Fantasyland

Shadowmarch, Volume One
Tad Williams
DAW

I was introduced to fantasy as a genre the summer I was turning fifteen. My grandmother had just passed away and for whatever reason, I found myself on the way to Cambridge with a much older cousin. Grandma had been the anchor in our family and I guess none of us really wanted to be alone to let the sadness sink in. So, while Cathy was gathering the things she would need for the week, I wandered my way through her belongings envying the coolness of her twenty-something space.

Then I found the bookshelf. I was surprised to see that some of my own favourites also appealed to my cousin. She had a well-paged copy of Anne of Green Gables, a few ratty Austens and some Steinbeck. "What's this?" I asked, picking up a copy of Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane. Cathy just smiled, ran her hand over my hair and said "I think now is the perfect time for you to have an adventure. Enjoy."

And enjoy it I did. That one book changed my reading life forever. I mention it here because Williams' character, Barrick, reminds me a great deal of Thomas Covenant. In a lot of ways, Shadowmarch is typical high fantasy -- you have a kingdom rife with political intrigue caught between an advancing evil empire from the south and an invading supernatural realm from the north. The novels opens with the murder of the Marchlands prince regent. The kingdom is left in the hands of two teenagers -- Briony, an impetuous but brainy young woman and her crippled and very moody twin brother, Barrick. As confidence in their leadership crumbles, the kingdom comes under attack from the advancing Twilight People. Barrick goes off to war and Briony remains behind to deal with the burdensome responsibilities of the regency.

Williams introduces a large number of characters into the work and there are multiple plot lines to keep the reader engaged. If you're the type of person who likes a straightforward, single-threaded narrative, this is NOT the book for you. In addition to Briony and Barrick, Williams writes from the perspective of a doctor, a dwarf, a guard captain, a street urchin, a mysterious little boy, and the leader of the supernatural forces that are beyond the Shadowline. Time and again, Williams takes you to a point of crisis with a plot/character only to have the chapter end and a new chapter open with another scene. Yeah, I hate it. But I love it too. My one complaint with this book? It is part of a larger body of work (the Volume One not-so-prominently displayed on the cover should have tipped me off.) So, I'm compelled to wait.

If you find that what I have written here has interested you enough to give Williams a try, but you're not so sure that you'd like to commit to what will probably be (at least) a trilogy ... give War of the Flowers a whirl. Great, epic fantasy in a single volume. In fact, it's what got me hooked on this author in the first place.

As for the rating system, I still haven't come up with one. I'll work on it. I promise. In the interim, let me just say that this was a damn good book in my estimation. Not the best fantasy that I have ever read, but Williams will always be near the top of my list.