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Midwinter #2
The Office of Shadow
Midwinter has gone, but that cold season has been replaced by a cold war in the world of Faerie, and this new kind of war requires a new kind of warrior.
Seelie forces drove back Empress Mab at the Battle of Sylvan, but hostilities could resume at any moment. Mab has developed a devastating new weapon capable of destroying an entire city, and the Seelie have no defense against it. If war comes, they will almost certainly be defeated.
In response, the Seelie reconstitute a secret division of the Foreign Ministry, unofficially dubbed the “Office of Shadow,” imbuing it with powers and discretion once considered unthinkable. They are a group of covert operatives given the tasks that can’t be done in the light of day; secretly stealing the plans for Mab’s new weapon, creating unrest in the Unseelie Empire, and doing whatever is necessary to prevent an unwinnable war.
The new leader of the “Shadows” is Silverdun. He’s the nobleman who fought alongside Mauritane at Sylvan and who helped complete a critical mission for the Seelie Queen Titania. His operatives include a beautiful but naive sorceress who possesses awesome powers that she must restrain in order to survive and a soldier turned scholar whose research into new ways of magic could save the world, or end it.
They’ll do whatever is required to prevent a total war: make a dangerous foray into a hostile land to retrieve the plans for Mab’s weapon; blackmail a king into revolting against the Unseelie Empire; or journey into the space between space to uncover a closely guarded secret with the power to destroy worlds.
Seelie forces drove back Empress Mab at the Battle of Sylvan, but hostilities could resume at any moment. Mab has developed a devastating new weapon capable of destroying an entire city, and the Seelie have no defense against it. If war comes, they will almost certainly be defeated.
In response, the Seelie reconstitute a secret division of the Foreign Ministry, unofficially dubbed the “Office of Shadow,” imbuing it with powers and discretion once considered unthinkable. They are a group of covert operatives given the tasks that can’t be done in the light of day; secretly stealing the plans for Mab’s new weapon, creating unrest in the Unseelie Empire, and doing whatever is necessary to prevent an unwinnable war.
The new leader of the “Shadows” is Silverdun. He’s the nobleman who fought alongside Mauritane at Sylvan and who helped complete a critical mission for the Seelie Queen Titania. His operatives include a beautiful but naive sorceress who possesses awesome powers that she must restrain in order to survive and a soldier turned scholar whose research into new ways of magic could save the world, or end it.
They’ll do whatever is required to prevent a total war: make a dangerous foray into a hostile land to retrieve the plans for Mab’s weapon; blackmail a king into revolting against the Unseelie Empire; or journey into the space between space to uncover a closely guarded secret with the power to destroy worlds.
421 pages, Paperback
First published June 22, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 6, 2010
The Office of Shadow is the sequel the Sturge’s novel debut Midwinter. Midwinter, the tale of a disgraced soldier and his prisoner cohorts who are sent on a suicide mission on behalf of the fey queen Titania was an entertaining though somewhat flawed debut. The Office of Shadow take one of those criminals, Silverdun, a womanizing elf lord in Midwinter and a somewhat bored priest here and turns him into a Shadow; a spy and assassin for the summer queen. Where in Midwinter I criticized Silverdun as something of foil for Mauritane, the hero of Midwinter, in The Office of Shadow the rakish lord really comes into his own and the sly, sarcastic wit of the previous book is given added depth and motivation for his action in service to the crown. Silverdun isn’t the only one expanded upon here as Sturges does a great job at adding to the background history of his version of Faerie from the religious conflicts, to the nature of magic, and even the rivalry between the two fey queens Sturges manages to touch upon all without diverging from the rapid fire pacing that makes this novel a joy to read.
In addition to Silverdun, Sturges introduces a more stoic counterpart in the form of Ironfoot. A soldier/scholar recruited alongside Silverdun and whose research into the mega weapon glimpsed at the end of Midwinter, the einswrath, influences his recruitment into the titular Shadows. Much like Silverdun’s role in Midwinter I saw Ironfoot’s role, at least partially, as something of a foil to Silverdun. Silverdun is impulsive in action, acting on instinct where Ironfoot takes a more considered approach. Sturges goes a bit further with Ironfoot’s characterization here than he did with Silverdun’s in Midwinter offering a bit more in terms of backstory, and the forces that drive Ironfoot forward, than I remember getting about Silverdun during his introduction.
Also among the Shadows is the disturbing Sela. Sela is a difficult character to get a grasp on an empath of disturbing skill, she spends the novel bound by silvered iron in order to dampen her skill, yet surprisingly cold and removed. Indeed I still find myself somewhat confused about the nature of her power and the things she was brainwashed to believe during her youth. While Sela ends up playing a vital role to the plot I was never completely satisfied or clear about her character outside of that role. While Sturges makes an attempt to breath life into her, and succeeds to a certain extent, her presence seems more like a slightly contrived bit of deus ex machina.
The Office of Shadow skirts along a line of religious subtext. Not outright conflict per se but light is shone on the difference between worshipers of the Cthonic Gods and the Adonic faith. The latter occurs primarily though flashbacks to Silverdun’s youth whose mother, a faithful Adonite, plays strong contrast to the vain and prideful man Silverdun later becomes. During these section I was somewhat thrown by comments made by Silverdun’s mother which I wasn’t sure were simply the hopeful desires of a deeply faithful mother for son or something deeper and more mysterious. I also could have sworn there was a comment by Silverdun’s mother along the lines of “I married your father so you could have the best opportunities possible.” Which struck me as odd, but never really elaborated on. I was left with the feeling during these flashbacks that there is something a bit more, just beneath the surface, that we’re (and Silverdun is) missing.
A definite improvement over Midwinter, The Office Shadow leaves me excited to see where Sturges takes his world next. This series so far bucks the fantasy series trend offering two related novels that stand well on their own or in sequence. Indeed The Office of Shadow is a complete tale from beginning to end wrapping everything up nicely and leaving me satisfied. At the same time it is a testament to Sturges’ skill with characterization that he left me hungry for more time with Silverdun, Paet, and company. The climax of The Office of Shadow is some thrilling fiction and the revelation of the nature of the Einswrath weapon is a wonderful twist that I didn’t see coming. Sturges craft continues to improve and I look forward to seeing where he goes next.
In addition to Silverdun, Sturges introduces a more stoic counterpart in the form of Ironfoot. A soldier/scholar recruited alongside Silverdun and whose research into the mega weapon glimpsed at the end of Midwinter, the einswrath, influences his recruitment into the titular Shadows. Much like Silverdun’s role in Midwinter I saw Ironfoot’s role, at least partially, as something of a foil to Silverdun. Silverdun is impulsive in action, acting on instinct where Ironfoot takes a more considered approach. Sturges goes a bit further with Ironfoot’s characterization here than he did with Silverdun’s in Midwinter offering a bit more in terms of backstory, and the forces that drive Ironfoot forward, than I remember getting about Silverdun during his introduction.
Also among the Shadows is the disturbing Sela. Sela is a difficult character to get a grasp on an empath of disturbing skill, she spends the novel bound by silvered iron in order to dampen her skill, yet surprisingly cold and removed. Indeed I still find myself somewhat confused about the nature of her power and the things she was brainwashed to believe during her youth. While Sela ends up playing a vital role to the plot I was never completely satisfied or clear about her character outside of that role. While Sturges makes an attempt to breath life into her, and succeeds to a certain extent, her presence seems more like a slightly contrived bit of deus ex machina.
The Office of Shadow skirts along a line of religious subtext. Not outright conflict per se but light is shone on the difference between worshipers of the Cthonic Gods and the Adonic faith. The latter occurs primarily though flashbacks to Silverdun’s youth whose mother, a faithful Adonite, plays strong contrast to the vain and prideful man Silverdun later becomes. During these section I was somewhat thrown by comments made by Silverdun’s mother which I wasn’t sure were simply the hopeful desires of a deeply faithful mother for son or something deeper and more mysterious. I also could have sworn there was a comment by Silverdun’s mother along the lines of “I married your father so you could have the best opportunities possible.” Which struck me as odd, but never really elaborated on. I was left with the feeling during these flashbacks that there is something a bit more, just beneath the surface, that we’re (and Silverdun is) missing.
A definite improvement over Midwinter, The Office Shadow leaves me excited to see where Sturges takes his world next. This series so far bucks the fantasy series trend offering two related novels that stand well on their own or in sequence. Indeed The Office of Shadow is a complete tale from beginning to end wrapping everything up nicely and leaving me satisfied. At the same time it is a testament to Sturges’ skill with characterization that he left me hungry for more time with Silverdun, Paet, and company. The climax of The Office of Shadow is some thrilling fiction and the revelation of the nature of the Einswrath weapon is a wonderful twist that I didn’t see coming. Sturges craft continues to improve and I look forward to seeing where he goes next.
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August 11, 2010I have just picked this up but I loved the first book, Midwinter, and just had to buy it.
August 1, 2014
Highly imagined world with some very original aspects. That however is offset by some shortcomings in pace, dialog and in my case, characters I never connect with.
February 26, 2020
While Midwinter was not bad, its sequel constitutes a marked improvement. Less formulaic and less bogged down by a predictable and rather irritating romance (the one in this book was still kind of predictable, but nowhere near as irritating), this one had me thoroughly hooked. That Silverdun, who was perhaps my favourite character in the first book, was the protagonist here surely didn't hurt either.
November 7, 2009
Matthew Sturges has pulled off a mean feat with his second novel. He has constructed a grounded and believable fantasy world and populated it with relatable characters. If his first novel, Midwinter was The Dirty Dozen with elves, then Office of Shadow is a Robert Ludlum style Cold War thriller with elves.
Powerful political figures fear the worst as a terrible ultimate weapon is used to destroy an Elven city. Knowing that their enemies will use the weapon again, Queen Regina Titiana orders the Office of Shadow to find and stop the weapon before it can be used again. The narrative follows Perrin Alt, Lord Silverdun from Midwinter as he gets drafted into service as a shadow in the Queen's service. He is aided by an ex-soldier nicknamed Ironfoot and the delightfully unhinged Sela.
The action moves right along and the ending satisfies. I hope he writes another.
December 17, 2010
Picking up where Midwinter left off, Sturges writes another fantastic fantasy novel. Combing new characters with old, he uses flashbacks to hint at their complexity. This was a page turner, but not for the conventional reason. I wasn't eager to find out how the heroes were going to stop the evil plot as one is in most fantasy novels--I never really got a sense of urgency in this book. Rather, I could wait to see how these characters continued to develop and interact, and I eagerly awaited additional flashbacks that would reveal more backstory on them. Sturges writes characters VERY well. I recommend this book to fans of fantasy!
July 23, 2014
The Office of Shadow starts with great promise and the first 50-100 pages made me believe this will be another big time favorite and take the series to the next level for me, but then something happens - the characters just become indistinct instead of developing the way i thought, the world building starts skirting my suspension of disbelief and the writing becomes less engaging; still a lot of excellent stuff and I quite liked the book overall, but it was not the step up in the series I believed it could be after the superb opening ( solid A)
February 3, 2016
Lots better than its predecessor, Midwinter. Much better writing in this one. Almost reads like it was written by someone else, it's so different. Feels much more epic in scope too. Characters drawn much more realistically. Unfortunately, a lot of the book is spent filling in the characters lives before the current events of the book for no purpose. The main storyline in the book doesn't really resolve itself very well and the climax is kind of glossed over. My official review is at:
http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.co...
http://elitistbookreviews.blogspot.co...
May 4, 2012
Another great addition by Sturges. This installment follows Silverdun, a character from Midwinter (and one of my favourites :D) after the events of the first book. I really liked the new characters, particularly Sela and Ironfoot and it was nice to see Mauritaine make a reappearance. I also smiled when references to Raive and Satterly were made. The plot was very different with lots of twists and turns and the humour that was incorporated was brilliant. Here's to hoping Sturges writes another installment; maybe with Raive or Satterly as the protagonist.
January 4, 2013
awesome writing. reminded me of harry potter and dragonlance chronicles. the way it blends magic with science is amazing, more dark and fantasy based than artemis fowl. while it's full of references and similarities to our history's cold war, the new mind bending concepts and purviews of the meaning of life and human feeling is very novel.
haven't read the previous book, hope it doesn't disappoints me.
haven't read the previous book, hope it doesn't disappoints me.
June 11, 2010
As with Midwinter, Office of Shadow takes the traditional trappings of the fantasy genre & puts a unique & distinct spin on them. Part high fantasy, part spy thriller, Sturges polishes his story off with characters we come to really care about. Looking forward to many more stories set in this world.
July 7, 2010
This is the Sequel to Midwinter. It is actually better with more character development and it flushes out the Fae world better. I have to admit that I read it before Midwinter. Doing so allowed me to see some inconsistencies in the fabric of the imagined world. But those really are minor and do not detract from either book.
August 9, 2010
Good - a few plot discrepancies, but entertaining overall.
September 23, 2010
Loved it.
January 21, 2011
too sci-fi for me
May 28, 2011
I liked this sequel to Midwinter just as much as I liked Midwinter, which was a lot. I like Sturges' writing style and characterizations.
July 3, 2012
DNF...Can't remember why.
January 22, 2012
Sequel to Midwinter. A must read. Mr. Sturges is a decent comic book writer but I love his prose!!!
August 25, 2013
Good sequel to Midwinter.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews