| 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. 
|