Tad Williams

Shadowmarch — (2004-2010) Publisher: Williams opens another of the intricate, intriguing sagas that are his stock-in-trade. In a once turbulently conflicted land of humans, elves, and dwarves, an old truce is starting to unravel. The frontier called the Shadowline, between the Twilight Lands and those of humans, is being breached. The first Marchlands kingdom in the path of Twilight invaders is in disarray, for its king is a prisoner, and not all accept his elder son's regency. What's more, the cruel empire of the south is moving north. So the Marchlands are caught between two foes while having to deal with internal intrigues and inexperienced rulers. When the prince regent is killed, apparently by one of his closest advisors, the surviving regents are an impetuous princess and a disabled prince. Trust at court and in the kingdom dwindles even as Twilight forces attack, and responsibilities the princess never dreamed of or prepared for fall upon her.

Shadowmarch: Good start, and it is just a start — don't expect fast pace

Shadowmarch is the start of yet another epic fantasy trilogy by one of the genre's better known authors. While I wouldn't personally equate Shadowmarch with Tad Wiliams' earlier masterpiece (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn), it does stand above much of what is being written today. As is typical of fantasy, for that matter most genre novels, there are echoes of earlier works by the same author and other works by different authors. One grows to expect that; it isn't the complete and utter originality that often makes a work but what one does with the similar situations/characters. By that comparison, Shadowmarch does quite well, for the most part.

The basic premise is the Southmarch lands border the Shadowline, a magical barrier between the lands of man (in a very broad manner) and the lands of the Q'ar, the Faerie race that once lived alongside man but was driven out ages ago when man hysterically blamed them for the onset of a plague. Now the Q'ar are ready to take their lands back. Meanwhile, to the south, a great empire under the god-king Autarch is gobbling up lands and threatening Southmarch and its fellow small countries from that direction. Southmarch is in disarray as King Eddon is being held for ransom in one of the smaller countries between the Autarch and Southmarch. His three children, Kendrick, Barrick, and Briony must deal with the political infighting among their neighbors, the human threat of the Autarch, the supernatural threat of the Q'ar streaming across the Shadowline, as well as assassination attempts, possible family madness, an inopportune offer of marriage, suspicion of all they once held close, and on the list goes. Two other major sideplots involve one of the Autarch's many brides (this plot never merges with Southmarch in this novel but clearly will eventually) and a funderling named Chert who finds a mysterious "big person" child tossed across the Shadowline by the Q'ar and adopts him.

This only covers part of the plot, so its complexity should be pretty obvious. Shadowmarch is not a fast-paced book, don't expect a lot of pitched battles or fiery oratory or major questing. It is an introductory book to a massive work and it allows all the stories and their corresponding complexities to unfold at a leisurely pace. Will some find it slow? Probably, but the stories and most of the characters are compelling enough that I don't think it ever lags. As an introductory novel, there are more questions than answers by the end, leaving the reader wanting more despite having just finished 600 or so pages.

The characters vary in their depth. There are a lot of them, some more major than others, but there are enough important ones that sometimes they get short shrift. Briony is pretty full-featured, though one wishes that as she changes due to her increasing responsibilities that Williams would have let us simply see/feel those changes rather than have Briony or others point them out to us ("she was harder... "). Barrick's story is intriguing, but his character languishes a bit, too often is given little on-page time and when he is present it's too often in whining, passive fashion. This begins to change toward the end in welcome fashion and his seems destined for much more in book two. Chert, the funderling delver, is probably the best drawn character and his side-story involving the mysterious child has many positive elements — tension, suspense, humor, sorrow, passion. It's in many ways the best of the stories. The one involving the Autarch's young new wife is less successful. Partially because it has an overly-familiar feel to it plot-wise, partially because it's so disconnected from the rest of the story though obviously that will change, partially because it's so predictable, unlike the rest of the stories. A far more successful character is the guard captain in love with Briony (he keeps this to himself for obvious reasons) who for various reasons ends up heavily involved in both the war with the Q'ar and the other more human threats. His character is richly drawn and the time Williams takes with him is well-spent.

Finally, it's always a pleasure to see Williams' view of the fairie, which tends to be much more dark and diverse than most authors. If anything, there is too little from their perspective and one hopes for more in the next novels. The language is heightened and the creativity picks up several notches in their sections.

The ending, if one can say this after 600 pages, seems a bit rush, has a bit of anti-climax to it, a bit of deus ex machina that is unexplained, but these are relatively minor flaws and the questions it leaves are much more interesting than the answers it gives.

Fans of Tad Williams' earlier work will see clear echoes and might think it pales a bit to Sorrow (or Otherworld though personally I wasn't a fan of that series and think this better). Fans of George R.R. Martin's series will note clear similarities that should be chalked up to genre rather than theft. If I had to choose, I'd say Martin's is a bit better (much more so in dealing with the political), but there isn't a huge gulf. And in comparison to much of what's out there, Shadowmarch, like Martin's, is a step (or more) above. Strongly recommended. —Bill   Comments

Shadowplay

On the surface, Volume 1 of Shadowmarch has all the makings of a fully realized epic fantasy: maps, appendix, a rich background history, excerpts (Book of Regret, The Book of the Trigon, Revelations of Nushash) to preface each chapter, a huge cast of characters, races, locales, gods, goddesses and much more to bring the world of Shadowmarch to life.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot more involved in making a great fantasy and I felt that Shadowmarch was sorely lacking in some areas. First and foremost, the overall story is clichéd, uninspiring and predictable. Sure, some plotlines are interesting to follow like Quinnitan’s arc in the kingdom of Xis or Chert’s fun adventures, not to mention the concept behind the Shadowline/Shadowlands which offers something a bit different, but for the most part Shadowmarch is a boring, overly trite affair, particularly the scenes involving the court intrigues set in Southmarch.

To make matters worse, the characters are very formulaic — for example you have royal twins, a captain of the guard who longs for something beyond his station, a physician who dabbles in the mystical and a poet among others, not counting such fantasy tropes as Funderlings (basically dwarves), Rooftoppers (tiny people), and Qar (fairy folk) just to name a few. Fortunately, some of the narratives are engaging like the aforementioned Quinnitan and Chert Blue Quartz, and to some extent Matthias Tinwright or Captain Vansen, but then you have Princess Briony and Prince Barrick who were two of the most annoying and whiny characters that I’ve read in some time. While I understand that their particular personalities are part of their nature and integral to the overall story, it doesn’t prevent them from being irritating.

Overall, Shadowmarch was a difficult read for me. While parts of it were entertaining, I had to force myself to finish the book, and by the time I had, I wasn’t sure that I was going to continue reading the series… but I did.

And thankfully Shadowplay was a much more enjoyable read for me. For starters, the second volume in the Shadowmarch trilogy improves in almost every area over its predecessor, most noticeably with a story that is much more engaging, complex and vaster in scope. Where Shadowmarch was merely a long-winded set-up piece introducing us to characters and places and establishing history and plotlines, Shadowplay is an incessant build-up of action, suspense, and drama that picks up immediately from the cliff-hanger events of Shadowmarch and continues on until its own exciting unresolved ending.

Sure, there are still fantasy clichés and foreseeable plot twists that plague the book, but not nearly to the extent that Shadowmarch suffered from. Plus, the characters this time around are much more fun to follow. Prince Barrick, though still whiny at times, has, along with Ferras Vansen, probably the most fascinating storylines in the entire book with their journeys through the Twilight Lands, which is where we really get to see Tad Williams’ imagination soar. Even Princess Briony is entertaining to read, though I felt that her arc was still probably the weakest and most hackneyed. I was disappointed that both Chert and Quinnitan played lesser roles this time around, but new viewpoints of fresh (Pelaya, Daikonas Vo) and familiar faces (Sister Utta, Pinimmon Vash) helped to offset that while developing a couple of interesting supporting characters (the imprisoned King Olin Eddon, Sulepis the Autarch of Xis). Matt Tinwright’s narrative seemed to be the most irrelevant, but every character, no matter how big or small, plays an important part in the overall story, which should come to fruition in the final chapter of Shadowmarch, Shadowrise.

Of course, no matter the improvements in story or characterization, Shadowplay would not work if not for Tad Williams’ skills as a writer. Shadowplay does a much better job of showcasing Mr. Williams’ adeptness at world-building, establishing lore, managing numerous plotlines/subplots and creating suspenseful situations for his characters.

So what started out initially as hesitancy in continuing a series that had failed to impress me, turned out to be a surprisingly fun adventure and I’m happy that I persevered to read Shadowplay. While I would never place Tad Williams’ Shadowmarch trilogy alongside the likes of George R.R. Martin or Steven Erikson, it has been a worthwhile read that I look forward to completing.
—Robert T.   Comments

Shadowrise

Shadowrise is Tad Williams' third and thus concluding novel of the Shadowmarch trilogy, begun in Shadowmarch and continued in Shadowplay. So in this final volume… wait, hold on… I’m now being told that Mr. Williams, clearly feeling a sense of fantasy author peer pressure, has decided that, yes, while this is the “concluding volume,” it has in fact been split into two (hmmm, where have I heard that before), making this trilogy, in usual fantasy fashion, four books. At least. Maybe five. Who knows?

In truth though, I’ve found the degree to which this sort of thing annoys me is in direct inverse relation to the quality of the books themselves. And I can’t say I found myself particularly upset that Williams has extended Shadowmarch another five hundred pages or so. Or, you know, another thousand.

Book one was a typical starter novel: relatively slow-paced so as to introduce character, setting, necessary background information, etc. and leaving the reader with more questions than answers. It had its issues, was a bit uneven in its treatment of character and various storylines, but I found it mostly compelling throughout and found that Williams’ characteristically sharp writing more than compensated for the few flaws and found ways to make even the hoariest of genre tropes feel relatively fresh. Shadowplay picked up the pace quite a bit, evened out the quality among the numerous storylines, and improved the readability of several of the more annoying or weak characters from Shadowmarch. And Shadowrise continues in that same strong vein.

Like the previous novels, Williams shifts point-of-view among several characters and plot lines, which are far too numerous and complex to go into at this stage of the series, save to say that narrative lines that seemed somewhat disconnected or even wholly separate are now starting to intertwine, in ways both expected and unexpected. The shifts themselves are fluid and easily followed, but more than in the others I felt a bit rushed through them at times and I found myself wishing Williams had let us spend some more time in each. Part of the reason for this, however, is that Williams is better here than in book one at offering up separate stories of equal narrative force.

Part of what I enjoyed so much in Shadowrise is the way he does this in varied fashion. We follow several characters preparing for small-scale battle (and a few actual skirmishes), another character’s lone (save for a talking bird) trek through a strange land, another character’s singular focus on escaping her captor, another’s first moves into the realm of political intrigue as well as romance and so on. Each strand is compelling and suspenseful, though the means of evoking that interest varies greatly.

While we’re still working with some of the same-old, same-old fantasy tropes (twins, delvers, strange forests, etc.) as with the others, Williams puts enough of his own stamp on things and creates such fully fleshed characters that the standard forms don’t detract from the reading experience. And they are more than offset by the segments in the twilight land where he lets his imagination run free.

I said in my review of book one that this series doesn’t match the genius of his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (it was, after all, “genius”) but is his strongest work since then and compares favorably to nearly any epic fantasy going now (with only a few exceptions). Through three books, I see no reason to change my mind. I’m looking forward eagerly to the book four, the concluding volume. Or, you know, not.
—Bill   Comments