Shadowmarch by Tad Williams (a guest review)

Published February 21, 2011

Meet Sara Johnson-Steffey—one of my very best besties in jr. & sr. high who now lives across the continent from me. To this day I’m convinced we were the coolest book nerds I’ve ever known, mainly because of our good taste in music, authors, and clothing (okay, maybe not the clothing). We were kinda like Emily Brontё meets Thelma and Louise (minus the whole killing someone and then driving off a cliff thing).

Anyhow, not only is Sara smart (she managed a program that supported the drafting process of the Iraqi constitution), she’s also cool (she recently self-dreadlocked her hair and looked into buying a yurt), and she’s creative (she’s made two babies—with another on the way, and sews her kids’ clothes, and bakes bread, and…yeah, you get the picture). Plus, she writes a super fun blog you’ve just gotta check out: June Cleaver in Yoga Pants.  And here is her book review fully infused with her quirky awesomeness for us. Enjoy.

When one first becomes a mother one typically has no time for frivolous reading. Parenting books like how-to-get-your-kid-to-sleep-through-the-night, what foods will make your baby smarter than average, what-have-i-gotten-myself-into type books — these all take precedence.

But, eventually, around 2 or so, you start thinking, “gee, I miss reading.”

What do you reach for? Not the latest economic theory book that you got on a whim at the bookstore when you were looking for yet another how-to-get-your-kid-to-sleep-through-the night book (maybe I would have time during naps? Sure, when your brain is jello?? I don’t think so), not the top selling fiction novel about sad children in war time Afghanistan, not even the latest Oprah recommended debut novel about a recovering alcoholic. No, you reach for something that is entirely disconnected from your current reality.

I like to call it escapism literature.

I just got done reading a really great example of escapism literature. “Shadowmarch” by Tad Williams.  It is part Lord of the Rings, part fairy tale, part epic adventure. It’s got a princess as the heroine (no whiney Kat Everdeen or Bella what’s-her-face). And a war against fairies. A murder mystery. A captive king. And an epic adventure in the underworld.

What is not to love?

And how did I pick out this gem? Here are my tips:

1.  The author has been on the New York Times bestseller list, a good sign that he can indeed tell a story.
2. All four books in the series are already out, no waiting for that final installment!
3. All four books are available in paperback. For $8.
4.  It was what I could find that met these criteria in the five minutes I had to pick out a book with two children crabbing at my knees.

Done deal.

The book is full of swirling, detailed descriptions – the ancient castle with its four towers representing each season and the surrounding city with banners waving in the wind, merchants hawking their goods, tiny alleyways bursting with people, and the rich portrayals of the various inhabitants of the kingdom.

I don’t know about you but I love this kind of detail. I want to know what my characters are eating for dinner. Lord of The Rings makes me want a good beef stew.  Girl with the Dragon Tattoo made me crave meat pies and kefir. This book was full of meals consisting of a crusty loaf of bread, a round of aged cheese, and suckling pig roasted over the fire. Also lots of wine and ale.

This book will make you hungry.

And hey, if detail isn’t for you (Get to the point already man!) feel free to skim. I did skim a bit here and there.

We meet the royal family out for a hunt in the nearby woods. To catch a dragon (a “wyvern”).  Princess Briony is there too, right in the midst of the action, along with her twin brother Barrick and her older brother, the prince regent Kendrick, who is ruling while their father is locked up in a dungeon in the southern kingdom of Xis.

Love it.

There are other lands and characters whose storylines pop up — insane emperors who pose as the supreme god over their land and have thousands of wives living in a separate city primping all day, a strange boy found lost in the woods by two dwarves (called Funderlings), the evil fairies from the North with plans to wage war (to reclaim the southern land they lost in a war hundreds of years ago). All these storylines begin to merge halfway through the book.  I am assuming they will all come together fully in the subsequent three books. This back and forth technique can be a little annoying. But I am not above skipping to the storyline that I find engrossing and then going back to read the other section later.

I am impatient like that.

The crux of the book is the evil fairies from the North plotting and then waging war against the Southmarch Kingdom. The whole evil fairy thing is a different spin. Fairies are supposed to be nice right? (Although I once read a book as a child about two little girls who pretended to have seen fairies and faked pictures of them. This book freaked me out. I think I missed the point that it was all a hoax. I was all of 8. For weeks I was convinced our basement had real fairies in it and refused to go down there alone. )

The nomenclature is a little off though, in my opinion. These are not just fairies. They are monsters. Mythical creatures without faces. Giants and ogres. All hiding under a cloak of darkness and shadow (hence Shadowmarch, the name of the series).

The intrigue of a murder mystery (DID the butler do it? Just kidding), more about the crazy emperor (who has captured the good king), and the underworld adventure to the kingdom of the gods follows.

Good stuff.

So, arm yourself with a chunk of bread and cheese, and maybe a good stiff ale and, well, escape for a little while. The dishes will still be there when you are done.

What’s the mood noise of the moment?  Amy Grant (cuz that’s what the cool people listened to when we were 14)

Tags: book review, guest book review, Sara Johnson Steffey, Shadowmarch series, Tad Williams