedly weird Lee's fantasy world is and he sure doesn't skimp on that here. Right from the get-go when we're taken to a mystical garden where a pregnant woman lounging around claims she can no longer feel her child moving around and if he doesn't revive soon she's going to have to "wake the father" and essentially destroy all of creation its very clear we are not in normal territory. Thanks to his prose he's got a way of writing scenes that always feel a little bit off balance even when people are having what would be normal conversations even if it wasn't abundantly clear these are gods and gnomes and they're talking about hitting a reset button on all of existence.
To that end a gnome named Old Ric is tasked with heading down to the lower worlds to figure out what happened to the kid. To say nothing goes right is perhaps understating a bit and its not too long before Ol' Ric ticks off some elves, is beset by crazed dwarves, has to contend with an ancient devil worshipper and gets to sport some nifty new jewelry, one of which is an arrow through the chest. He's also accompanied by a Radiant One, who despite sounding like he should be a member of a boy band, appears to be a living star that is pretty good at killing people and none too humble about it. But then, he considers all of us a part of the lady's dream and nothing bad ever happens in dreams, right?
To say this is way stranger than the first novel is like saying sometimes I'm not very concise and anyone who jumped on board expecting the same level of action this time out is going to be surprised and not totally in a good way. Lee's not quite at his best with resonant characters to begin with and giving us a figidity gnome who doesn't want to be there, assisted by an elf that's along because of a sense of obligation and a star-person that would REALLY rather be anywhere else is either the recipe for the greatest road-buddy comedy the world has ever seen or the formula for a rather clotted experience. It makes the early sections of the book rough going because while the overall structure of the worlds are interesting the actual quest mostly seems like spinning its wheels while everyone complains.
However, stick with it and things do improve. The book eventually makes it to old hangout Irth and with it the reintroduction of two of the more personable characters from the first go-round Reese and Jyoti. Jyoti's presence in particular livens things up considerably as she's consistently competent and able to drag the plot into something resembling discipline. Once that cast is put together the book gains a bit more drive and becomes easier to follow.
That's helpful because since the default of this series is gloriously weird there's quite a bit of strangeness to parse. If you thought the basic premise was kooky enough you'll probably get a kick out of an antagonist whose name is "Duppy Hob" (it doesn't get less silly sounding no matter who says it or how many times its repeated) or Lee's fantasy inversions like having the dwarves created from maggots and returning to their pale crawly origins when killed. He also gets a great deal of mileage out of slyly terrifying occurrences, like when people's shadows start disappearing.
Of course, he can't quite overcome the fact that once you set aside your concern for the characters you care about getting hurt, its still hard to get emotionally engaged in the story, as it boils down to more items from Lee's Catalogue of the Fantastique (this month's featured item being the Necklace of Souls). The coasting on the off-kilter fantasy helps probably more than it should and I actually enjoyed the hints to how our Earth fits into this scheme (which vaguely reminded me of CS Lewis' "Out of the Silent Planet" for some reason, despite really having nothing to do with religion at all). But he goes zero for two on gripping climaxes, with one solution calling into question a character's common sense and the resolution almost coming across an afterthought. Worth sticking with because you are rarely going to read fantasy this idiosyncratic (and the third book doubles down in a good way) but your enjoyment may depend on how well you're able to suppress a giggle at the fearsome name of "Duppy Hob, devil worshipper".
March 23, 2021
Epic fantasy
A great fantasy novel that takes an epic adventure with a fantastic cast of characters. There is a lot going on and at times its hard to keep track of but it all comes together in the end.
A great fantasy novel that takes an epic adventure with a fantastic cast of characters. There is a lot going on and at times its hard to keep track of but it all comes together in the end.
February 21, 2010
Well, I'm starting to see why Attanasio used a pseudonym to write these three books. This one started off quite bad and-- though it did warm up a bit-- never went anywhere near the weird heights and poetry of the first book. Certainly nowhere near the crazed plots and twisted use of adjectives that flavors his other stuff, published under his real name, like Radix and Last Legends. There is another book to go in this cycle, Octoberland, which I'm starting now, and I'm really hoping that it heads back into the strange turf this guy can write so well when he's on. Then I'll be able to get this taste out of my brain. If all fails, at least the next one is short...
July 5, 2012
Loved it! Great sequel to The Darkshore.
March 15, 2013
It had everything you could ask for in an epic fantasy. The characters, the world building, the story.
It was all fantastic. I look forward to reading more by this writer.
It was all fantastic. I look forward to reading more by this writer.
October 28, 2016
Very interesting fantasy/scifi twist on creation myth origin.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews