Shadowheart

All in all I'm pretty disappointed in this series. It's just too damn long. Tad always writes long winded, but I can usually justify it but this series should be half as long. I thought the first 2 books were really good and I was very interested but I think Tad decided to change the path of the plot to differentiate this series from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn but I hated it. I give this series as a whole 3 stars

The concluding volume in the Shadowmarch series is right up there with the previous books, however, I didn't find the finish quite as satisfying as I'd hoped. I still enjoyed the journey, don't get me wrong, but I was hoping for more resolutions and less left up in the air with so many characters. The world Tad Williams created is still the best part of this series. From the dwarf-like Funderlings to the Rooftoppers to the pantheon of gods and goddesses, the series is filled with amazing creatures and creations and chock full of the fantastic - something I really enjoy in Tad Williams writing. All of these creatures and people coming together in the end is probably the most satisfying thing in this final volume, but the completion of it all left a bit to be desired. I was really hoping for certainty in the futures of the characters we've followed through four books, and I felt like didn't happen. Briony and Barrick's futures seem just as uncertain as they were when the whole thing started. In this case the journey is actually better than the destination. I still enjoyed the series over all and think that Tad Williams is very underrated fantasy author, there are a lot of gems to enjoy in this series and it is worth checking out.

Maybe it's because I came to Shadowheart directly from its dull predecessor, [b:Shadowrise 6661489 Shadowrise (Shadowmarch, #3) Tad Williams http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275672505s/6661489.jpg 6856262], but I found this book slow to start. Happily, after a hundred or so pages, the pace picks up as things start happening. Sadly, it bogs down again in the last hundred pages.Williams brings together a lot of the loose ends in this book, in a moderately satisfying way. However, there is also frustration - for example when Chert Blue Quartz comes up with a bright idea to save the day, but we aren't told what it is. Since the idea is a fairly obvious one, it quickly becomes irritating to have the text dance constantly around it - for hundreds of pages. Williams does make some interesting choices with Barrick, but much of the ending is fairly predictable. As Williams' first series drew heavily on Tolkien-style epics, the end of this series draws on Greek mythology, with a little Christianity thrown in. To my mind, it added little but complication. There's a lot to be done with surprise and disappointment about the nature of the gods, but Williams, after approaching the idea, backs away.Much more disappointing was the treatment of the Qar. After being fairly flat in [b:Shadowmarch 28694 Shadowmarch (Shadowmarch, #1) Tad Williams http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1290856030s/28694.jpg 832564] and [b:Shadowplay 28687 Shadowplay (Shadowmarch, #2) Tad Williams http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1348023538s/28687.jpg 1003656], the Qar finally made a genuine showing in [b:Shadowrise 6661489 Shadowrise (Shadowmarch, #3) Tad Williams http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1275672505s/6661489.jpg 6856262]. I had great hopes for them in Shadowheart. Williams set them up as a great tragic race, had me just waiting to have my heart broken, ... and then sort of wandered on to other things. He created a great opportunity and then made the least of it. I wish I could say that he simply implied the tragedy with some subtlety, but I don't think that's it, or if it is, it didn't work.I give the book three stars because the action is much improved from book 3, and because of the potential of the Qar. Nonetheless, I continue to think that had books 3 and 4 our been condensed into one, the series as a whole would have been much stronger. Overall, the series comes out decent, but because of the slow finish (in books 3 and 4, and the end of book 4), it's hard to recommend. I'd say stick with [b:Otherland 28695 City of Golden Shadow (Otherland, #1) Tad Williams http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1329075235s/28695.jpg 1570074] and go no further.

The payoff is worth it! The first book was one of my least favorite fantasy books ever. The next three books made up for it. The series taken as a whole is a great read.