Started: December 13, 2010
Completed: May 21, 2011
Recommendation: Who could read this review and think that I would not highly recommend this book?
Recommended by: I'm a Tad Williams junkie. I found the copy of this book in South Carolina after I had checked and my "to read" pile was over 6 feet of books. I swore, when I realized how much I had to read, that I wouldn't be buying more books. Well, I bought this one. And moved it to the top of the pile.
Words I looked up:
chirurgeon -- a surgeon usually in charge of first aid.
pentecount -- this is a made-up word, but probably means group of 50.
Review:
Wonderful, staggering, annoyingly not finished! Throughout most of Shadowmarch the introduction of the various characters occurred. A few more were introduced in Shadowplay. Still the interaction of these characters is, for the most part, as ships passing in the night. With deft touches the author mixes melodrama with high drama, the believable and the unbelievable, even a trip through a variant on Hades! Consistently able to build a world of complex interaction, this series will undoubtedly lead to fascinating interactions. How can I not yearn to read the next book? I'm hopelessly connected to fictitious characters who loom large and small in their own stages and minds. How many more times can Tad Williams bring major characters within a knife edge of death without actually killing them? The few times that he has done so have been shocking and made the rest of the close encounters seem much more "real." This master story-teller never ceases to drag me into an impossible universe with implausible characters who are viciously (and occasionally heart-stoppingly) real.
