SHADOWRISE by Tad Williams – The rural kingdom of Southmarch has the distinction of being the last stronghold before the Shadowline, the demarcation between human civilization and the alien fairies known as the Qar. The Shadowline was raised by the retreating Qar at the end of their last war with the humans. But it has moved forward, and with it an invading Qar army, to lay seige to a Southmarch in upheaval.
SHADOWRISE is the third book in best-selling author Tad Williams’ “Shadowmarch” series. Originally billed as the end of a trilogy, the manuscript grew too large to be published as a single volume. (Readers of Williams’ TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER will not be surprised. That book was so large that the mass market paperback had to be published in two volumes.)
The king of Southmarch is held hostage in the south by the god-king of the Xixian Empire. His elder son is assassinated, his younger son lost behind the shadowline, and his daughter fled a usurpation by their cousins who covet the throne. All this and a large cast of supporting characters move through the pages of SHADOWRISE, tying together the various plot threads that were established in SHADOWMARCH and then frayed in SHADOWPLAY, the first and second books of the series.
Much like the other masters of the epic fantasy genre, Williams has a large ensemble of characters to explore his massive and richly detailed world. At times it may seem frustrating, focusing on otherwise inconsequential characters (we’re talking about you, Matt Tinwright) until their personal stories criss-cross with other characters and the overall story becomes a little clearer. The true majesty of the book is in its setting. The world is incredibly detailed with evolved social structures that appear more like the result of a twenty-year D&D campaign rather than the imagination of an author over the course of the past decade. Take a single creation story and evolve it through four different cultures over centuries of history and ritual and then see how those cultures abut one another because of their changed beliefs. This is the thesis of the Shadowmarch series and SHADOWRISE brings into focus the origins of those cultures. Just in time for the world to end.
The book is large, and its level of detail slows the pace at times. Some characters, like the aforementioned Matt Tinwright, delay the chapters of more appealing characters, but in the end, contribute to the world and its majesty. The slow pace was more evident in SHADOWPLAY where some chapters felt intentionally repetitious in an effort to match chronology of character actions so they could arrive simultaneously at the climactic event. Not so in SHADOWRISE. Everything moves along steadily without treading water. With so many characters, though, that pace can feel slow. Regardless, SHADOWRISE is a wonderfully crafted offering by one of fantasy’s luminary authors and should not be missed (more so because Tad has claimed that this will be his last epic fantasy–we certainly hope that’s just exhaustion talking).
The book offers a summary of the previous two books in its forward, but even that cannot prepare a new reader to the level of detail and number of characters offered. It is recommended that new readers begin with SHADOWMARCH and proceed through the entire series. It is certainly worth the reading.
SHADOWRISE by Tad Williams is on sale at your local booksellers today.