Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #271816 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages

Customer Reviews

Remoulded the Genre
Grand claims are often made by a publisher about how original and exciting their new book is. This was justified in the case of Shadow. The book isn't dark or erie. The book is quite simple really, about a man who has amnesia and you piece his former life together.

Theres no magic or elves it's more like an alternate past. The raiders are similiar to the vikings in some ways. The book builds well enough for part 2 of the triology. But after that it's all downhill. Book two is slow and adds little to the plot, except for a few pages really. Book three jams the rest of the plot in the last few pages. This was really annoying and disapointing.

This book deserves four stars anyways I did enjoy it, it was a change from the usual fantasy fare. It did remould the genre but it threw the mould and the cast away. Had I realised the other books were not worth reading I would have given it a miss.

Dangermash approves
Outstanding stuff.

I'm getting towards the end of Book 2 (Pattern) at the moment and thought now was a good time to give my thoughts on Shadow.

It's impossible to quantify the scope of the plot in Shadow simply because I still don't know what the plot is. OK I've followed the adventures of Poldarn for a while now but there's something else going on that I'm not yet sure of, although I'm starting to get some ideas.

It's a bit like Agatha Christie in some respects. A mystery, littered with clues and red herrings. During the first book I was wishing I was a single man again, able to sit in the back garden on a Sunday and read through the whole book in one sitting (OK maybe two for one this thick). Because there's so much information thrown at you in such a confused manner that it's hard to take it all in. Mind you, you do end up in the same situation as Poldarn does, having lots of "I'm sure I'm supposed to already know something about this" sort of way.

For anybody enjoying the first book but feeling buried under information, I can tell you that the second is more relaxing. We are told at the end of the first book who Poldarn is (although I'm still suspicious) so the second is more about character development, and about filling in some of the memory lapses. And the feeling of deja vu still keeps coming back.

It's just such a nice change to have a fantasy book with some real mystery to it.

implausible, inconsistent and sluggish.
What is the fuss over this at best mediocre book?
First we have a God ina cart (yes, a GOD, in a CART) then we have a monastery of invincible fighting monks who run a "James Bond" type of spy and assassin network, followed by an even more invincible group calling themselves "Raiders", who use funny swords and can apparently outrun a horse without working up a sweat.
The hero of the piece never actually manages to get anyone to tell him who he is before that person is killed. Why doesn`t he just ask???
Altogether a slow moving book. It appears the author came up with a reasonable idea and either made up things as he went along or had a vague plan and crowbarred evrything int that plan.
The bay mentioned in the book must be big enough to hold a country the size of France or the empire must be a tiny one!