Shadowheart

Shadowmarch #4

by Tad Williams

The long-awaited concluding novel in Tad Williams's thrilling epic Shadowmarch series.

Southmarch Castle is about to be caught between two implacable enemies, the ancient, immortal Qar and the insane god-king, the Autarch of Xis. Meanwhile, its two young defenders, Princess Briony and Prince Barrick, are both trapped far away from home and fighting for their lives.

And now, something is awakening underneath Southmarch Castle, something powerful and terrible that the world has not seen for thousands of years. Can Barrick and Briony, along with a tiny handful of allies, ordinary and extraordinary, find a way to save their world and prevent the rise of a terrible new age-an age of unending darkness?

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Epic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Audiobook, Adventure

766 pages, Hardcover

First published November 30, 2010

About the author

Tad Williams is a California-based fantasy superstar. His genre-creating (and genre-busting) books have sold tens of millions worldwide, in twenty-five languages. His considerable output of epic fantasy and science fiction book-series, stories of all kinds, urban fantasy novels, comics, scripts, etc., have strongly influenced a generation of writers: the ‘Otherland’ epic relaunches June 2018 as an MMO on steam.com. Tad is currently immersed in the creation of ‘The Last King of Osten Ard’, planned as a trilogy with two intermediary novels. He, his family and his animals live in the Santa Cruz mountains in a suitably strange and beautiful house. @tadwilliams @mrstad

Reviews

[James Tivendale · Rating 5 out of 5]

At Shadowheart's beginning, Princess Briony is with Prince Eneas of Syan's Temple Dogs as she looks to return to take her rightful seat of power at Southmarch. Elsewhere, Prince Barrick is with Queen Saqri at the castle of Qul-Na-Qar. He is now part Qar after being gifted the Fireflower by the former King. The Fireflower has led to him having the knowledge of all the Qar's history in his thoughts. The residents of Southmarch including poet Matt Tinwright, guard captain Ferras Vansan, and funderling Chert are not only worried about the threat of the Twilight People who still remain outside their walls but also that the mad God King of Xis, Sulepis, plans to invade Southmarch with his mighty forces and has the intention of waking a God. Please note: the final quotation at the end of this review contains a potential spoiler.

“So we face our final hours...and all that was once certain has become uncertain. Except for defeat. That, as always, is the end of all our stories.”

Shadowheart mostly takes place in, around, or underneath Southmarch. It is much more action-focused than the previous entries and builds up intensely to a phenomenal culmination. My excitement levels ran through the roof throughout with standout moments including amazingly well-choreographed battle segments, epic showdowns, an intense high-speed chase sequence that includes everybody's favourite rooftopper, and characters meeting up again after spending many months apart.

As many of the point of view perspectives closed in on each other at certain times in Shadowheart I was engrossed and gripped to the pages. Intently waiting for these characters to cross paths for the first time or to see each other again. It kept building up the drama, and when these meet-ups finally happened they were frequently not when I expected and often events didn't go how I had envisaged at all.

One of my favourite characters throughout the series was Prince Barrick who has changed dramatically throughout to the brooding, thoughtful, blood-tainted warrior we witness here. He is extremely important to how events transpire as is another favourite Captain Vansen. Vansen is sometimes frustrating to those around him because of honourable and good he is. He spends much of this entry fighting alongside the funderlings and heading their resistance during some subterranean warfare. Other standouts were the funderling Chert who always seems to be at the centre of some drama, and his mysterious adopted son Flint whose role and purpose seems to be unknown. Matt Tinwright's story reached its high points of the series here as he becomes a spy and also a companion of sorts for the crazy Lord Protector, Hendon Tolly. Tolly's madness is arguably only exceeded by that of the Autarch of Xis who I loved reading about too. This duo were two of the most powerful men in all of Eion and they were both bonkers and power-mad with their wishes to abuse the magical might of the Gods.

"When I saw you, I wondered at how much you had changed, Barrick,’ she told him. ‘But now I see that in the most important ways you are no different. It’s still your own sorrows you care about and no one else’s, and you still turn away from love and kindness as though it were an attack."

Shadowheart is the incredible final instalment in Williams' epic Shadowmarch quartet. I had such an amazing time reading this series. I was savouring every moment as I approached the final pages. There is a catastrophically high death count here including some major players and even a point of view character. After the stunning and staggering culmination, there are a few quieter and calmer chapters where loose ends and threads are wrapped up. There are some revelations that are made regarding what part certain characters played during important and defining events and it also sets the scenes for what will happen after the finale here. There are some really touching moments towards the end. This series definitely affected me in an emotional manner. I finished the last few pages in my garden and when I put the book down I sat back and just said "wow" to myself. I must have looked crazy to my neighbours but this is a series that will have a lasting effect on me. It's probably in my all-time top 10 fantasy series and I'm extremely sad that it is over. Great work Mr Williams. Thank you for the journey.

"Vansen had just begun to form an idea about how to attack this hopeless situation when Barrick Eddon came running to him across the uneven stones, the prince’s pale face smeared with blood from some small wound, his helmet in his hand and his curly red hair flying, so that for a moment he looked to Vansen like some freakish, supernatural creature, an armored demon with his entire head on fire. It still startled Vansen how tall the boy had grown, how he seemed to have aged years in the matter of a single season."

[Stjepan Cobets · Rating 5 out of 5]

Southmarch Castle is under siege the insane god-king, the Autarch of Xis. The ancient, immortal Qar retreated to the depths below the castle and their leader, Queen Yasammez, because of the abundance of the new enemy, agrees to a fragile truce with the defenders of the castle. Barrick's Prince of the Southmarch Castle is located in King Qar and is hard-wearing with the power of the Fire Flower given to him by King Ynnir. King Ynnir gave him his power that was too big for the mortal to save his sister and love Saqri. Barrick almost dies from the power of the Fire Flower, but Queen Saqri wakes up from the deep sleep when King Ynnir dies. Princess Briony escapes from the kingdom of Stan because of false accusations to defeat the kingdom. This is assisted by Prince Eneas, who offers her a small military help of her troops to regain the Briony kingdom. Briony's Princess accepts his help and returns to Southmarch Castle. But soon they find that the castle under siege is still a cruel enemy of the insane god-king, the Autarch of Xis. Ferras Vansen Captain Guard Southmarch Castle is the only one who is currently fighting in the underworld under the castle with the Funderlings who are trying to keep the crazy King Sulepis. Leading the fight to death Ferras leads the fight for every tunnel in the underworld to save the holy place of Funderling and the whole world. Writer Tad Williams introduces us to the latest book in the world that hangs from the end of the destruction. Greed, scams, and lies are at every turn, no one is sure. Human power madness can be so devoted to destroying the whole world. I would recommend the entire series to fantasy fans because the books are great.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

What Tad Williams does good, he does very, very good. I'll give him that. The ending of this huge Fantasy series is sufficiently huge, magical, war-driven, god-killing, and mad enough to fill the hearts of any epic fantasy fan.

Williams takes his time to build everything so very slowly until it all comes crashing together and we're left breathless.

On the other hand, stories like this are still only as good as the characters that drive them. And if you're dealing with a huge cast of characters, they really need to have a lot of interesting situations, interesting responses, and general likability. I'd give half the cast here that accolade. The other half, however, either bored me or just made me want to hurry through and get to the good stuff.

Briony is the huge issue. Her brother Barrick is just fine.

I tried. I really tried. She has aspects about her that I liked intellectually and not all of her storyline was a complete waste, but I never felt emotionally invested.

Overlooking that, I really enjoyed most of the Funderlings, the fae-call out, the dead or dying gods, the dreaming, the con, the mad immortals, the sacrifices, and the siege of the world. No complaints there. :)

It's just unfortunate I couldn't have enjoyed the entire sequence equally. Too many bits seemed too long, in need of a big shave. The plotting sometimes seemed pointless or just a way to get from point A to point B because I wasn't invested in some of the characters. But then again, maybe it's just me.

I can't say this is more than an above-average epic fantasy. Flawed, still good.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, this was another marvelous journey. I just love Tad Williams style: he takes his time building the story, full of mysteries, careful details, gorgeous descriptive scenes and wordbuilding, gradually starting the action and adventures, uncovering the secrets bit by bit, all wrapped up in a mesmerizing writing.

This series, as well as Osten Ard Saga, is a classic epic fantasy. Many complained about the length and slow pacing; I don’t. I got to relish more of his words and imagination. This last volume has more than 700 pages and it’s all about the final battle. Who will win: the Gods, the alliance between men and Qar or the Autarch of Xis? 700 pages and I have no idea when they were gone; even better - almost 3000 pages in the whole series and I have no idea when they were gone either…

This is what it means to love a book: you immerse yourself in it so deep that you have no knowledge of how the time passes. It is not a story to forget; it’s here to stay with you.

[Cynnamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

With “Shadowheart” Tad Williams concludes his Shadowmarch saga.

In this last volume, Tad Williams lets all the essential characters meet in Southmarch Castle and lead the final battle in the great war. Although I'm not a great fan of battle descriptions, I was really swept away by the chaos of war in this book.

I was impressed how the author finally got all his main characters with their different storylines under one roof. This led to a number of unexpected twists and turns, all of which were conclusive in the end.

What I particularly liked about this book and the whole series were the many creatures, some of whom were unknown to me, who were imaginatively conceived and clearly described. The classic fantasy species such as dwarfs and elves also occur, but have different names and also differ somewhat from the classic descriptions.

The human side is also not worked out homogeneously, but is based on various cultures from human history.

Unfortunately, however, I was a little unhappy with the last 100 pages of this volume. Here Tad Williams tries to tie all loose threads without exception, but some conclusions are so unimaginative and stereotypical that he shouldn’t have touched the issue. Ultimately, these last 100 pages are the only downer for me in this great saga and would definitely lead to a star reduction if I didn't want to give 5 stars in recognition of the entire work.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mit “Das Herz” beschließt Tad Williams seine Shadowmarch-Saga.

In diesem letzten Band lässt Tad Williams alle wesentlichen Charaktere in der Südmarksburg zusammentreffen und die endgültige Schlacht im großen Krieg führen. Obwohl ich kein großer Freund von Schlachtenbeschreibungen bin, hat mich das Kriegsgetümmel in diesem Buch wirklich mitgerissen.

Mir hat imponiert, wie der Autor letztlich alle seine Hauptcharaktere mit ihren unterschiedlichen Handlungssträngen unter einen Hut gekriegt hat. Dies führte zu etlichen unerwarteten Wendungen, die letztlich aber alle schlüssig waren.

Besonders gefallen an diesem Buch und an der ganzen Reihe waren die vielen, mir teilweise unbekannten Wesen, die phantasievoll erdacht und anschaulich beschrieben waren. Auch die klassischen Fantasy-Spezies wie Zwerge und Elfen kommen vor, heißen aber anders und unterscheiden sich auch etwas von den klassischen Beschreibungen.

Die Front der Menschen ist ebenfalls nicht homogen ausgearbeitet, sondern lehnt sich an diverse Kulturen aus der menschlichen Geschichte an.

Leider war ich jedoch ein wenig unglücklich mit den letzten 100 Seiten dieses Bandes. Hier versucht Tad Williams ausnahmslos alle losen Fäden zu verknüpfen, manche jedoch so einfallslos und stereotyp, dass er sie lieber hätte hängen lassen soll. Letzlich sind diese letzten 100 Seiten der einzige Wermutstropfen für mich in dieser großartigen Saga und würde definitiv zu einem Abzug von Sternen führen, wenn ich nicht in Würdigung des Gesamtwerks dennoch 5 Sterne vergeben wollte.

[Craig · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love some of Williams’s stuff, so this pains me.

There are certain maddening tendencies here, as elsewhere. Pacing, for one. Williams’s eye is drawn to static things: to description; to characters sitting in stillness, absorbed in inward reflections; to exposition; to lavish “World-Building” (TM) (a massively, massively overrated practice, by the way—basically long fictional essay-writing with no stakes). And because this is fantasy and thus, like a lot of its generic fellow travelers, even when it’s done well it’s also a kind of zombie imitation of the Silmarillion, however much of anything there is, there must always be more. More lines, more pages, more characters, more pages, more subplots, more pages, more “lore.” There is never just the right amount of anything here.

And then there’s another maddening tendency: ending a chapter just as something’s about to happen, Saturday-serial cliffhanger style. This means that just when all the narcotizing stillness and “World-Building” (TM) curlicuing of everything looks as if it’s going to give over to the occurrence of actual incident, the narrative will shift away from these characters so it can edge for 15-20 pages dwelling on these characters, then over to those characters, then those. More, more, more. Just before a particular subplot at last gains narrative momentum and weight, it’s suddenly gone for 80 pages. And on to the next subplot, and the same pattern. More, more.

Speaking of pacing grumbles, here’s another maddening tendency: expository paragraphs interrupting dialogue. This pattern appears again and again throughout key dramatic exchanges between any and all of Williams’s characters:

“But what can be done? Please, answer me!” Q’xzyz’xx cried, her eyes filling with tears of desperation.

Xyz’q’’qxyyz looked at her and paused, fingering the medallion around his neck. It had been given to him by Y’qqyqq’xyz long ago, in the hours before the Battle of W’yxqxyzx. He often thought about that moment in the years since, carrying the pain of loss around his neck, too, as he carried this small, chipped coin suspended from a thin silver chain. He was struck sometimes by its weight, by the… [15 lines about the medallion]

“Nothing, I’m afraid.” [Here, the reader must briefly glance back to before all the medallion business to find out what “Nothing” is the answer to again.]

Again, Williams’s eye seems drawn to stillness and stasis. Dialogue clips along, and it only inefficiently and evocatively Builds Worlds (TM). So we must have another half-page of lore to help Build the World and to slow things down again like a sleeping policeman lying stretched across the narrative road.

Another maddening Williams tendency, not specifically related to expansiveness and dilatory pacing: a kind of foggy abstraction. On its endlessly spinning carousel of subplots, a Williams novel will always spend a good portion of the time in a kind of dreamy kaleidoscopic mist because of its focus on at least one race of remote, inscrutable aliens—in this case, the Sithi Qar. In these chapters, creatures with unpronouncable, apostrophe-dusted names will talk to each other in empty, enigmatic zen koans about the Way of the One and He Who Devours Dreams and the Lair of the Soul of the Will of the Heart of the Dream of the Ancient Sleeping God Who Breathes Hope and Light and Yada Yada, while the narrator stage-manages these scenes through hazy descriptions of strange shapes, mists, confusing movements and evanescences, so that in the end nothing concretizes to form any sort of clear mental picture of anything. “Description” isn’t the word, actually; it’s more like abstract-expressionism, or something like interpretive dance in words. There’s a (surely apocryphal) line about writing fiction that’s often attributed to Henry James: “Tell a dream, lose a reader.” Tad Williams always seems to want at least one of his subplots to be essentially an endless mad waking dream involving ancient beings with obscure, unknowable minds who speak and act in a kind of oneiric haze. And because the Fantasy Epic as a form generally lacks confidence in storytelling at the human scale and seeks always to be ever more capital-E Epic (more, more!), the novel drifts ever more toward Gods and Prophecies and Cosmic Forces Clashing and away from smaller-scale dramas involving actual people with minds we can know and care about, as it’s increasing preoccupied with implacable, unfeeling, amorphous Philosopher-Elves who are busy Waking the Sleeping Gods or Sundering the Pact of the Dawn of the Golden Heavens or whatever the hell they’re doing.

If I hadn’t read (and, honestly, loved) a lot of Williams’s work in the past and seen how generously he praises his editors in the acknowledgements, I’d just assume he didn’t have any. There doesn’t seem to be anyone urging him to make hard decisions or seek economies. The only editorial advice he seems to get—and he gets it every time, it seems—is “cut the godawfully distended final volume in half and make this thing a trilogy in four colossal parts.” One can’t help but think the same of the copy-editing here, by the way. DAW should be a bit embarrassed on this score. I get that a genre known for featuring characters seemingly named by cats walking across unattended keyboards makes for copy-editorial challenges, but my word—nearly every page that features Yasammez contains the misprint “Yassamez” at least once, to take just one of many recurrent examples. DAW publishes Nnedi Okorafor, Pat Rothfuss, Mercedes Lackey, C. J. Cherryh, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and a bunch of others; it can afford a good copy-editor, surely.

Why do I do this to myself, you might ask? Why spend so much time reading in this genre if I hate it, as I seem to? But I don’t hate it. I read this stuff much less than I do all sorts of other things for work and for pleasure, and much less than I did when I was young, when I developed the childhood-reader’s soft spot for fantasy storytelling that now fires up the nostalgia-engine and helps see me through such things now. But along the way I nonetheless developed a reasonably well-trained adult reader’s ear, and with it a certain impatience that’s not all that easily tried but nonetheless has its limits. Shadowmarch is a three-volume, 1,500-page story. It’s a shame, then, that it comes in four volumes and is 3,000 pages long. Its rambling denouement is literally about the same length as The Great Gatsby. The series is lovely now and then, and some of the time it centres on a few really wonderful characters, particularly Briony Eddon and Ferras Vansen. But it’s also a meandering, often boring, teeming, scattered mess, it goes on forever, and in the end it’s not even unpredictable. You’ll see where most of this is going well ahead of time—the series telegraphs certain relationships and story outcomes a million miles away, and many of these never seem properly earned and given narrative justification and weight, merely insisted upon and forced into contrived being—and it’ll take you a long, long time to get where you know you’re going.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

A weak three is what I was planning to give this book through its first two-thirds, and I still think three stars is about right. Did not live up to the third book, but maintains enough momentum to not suck just overly hard.

My guess is that Robert Jordan's legacy to the current generation of fantasy writers is upping the ante (I think that cliche is actually technically accurate in this case) on the number of intertwining plots and POV characters considered necessary to drive a fantasy reader's interest. I think it's overdone in this series. It's too hard for both writer and reader to keep straight who knows what and who should or should not be surprised by any given development. A particular weak point in this book is the reveal of the Autarch's horrifying plot to [redacted], a major development in Book Three, which throughout the first few hundred pages of this book all the different POV characters seem to just realize spontaneously. I guess it was too much for Tad to either take the space to write in appropriate plot for each character to discover this or keep writing with some large fraction of them continuing ignorant of the point throughout the rest of the novel.

Another problem this series and this book in particular shares with the Wheel of Time is a gross lack of proportion between buildup, climax, and aftermath. For example, both of the really hateful characters in the series are built up over an agonizing length of time into as black and corrupt and demonic images as Tad can manage. Their eventual catastrophic downfalls and deaths are obviously, from practically the pages they are introduced, going to be major plot climaxes, but when they happen, they wind up being terse anticlimaxes.

Finally, Tad's world, like most fantasy worlds, I find suffers from very vague rules. You see this most clearly in all of the weird out-of-body experience passages in Books Two, Three, and Four. Tad tries to describe all these dramatic scenes of struggle and endless waiting and tension and stress, but they just don't click, partly because everything is so vague we have no idea what the characters are struggling against, and he has no details to stretch the scene out and help the reader identify with what's going on. A strength of the Wheel of Time, to me, has always been that channeling (the magic) has enough internal structure thought out and described to the reader for me to feel much more engaged with what's going on.

Let's finish with a Good, Bad, and Ugly (but lovable) for perhaps the three most prominent romantic couples in the series (this part is spoilery, esp. if you haven't read through Book Three), which will allow me to give some credit where credit is due:

Good: Barrick and Quinnitan. They do end up together! It's kind of awesome, especially Barrick's supernatural rescue of her during the denouement. I will give Tad this: it's short of the Lord of the Rings, because everything is, but this is probably the second-best denouement of a fantasy series that I've read. They are flawed but very sympathetic characters, and their assumption of Ynnir and Saqri's roles at the end of the book was nicely foreshadowed but left in enough doubt that it was very satisfying.

Bad: Briony and Vansen. Umm, no! Not on this timescale! Another epic fantasy FAIL-type romance, coming out of left field. Vansen's having a long-time life-threatening crush on Briony is one thing...in fact, his decision in the end to say, "What the f---. I watched the world end. I've been through three, four, I've lost count, of situations I had no chance to survive and survived. I'mma tell her how I feel and then bug out to someplace a thousand miles away when she turns me down laughing," is a satisfying bit of character development to me, but her feelings for him are handled very badly. The only good thing about it is the realism with which they embark on a longstanding courtly affair with an obviously uncertain future rather than a happily-ever-after schtick, if you want to call that good. Well, and Tad does come up with a suitably Elizabeth I-type reason for her to turn Prince Eneas down. Her feelings for HIM are actually handled rather well (imo; I'd be curious to know what a woman thought about it).

Ugly: Chert and Opal. All too realistic, myopic old people, with many myopic old people vices, always attempting to emotionally force the world (or, specifically, the weird boy Flint) into their preconceived paradigms. They cross the line into caricature, but not by a lot, and Tad does throw in a line of dialogue here and there to bring them back from that edge and develop them by the end of this book. Overall, they're pretty sympathetic in the big picture: two people determined to stay with one another and make the best of it for their entire lives, despite their own cowardice or temper or anything else. I'll salute that. I'm old enough to identify with that.

Bonus nonromantic pair, errr, trio of characters: There is nowhere NEAR enough development of the little mystery boy characters, Flint/Adis and especially Kayyin/______ with his companion mystery girl Willow. The latter two should have been left out completely, and their parts and space handed over to Flint. They are a major source of scatter in terms of plot and POV.

[Sotiris Karaiskos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fourth and final part of the series, or the second part of a third book. After the author finished with any pending things, preparing us for the final battle, he completes the story with a great finale which is certainly worthy of his talent. It is also certain that this ending is not particularly original as it follows many of the contracts of similar projects, such as the release of huge forces and considerable help from unlikely sources. This, however, does not mean that it is not good, it is exciting and very satisfying for the reader, with many twists and turns and descriptions that put you at the heart of the various battles and convey the sentiments of the protagonists who are called to overcome the greatest difficulties and face the losses and the realization that after all this adventure no one has stayed the same. In the end, the evolution of most heroes ends in a very nice way, giving us some emotional moments.

So this last book is the perfect capstone of this very good series that may not be the most important work of the author, but it is certainly a good example of the genre of high fantasy and meets all the conditions to leave satisfied those who like in such readings, offering us an interesting story that the author does not hurry to narrate it and takes place in a fantasy world that has as many references to the real world as to be exotic but intimate .

Το τέταρτο και τελευταίο μέρος της σειράς, ή αλλιώς το δεύτερο μέρος ενός τρίτου βιβλίου. Αφού ο συγγραφέας τελείωσε με τις όποιες εκκρεμότητες υπήρχαν, προετοιμάζοντας μας για την τελική μάχη, ολοκληρώνει την ιστορία με ένα μεγάλο φινάλε το οποίο είναι σίγουρα αντάξιο του ταλέντου του. Επίσης σίγουρο είναι ότι αυτό το τέλος δεν είναι ιδιαίτερα πρωτότυπο καθώς ακολουθεί πολλές από τις συμβάσεις ανάλογων έργων, όπως η απελευθέρωση τεράστιων δυνάμεων και η σημαντική βοήθεια από απίθανες μεριές. Αυτό, όμως, δε σημαίνει ότι δεν είναι καλό, αντιθέτως είναι συναρπαστικό και ιδιαίτερα ικανοποιητικό για τον αναγνώστη, με πολλές ανατροπές και περιγραφές που σε βάζουν στην καρδιά των διαφόρων μαχών και μεταφέρουν τα συναισθήματα των πρωταγωνιστών που καλούνται να ξεπεράσουν τις πιο μεγάλες δυσκολίες και να αντιμετωπίσουν τις απώλειες αλλά και την συνειδητοποίηση ότι μετά από όλη αυτή την περιπέτεια κανείς δεν έχει μείνει ίδιος. Στο τέλος, μάλιστα, η εξέλιξη των περισσότερων ηρώων ολοκληρώνεται με πολύ ωραίο τρόπο, προσφέροντας μας μερικές συγκινητικές στιγμές.

Οπότε αυτό το τελευταίο βιβλίο αποτελεί το ιδανικό επιστέγασμα αυτής της πολύ καλής σειράς που μπορεί να μην είναι το σπουδαιότερο έργο του συγγραφέα αλλά σίγουρα είναι ένα καλό υπόδειγμα του είδους της υψηλής φαντασίας και πληροί όλες τις προϋποθέσεις για να αφήσει ικανοποιημένους όσους αρέσκονται σε τέτοια αναγνώσματα, προσφέροντας μας μία ενδιαφέρουσα ιστορία που ο συγγραφέας δεν βιάζεται να την αφηγηθεί και λαμβάνει χώρα σε έναν φανταστικό κόσμο που έχει όσες αναφορές στον πραγματικό κόσμο χρειάζονται για να είναι εξωτικός αλλά παράλληλα οικείος.

[Michael Knudsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tad Williams is one of my literary heroes. In the early 1990's I was beginning to lose hope for epic fantasy when I ran across the paperback of The Dragonbone Chair, volume one of Memory, Sorry, and Thorn at the grocery store. I was so enthralled with that book that I could hardly wait for the rest of the series. A few years later, his Otherland series (more a blend of sci-fi and fantasy) grabbed me and didn't let go for four more huge volumes. Now that I've finished his new "Shadowmarch" quartet, all three of those series are in my top ten of all time.

Make no mistake, these are big books, and they aren't particulary fast moving. If you don't like completely immersive fantasy with all the detail of another world, they aren't for you. Williams usually focuses on 5 or 6 major characters, and switches viewpoints every few pages. Some readers are annoyed by this, but I love it as long as ALL of the plots are worthwhile. In Tad Williams' series, they are.

I won't summarize the plot of this huge story, because many others have done it better here on Goodreads and elsewhere. It's a grand adventure that follows well-developed characters through an intersting and unique world, and winds up at an apocolyptic climax in the vast caverns beneath Southmarch castle. There are plenty of battles with gods and demons and our heroes grow and learn over time. There's even a romantic angle between princess Briony and her guard captain that comes to an emotional fruition in this final volume despite their speaking barely a kind word to one another and being separated for months at a time.

If you're a fan of big, patient stories set in lushly landscapted worlds, this series is not to be missed.

[Martin]

Tad Williams is a very gifted storyteller, with an astonishing imagination. This final volume of the Shadowmarch-Adventure is no different. Alas, alas... I fear either Mr. Williams or his publisher have not quite come to terms with the fact that they're selling books, not ground meat. What I mean: as if paid by the weight of the product. Williams' "Otherland"-saga suffered from this flaw as well: just too much. Either there is no editor, or Williams has a contract that forbids any cuts, I don't know, but man, he really, really, really needs someone with the guts and the clout to tell him that he has to loose 800 pages or else.

I know, in fantasy literature, three volumens with 800 pages seem sort of a requirement, but it's still overdoing it. And just as an aside, Williams *is* able to write a "normal", one-volume sort of book. Anyway, on the plus side, he has learned to write a decend ending. So... all in all: if you have lots and lots and lots of time, and don't mind Too Much, this is a great series.

[Jennie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2500 pages. Twenty-five. Hundred! Pages!

This series took all of the parts I hated about the second half of The Two Towers (trudge, trudge, trudge, tired, hungry, glad you're with me Sam I'll never leave you Master Frodo trudge trudge trudge darkness darkness darkness) and magnified it by about two thousand pages.

I finally couldn't take it anymore. I speed-read through book three, then picked up book four, saw it was over 700 pages long, saw that the first hundred pages are pretty much like the previous 1700 pages, said "screw it", and jumped to the last 200. Apparently some stuff finally happened, but I just didn't care anymore. In book two I'd been subjected to 13 different points of view, resulting in 400 pages of "are they still in that friggin' dungeon? Do they have to keep friggin' talking about the fact that they're still in the friggin' dungeon?" Also a lot of Briony wandering around pretty much being cold and hungry. And don't get me started on the damn autarch and Qinnitan. In book three there was that who-the-hell-cares storyline involving the poet (and my wondering what on earth his story had to do with the price of gawa in Tuan), more Briony sitting around, and me just digging my nails into my arm every time Barrick was even mentioned.

I have read a lot of fantasy series in my time (though not as many in recent years), and I have never had to read so much getting captured, escaping, getting captured again, escaping, and sitting around talking about getting captured and escaping. Oh - and all the passing out! It seems like every chapter with Barrick and/or Vansen ends with someone either getting knocked unconscious or blacking out from sheer awe. Stop it! And the gods with all their different names depending on what country the speaker was from - I just couldn't keep track and just stopped caring.

I'll probably still read Tad Williams, but this is the second time now that a series that started out OK turned into just an endless slog by the end (the other one being his Otherland series. I won't survive a third.

[Mitticus · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the end only duty, or the love from which duty springs, can provide strength for such a journey.

Southmarch es un pequeño reino que se encuentra después de varias generaciones de relativa paz en medio de una lucha contra los Qar, sin saber que cosas más profundas y muchisimas más antiguas vienen a determinar ese lugar como centro de disputa de muchos poderes.

Southmarch was indeed alive, and in a way that almost nothing else was. It was alive because it was full of doorways, and it was full of doorways because it was curiously, even uniquely alive. The gods, the Qar, even the late-coming humans, had not made this place the heart of so many happenings. They had all come here because the place itself was as vital as a beating heart.

Los Arquetipos clásicos se pasean por la novela compuesta de cuatro tomos de alrededor de 800 páginas: el héroe, la búsqueda, redención, amor, sacrificio, locura, mitos , y hasta un Prometeo y un Orfeo se asoman por sus páginas. Y Hadas. Esas hadas terribles, orgullosas , bellas y repelentes, y ese Crepúsculo Feerico lleno de amargura y deseos de venganza.


Los príncipes Eddon , los mellizos Briony y Barrick son los protagonistas de la historia. O asi podria pensarse. Pero destacan enormemente los personajes secundarios del capitán Vansen, el soldado noble llevado por una promesa, y el Funderling Chert, otro ser conducido por amor a su familia y un tremendo sentido del deber. Los borrowers Rooftoppers (que tambien aparen en Otherland ) la llevan.

Además esta Quinitan, quien aparece mucho más fuerte en la segunda y tercera entrega. Ella es la tipo de prota que se quisiera cualquier novela YA, es una sobreviviente con todas sus letras, nunca deja de luchar ni se da por vencida a pesar de todas las cosas tremendas que le suceden.

“If it takes me a lifetime, still I will do it. Do you hear me? I will wake you.”
Qinnitan lifted his hand to her lips. “I wait for no man to save me — even you, beloved. I will find a way to wake myself.”

En cambio Briony Eddon... uf. Me pasé las 3000 páginas queriendo agarrarla a bofetadas, es la mocosa más egoista que he visto. Y aunque parece que qusieran hacer parecer que 'crece' al final, a mi no me da esa idea. Sigue haciendo lo que le parece, sin entender del todo lo que ha pasado, aunque le dan un poco de 'madurez' con sus politicas.

Pero sobre todo Williams describe unas hadas geniales, oscuras y caprichosas, llenas de sutilezas y cosas incomprensibles. Yassamez destiñe un poco en su fuerza vengativa al final como personaje, pero la reina Saqri cantando al entrar en el reino de las viejas heridas da unos tonos a lo Dama de Chalot que conmueven.


“When days have wound down
When nights have flickered into gray
When all stands before the nameless and are afraid to speak
I am all my mothers!
I am all my daughters!
I am the singer of the song.
I am the fox who stops the den.
I am she who can catch and hold every breath
Until Time itself turns and runs.”
-
I am all my mothers.
I am every one.
I am the dead.
I am the living yet unborn.
I am the one the moon loves
And fears . . .”


Sulepis, el satrapa sociopata sigue siendo el villano clásico hasta el final. Vo, el asesino, sigue haciendo apariciones a lo pelicula de terror XD. El rey Olinno me albergaba demasiada simpatia, (podia haberle explicado muchas cosas a sus hijos en vez de todos esos secretos). El Principe Eneas es otro arquetipo clásico del héroe noble unido a un sentido de amor cortesano. El Poeta cumple con su patética existencia (y no, no me creo lo que dice al final, hubiera elegido salvar su triste pellejo), aunque hace un toque a lo Calderon de la Barca que es poco wtf (a titulo de que). En realidad ese desenlace con los actores le viene a quitar fuerza a la historia trágica.

Barrick Eddon, de principillo atormentado por terrores y demonios internos pasa la mayor transformación de todas, al principio no es un personaje querible, pero después de su transformación gusta más. (Aunque no se cumplieron mis aprensiones con respecto al cuervo ;P)

Y los Dioses?
“To give things shape,” Flint told her. “That is one thing the gods do. They give shape to the stories of men.”

Buena historia, sin grandes sorpresas, pero las creaciones del reino del satrapa, y el reino de las hadas valen la pena.

[Maja · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a satisfying ending to an altogether enjoyable series. Despite the series' many downs where the plot often dragged and trudged, it had lots of exciting and intense moments. And though the books are lengthy, Tad’s writing style makes them easy to go through. I see that I rated both book 1-2 three stars and book 3-4 four stars. I don’t remember if it is because an actual increase in the series or just me being able to give the books more attention now. Going back to my reviews for the books I see that I was in a distractive state when reading book 2.

And just like with the previous books, this was bit slow paced on several parts. Some stuff could have been quickened up with less page time, and boy did the ending post-battle draaaag. Like I get Tad wanted to tie up all knots but he could have done it in less pages.

I ended up enjoying most of the characters by the end. Just a few couple, like Vash and Vo I cared very little about, and these two especially I kept mixing up with each other. Barrick’s POV was my favourite, despite him being a little emo edgelord at times. But loved being in the shadowlands and seeing all the weird stuff and meeting all kinds of fairy creatures. And Barrick did grow out a little of his antics. He was also accompanied through a big chunk of the series by a talking raven called Skurn and I loved Skurn.

After I finished Memory, Sorrow and Thorn a couple of years ago, I felt very done with Simon’s story. I really felt that To Green Angel Tower wrapped up his story good so I never felt the need to start reading the sequel, Last King of Osten Ard. For Shadowmarch, however, I wouldn’t be too opposed reading a sequel series. There’s an openness to more stories I would like to explore.

[Vedran Mavrović · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the third book that was really something, the final one had so much worldbuilding and character development that I was swept away with so many details. I lost track of what was happening, who needs to do what, and slowly neglected the bond with the characters.
A sister-brother story was something that hooked me, but by the end, there was really nothing left of it.
Shame, because I really respect Tad as a writer, and his worlds are remarkable.
But, as many mention, this series could easily trow one book out, and would be much better in my opinion. Still, it is just my opinion, and if you like slow development and many, many characters and details, this will be your cup of tea.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

The trouble with Tad Williams' books is that I read the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy straight through, in high school, and it was the most amazing experience of my young life. After that, where do we go?

Well, we go to Shadowmarch, which has even more breadth and scope than Osten Ard, but is slightly lacking in what made me fall in love with everyone and everything in that earlier trilogy. Namely: the characters. This series is made up of ten page chapters, each one of which is broken up into scenes that are happening at the same time, often in different countries and occasionally different worlds. It's hard to get to know Briony, or King Olin, or Ena the Skimmer, when you only see them for a page and a half, every 20-30 pages. And sometimes there were hundreds of pages between scenes with certain characters. Even whole books. So I would have to figure out all over again where they were and what was happening. We are rarely let into their thoughts or emotions, too. So there are thousands of pages in this series, yet I felt that I never got to know or understand many of the characters.

But the characters I did feel for, I felt deeply for. Like Chert Blue Quartz and his wife Opal. At one stressful point I thought my favorite character in the books was dead, and I was freaking out. Sister Utta. Ferras Vansen. Qinnitan. (Qinnitan: You're too good for him. He's an asshole.) And the world-building was of course, majestic. The Rooftoppers, Qar, Funderlings, Skimmers, and humans were all very fully realized. I could have used a more definitive guide the to the various religions, though. I love Williams for including a realistic variety of religions in his books (I once wrote a paper on the religions of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn), but this time around it got a bit confusing. There were a LOT of gods. And some of them were real characters (pun intended).

Overall, this is a stronger and more amazing series than probably 95% of fantasy series. And the ending was excellent. Not only was there a dramatic, action-packed climax, but also plenty of denouement to explain what happened to everyone. I particularly liked it when one character, who tries to claim that he's being a tool because he's suffered through a lot and his life is hard, is informed that No, you're an asshole and a drama queen, you always have been, and guess what? WE'VE ALL BEEN SUFFERING THERE WAS A @#$%^%&* WAR. *high fives character who said this*

To sum up: If you've never read anything by Tad Williams, read WAR OF THE FLOWERS. If you are looking for something to fill the void before the next George R. R. Martin book finally comes out, DEFINITELY pick up this series (first book: SHADOWMARCH). But that's assuming you've already Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn. If you haven't, what is wrong with you?

[Karina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Omg, I forgot so much from this series, and it is so complicated. Although some of it is fitting together as I go along, there are a lot of other books I've read with similar elements.

After finishing, this is definitely not a stand alone book. This series that needs to be read as a group in order to keep track of all the characters and truly appreciate what is happening. There are so many characters and plot lines that most of it is underdeveloped. I was also annoyed with several surreal, opium dreamlike bits.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

as i've posted on the other books' pages, i'm reviewing all four books as a series, which i think is really the only way i can do it properly. each book had its strengths and weaknesses, but i read them all right after each other, and so there are, i'm sure, parts that i'm getting mixed between books. it's one massive story, and that's how i'm going to review it. (because i can.)

3.5 stars for the whole series together, rounded up to four.

i had read Shadowmarch soon after it first came out, without realizing that it was the beginning of a series. once the final book came out a little while ago, i decided to go back and read the whole series. (i tend to wait until series are done prior to reading them, as i hate waiting for new books or having to go back and read books i've already read to catch up. it's a thing for me. i started a series on the recommendation of a friend who neglected to tell me that the series wasn't done. i got a little cranky, i won't lie. but that's for another review.)

the point is, after reading the first one, i ordered Shadowplay, Shadowrise and Shadowheart from the library and proceeded to read them all in about a month or so.

spoilers follow. you'll notice that i mostly focus on the things i didn't like. there was a lot TO like in these books. for instance, i liked the funderlings, barrick, olin, most of the qar, the skimmers, the players and all of that.

first impressions? i don't really care what tad says about writing his books, editing them or whatever. this series could have been shorter without suffering in the telling. MUCH SHORTER. i think, at a certain point, there are side plots or whatever that don't need as much work as he put into them. i realize it's a labor of love. but think about your reader. specifically, i'm thinking of the whole section with jack chains and vansen's eventual journey from behind the shadowline to funderling town. the whole part with his father seemed thrown in without much resolution and didn't really belong, in my opinion.

on to the characters themselves:

qinnitan: plot device. really, in the end, that's all she was, and it was a little frustrating to find that out after 80 bazillion pages. she merely exists to take over the female side of the fireflower and to make vo angry enough to destroy the key. that's all. it bothered me that there was so much leadup to something so pointless.

daikonis vo: why does he get his own paragraph? because this is one thing that williams does that irritates me to no end - the completely unstoppable killer. he did this in The War of the Flowers to the point that i wanted to scream. remember the end of terminator, when the terminator keeps coming back and there's no way to kill him? multiply that by about 4 on the annoyance scale, and there you have vo for me. he lost all scariness for me about a third of the way through the whole situation with qinnitan merely because i found myself not being worried for her but going "what the- are you serious? seriously serious? for reals?" (that's never a good sign.) which leads me to:

the autarch: okay, so i have some experience in roleplaying, both online and otherwise. huge pet peeve? god moding: a character that is omniscient, invincible and otherwise all-powerful. (in all instances, this is a bad thing. basically, it ruins the game for, well, anyone else.) current poster child for god moding? the autarch. towards the end of the third book (i think), this became almost unbearable. no one can kill him. no one knows what he knows, which is everything. no one can touch him, stop his armies, draw blood or even make him sneeze. it became extremely annoying. i didn't feel as though he was intimidating or terrifying or anything. he was "that kid" - whiny, oversmart, arrogant, untouchable and a complete jerk. i'm pretty sure that's not what williams wanted people to think of the all-powerful autarch, but see above (with vo). once i get to the point of "seriously? you're kidding me. that's stupid," that's not a huge vote of confidence.

briony: i realize that briony is probably one of two central characters, with barrick. deep down, it's their story, but i couldn't stand her. of all the characters, she changed the least, and it seemed that when she did change, it wasn't for the better. at the end of the books, i found her no less selfish, no more mature, no more compassionate or ready to be a ruler than she was at the beginning of the books. i had no idea what vansen saw in her. NONE. it also bothered me that, if i remember correctly, she was 15 when the story started. there wasn't much there for vansen to love the way that he did, and it often felt forced. then, when they do get together at the end, i just had to think, but she's 16. not that mature. not much growth. and what does a guard captain probably in his 20s see in a 15 year old girl anyways? she's petty, whiny and although many readers will say that it's a wonderful coming of age for her an she does mature, i never saw it. i liked her less at the end than i did at the beginning, which wasn't much.

williams also seems to do some throwaway scenes, and it makes me wonder what he was thinking when he wrote them. he has yasammez, who quite frankly was one of my favorite characters, and he could do so much more with her than he did. instead, for the last half of the books she's relegated to cranky and unhelpful person who has a fight scene that almost feels like it was written for no good reason. as a demi-god, for her to go out the way she did, after being treated the way she was, seemed to be a little bit of a slap, both to her and to the reader. she deserved more than that.

but lest you think i'm a completely negative nellie, i did like the books. i'm not sure if this will make me read memory, sorrow and thorn again, and i don't know that this series would stand up to multiple reads, but i did feel a little sad when the story was over. and that, to me, is always a good sign.

[Edward Rathke · Rating 4 out of 5]

And so it ends, not with a bang or whisper, but in a melancholic yet satisfying bouquet of bows. Which is pretty classic Williams at this point.

It's funny to me when I look back at my experiences with Williams. Halfway through Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, I thought I'd never read anything by him except that trilogy. By the end of that trilogy, I realized I wanted to read much more. Diving into Otherland, I came to see how much he grew as a writer between those two four-book-trilogies. In Shadowmarch, we find his writing still more mature, but also, in some ways, he's taken a step back. I think it's an oddity of the fantasy genre. Even when people shape and contort it, it binds and confines them within its own labyrinth of conventions. And so even as we get locked into some perception of what a new world would look like based on our own (mis)perceptions of the middle ages, we try to break free. This doesn't seem to be the same case with speculative fiction taking place in our world, where we feel a bit more...limitless, I suppose. So Otherland allowed Williams to be more mature, more daring, and returning to fantasy has sort of stripped some of this from his writing.

But not entirely is it gone. I find the tying of everything back together a bit too neat here. And I think a few of the conclusions for different characters are more in line with the need for an ending than they are with the rules of the world. Mostly with regard to Briony. I think we could have left her in a much more complicated and complex situation. While it may not have been as satisfying in a narrative sense, I think it would have suited the world much better. And maybe just my own sense of bittersweetness.

I think of how Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn concludes, how subversive I found it, how daring and melancholy and bittersweet, and I think I was hoping for something like that here. We get it a bit with Barrick, who shares much with Josua and Simon from MS&T, but even there we're given more optimism, or at least hope.

And maybe what really holds this back for me is the Qar. Because they remain so alien, so inscrutable, we're never given our dreams of Numenor. The great sorrow of Celeborn, Galadrial, and Elrond, nor even the sorrow of the Sidhe, and the tragedy of their lost ships of light. The Qar sink into the abyss of time and memory, and yet our hearts don't break for them, the way they have for elves in the stories we love. Our fallen, tragic immortal forebearers. The Qar, even in their greatest moments, are slightly left of stage. Or left off stage entirely. Even Yasammez, maybe one of my favorite characters in the series, is never really given the stage to shine in her pitch blackness. We never truly get to feel the weight of their tragedy, but are only told of it.

It may be what holds this series back for me the most. The Qar are a great creation. Alien, weird, tragic, beastly, inhuman, beautiful, and deadly. And yet their alienness is always front and center, and so Williams needs to reveal them through the regard of our mortal characters. And these mortals, even when they do understand the Qar, are always missing the whole picture, or at least find the whole picture too terrible to apprehend or at least explain.

And so this hole in the heart of the Qar is something more acknowledged than felt. More intellectually understood than shivering through your bones.

It surprises me, because I do think that Williams is maybe the only fantasy writer I can think of right now who understood the melancholy of Tolkien's world. So while many have imitated Tolkien, few have been able to grasp that sorrow, that immense weight of tragedy. But I think Williams does. Yet in this series, he never dives fully into it. Or at least he doesn't allow us to. Which may be a very deliberate and daring choice. To keep his creatures forever impenetrable to our regard.

Even so, this series is solid. In some ways it's much better than Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, and even better than Otherland, which is a bit overly long and overly complex. But in other ways it never reaches the great heights of either of those series.

But, yes, if you're a fan of Williams, there's no reason not to tread through this, his most bewildering and inscrutable of works. In some ways it may be the most daring, but in that courage, he leaves out the immense bleeding heart of immortality.

[Micah Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat disappointed with this. It had its moments but was a bit of a slow starter for some pretty bog standard tropes.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023:
I think I enjoyed the book more this time around. It has been several years since the last read. I am now ready to revisit The Dragonbone Chair series by this author.

2011:
Took a while to get into this book, but it was a satisfying ending to the series.

[Mr SSingh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This...this bloated mess of a series


MAJOR SPOILERS

Such a relief to be finished with this agonizing story.

How?

How is this written by the same author who wrote the fantastic "Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn'?

You know the epic fantasy that influenced every epic fantasy series from likely 'Wheel of Time' to definitely 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. This doesn't seem like Tad Williams wrote it, it seems like someone trying to attempt what Tad Williams does. I knew midway through Shadowrise the story was steering into trouble but stuck with it because I initially like the characters, the setup and conflicts, the world, the snippets of background mythology (IMO the best maybe only worthy part), the side characters.

But what a mess. And how this meandering mess gets resolved is infuriating.

I’ll go through character by character

Trickster Reincarnate:

Why does every giant, evil demi-god, god speak in ALL CAPS? I see this done in so much fantasy but here it’s not just that it’s annoying, but that the evil god speaks these horrible cliched taunts and torments to signify how mercilessly bad and powerful he is.

And how is he defeated? By Whitefyre right? You know the only weapon the heroes have in possession that can kill a god. You’d think. No. Despite being an immortal deity, he gets taken out by the ocean falling onto his head when he turns into a big fiery candle and tries to escape the Sea in the Depths to wreak havoc on the world. Later revealed, cryptically and not properly explained as far as I’m concerned, that Flint/Crooked helped destroy him. Again, not properly shown or explained, so I assume it was falling water that killed him.

Ferras Vansen:

My favorite character maybe, the only one that doesn’t seem like he realizes his duty and doesn’t constantly whine and cry, except when it comes to Briony. Then he’s reduced to a blubbering pathetic male, a high schooler who can’t tell his crush how he really feels. He survives after helping Briony, Barrick, Quinnitan escape and his heroic deeds of leading the Funderlings to fend of the Xis. He professes his love to Briony even though she seems to be with Enas, and of course since foreshadowed before how she can’t stop thinking about him, loves him back.

Briony Eddon:

She comes just in time before the sacrificial ritual and kills Hendon Tolly or delivers the final blow or whatever. How she ends up down where every other character eventually is a mystery to me, fast travel? It seems like all these characters suddenly have the fast travel skill even though journeying through the maze that is the depths, even with Chert’s help, is difficult and takes a long time. She basically becomes helpless as everyone and just spectates as things happen. Afterward she makes said alliances with everyone including Enas and professes her love to Ferras because she thought about him a lot. The letter to Enas seemed abrupt and an easy out. Did we ever get his reaction to it how he felt about it? Anyways the princess does princess stuff, unites whatever blah blah, then is pissed at her brother yet again for ignoring her and siding with the Qar, until she finally respects his decision to leave for the Qar lands.


Barrack Eddon:

My God of Inconsistency. One moment he’s a superpowered demi-god, and a couple pages later reduced to his former whining self. I thought he’s possessed with the Fireflower and all the past lives of Ynir and the Qar rulers. Quite possibly the most useless human male character in a series of rather useless human male characters. When he finally reunites with his sister, he gives her the cold shoulder, because “I’m now with MY people.” Which is sort of the childish mentality that Yasammez had, this endless grudge against the those that would help her against their greater enemy the Xis. His fate of ending up married to Quinnitan and being the new leader of the Qar people seemed like a fitting end to his story.

Galion Tolly:

Why? Why does he return? As a human, as a ghost, a zombie. Whatever I don’t care. Another unnecessary additional character who should have stayed dead. Now he pops up again, in a story that’s already convoluted in terms of how the magic works, people seemingly dying only to be alive a few scenes later. There’s a lot of this ‘everything goes dark’ for the character chapter cliffhangers that as a reader you know, surprise! They’re still alive.

Puzzle:

What happened to him? I swear Williams just forgets about him entirely, then he shows up in a scene passed out on a couch or whatever, singing sorrowful songs. I couldn’t tell you what happens to him.


Yasammez:

Quite unlikable. Lady Porcupine. She wears spiked armor. Threatens to kill and murder, conquer, and exterminate because humans mean nothing to and her vengeance is strong, then takes it all back for some reason, just stops. An example of this was when she could have killed Meloranna but doesn’t, instead gives her an ear and cares nothing about what she says. Is so fueled by vengeance, then gives up realizing that the Xis are too powerful and Sulepis is unstoppable. She eventually exits stage right, or I think she becomes like a giant kaiju and does battle with giant Trickster, terrible, terrible what was the author thinking?

And she has the egg, another artifact besides the tiles, except I have no idea what it does. It’s broken and then what? Releases another power into the world? The tiles, the mantle, the egg, the god killing sword, the Fireflower, there’s too much to keep track of.

Matty Tinwright:

Can’t feel too much sympathy for a character who almost murders a child. Another useless male character, sniveling, feels sorrow for himself, pining after a woman who doesn’t return the feelings. At no point does he stands up for himself, and despite the end of the world hanging in balance, makes no effort to escape with the child, or kill Hendon Tolly, no he stands around waiting until Briony and cast to show up and kill him for them. Truly a cowardly poet character, and that he survives when the scene had him arrow in the chest in a pool of his blood because he had the good book via Ned Flanders from the Simpsons style getting shot by mobsters is infuriating. “…I think I’ll go inside now…”

Chaven:

Another useless character who exists just to be killed off at the end to which I felt nothing. Doesn’t Trickster melt him or something? I forget, because he just appears suddenly Deus Ex Machina style, except not to save the day but to ruin it further, with the mirror or Tile, whatever it’s supposed to be. What is this character and why is he in the story. I know he takes care of the pregnancy in the first book, but then doesn’t have anything major to do other than die here. He’s supposed to be the Dr. Morgenes of this story, but his only purpose I feel was to be buds with Chert Blue Quartz and discover the mystery of the mirror, and the owl. Another case of having too many characters in your story where they become underdeveloped, and their plots underwhelming that I as a reader don’t care about them.

Avon Borne:

The last time I remembered was that he was drinking at his desk feeling sorry for himself as Meloranna had to give him a pep talk. Then he forces Tinwright for whatever, to spy on Tolly or gather something. Anyway, the big reveal is that he and Meloranna had a child together during their affair and that child is Flint, which was hinted to earlier, so I don’t know why we needed the reveal again. Again, another character that I would have cared about if the story were more coherent and interesting, and I cared.

Anissa:
Leaps off the tower to her death after Briony imprisons her for betrayal, knowing and vouching for the servant who ended up being a witch who killed Kendrick in the beginning. This happened all the way in the first novel, so granted what’s happened since then, thousands of deaths, resurrected gods, end of the world, had this happen earlier it would have been a more meaningful payoff. But it comes across as the author having to wrap everything up at the end and kill off characters.
Surprisingly, he doesn’t kill of Tinwright as well.


Quinnitan:

Another character I feel like only exists to be a passive captive. Sure, she escapes with the special kid Pigeon who do we ever see again, I can’t remember. Chased by Daikonos Vo for a couple books only to be captured again by Sulepis. Was Williams was trying to tell a story about captured people and make some sort of point of bonding, or accepting the possibility of not escaping a meeting an inevitable bad end?

Her telepathic relationship with Barrick as it goes further as they go deeper into the roads that ‘Crooked’ travel. Because he’s special and has special gods blood in her or whatever because of course she does.

The problem is that something like four characters are all special so I don’t care about them as characters. My mind is trying to unravel the confusion that is, ok, who is what deity, or has what ability instead of focusing on them as people. Into endless darkness with weird symbolism and stags and professing their love, even though they never met. How’s her story end. She gets to sleep for eternity. Or until a way for her to wake up is found? Awesome! What a reward. This is supposed to mirror the beginning and Ynir and Saquri, maybe making some point that the cycle continues.

Olin Eddard:

What was the point of him again? He spends the entire story pretty much in captivity, whether in Heirsole at the beginning, and then under the autarch. All throughout he just moves with the Xis, debating, philosophizing, back talking Sulepis almost begging him to kill him that amounts to nothing because he’s in a cage as a vessel for the summoned god. His other purpose, as a reader I’d think was to convince Pimmon Vash to betray his master, but that logical conclusion never comes to fruition. He exists only to see Briony and Barrack once again, because we have the forced moment when all the characters meet up and emote again. Then die. Plot device character #2. But he’s nowhere as useless as.


Plot device! Um I mean Flint:

This is a non-character. Seriously the only reason that he exists is for plot reasons. He speaks in cryptic nonsense. And worries Opal. That’s literally all he does after his meeting with Kerinos at the sea in the depths in the first book. Then we find out, he’s yet another ‘special’ who can’t be merely a mortal but possesses part of the god Crooked inside him. Williams had no idea what he wanted to do with Flint so just made him a problem-solving solution essentially. What was this mysterious child born of Shadowline, possibly human, possibly Qar is essentially nothing but a long-winded explanation of how he went from one caretaker to another, one family to another, and has part of Crooked inside him whilst he wanders the earth. Mystery solved. Completely useless.

Pimmon Vash:

Why wasn’t this character killed long ago? He serves no major purpose other than to be shocked at how cruel his master is. And after all said and done, they just let him and the Xis go in the end with no real accountability? Again why? He’s partially responsible for Olin’s situation and supporting Sulepis even though realizing how insane he’d gotten.

The Autarch:

Sulepis is almost a comical villain at this point, as is Hendon Tolly. I don’t see his motivation other than he is insane. There’s a small prologue at the beginning of the novel that shows how he murdered or maybe conspired to have his siblings murdered to reach his position. He has children sacrificed or maybe their shadow realm forms to add to list of awful brutality. His fate is somewhat fitting, having his limbs ripped off and his torso being fused the forehead of a god. Yet the punishment is pointless because the god is killed off only moments later.




And a host of other characters I’ve forgotten or beyond caring at this point. More egregious is that the story elements were quite boring.

Too much time in these Funderling tunnels with the stupid self-interested Brother Nickel and Chert arguing with each other. Skirmishes that go on too long. The action wasn’t compelling enough, these strategies were same-y.

There was also this wanderer character and his plot. Did we ever hear back from them? I swear they were added in and just forgotten about. Or maybe they were a flashback to something. Who cares.

The lake of silvery substance being Godsblood was a cool reveal. The image of the lake turning red with the blood of the sacrifice was a vivid disturbing image, then again, the detonation of the cavern and the reservoir dumped into it was a cool visual, even though it was stupid. Also ruined by the Godzilla battle that happens in it. The whole thing reeked of cheese like a Saturday morning sword and sorcery cartoon show rather than high fantasy.

The Rooftoppers coming to the rescue was silly. They’re an interesting race but they exist for comic reasons mainly, as a quirky addition, a reminder that you’re reading fantasy. They seem like something out of a children’s fairytale and kind of took me out. I liked the cave chase at the end with the devil owls though.

The Skimmers, I forget what they do in this book, but I wanted to know more about their culture and life.

But dismissing all that we get to the ending. Why is this ending so long and unnecessary? It’s not the ‘Scouring of the Shire’, and I don’t care what happens to the kingdom and its citizens because none of its interesting. It was just a hundred or more pages of let’s wrap everything up. Briony and Barrick disagree and fight because why not? They haven’t learned anything this whole journey. Standing around explaining things is what we got, and I expected more from the series.

I should have known I was in trouble with Shadowrise started to meander and add more tangents, more onto more onto more. Not to push for longer fantasy series than necessary but I feel like Shadowmarch either needed a few more books to satisfyingly wrap everything up or needed a heavy edit and huge chunks of it cut, characters simplified as in not every other person possessing superpowers, not having these world shattering events happen and then a boring, meandering hundred or more pages of ‘the tax rates and repair accountings’ that need to be done in the kingdom afterward.

Such a disappointment how this series with a lot of potential turned out. Unsatisfying and rushed conclusion would be putting it mildly, this feels like it was finished by a completely different, and worse author.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

They say two data points does not indicate a trend, but Tad Williams has made it difficult for me to finish one of his book series for the second time in a row. Sure, this one wasn't as bad as the fourth book of the Otherland series, but Shadowheart took a story that had drawn me in and carried me along for over two thousand pages, and almost spit me right back out before it could finish. Williams creates huge, detailed worlds, and compelling characters, but this novel saw him trying to bring seven or eight narrative threads to a conclusion at the same point, and the story just slowed down to a crawl as he did it. It took me weeks just to get through the last two hundred pages. If he hadn't successfully made me care what happened to these characters over the first three novels, I wouldn't have been able to muscle all the way through this one. Tough slogging.

[Vivone Os · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zadnja knjiga epske sage o princu Barricku, princezi Briony i borbi za Sjenovitu među. Williams je osmislio predivan kompleksan svijet magije, nadnaravnih vilinskih bića i prastarih moćnih bogova, gdje se ljudima ne piše dobro i moraju se između svih tih čudesa izboriti za svoj opstanak i pokazati da su dostojni vladati Sjenovitom međom.
Sve četiri knjige su fenomenalne, s tim što su se u ovoj na kraju stvari posložilie na jedan način, koji je ok, ali ja bih željela da su se posložile nekako drugačije što bi meni bilo ljepše, posebno između Briony i Ferrasa Vansena. Al dobro, sve u svemu sve je dobro što se dobro svrši. ;)

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm doing it. Something I've never done before.

I'm calling it quits.

I am fairly certain the back half of this book would rule. It would be filled to the brim with epicness. But, I just can't get myself to read it.

So, instead of having these 500 or so pages looming over me, sabotaging my ability to start another fantasy series, I am going to pull the curtain, put it aside, say "perhaps another time, friend." Because one day I might pick it back up. But for now, I'm going to give myself the grace to move on.

[Michelle Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tad Williams is an intriguing writer; I particularly like how he adds a touch of horror throughout his novels. I do think It could have been edited a tiny bit, but still a highly recommended read. I'm excited to move on to more of his work.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ugh, so good. Incredibly satisfied with how this converged and came together. Tad can try your patience at times but he delivers and he delivers big. The climactic moments were bombastic and epic and the character moments were intimate and emotional.

I would not in any way call this a lesser series than Osten Ard. This has its own darker flavor but also familiar reflections and reverberations of what makes Osten Ard great.

The pacing throughout has been very deliberate and the reveals of the mysteries he's kept close to his chest until late in the series but I think it finished brilliantly.

The world building continues to be next level and deep, I have a lot of questions and will be putting on my tinfoil hat and theorizing about some of the implications.

Amazing ending to the series and I'd love to see more in this world in the future but this is also a good ending point that ties up the threads cleanly while leaving some things a little open for the future of this world.

[Kes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally finished this series!

Basically, half of this book was an epic battle, where we switched between the various fronts.

The autarch's plan to enter the tunnels beneath Southmarch, where Kulipas banished the gods. The silver substance is Kulipas's blood from his wounds. From there, he will summon the god and command him.

Qinnitan retains her constant-prisoner status. Honestly, we could have cut out her plot line. We also meet King Olin.

Briony's alliance with Prince Eneas brings her safely to Southmarch and his martial support allows her to take back the castle. She manages to let him down through a very gracefully worded note. With his support, she also manages to speak to her father while he is prisoner with the autarch. There's also a great scene where she finally kills Hendon Tolly.

Vansen continues to rally the Funderlings and their brave defence of the tunnels buys them a lot of time.

Barrick encourage the Qar to join the battle. Yasammez (Lady Porcupine) at first suggests that the Qar do not fight; however, she eventually lends a deciding hand to the fight, as does Saqri.

However, they fail. The autarch reaches the Shining Man and the god is awoken in King Olin's body. The god is revealed to be Zosim, the Trickster, who then sets about killing everyone. Chert's plan to blow up the chamber materialises and Beetledown is sacrificed when he ensures that the explosion happens.

After the battle, we learn that Queen Anissa was behind Kendrick's death. Briony ensures that her brother is taken from the queen, into her care. Dawet dan-Faar then orchestrates her death. Flint reveals that while he was stolen by the Qar, he was eventually given a piece of Kulipas to hold - resulting in a piece of Kulipas's godly essence being left in Flint. This accounts for Flint's odd behaviour, and he then strikes out to look for his fortune. He suggests that Chert and Opal care for Briony's brother, Olin Alessandros.

Saqri eventually dies, passing on her Fireflower to Qinnitan (not unexpected). We end with Barrick going his own way, leading the Qar with Qinnitan. Briony takes over heirship of the castle. It's suggested that she will be supported by Vansen, who will act as her lover, and Dawet (who will probably function as her spymaster). Chert and Opal will care for baby Olin. And to tie up the loose ends, Raemon Beck makes it back to Southmarch (although we do not know how).

Briony announces that politics will change, with all races being represented in council: the Skimmers (who fought against the Xixians), the Funderlings, and the Rooftoppers. There's a strong element of old grudges being put aside (e.g. the Qar forgive the Funderlings in their role of causing the last two scions of the royal line to be captured), and the Rooftoppers emerge from hiding.

Minister Pinimmon Vash appears with the Scotarch Prusus (now the Autarch). He and the Scotarch had quit the field of battle. The Scotarch has five years to change Xand, and one of the things they will do is to cease their conquering.

Lastly, there is a scene where it's suggested that Zoria was behind all of this battle - though the purpose of this is left open.

Tl;dr: Happy Ending! Which is what you always want from a fantasy book.

I'm still trying to put my thoughts together on this, but:

1. This is an extremely detailed and complex work of fantasy. Every race mentioned has its own history, and a lot of this is suggested or simply not covered in the book. For example, why did the rooftoppers go into hiding? Why did they choose to emerge now? It's a fully realised world, which justifies the multiple book series.

2. However, the pacing really could have used work. There were some scenes that I felt were fun, especially Barrick's battle scenes. On the whole? The whole practice of switching point-of-views at a point of tension really killed the mood for me. I think that might be an editing issue. I also felt that it could have been condensed slightly further - for example, Qinnitan didn't need to have been a point-of-view character. It's probably necessary to ensure that her getting together with Barrick is acceptable, but it's strange. And how did she inherit Qar blood? Why didn't her family also have the same red streak in their hair? I feel that a significant portion could be cut out without a loss to the plot.

3. That being said, the writing was not bad. Individually, the scenes could be done quite well, although I didn't enjoy all of them. It's really the pacing.

4. I liked the neat way loose ends were tied up at the end - especially the re-emergence of Makewell's Men (without Makewell) at the end, and the realisation that the epigraph of this book was written by Tinwright! It made it worth lasting through his plot, which was a study in a weak character.

5. I liked how human some of the point-of-view characters were. Chert's plan gets nearly gets stopped by the last minute intervention of Brother Nickel and Nodule, who see this as a way of exercising their authority. Tinwright remains self-centered throughout the novel, and paralysed by fear.

6. Things like the Fever Egg basically had no impact on the plot but was given page time. I'm not sure what the point of including the Fever Egg in the plot was - to suggest that internal divisions among the Qar?

7. I loved how Briony and Barrick grew and changed - and that at the end, they sort-of reconciled with each other.

This is honestly a 2-star book, but it is quite immense, and the worldbuilding was done quite well, so I guess I'll give it (and the series) 3-stars. It's not a series that I would recommend, in general, but it does deserve credit for the worldbuilding.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tad Williams further cements his standing as one of the best fantasy writers with the concluding volume of his Shadowmarch series, despite weaknesses readers by now come to expect. Again, there simply is too much of "Shadowheart" for its story line, and at its midpoint seemed like a three-star book. But Williams' inexorable drive brings an exciting, stellar conclusion. Investing so much time into this massive series pays off handsomely, one realizes in closing the final volume. Williams ties everything up beautifully and leaves ingrained on us some wonderful characters that we realize we will miss very much.

Previously wide-ranging plot threads converge beneath Southmarch castle as two baddies have the same goal: achieve great power by awakening a slumbering god. The power-mad Autarch of Xis sends his minions against Southmarch's defenders, now augmented by aligning with the previously occupying Qar. The various battles in the caves and warrens beneath the castle are where the hefty book starts to bog down. The series was better when all these characters were far apart, having their own adventures; there is a sameness to things as the Autarch tries to reach the site where he believes he will awaken a god he will control/become. Winnowed to two similar story lines, "Shadowheart" suffers. Some of the battles are exciting, but the plot simply moves too slowly. Still, when things really come to a head, and the emerging god has a surprise for everyone, it's fantastic.

Readers who want quick closure after the ultimate climax might be irked; there are 120 pages of resolution after the big to-do. Still, some beloved characters re-emerge during that period, and the mysterious actions of other key players finally are explained. Turns out Williams knew what he was doing all along.

All in all, Williams proves himself again a master, despite an admittedly average opening volume to the four-book series. Despite mediocre cover art, Daw Books' usual problems with typos and Williams' own deliberate pacing, "Shadowheart" and the series are triumphs, though certainly not on the scale of the author's "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn." Let's not get carried away.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been a good week for fiction (though this one has been in process longer, since I read it on my Nook while exercising). As I've grown older, I've found that epic fantasy--my first literary love in the genre--holds my interest less. Tad Williams still keeps me turning pages, though--partly through his intricate world-building, partly through the variety of viewpoint characters. Most of all, though, I appreciate now more than ever the sense he brings to his stories of the merits of courage and sacrifice, and the power of individuals to change their world, occasionally for the worse but sometimes for the better.

[Steven Poore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aaaaand that's it. The last part of the great Shadowmarch Tadventure, and the last book read in 2017. Blimey, that was something of a crawl - and in more than one sense too. The outward journeying of the last three books has brought all of our protagonists back to Shadowmarch at last, setting the scene for a mammoth combination siege/battle that takes in the town, the castle, the Funderling caves, and the deep Mysteries far below them all, and which lasts for a good three quarters of the book. (The last section, of course, dealing with some of the fallout of the battles and deaths, has one heck of a job to do under the circumstances)

Finally there's action, and death, and absolute despair as the Autarch and Hendon Tolly alike delve deep to awaken the Shining Man. But still there seem to be almost too many plot strands to pull together, and Tad has to jump from character to character to make everything work. It could have done with a faster pace, a shaving of some of the threads, even if that made that last wrap-up section a bit longer and more explanatory. Some of the character deaths are truly shocking in their suddenness, even if they might have been expected. On the other hand, the intensity of the Long Defeat towards the Shining Man is epic and different - there aren't many fantasy stories that take "dungeon crawl" quite so literally as Shadowmarch.