Shadowrise review

by Tad Williams

Shadowrise is book three of Williams' Shadowmarch series. It was supposed to be the final volume, but they had to split the last book into two. As Williams says in the Author's Note, "And I swear that one of these days I will learn how to write a last volume that doesn't need its own zip code."

Anyhoo, Shadowmarch is a fantasy epic about a war between the humans and the fairies (who call themselves Qar). The Qar attack the kingdom of Shadowmarch, but none of the humans know why. At the same time, a traitorous noble of the kingdom usurps the throne of Southmarch and the Empire of Xis invades the kingdoms to the south of the march kingdoms. And all of those actions have their roots in the war of the gods. Everyone knows of the war of the gods, but the details of what exactly happened and why differ greatly among the various peoples.

By book three Barrick Eddon, one of the true heirs to the throne of Southmarch is deep into the Qar lands, behind the Shadowline. He's under a compulsion from Yasammez, known as Lady Porcupine, to go to the king of the Qar. He's also carrying a small mirror mysteriously called the Pact of the Glass that was given to him by Gyir the Storm Lantern, another Qar, to the king. Briony Eddon, Barrick's twin sister, has arrived at the court of a neighboring kingdom in search of aid. She fled Southmarch after the usurpation of the throne and the belief that her brother has died. Ferras Vansen, captain of the Southmarch royal guard and former companion of Barrick, has returned to the Funderling (a dwarf-like race) town beneath Southmarch castle.

Shadowrise recounts the siege of Southmarch by the Qar and the role of the Funderlings play in the siege and in the greater goings on between the Qar and the mortals. It also follows Barrick's journey through the Qar's land to the king and Briony's travails at a foreign court. At the same time, we learn much about the war of the gods and how various peoples' view of that war affects their outlook of the world. 

Once again, Tad Williams creates an intricate world filled with interesting characters. He puts a lot of detail into his worlds, and they really come alive in the pages of the books. The character development is very good. He makes you love, hate, or pity nearly every character in the book. He also delivers an intricate plot with plenty of twists and turns. Just when you think things are on a straight path towards a resolution of a sub-plot, there's either a new twist or something that seemed at first to be a minor detail is shown to be much more important.

Shadowrise is an excellent installment in this fantasy series. I truly enjoyed every page. The only problem is that the previous volume came out two years ago, so in some cases the intricate details of the story had been banished from my memory. That caused a bit of confusion while reading. Well, Shadowheart should be out in a few months, so hopefully I won't experience the same confusion in parts of the final volume.


/ [Viking]

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