Tad Williams -- Shadowmarch -- Review

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Shadowmarch by Tad Williams ***
First Volume of Shadowmarch
Rating: Good (three out of Five stars)

The good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly: It would seem that that is what we have before us in Tad William’s latest entry into the genre of epic fantasy, Shadowmarch. The second installment, Shadowplay, is due out sometime this year, at least as near as I have been able to gather from the various threads crafted by William’s legion of fans.

Shadowmarch, the novel itself, unfolds with a plot which is as old as the genre itself. The Kingdom has been at peace for a long period of time, but now a dark and ancient enemy stirs on its border, threatening the Kingdom with fire and sword. But the old king is being held for ransom, while the nobles, the great families of the realm, are scheming at every opportunity. Into the confusion and unfolding events steps the young, untried princess, who must hold the kingdom together despite her youth and inexperience. If this doesn’t sound familiar to you then welcome to the world of fantasy adventure, since you have obviously not been this way before. But take heart, for Tad Williams is about to breath some new life into a tired old story.

The main plotline of the story follows the formula outlined above pretty closely. I should mention that there are actually two characters here, the twins, Briony, the princess, and Barrick, the prince. But they are separated by events throughout a good part of the story. But what makes the story very good is the interesting and somewhat original subplots running through the story. But first some background on the main story itself. The enemies of the “kingdom of mortals,” or “Sunlanders,” are the Qar, the fairyfolk, an ancient “people” who are actually elves and the like, as well as an assortment of creatures that are unrecognizable to the mortals of the realm. It is also a place of dark magic. After losing the first war by the sword, the Qar resorted to magic to create a barrier of shadow between themselves and the Sunlanders. Any Sunlander who dares to cross the Shadowline becomes mad, and looses his wits, as well as losing his memory of his life before entering the land of shadows. Now, after many long years, the shadowline is moving, and as everyone can guess, the fairyfolk are on the march to even up the old score.

On the good side, there are Chert and Opal, the founderlings who find a mysterious young boy just outside the Shadowline. They take him home and attempt to adopt him as their own son, but that’s when strange things start to happen. Chert is a master builder and his people, the founderlings – essentially dwarves - have their own town in the caverns under the castle. It seems they do all the building and stonework for the “big folk.” This thread emerges into what I feel is the best part of the novel. There are lots of hidden places, full of ancient secrets which Chert must walk in an attempt to learn the secret of his foster son.

Another good thread in the story involves the Captain of the Royal Guard, Vansen. Vansen is a good man, and a good fighter, more in the mold of the classic heroic knight, who has fallen out of favor with the Royal family for reasons I won’t give away here (sorry, no spoilers here). He is desperate to get himself out of the royal doghouse, especially since he carries a secret and burning love for the princess, Briony. This is the thread with the most action and Vansen is a pretty well-crafted character. It should be noted that Williams is a pretty good word smith, and he is able to breathe plenty of life into his best characters and scenes.

On the Qar side, there is mostly the Lady Porcupine. Yasammez, her real name, is the woman warrior who leads the Fairyfolk, and carries a sword of white flame. Her only mission in life seems to be getting revenge on the mortals, and she is determined to bring down the Kingdom in as much blood and fire as she can muster from her followers.

Then there is a strange thread with a character named Qinnintan. This thread takes place in the land of Xis, far to the south of the March Kingdoms. Qinnintan is one of the Sisters of the Hive and a commoner who is chosen by the ruler of Xis to become one of his queens; yes, he has a palace full of them, since he is supposed to be “god on earth.” What this has to do with the main plot of the story one can only guess at this point, since Williams never ties this thread into the main plot of the story.

There is also a thread with a Court poet, Matty Tinwright. Again, the thread is OK, but, much like the Xis thread, it doesn’t really go anywhere. And that’s one of the aspects on the not-so-good side of this story: Pacing. For the most part, much of this book feels as if Williams is merely setting the stage for his later books. And much of this story unfolds at a very slow pace, despite the constant shifting around among its manifold plot threads. There are lots of uninteresting scenes that have almost nothing to do with the main thrust of the narrative sprinkled throughout the book, which are mostly annoying. And the story seems disjointed at times since there is not a whole lot of cohesion between most the plot threads.

But let’s turn from the ugly to the beautiful: The Princess Briony is the overwrought young woman who must hold the realm together, and she is the main character of the story. As a character though, she is somewhat overworked by Williams, often moving between the sympathetic and the annoying. We know way more than we need to about her inner turmoil, for she suspects everyone of being a traitor. Paranoid, is the best word to describe her emotional state throughout most of the book. She constantly imagines that everyone in the castle is whispering and spreading “rumors” about her. Also, she often dresses like a man to prove that she can be “as tough as a man.” Then, when others notice, she flies into a rage, sulking about how hard it is to be a woman in a “man’s world,” and all this despite her masculine wardrobe. After her brother leaves the castle, she wears his clothes to the courtly functions. Of course, when people notice her brother’s clothes on her she flies into another fit of rage. But there are some good moments with Briony, especially at the beginning and near the end of the novel that helps to make her a bit more endearing.

Shadowmarch is not an easy book to recommend, despite some good things, since much of this story is unfinished. Did I also mention that the story just leaves off, without much of a climax, or resolution to any of the threads? Williams just sort of drops you off in the middle of nowhere, figuring he’d be back in two years to pick you back up again where he left off. My advice is to wait for the second book to be released before starting this one. There is not enough resolution here, despite well over 600 pages of better than average, but disjointed story, to make it all worthwhile at this point. As mentioned earlier, a lot of this book feels like ground work for a much larger story. And one gets the feeling, that taken with the second book, this will be a much better read.

[ January 26, 2006, 03:12: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

Oops. I bought the book yesterday. I think I mixed it up with "war of the flowers". Anyway, I developed doubts as I started to read it yesterday and it occured to me that it's a part of a trilogy that has not been written yet. If I had known, I would have heeded your advice to wait until at least the second book would be finished before starting a journey into unresolved matters that end brusquely. But I conclude from the sheer volume of and the time you put into your review that you suspect the whole story to be full of potential. Even if this potential may only be seen in about 2 years from now. If.

So much to spontaneous buying-decisions. I have appreciated your review greatly and the great summary of the threats and the main characters may be very useful to me to fall back on, as I fear I will read that book only sluggishly. Great work.

 

Thanks for the review Chandos, sorry for pestering you about it a while back

I'll wait for all 3 to be released before I pick it up I guess.

 

Your plot synopsis makes me think 'Urgh' - and if I didn't dislike Tad Williams already, I certainly wouldn't have bought it based on that.

Plots like that you see on the blurbs of books in bargain bins - and usually I just put them right back where they came from.

Good review

 

It makes me wonder if this is anything like Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.

I think Tad Williams is a great writer - however...

Williams does a great job of setting a world, building characters and developing a strong and compelling plotline. He then proceeds to write literally 1000's of pages in a series making you want to pull your hair out waiting for something monumental to happen. I read Memory Sorrow and Thorn and while I'm glad I did - I had to put it down for about 6 months due to its ponderous bloat.

Right behind Martin though, Williams is my favorite author.