Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #679052 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Shadowkings, Michael Cobley's impressively unpleasant first fantasy novel, takes place after the worst has happened; the invading forces of the evil Lord of Twilight have burned the tree which gave the wizards of the Khatrimantine Empire access to the roots of magic, and shattered civilisation into anarchic fragments. Things are about to get worse--the five warrior-wizards who between them carry the parts of the Lord of Twilight have rediscovered who they are and are coordinating the mopping up of the last bits of opposition. Of course, things are never that simple: demonic generals with a nasty taste in mayhem cannot be relied upon to accept personal dissolution, for one thing, and fur-clad barbarian hordes tend to want to get something out of evil in the way of land and loot rather doing evil for its own sake. And new imperial heirs with magic powers will keep turning up...

If it were not for its unrelenting bleakness, Shadowkings would be a fairly standard story of apocalyptic evil and heroic good--Cobley has a sense, however, of how bad a battlefield or a ruined town smells, and his dark magic is appropriately sinister. --Roz Kaveney

Synopsis
A dark, epic fantasy - first in a three-book series Sixteen years it has been since the dazzling Khatrimantine Empire fell to the vast hordes of the Mogaun. Sixteen years since the invaders' evil deity, the Lord of Twilight, was shattered into five hosts, five lost souls destined to become the Shadowkings. Sixteen long years since the forces of the Earthmother and the Fathertree were defeated, and the Rootpower magic itself was destroyed...But for Suviel, one of the few surviving mages, it was not a final defeat. Nor was it so for Ikarno Mazaret, Lord Commander of the Knights of the Fathertree. They and their companions face a deadly struggle against terrifying odds in their fight for freedom. Byrnak, one of the many warlords who squabble amid the Empire's ruins, discovers that he is one of the five Shadowkings and thus compelled to bring the Lord of Twilight into fleshly being. Across the battlefields and dreamscapes of the land, he is driven ever closer to this goal. Tauric is the lost heir to the Imperial throne. He must learn courage and the realities of command if he is to survive the battles that lie ahead.

These lives and uncountable others will be changed forever when the Empire's last valliant defenders take arms against ancient sorceries and new terrors. Shadowkings introduces a world both dark and fascinating from a writer who is a major voice in the future of fantasy fiction

Customer Reviews

Dark and full of atmosphere
...First things first the book from EarthLight has an impressive cover which is much in style with the contents, it is dark, moody but remarkably stylish.

Sixteen years have passed since the horrific slaughter in the Battle of the Wolfgate and the Khatrimantine Empire fell to the enemy. It's the same number of years since the evil deity, the Lord of Twilight, was shattered into five hosts, five lost souls destined to become the Shadowkings. Now the Shadowkings are compelled to return the Lord of Twilight to his fleshly being. Many lives will be changed forever as battle commences yet again and the Empire's last valiant defenders take to arms against ancient sorceries and new terrors. There is the Warlord Byrnak, who discovers he is one of the five ShadowKings, and Tauric, the lost heir to the Imperial throne. They and their companions face a deadly struggle in the fight for freedom.

This book has got what you would expect from a fantasy novel; magic, parallel worlds, action, intrigue, betrayal as well as the above stated undercurrent of what people do with their power. There are the themes of greed, jealousy, underlying sexual needs in some of the characters. The character Byrnak for example , uses his power and stature to satisfy his sexual needs, both hetro and homo. The main characters are well fleshed out and you get an insight into their motives and why their decisions are made. You also have a Gandalf like figure in Bardow, who appears to pull strings without revealing all his knowledge to his allies. There are some characters, from which you get the feeling that there's more to come - the mysterious Kodel and the young Tauric.

The 5 ShadowKings, are not your normal bad guys, they're not totally devout to the dark deity and will do anything to preserve their power and use it as they wish and not restore the Lord of Twilight to his former glory. They enjoy the power and are not willing to go to oblivion in order for the deity to surface. What follows is an intriguing power struggle between them filled with jealousy and hatred. Opposed to this non-conformism to the evil deity are the acolytes who are totally devout and work towards bringing the dark lord's rebirth to fruition.

It is the old good versus evil, but even this struggle is not conformist, the good is represented through the EarthMother, but she is vengeful and quite menacing, using people as her pawns to meet her own ends.

It is a dark and atmospheric book, sometimes you can almost feel the smell of blood, smoke and sweat. Shows alarmingly 'real' human traits that are not only found in books but everyday life, greed, lust, love and our tendencies to inflict pain upon others in order to gain what we desire.

Could power corrupt us? I would like to believe that it wouldn't but after reading this book it does pose the question. What would we do if we had a large amount of personal power and would we use it in a morally acceptable way? If you enjoy the white knight in shiny armour scenarios then this book is not for you. But if the gritty, darker fantasy appeals to you and you enjoy reading thought provoking material then go out and get your copy now. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope the next volume carries on in the same vein.

A terrific fantasy saga...
This was an especially good fantasy saga. The text and the attention to detail were very impressive and I found it a very easy read. Both dark and fascinating, this was a hard book to put down. Has definitely inspired me to check out his other works.

Dark and impressive... a new craftsman for the genre...
Mr Cobley's narrative style and attention to detail is superb; the writing fairly sparkles from the love and attention which was obviously spent on it - indeed, it's not often these days that the genre acquires a fine, new craftsman. Cobley writes with the same passion and lack of self-consciousness of early exponents of the genre such as Robert E Howard. The situations faced by his characters seem very real and very harsh indeed. The use of magic in the story is adequately restrained to make it frightening and almost believable.

A few people have commented on the unremitting darkness of this book but I would argue that, in the context of more-to-follow there must be this grim dark before the dawn! War is hell after all... I especially liked the fact that the mortals who contain the shattered soul of the Shadowking of the title, all have their own agendas and are not exactly willing sacrifices to one great plan...

Looking forward to book two...