Shadowmarch

Tad Williams is a master of giving the reader exactly what they want in a book, no more and no less. There is action, developed characters, a strong plot, intrigue and most of all entertainment.

This was exactly the kind of book I wanted to read, exactly when I wanted to read it. It's the type of book that transports you to a different world, and then disappears from your thoughts when you aren't reading it.

It's certainly not going to stick with me months down the road, and it's no Lord of the Rings by any stretch of the imagination (although there is a large portion of the book devoted to a short semi-human walking and walking), but it is an entertaining read.

One thing this book made clear however, was my exact problem with Warbreaker. This book took me a couple of weeks to read, and Warbreaker took me only a few days. Yet I enjoyed this one a great deal more. I couldn't figure it out at first because Shadowmarch wasn't really that much better.

The writing in Shadowmarch is, in my opinion, better and I cared about the characters more. I certainly felt, for instance, that Briony was a fully realized female protagonist (as compared to say Vivenna). But it wasn't that much better. And it certainly didn't read as quickly (which goes back to Sanderson's greatest strength, writing action sequences).

So again, I wasn't clear on what was making me enjoy Shadowmarch so much more, until about the third scene from "Lady Porcupine's" point of view (okay a tangent here, but come on Tad, can't you come up with a better name than that? She's supposed to be born for war, how is a porcupine terrifying?). Yasammez, who for those who haven't read the book is the same character, an evil elf princess type who is totally badass ( hm.. I guess lady porcupine is not that bad) is a great villain. She's a perfect foil to Briony and Barrick: where they are young, innocent forces for change, she is the embodiment of an ancient and simmering desire for revenge.

For me, at least, epic fantasy needs this kind of good and evil tension to be epic. You need the crazed god king (another antagonist in this novel) and the badass elf princess consumed with revenge to balance out the noble protagonists. Warbreaker spends 490 pages building up the cultural excesses of one culture (the Hallandren), and then boom, the Phan Khal turn out to be the bad guys. It was a total let down. I didn't buy these guys as bad guys as nefarious evil masterminds, and hell they didn't even buy themselves as such either. I mean what is epic about a bunch of crony old men and servants tricking two countries into war?

Epic is the fantasy equivalent of pre-medieval England being pinned between a crazy god-emperor and a magic wielding army of evil elves.

This is not a fantastic book, but it is a totally satisfying book. I will certainly sign on for the next installment, and probably the third as well, and I would suggest it to anyone looking to waste a week in guilty pleasure reading. C+.