Dusk Before the Dawn

Shadowplay by Tad Williams

Volume 2 in the four volume Shadowmarch series.

As readers, we are lucky that Tad Williams backs the Golden State Warriors; for if he needed to spend more time backing a winning basketball team, he might spend less time writing engaging series like Shadowmarch (sorry, Tad).

As with his other series, Williams effortlessly mixes human politics, royalty and coming-of-age stories with magic entities, god and demigod rivalries. He doesn’t explain all (similar to his Otherland series, where some events still puzzle me) but keeps his readers wondering. Why is there an alliance between the Tollys and the Sulepis of Xis? How is Qinnitan related to Briony, Barrick and King Olin? What is the relationship between the Qar and the Eddons? Are they half-Qar and half-human? If this series is like others of Williams, some questions will be answered and others will be left to the reader…which is yet another reason to enjoy his work. It is a large investment of time to read a series this long, but Williams’ past series (Otherland, and Memory, Sorrow and Thorn) have proven well worth the investment.

Shadowplay is volume two in the series of four, and it starts with the twin rulers of Southmarch, Briony and Barrick Eddon separated and struggling. Southmarch, the northern most human city, is surrounded by an army of the Qar (the fairy folk) and in the hands of the Tollys, enemies of the Eddons. Barrick had gone north to battle the Qar army, and had been had a magic encounter with Queen Yasammez of the Qar. He begins wandering the Shadowlands, followed by Ferras Vansen, captain of the royal guard, sworn to Barrick’s sister Briony that he would protect him. They encounter and begin traveling with the fairy Gyir The Storm Lantern, who has an object he received from Queen Yasammez who got it from Flint (who may or may not be the son of Duchess Mer0lanna, the twins Great Aunt) and Chert, the Funderling (small folk who are good at digging and stonework and live under the castle).

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