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SFReader Forums > SF Fiction and Art > Right Now I'm Reading.... > Tad Williams' Shadowmarch

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Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None

Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038

Posted 8/6/2007 8:01 AM (GMT -4)

I'm enjoying Shadowmarch. There are a few things about it that stick in my crawl a bit though. Although Williams trys to explain that they are not, the Funderlings still come across as traditional fantasy dwarfs. Sometimes I groan when he introduces a new character by name. All the Funderlings have rock names Chert, Opal, Granite, Flint... there was a particulary abbrasive character he named Pummice.

Thus far the most interesting character to me is Barrick, a dark brooding young man with a crippled arm, supposedly caused by his father the king pushing him down a set of stairs.

I guess my biggest gripe with the book is that I've been able to guess as to what's coming next pretty consistently. Williams writes in a way that sets everything up too obvioulsy. I keep waiting to be surprised, but it hasn't happened yet.

Still, thus far it's a fair read if you like traditional fantasy. The book starts out with a dragon hunt. He doesn't call the critter a dragon, but that's what it is. Traditional fantasy with the names changed to protect the innocent.

Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing

http://www.journeybookspublishing.com

xiaotien
Adept

Date Joined Jul 2006
Total Posts : 562

Posted 8/6/2007 3:51 PM (GMT -4)

i finished this a while back.
i bought the book when i went to
see williams' talk. he is very funny
and nice in person.

i didn't mind the stone names, i thought
it amusing. but yes, i do understand what
you mean about a name change just disguise
a race or creature we are very familiar with.

i think (being a girl) he does a great
job with making briony a heroine who
i can relate to. barrick def holds the most
mystery and is all angsty. haha!

i enjoyed the book. i think williams' is a
strong prose writer and storyteller.

cindy p.

a little sweet, a little sour.

http://xiaotien.blogspot.com

Hamstersbane
Acolyte

Date Joined Feb 2007
Total Posts : 384

Posted 8/6/2007 7:05 PM (GMT -4)

Yeah, Shadowmarch and Shadowplay are fairly straightforward, but he's still a great storyteller and really good at juggling a big, complicated world.

Memory, Sorrow & Thorn and Otherland had some pretty big curveballs in them, though.

Jeff Parish
Caveat Lector
Here there be writers.

Edward Knight
Jack of all Trades and Master of None

Date Joined Jan 2004
Total Posts : 1038

Posted 8/6/2007 11:22 PM (GMT -4)

I have to admit, he keeps throwng in new characters and little side plots. I'm only a third of the way througha nd there is a lot of stuff going on. Some of it seems so far away from the main plot that it does leave a little room for guesswork as to how he's going to tie it all together.

I agree that Briony probably would appeal to a lot of femail readers. She's a girls tied up in a man's world and not accepting the tidy little role she's been handed. She's tough and isn't about to buy into the old ways of doing things. She has a mind of her own. And she pretty much dislikes all men except her brother and father.

Edward Knight
Editor
Journey Books Publishing

http://www.journeybookspublishing.com

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