The Shadow

By: James Patterson, Brian Sitts

Narrated by: Maya Tuttle, Nate Washburn

Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

In this explosive detective thriller, a 1930s vigilante finds himself in the late 21st century where he teams up with a mysterious teenager, whose looming secrets may impact both of their futures.

Only two people know that 1930s society man Lamont Cranston has a secret identity as the Shadow, a crusader for justice. One is his greatest love, Margo Lane, and the other is fiercest enemy, Shiwan Khan. When Khan ambushes the couple, they must risk everything for the slimmest chance of survival...in the future.

A century and a half later, Lamont awakens in a world both unknown and disturbingly familiar. The first person he meets is Maddy Gomes, a teenager with her own mysterious secrets, including a knowledge of the legend of the Shadow.

Most disturbing, Khan's power continues to be felt over the city and its people. No one in this new world understands the dangers of stopping him better than Lamont Cranston. And only the Shadow knows that he’s the one person who might succeed before more innocent lives are lost.

©2021 James Patterson and Brian Sitts (P)2021 Grand Central Publishing

The Shadow in name only

Patterson and Sitts take on the Shadow is a truly unpleasant experience for any fan of the franchise. Rather than setting up a new story to introduce the character to a new generation, the book goes out of its way to present a story that not only bears no resemblance to any Shadow media before it, it actively decries the franchise as trashy and absurd.

The story sees Lamont Cranston as The Shadow, poisoned by his arch nemesis and forced into a medically induced coma, only to be awakened in the year 2087.
The fish out of water narrative is barely expanded upon, and the mystery that unfolds in the story is incredibly trite and predictable
It feels as though the writers had not read any of the Shadow novels, but instead made surface level research of the film and radio show, decided they didn’t like them very much and wrote a new character that would be as different as possible.
He is not very stealthy, he is a terrible detective, and has wildly absurd magical powers.
If they were just making a clean reboot of the franchise it would be one thing, but the Shadow magazine and radio show exist within this story and multiple passages involve Lamont decrying them as absurd trash while shortly after throwing fireballs and transforming into a cat.
This was the worst experience I’ve had with any Shadow media. If you have any love for this series, do not get this book.

Bad

The story was creative enough that I finished it, but man this book was not good. The story wasn’t good, the writing wasn’t good. I have so many questions:

Did James P. really write this?
Did I get a teen novel or YA book without realizing it?
Did someone sell their soul to get this book published?

So disappointing

When did the Shadow gain the ability to shapeshift into animals and throw fireballs?? They gave him and Margot the Buck Rogers treatment of being frozen only to arrive in a dystopian future where somehow their villain survived. I was excited when I saw the title and author, but stay away from this one.

Really Bad

This book is a really terrible interpretation of a classic character. If you are interested in The Shadow from novels, radio, film and/or comics, you will probably not like this recreation. It is a shallow retelling that trashes everything you might have hoped for in a new adventure. Did Condé Nast, the copyright holder of the property, really think this mediocre story would successfully reboot the franchise? James Patterson has written some fine books, but this is not one of them. Save your money or your credits. This book is terrible.
On a positive note… the readers do a very fine job. Too bad they didn’t have better material.

Amazingly BAD

This is drivel. on a high-school level of writing. I am astonished at how amateur the writing is. James Paterson, really? Really a waste of time.

Not what I expected but enjoyable

Okay. Let's address the elephant in the room first, this is not the Shadow as you have always known him. I expect the name was used to keep a copyright active or some such. They could almost have used any pulp hero from the 1930's, and had they done that, the reviews probably would have been much better.

On it's own merits, this is a fun pulp adventure with 1930's heroes fighting in our future for nothing short of the future of the human race and civilization. I can't say that it's an overly original story, and most of the action is predictable. That doesn't make it any less fun.

If you enjoy the kind of action that the old pulps provided, you will probably enjoy this. BUT you need to let go of the idea that this is The Shadow as you have ever known him. Think about it as a new character... one perhaps based on the idea of The Shadow but as seen through the lens of a slightly more realistic world. If you can do that you will enjoy it too.

shadow fail

James Patterson please don't do anymore Shadow stories. This book was worse than the Summer house last year.

not sure who this is for

If this is for fans of the original Shadow it seems to take every opportunity to make fun of us, and if it's meant to be a whole new character why leech the Shadow's name, he is not that popular a character anymore.

Mary Sue meets the Shadow (sort of)

This should be listed a s YA story, and as for it's being the Shadow?
Stick to the Radio shows for better adventure. The prose was ok, but the
plot was not.

Fun story

loved listening to it in the car as I drove running errands and waiting for Dr appointment.