Rating: 
Summary: .......d@ZeD from the excellence of the book!
Review: This is my story of the story.
One day, I went to the bookstore and saw this book in hardback. I fell in love at first sight, not even realizing that it was the sequel to Willow.
My friend, unfortunatly, fell in love with it too. I couldn't get it till paperback, but she *siiiigh* got it for her birthday. I nearly cried!
Then, I went to the bookstore (exactly one year later) to find a good book. I hadn't read a really good book in a long time. My friend (yes, the same one!) pointed it out to me. I got it! And I'm not sorry I did!
It held me in it's power for three days straight, non-stop reading, unless I keeled over from lack of sleep and nourishment. (Oh, ok, that was a *little* exaggerated, but you get the point!) I was dazed during the whole time I was reading, powerless to do anything but read.
This book reminded me of the movie, which I hadn't even thought of for ages, and now I'm a Willow fan, too although I can't find any action figures! (j/k)
Now, if *that* doesn't convince you that it's a great book, then I don't know how I'll ever get you to understand!
...just please read it? : )
Rating: 
Summary: A shocking transformation
Review: For someone who loved Willow, I was first excited by this book, and then I was terribly shocked at the dramatic twist in tone. As other reviewers have stated, it was difficult to accept a novel that opens by killing off the characters you love best, and drastically altering the ones who remain. I stuck with it, though, because when I put my subjectivity aside, it was an intriguing, if dark, story. It's unfortunate that it takes so long to let go of what you lost in order to learn to love what you get; and that hangs over your reading of the book like the shadow in its name. Because it is worth the read. A richly detailed and creative landscape/setting and finely edged characters bring this story to vivid life and give it depth lacking it much comtemporary fiction. I was also drawn in by the writing style - the author has a voice which is complex and unique. In the end I was left with the impression not of device or triteness, but of sincerity and boldness - and couldn't wait for the sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Wherefore Art Thou, Willow?
Review: While not the best fantasy movie of all time, Willow had its charm, not in the least of which were its senses of hope, wonder and humor.Well don't come into here looking for any of that because it's gone; stripped away to make room for dark, brooding, and hugely convoluted. Since it occurs in the prologue, it's no great spoiler to tell you that just about every character you knew and loved from the film is killed off in the first twenty pages or so, leaving you with a core cast of Willow and the inexplicably French Brownies, and even they are rendered nigh unrecognizable. The void is 'filled'-and I use that term as loosely as possible- with a dense soldier, a tomboy Princess, a zombie warrioress and, well, another dense soldier. Are we entertained yet? Adding insult to injury, the story itself is a confusing, muddled mess so what should be a tense battle scene or a poignant moment is rendered unreadable. Claremont has a handful of favorite description nouns, which becomes readily apparent the fifth or so time someones says or does something with asperity, until you're rolling your eyes so often concerend parties will ask whether or not you're having a stroke. The worst of it is, the few times we do get any insight into what happened to other people between the prologue and the present things are presented so vaguely you're still none the wiser. Did Willow's son somehow get turned into a hellhound? Does Willow kill him? Is it the same hellhound that appears at the start of the book? I have no idea and I read the friggin' thing! The dragon is the only piece of entertainment you'll find because he's the only one with any heart or humor to him, but even that was short lived as the author very kindly takes him away from us after a few, all-to-brief scenes. The solitary other plus the book has going for it is that it's so unlike the film in every way that it's unlikely to taint your feelings for it. A few of the characters have some coincedental names, that's all. Save your money and re-watch the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Very enjoyable.
Review: I've read some of the reviews for this book and a lot of people seem confused. Some of the reviewers were complaining that this book just stopped without a "true" ending. I want to make clear that this is the first book of a trilogy. The second thing that struck me as odd is the fact that some reviewers are saying that Lucas and Claremont should have left well enough alone and not butchered the "original" book, WILLOW by Wayland Drew. Let me just say that Drew's book was just an adaptation of the film from the screenplay (which was, in turn, based on Lucas' story idea, just as this and the two following books, SHADOW DAWN and SHADOW STAR, are). Now, on to the review of the book. I was amazed at how well Chris Claremont's writing style adapts to fantasy writing. His prose is beautifully crafted and his descriptions and characterizations are both vivid and forceful. His descriptions of being aboard a ship on a storm tossed sea had me feeling as if I was actually on the boat. His characters were all varied and had unique motivations (although, by the end of this book, we are not at all sure of what some of these are). Some people have commented that Willow (now called Thorn Drumheller) and the brownies, Rool and Franjean, don't even act like they did in the movie. Well, there is a very good explanation for this: this book takes place 13 years after the movie. They have survived a cataclysm of unimaginable proportions and have lived in a dark and dreary world for those years. Anyone living in those conditions would undergo a personality change. Not to mention the fact that Thorn hasn't seen his family in 12 years. Lucas came up with a classic fantasy story with a unique twist. A dark and ugly evil is upon the land. However, unlike most fantasy novels where it is well known (at least to the protagonist) who he must fight in order to defeat this evil, the characters in this book have no idea who or what is causing all of the trouble in the world. This provides a unique challenge for the heroes of the book. Not only do they have to defeat the being responsible, but they have to figure out who and where this person is. It makes for very enjoyable reading because you are just as in the dark as the characters are. I applaud Lucas and Claremont on the fine job they did in crafting this book. I found it nearly impossible to put down. I only have two complaints about it. The first is the fact that the first chapter takes place only a year after the end of the movie. However, once we're through there, we get thrown 12 years into the future. We are given these characters as they are and the reasons for their personality changes are not clearly explained until later in the book. What has happened to the world? What has happened during that time? These things are not explained right away. It makes the reading a little frustrating. Second, Claremont sometimes lets his descriptions get away from him and they begin to take on a life all their own. Once a description of a scene becomes too long, it begins to lose both its meaning and its effectiveness. Other than that, I thought this book was really well done.
Rating: 
Summary: Great potential, but saddly disappointing
Review: A continuation of Willow, a fan of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and the X-men, Shadow Moon seemed like a dream. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. The story itself, the key points of the plot, were excellent, a best seller waiting to happen. Too bad it will have to keep waiting. The brilliant minds of the authors moved to fast for a reader to keep up. I am sure in their own minds the flow from one paragraph to the next, one idea to the next, was obvious. A book of science fiction/fantasy should not be as labourious to read as a science textbook. I often had to re-read a paragraph, a page or an entire chapter in order to determine what "might" be happening. What this book needed the most was an editor who was totally unfamiliar with the story, who would be brave enough to pass constructive criticism to two of sci fi/fantasy greats. At the end of this book I found myself asking "What happened?" My advice is to anyone who has read this book is to read the next in hopes of an improvement. To anyone who wants to read it but hasn't yet, wait for better reviews of future books in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Bother....
Review: I seriously enjoyed the movie "Willow", which this book (and the other two in the series) are a "continuation" of. I've wanted to read these books for a while, because the movie *sorta* left me with a question or two. All this series did was CONFUSE me. I'm an avid fantasy reader, so it's not like these are out of my genre, but the way the books are written, the "explaination" of how the "magic" works, even the events in the book, are so boring and confusing that after I forced my way through this book I had no desire to read the second. It took me a year and major desparation for something to read before I picked up #2. Two and a half years after I forced my way through 2, I finally read 3. Wasted time. I enjoyed the side panel of my cereal box more than this series. There was serious potential after the awesome movie, but they missed the mark by a mile with this series.
Rating:
Summary: Shadow Moon
Review: A dark, twisted, and convoluted path for "Willow" to undertake, "Shadow Moon" gets points for creativity, but loses points because it so blatantly goes in another direction than that which was established by the wonderful film "prelude." Killing some of the major players and then renaming Willow himself is a sin. Of course, everyone likes to point the finger at Chris Claremont, completely forgetting that George Lucas is as much to blame. Lucas may have come up with the story for the film (easy enough, just take elements of "The Hobbit," "The Lord of the Rings," and "The Chronicles of Prydain" and bam! instant storyline), but he did not write the screenplay, so many of those brilliant bits from the film aren't to be credited his way in the first place. However, he AND Claremont are responsible for what happens in the novels, and what happens isn't good - both from a situational standpoint and from the perspective of "Willow" fans. This book may very well taint your view of the motion picture. You are forewarned - and for goodness sake, blame George Lucas as well.
Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff
Review: This book leads you on a Great ride through the world of willow, and Takes you through the life of Elora Dannon and her quest to save the realms. All together A Good, Good Read Yours truly
C.L. Gray
Rating:
Summary: Ummm...What?!
Review: This is one of those books where:
I read it.
I put it back on my shelf.
Someone asked me "How was that book? What was it about?"
And I, in all my eloquence, said...
"Ummmmm....I don't know."
The descriptions became tedious, though they were very well written, and did little to forward the story.
Some characters from "Willow" were discarded (aka killed) early in the book and Willow himself had his name changed to Thorm Drumheller. (This was done probably to create distance from the movie.)
However, I found it difficult to follow the story between the lengthy pages of description (though well written, they became cumbersome after a few dozen pages of it) and the rapid introduction and exiting of characters.
Should be read by: those who like "flowery style," like that of Tolkien, le Guin, etc, which include massive amounts of detail to create a lifelike world, those who adore the movie Willow and want to know what happens NO MATTER WHAT THE CHARACTERS BECOME/DO.
Should NOT be read by: those who like faster moving books without lots of description (those who prefer Hemingway's style to Fitzgerald's, for example), those who adore EVERY SINGLE character from Willow, just as they were, and those who need a book to move quickly (from early in the book) and to maintain its pace.
This book had its faults and its strongpoints, but it wasn't up my alley. I'm sure there are a lot of people who would find it very enjoyable, but I'm not one of them. More power to those who like it.
Rating: 
Summary: remember Willow?
Review: There are a lot of better fantasy novels out there, but this one has some really original turns and the story differs from a "classical" fantasy plot. Those who know Willow (the movie or the book) know that the Sacred princess Elora Dannan was saved by Willow & company to rule the kingdom and bring it to bounty someday. Willow returns to his home and family, but he looses them in an unexplained catastrophe. He then roams the world, seeking the anwser. He changes his name and in time finds himself in the new home of Elora. He loves her still and in his mind she is still the little girl he cared for years ago. But he is in for a big surprise. She is now in her teens and she is incredably spoiled and would not listen to anybody. She is close to her accension day, when the prophecy should be fulfilled, but everything is not as simple as that. Some forces would use her for their causes and Willow can`t let that happen.
So a new story begins and we follow a new course of destiny for each of the charachters.
A nice story, but the charachters could use some work and Elora`s behaviour changes too quickly.
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