Shadowplay: Shadowmarch: Volume II

I think the book and story are pretty well done. However, the incredibly weak willed, whiny characters are almost too much to tolerate. I enjoy the story line and there are enough twists and interesting thoughts to keep it moving, albeit slowly at times. I think Williams could have cut 15-20% to make a much better book. My biggest issue is with the incredibly whiny, self-centered, feeble characters. This is the people Williams made, not poorly developed characters. I believe they are developed well, as slack, spineless, 'why me' characters. But the issue is that almost EVERY character is written this way. There is little spine in any character, with the 'inner talk' trending almost always towards the 'why does this have to happen to me... people should treat me better' kind of way. Rarely does a character dig in and show character... it is typically 'deus ex machina' forcing them to muddle through, rather than choice of the character. I think this is really brought to the surface by the very well done narration. Hill does a great job with varying voice, however, he seems to have an affinity for the whiny voice. Which, for this book is not a problem, given the sad-sack characters he has to work with. However, my only thought is that it is the combination of Hill's great narration and the overly wrought spinelessness of the characters synergistically grating against my being. I have never spoken to the radio in my car as much, telling the characters to get a grip and put in some effort.

The character development was fantastic and the story was captivating. Although, some of the characters were whiny at times which started to get old.

Yes, I thought his story telling was great.

His many different accents an the suspense and excitement he brings to certain situations was fantastic.

yes

Dick Hill does a fine job but the material is just poorly written. The book contains what should be really exciting plot but the author phasing and tone make it feel like it is about as exciting as reading the the coles notes of a book rather then what could be a gripping story. While Tad Williams is a big name and the actual plot is good the presentation of events is poor and unimaginative. (Unimaginative is about the worst in a fantasy that could happen.) The book seems to have a pace and not want to speed up or down. Even the unexplained magics in the book seem rathern yawn worthly not because they couldn't be interest but because I never felt that their workings would be much of a shock.

I quite enjoyed the entire Shadowmarch series. It was a very entertaining story that kept me quite intrigued. The narration by Dick Hill was exceptional.

There was enough character details to keep me interested but no so much that it became tedious. The story kept me guessing through three books.

I'm a Tad Williams fan and this story does not disappoint. However, I have problems with the narration. Dick Hill is great with all of the different voices. Unfortunately, the grunts, coughs, laughs, whispers, and exaggerated accents sometimes make it very difficult to understand what he is saying. I've noticed this with some other narrators. I wish they would understand that while the acting can enhance the audiobook experience, it should not detract from the reading of the story. In this case, I will have to forgo the audiobook versions of the rest of this series and read them myself.