Sunday, April 24, 2011

Shadowrise: Volume Three of Shadowmarch by Tad Williams


Shadowrise is the 3rd Book of the ShadowMarch Trilogy of Briony and Barrick Eddon, the Twin Regents, as they continue to fight the Qar armies that have besieged ShadowMarch and their evil cousins.
                Briony, who has had the throne of ShadowMarch usurped by her relative, Hendon Tolly, is beginning to make allies in the Court of the King of Syan.  However, there are those who don't want these alliances, and they will resort to violence to ensure it doesn't happen.  Barrick, who disappeared into the twilight lands, continues his journey with Skurn, the talking crow.  Eventually, he must flee to a place even his attackers fear, and there he finds out the only way to get to Qul-na-Qar, through the city of Sleep, the home of the dreamless.
This book is well-written, but a little difficult to read.  Williams uses many complex and advanced words that add a different depth to the meaning of what is being written.   The way the book is written can make it frustrating to follow one character's storyline for a length of time, because Williams likes to switch from one character's viewpoint to another.  The characters are, in my opinion, well-developed, and Williams describes the events of the story so well that sometimes I would forget I was reading a book and think I was there, experiencing it. I liked this book, and recommend it to anyone who likes reading about wars, magic, and Gods. But make sure to read the first two books first, or you will be lost.

Review by Michael Bart, Ardmore, OK