This book puts all of Tad Williams strengths and weaknesses on display. Whether the strengths or weaknesses dominate is a matter of personal taste I suppose. As for me, I enjoy his work, but his weaknesses definitely detract from that enjoyment.

First off, the strengths. As a fantasist (by which I mean creativity, ideas, inspiration and the use of pre-existing concepts - in a fantasy setting) and a world-builder, Tad Williams is very good. Perhaps the best we've got right now. None of the other n More...

This is epic fantasy at it's absolute best, but I should also warn you: it is DARK. So if you're not a huge fan of dark epic fantasy, this might not be for you. If you don't mind a little dark, though, I really can't see how you will be disappointed.

What I Have to Say:
Lately, I have been rediscovering epic fantasy, and I don't know how, but I seem to pick only the most amazing books with which to rediscover it. Because that is exactly what Shadowmarch is. Amazing. Tad Williams has constructed a More...

The middle of the book is intriguing. The first and last quarters are not that great. I don't really like any of the characters; I think Tad's verisimilitude lapses get worse as the book goes on, the bit about Yasammez and the mirror in particular; there is no reason for Quinnitan to be in this book at all; and she contributes to the choppy, nauseating flipping between viewpoints. Worst of all, as the last half of the book grinds on you realize that Tad is NOT going to give you all, or even any, More...

Making the lead book in a huge fantasy series as relentlessly scene-setting as "Shadowmarch" is quite a risk. Most people will give Tad Williams a pass because his previous fantasy series, "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" was so astonishingly great (and I do mean all-time great). "Shadowmarch" is good, but there is considerable spinning of wheels as the various plot vehicles generally refuse to reveal themselves completely even while lumbering slowly toward what one imagines is a wonderful destination More...

I liked “Shadowmarch”, but I wasn’t crazy about it.

Here’s why it earned the three stars: (1) Williams writes beautifully and descriptively. I love when he described a full moon as the top of a skull looming in the sky. He really knows how to place the reader in a setting. (2) Williams is astonishingly creative. I thought the whole concept of the Shadowline has great. (3) His opening storyline with the Qar returning a mysterious boy back to the humans for some unknown yet war-sparking reason rea More...

With the return of bestselling author comes a transcendent, spectacular new trilogy that is ambitious and breathtaking!!

After a decade Tad Williams returns with a new trilogy that takes the fantasy genre to new heights, with the most ambitious and impressive work that I have encountered this year. Unlike ‘the memory, sorrow and thorn’ series Shadowmarch is totally original, unique and set within a distinctive world that is on one hand so far removed from his other works but which contains just More...

Shadowmarch is definitely the first book in a tetrology, not the first book in a series. The ending is, if not quite a cliffhanger, certainly not a resolution to any of the many plots. Quinnitan, using Jeddin's plan, has escaped the Seclusion, but Jeddin has apparently been tortured and is likely dead, and she is on a boat headed toward ?. Kendrick's real murderer has been discovered and the perpatrator is dead, but not those responsible for it. King Olin is probably still a prisoner--if he stil More...

Shadow March by Tad Williams

Once again Tad Williams has crafted a new world. The book chronicles the clash between Fae and Mortal as well as the machinations of a China like empire. This book has a bit of the flavor of the last Williams book I read, The War of the Flowers.

The complexity of Williams world crafting is just amazing. He provides detail and then he provides details on the detail. Sometimes I bog down but mostly I revel in his carefully crafted characters and environment.

Williams wr More...

I had a couple of false starts on this book - until this latest time, I hadn't gotten past the first five chapters. I'm not actually sure why, I think possibly I was just reading some more captivating books at the time and Williams' books are nearly inevitably slow-burners.

As always I find myself drawn to the mysteries and history of the world to which we've been introduced. The Qar seem like a fairly typical faerie folk, but the Shadowlands definitely pique my interest, as do the "Mysteries" b More...

the online Shadowmarch project was an amazing idea: Tad Williams originally pitched this world and storyline for a tv show, but it wasn't picked up by a network, and ultimately he decided to do it as an online serial book, with a fan community to revel in world creation along with him and perhaps influence the story by their speculation and combined creativity. i'm sorry to have missed it, i only found about it once it was winding down(2002) so i can't compare. but still i picked up this book wi More...

I've never really made up my mind about Tad Williams. One hand he's obviously very gifted, but on the other he embodies the lack of careful editing that could actually turn science fiction or fantasy into respectable literature. Yes, I know fantasy doesn't sell as well unless it is over 800 pages. But still..

The story is told from a multitude of characters which are well portrayed, if a little flat. It becomes fairly easy to figure out what, say, Princes Briony will say or think at any given mom More...

I had high hopes for this book, after reading and liking The Dragonbone Chair series by the same author. Unfortunately, this book suffered from distracting disconnect and fragmentary storytelling. The book constantly switched between plotlines and characters, often multiple times in a single chapter. Just as I'd start to 'get into' a story I'd find the point of view switched to another character, or another country entirely! Then when I was interested in that story, it would be switched again. I More...

Tad Williams's first novel "Tailchaser's Song" was the first book I was ever sent to review (for the defunct Fantasy Review, back in the mid-'80s) and I was so lucky; it was such a great book! Then I discovered he was writing another book, a trilogy! called "Sorrow, Memory, and Thorn" (I think that's the right order), which was also a great book, even greater because it went on for hundreds and hundreds of pages! The 4-book "Outland" series I had to drop during the first book, because it just go More...

I really enjoyed Williams' Otherland series, so I thought I'd give one of his fantasy works a read. I have to be honest - it took me a little while to really get into the book. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but I feel like I really didn't identify with or really care about the main characters until later on in the book. Once the story got settled and moving, I became more emotionally connected to the characters even though they still came across as a little one-dimensional.

To my surprise, I More...

This book's quality varies throughout the story, therefore I will seperate the review into different parts. Don't worry, there shall be no spoilers:

Beginning: 2/5: The start of the book is awe-inspiring; that is, I've never read a book that made me want to sleep as much as the START of this book. (Even David Copperfield couldn't achieve such an award.) The beginning was a formula I've read many times before. {Insert backstory}, {Introduce characters}, {Murder commences, characters can trust no o More...

So, let me start by saying that I've been looking for a modern fantasy novel with adventure, excitement, magic, quests, and very little politics. It's harder than you might expect. With the success of GRRM's Song of Ice and Fire, most modern fantasy has become extremely gritty and political, with very little magic and adventure. I turned to Tad Williams because he's written books like the ones I'm looking for, and actually knows how to start and finish a book series (so I could have a starting p More...

Another library book...straight to the head of the "currently reading" list.

This is the first book/series by Mr. Williams I've read since his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy ( The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, and To Green Angel Tower ) which I liked very much. I have his Otherland books on my shelves but haven't gotten to them...long term "to be reads". I truly hope that they are better than this series.

About chapter 5 it became apparent to me I wasn't going to be able to ingest enough More...

I rarely enjoy epic fantasy in general. I do not like books that open with a history of the kingdom and a lineage of every main character. I also do not enjoy detailed descriptions of what river is north of what mountain and where the castle is situated in the kingdom. I'd prefer to jump right in with the characters and have those details revealed as needed, hence my dislike for epic fantasy. Shadowmarch is generally slow paced and detail oriented. Not much really happens in this book if you rea More...

royalty, funderlings, roof toppers, mystery and magic... ah, yes. looking for a simple and steady ride into a new world of fantasy? here's your next book. steer clear of the shadow line though!

ok, look... it's the slow sort of read that takes you through the thing at a walkers pace. but it's a worthy read that doesn't steer much from the purpose of the plot. keeps your interest, keeps you coming back to continue to trudge through page by page. it's not a novel that kept me up all night reading b More...

First of all, I hate when authors write with "you"-perspective. "You travel across the land and notice its blue waters and chrystal clear waters" etc. No, I don't, you can't make me! So I was reading the beginning of the book with gritted teeth, determined to at least get past the couple first chapters. Luckily the point of view changed.

It was quite a job to get the book read. There were so many people in so many different places and too much of nothing important. It just kept going on and on an More...

The Faeries, The Fey Folk, The Sidhe, call them what you will - Tad Williams calls them Qar - they are an enduring and ever present part of North West European Culture. Long after the famous photographs of the Cottingley Faeries were revealed as a hoax, The Faerie Folk continue to arouse our fascination and amusement. Not that Williams faeries are anything like the romantic winged pixies of Victorian imagination. It is to the dark, wild and unpredictable denizens of the Celtic Otherworld, that W More...

In the world of Shadowmarch humans and the supernatural Qar have lived in a sort of tense stalemate. Humans continue to thrive in the sunshine lands of the south while the Qar hold their own in the eternal twilight of the northern lands. These territories are fiercely protected by a the Qar's magical fence, which is known only as the Shadowline. Shadowmarch is the northernmost of the Human lands, and is the closest to the Qar. The Eddons have ruled peaceably in Southmarch for generations. Peace More...

I'm going to review the 1st and 2nd book in these series together (still trying to find the third in the masses of books in the house).

I'm in a list-y mood so lets start with...

Things I did NOT like:

1. The way in which he addressed the reader in the beginning, trying to capture our attention and draw us into the fantasy world of Southmarch. I just don't dig it.

2. Prince Barrick, with a caveat. His character is so complex (which is a good thing) that even into the 2nd book I still don't feel qu More...

Didn't finish. Got about a fifth of the way in and got tired of reading about all kinds of details but not having the story go anywhere. Skipped to end, and discovered that after six hundred some pages, nothing much more happened. Though I imagine there were lots of details.

Having already sacrificed several rainforests' worth of paper to his previous fantasy epics, this time Tad Williams churns out a rather disappointing fantasy-by-numbers tome. In a world of men, elves and dwarfs (thinly veiled as "faeries" and "funderlings"), set in a grim castle on the northern borderlands, Shadowmarch is essentially a cheap knock-off of George R R Martin's Game of Thrones, complete with murders, intrigues and multiple character viewpoints.

If you enjoy run-of-the-mill high fanta More...

Williams has crafted a very complex fantasy, filled with court intrigue, mysterious and deadly magics, and well conceived characters. This first book sets up the kingdom of Shadowmarch and its conflicts with its neghbouring powers: Xis, Hierosol, and the lands beyond the Shadowline. There are plenty of things to appeal to a fantasy lover in this series: the murder of a crown prince, a power hungry emperor bent on world domination, a warrior pining for a woman he can never have, and the powers of More...

It's nice to have one of the true masters back in the genre. Williams' Memory Sorrow and Thorn series is an all time top five fantasy series, but since then he has written standalone works or sci fi. Although he tries, in some ways, to emulate George RR Martin by giving us a lot of different perspectives, at heart Williams is still a fantasy purist who works more in the traditional parameters of the genre. The book plods occasionally, and some of the storylines feel like they are going nowhere, More...

I've read other books by Tad williams that I liked more, so I expected more from this book and now I'm a little disappointed. The story just failed to grip me fully. It's just too 'ordinary' to me. Maybe it isn't the book's fault, maybe it's me. I have found myself preferring urban fantasy and other 'different' fantasy, in the past couple of years.

None of the characters are really likable. I can't identify with or fall in love with anyone. The only character I sort of like is the young Captain More...

It felt wonderful reading Tad Williams again after such a long time! Already after the first few pages I was hooked to this world and its characters. As it is Williams' style, he is very detailed without being overly descriptive, his characters are marked carefully, each with a real personality, and we dig slowly into this world, learning more and more during this first book of the Shadow March series. We have some foreshadowing, which reminds me stylewise of G.R.R. Martin's "A song of Ice and F More...

To make a long story short, this book will require much of your time but give you little in return for it. It felt like being 3 times longer than other books but with only 1/3 of the story, the size is simply not justified.

What I liked about this book was mostly the setup of the story, which is an ancient barrier separating the northern countries from the non-human race Qar. It is soon discovered that the barrier is broken and a new war awaits.

There are several things I didn't like about the boo More...