Shadowmarch

Shadowmarch, Volume I

By: Tad Williams

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 29 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

For generations the misty Shadowline has marked the boundary between the lands of men and the lost northern lands that are the lair of their inhuman enemies, the ageless Qar. But now that boundary line is moving outward, threatening to engulf the northernmost land in which humans still live - the kingdom of Southmarch.

For centuries, the Eddon family has ruled in ancient, forbidding Southmarch Castle, guarding the border against the Qar's return, but now this powerful royal line has been dealt a devastating blow. The monarch, King Olin, is being held captive in a distant land, and it falls to his inexperienced heirs to lead their people in a time of growing danger and dread.

It is on the two youngest Eddons that the heaviest burdens fall. The twins Barrick and Briony, who in such evil times have only each other, may lose even that bond as darkness closes over them. As the Qar’s power reaches out across their land, will Southmarch Castle, the only home they’ve ever known, become in fact what it has long been called - Shadowmarch?

©2006 Tad Williams (P)2010 Brilliance Audio

Might be good, but for distracting narration

While this story might end up being great, I'll never know as I could not get past the first few minutes of the painful and distracting narration. The narrator's (Dick Hill) style of over-acting and slow reading, coupled with his seeming inability to pronounce the letter "a," prevents the listener from falling seamlessly into, and enjoying, the story. Narration should be transparent (as with so many of the other books that Audible offers), not distract from the story. I will try to find another book to listen to, one with a different narrator???

Bad!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Not so many different things going on at the same time.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Terrible for this. Should be reading Shakespear, and only have one part! Unable to vary his voice for the different characters.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

No.

Any additional comments?

@nd one didn't get any better!

Disliked narrator

Having non-native English skills, it is important for me (at least until I have more listening training) that the narrator reads clearly. To me, tha narrator mumbles, making me have to concentrate a lot just to understand the words. The story itself more or less escapes me.

As for the story, I found the similarity between the shadow line and the boundary in Goodkind's Sword of Truth a bit unsettling. I'm also uncertain of whether I find the characters to my liking.

In any case, due to the narrator I stopped listening before the 2 hour mark. I still may read it though.

Unremarkable!

I gave this book a try even though I read many reviews before I bought the whole series. The first book had no direction and I found it hard to follow the story. The last 2 - 3 hours showed some promise. In short I regret getting this series. I will be very careful in the future before getting an entire series at one time.

By Far, NOT Williams' Best

I love Tad Williams. His Otherland series is one of my top three series. This series, however, is dreadfully slow. I've tried to get through it twice and keep listening to another book instead. I've finally restarted it with the goal of perservering and finishing the thing. Its a long slog through slow plot, whiny characters and annoying writing. I have always thought Williams to be an excellent writer, but the writing in this book is bad to the point of distraction. The characters are unbelievable, cardboard and just plan annoying. They are whiny and pretulant, and the reader adds to the whiny quality in the dialogue by reading all of them (especially the females) in nasal tones that drive me crazy! To top it off, I just finished reading G.R.R.Martin's Song of Fire and Ice books, and honestly, sadly, this latest series from Williams seems a rip off of that series, The plot, characters and all are very similar in too many ways, but its a shallow, hallow shell of a reproduction. I love Song of Fire and Ice as well, so if it had been a better representation, I'd have been happy to read it. I pray the next book in this series is better, because I bought it as well.

Completely Incomprehensible

I've been an Audible member since 2005 and have listened to over 120 books. Some good, some bad, but I finished all of them. This is the first time I've started a book I won't finish. I've listened to the first chapter twice and still kept scanning back on the second attempt. I finally gave up after chapter three. Maybe the story would be good if I could follow it. It's just not worth the aggravation of listening to each chapter over and over until it sinks in. Maybe it's just me, but I'll skip this one.

My apology to the author, but I truly did find the whole thing confounding.

pass the chocolates...

Will the princess' maidenhead be put up for auction? Will the brave black foreigner be betrayed regardless of heroic actions? What about the lame prince who SEEs everything? or... Guess what. It's another soap opera with fantasy trappings. Or, forgive me ....I only gave it 5 hours and gave up. I am SO tired of the lame purporting of "real" people (the kind you can find on any TV station)... you know the "real" kind who are not sterotypical AT ALL...and who dress up the fantasy background.

Anyway. If you like this kind of thing...then you will be REAL HAPPY as it is well written. Not my particuplar cup o' tea however. I pass.

It's the characters, stupid!

I'm a Tad Williams fan so I came into this series expecting to really like it but I found myself struggling to finish off the series. It's interesting to note that the idea for the Shadowmarch series started off as a pitch for a television series. In television, more than just about any other medium, the characters really matter. That's why a series like "Mad Men" -- which on the surface sounds boring as hell -- I mean who cares about the goings on at an ad agency, that sounds too much like plain old daily life, right? But that show is captivating because of the strength of its characters.

Well, Southmarch has the opposite problem -- it has a fascinating premise and an interesting setting -- but it's filled with characters that are just very hard to care about. The two main characters just never stop whining. They aren't proactive in their situations, and worst of all, they lag far, far behind the reader in figuring out important plot elements. That creates the worst kind of boring situation for a reader, when they have long figured out what's going to happen and they're just turning pages, waiting for the main characters to catch up with them.

If you loved the characters it wouldn't matter if the ponderous wheels of the plot took their time to grind along familiar paths, you'd be along for the ride, cheering for the characters. But these characters are so annoying that it makes those grinding plot wheels seem so agonizingly slow.

If it wasn't for the storyline with the dwarf-like Funderlings I would never have been able to get through these books.

There is one saving grace to the series and that is the performance by Dick Hill. That guy is amazing! The variety of unique-sounding voices he can come up with is just astonishing. I especially loved his performances of Skarne, the raven, the many Funderlings, and Sulepis the Autarch. I will definitely look for Mr. Hill's other work.

Oh, and one last thing... thanks to this series I have a new pet peeve: starting off a chapter with a quote from *any* source. I've really become sick of that practice that seems so common in fantasy literature.

I can't recommend these books to other fans of fantasy -- but don't let this review turn you off of Tad Williams' work completely -- he's got some great stuff out there. Check out the "Memory, Sorrow, Thorn," or "Otherland" series. Or if you're into supernatural gumshoe type tales, definitely check out his Bobby Dollar books, starting with "The Dirty Streets of Heaven."

Till next time....

Not for me, but maybe for you

Their was to much of a political element for me. If your into A Song of Ice and Fire series this maybe a good series to read on the side. The story started to open up and be more of what you expect from an epic fantasy novel, but for me it was a little to late to save the story. With this said the end of the book showed some promise that this could be a good series yet and I will be giving the second book a try.

The narration was okay.

Not very Impressive

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

I think the story never took hold for me.

What aspect of Dick Hill’s performance would you have changed?

Dick Hill did everything he could do but the story had to much going on.

Any additional comments?

In the beginning, the different places and events made me confused and I just never could recover. I made it to about half way before I finally stopped the book in frustration.