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In Shadowheart, volume four of Tad William’s Shadowmarch series, Barrick and Briony arrive at Southmarch with their respective armies and take up the fight against the overpowering Autarch whose army is breaking down the castle’s wall bit by bit. Inside, Matti Tinwright is caught spying and forced into Hendon Tolly’s gruesome employ. Unbeknownst to the castle’s inhabitants, Captain Vansen and his Funderling comrades fight in a valiant effort to slow down the Xandians; they can not be allowed to reach the Mysteries before Midsummer. With the end near, both Rooftoppers and Skimmers—until now mainly passive observers of events—join the fray alongside their Qar relatives. Midsummer is drawing near.

Shadowheart is one long, bloated battle that diminishes the actual climax. The final reveals are unsatisfying because they seem unimportant or have been obvious since two books before. Even after the finale itself, Williams goes on with some rather embarrassing explanations which try to make things plausible in hindsight.

The Shadowmarch series as a whole is rather atypical. It has a weak start, strong middle and a weak, outdrawn ending. Williams is a good writer in terms of local suspension; there are great scenes with psychological dramas between Olin and Sulepis, Yasammez is a frightening presence whenever she enters stage, the small Rooftoppers are a delight, and the Funderling defense effort is just a great read. The books are decent in other aspects, too, especially because of Williams’ worldbuilding. He took the Greek pantheon and let things get terribly out of hand. Proposing three different religious views on the godly war and having their believers battle for supremacy is a fascinating idea.

I am still mightily disappointed, though. I feel that a lot of potential in terms of setup and scenes has been wasted by bad plot architecture and poor character choice. The big story arc is just no good; is there even one? For most of the time, the handful of point-of-view characters only reacts to what others do; their choices rarely matter. That gives the whole series a very passive feel. The actual drivers of events are Yasammez, the Autarch, Hendon Tolly and, although weaker, the Qars’ lords, all of which are only seen through the eyes of other characters. As a (twisted) author’s tool, this can work, I think, but not over 3000+ pages.

Regarding characters, main character Briony (and Barrick, if less so) annoyed me without end, much like Harry Potter. She just does not get it, not even after her ordeal in the middle of the series. Furthermore, what is it with Qinnitan, one of the three main point-of-view characters? What is her plot good for, really? For four books we get hints—promises!—which were not even fulfilled in the end. And even if, it would have been a poor excuse to follow here that closely for all this time. I really think her part could have been left out without any piece of the puzzle missing. Matti Tinwright is a similar case, but not as prominently. The boy Flint, though, impacts events a lot, but from him we only get glimpses!

[[Visit blog to check out this spoiler]]

Despite all that, I had a really good time with the books; they are well-written, thrilling and all in all entertaining reads. It was only at the end I felt disappointed because nothing seemed to come together in a satisfying way. This will keep me away from Tad Williams for a while, though; there is just so much better stuff out there.

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Shadowrise is volume three of Tad William’s Shadowmarch series. Princess-in-exile Briony Eddon tries to gather support in Hierosol but soon becomes target of nasty gossip and even assassination attempts. Only Prince Eneas, old enemy-turned-ally Dawet and her actor friends support her. In Southmarch, the strained situation escalates: sensing Gyir’s death, Yasammez renews her attack on the castle, both below- and aboveground. Captain Vansen, who ended up in Funderling town by falling through the strange gateway in Jikuyin’s mountain, leads the Funderling defense with more success than expected; the valiant defenders will fall eventually, though, and can only hope to delay the attackers as long as possible.

In besieged Southmarch, Matti Tinwright struggles to keep his Elan safe and hidden while being forced into Brone’s service who desparately tries to find Chaven’s mirror. Other characters continue their travels: Barrick to Qul-na-Qar, Autarch Sulepis—with Olin and Vash in tow—to Southwmarchand Vo with Qinnitan to his master.

Shadowrise turned out to be a real pageturner with very gripping story lines in three levels: plot progress (Vansen, Barrick), politics (Briony) and history “dump” (Olin and Sulepis, Merelonna and Utta, Barrick). Other parts seem to be yet more setup for the final volume. The story takes up momentum and becomes increasingly compelling. Politics do not develop much, but spin a dense net of intrigue and betrayal—who can trust whom?

The history parts are very interesting—long overdue, even—and are often embedded well, for example in Olin’s part. In other instances, though, it seems that characters are put in unlikely places just to enable “gracious” info dumps, as in Utta’s case. The balance is fine, though. We get lots of mythology from three viewpoints—Qar, Eion humans, Xandian humans—giving these cultures and their history a lot of depth while also foreshadowing heavily.

I have only two items of criticism: there still is some deus ex machine, although mild cases; maybe this is only my sceptisism from Memory, Sorrow and Thorn talking. In fact, some instances create beautiful dilemmas which remain to be resolved. The second item is that this is not really volume three but rather 3.1 as it ends rather apruptly. But since books three and four were released only months apart, it is fine. I am looking forward to volume 3.2 now.

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Shadowplay is the second tome in the Shadowmarch series by Tad Williams. Following up on the final of Shadowmarch, all main characters are put in desperate situations they do not know how to deal with: Barrick has been sent into Qar territory by Yasammez, accompanied by Ferras Vansen, who is true to the promise he gave Briony. The Princess herself flees her enemies towards the south, mentored by frail Shaso. Qinnitan arrives in Hierosol and wants to go in hiding there, unknowing that the Autarch has already put one of his deadly hunters on her trail. Below besieged Shadowmarch castle, Chert struggles to keep his family out of trouble which seems to wait for him around every corner.

Olin Eddon, the King in exile, is repeatedly shown but not given a viewpoint yet. He bears his imprisonment with valiant grace while trying to help the Hierosolians prepare for the attack he is sure will come from Xand. There is a lot more going on with several small viewpoints, each contributing a little piece of the puzzle. In particular, we get to know a lot more about the history behind the quarrels between humans and Qar which might in fact date back do an ancient war between the gods themselves.

I liked Shadowplay way better than than its prequel.  It has more coherence; you can feel Williams spinning, not only telling. Probably the best part is the pampered royal twings—especially Briony—having to adapt to fundamentally unroyal situations. They learn in the most brutal ways how protected they have been and how oversimplified their worldviews used to be. This worked great for me because we get into their heads during Shadowmarch, accepting their point of view to be somewhat right.

I also enjoyed a number of new focus characters: via the very interesting viewpoint of the Autarch’s right hand, Pinimmon Vash, we get to know more about the Autarch himself. We furthermore get a few, but telling glimpses at King Olin Eddon through the eyes of several Hierosolian viewpoint characters, especially one cheeky girl taking an interest in the foreign prisoner.

Another big plus is the amount of background information provided, especially regarding religion, myth and Qar society. The fact that Williams sometimes dumps those stories ungracefully disturbs only a little; oftentimes, characters naturally exchange knowledge or belief concerning the gods in an effort to make sense of what happens. Another good thing I dearly missed in MSaT: Williams kills important characters when appropriate. Sadly, though, he does so “off-screen” in at least one prominent case. The only way this can be legit is that the character has not actually died—we will see.

My greatest critism is that there are some impossible saves from hopeless situations that have the unpleasent tinge of deus ex machine to them which I can not explain without spoilering too much. In addition, I felt particularly cheated in the end because the foreshadowed attack on Hierosol’s wall does not happen. Having already read the sequel, I know that it is not told of in the sequel, either; in fact, Hierosol is not on-screen even once. This really left me hanging.

All in all, Shadowplay is a decent second book. It has to remedy some issues of volume one and is therefore a bit slow in taking up momentum, but it clearly prepares the ground for a thrilling and complex climax. Looking forward to part three!

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Shadowmarch is seat of house Eddon which reigns over a fair amount of Eion’s north. Its northern border is marked by the Shadowline, stuff of stories and fairytales; behind it, people say, the fairies retreated after they were driven away by human armies. To the south, there are some more kingdoms on the same continent and after that, far away, the continent Xand, ruled by a line of dictators posing as godkings.

In Shadowmarch, Prince Barrick and Princess Briony struggle to keep their heirloom together. Their father abducted by southern rival Hierosol and their older brother brutally murdered, they are forced into roles they are not quite adult enough for. One of their subjects, Funderling Chert, and his wife find a boy near the Shadowline and take him in, but the boy soon shows to be quite weird. Also, they discover that the Shadowline is moving—towards Shadowmarch! In Xis, holy capital of Xand, young acolyte Qinnitan is for mysterious reasons chosen as wife for her godking. One among many, she is not married immediately but put in his harem for months, a place shaped by rivalries of power-thirsty women.

Sadly, this is all that happens for about two thirds of the book. After the initial surge of activity, all plot lines settle in a calm, stretched-out flow. The major lines and individual scenes of the respecive lines are largely disconnected. In other words, there is next to no arc of suspense. I do not mind setup books and mysteries and actually like them a lot if done right², but the author has to get me thinking. During this book, there is not much reason to assume Qinnitan will ever end up even remotely near the other main characters as her plot has absolutely nothing to do with the others. This changes only on the last fifty-or-so pages. Maybe—hopefully!—I just don’t see it and there are clues so subtle they are only visible in hindsight.

I have to give Williams that he creates a fine world there. We do not get to know much, but there are many mysteries including the Qar that promise more. That is, there certainly is potential yet untapped. Still, Shadowmarch was hard reading for me. After finishing it I had to go back to the X-Wing series for some lighter fare, but now I am up for volume two, Shadowplay. I sure hope we get some movement into story, characters and world then.