Rating: 
Summary: Description excercises the mind!!!!
Review: All right. I've heard it one too many times. "The descriptions of this book were too drawn out!" "The writing style was confusing!" So read harder! And pay attention to what you're reading. Man...I personally thought that this series was the best I've read since I first immensely enjoyed Tolkien all those years ago. If you want a goofy, fun-filled pop fantasy like the Willow film was...you better not even attempt to read this book or any of the others, because fun they are not. However, if you want to be swept up in the emotional rollercoaster that I have loved with all three of these books, by all means, pick up Shadow Moon as soon as you can. I just finished Shadow Star not five minutes ago, and I feel like I may cry. I want to spend MORE time with these characters...I want to hear them talk, and see them live. I love them, like friends. And that's the beauty of this series. One comes to genuinely care about the characters involved. Don't get me wrong...it takes a while, and these books are REALLY dark, and at times quite depressing. But stick with them, please! They ring true like epic films at times, and you can almost hear the John Williams score playing in the background...granted, if Lucas were to make these into films, they were have to earn a heavy R rating to keep them true to form. But, no matter! Read these books...I guarantee you will not be disappointed. The Ascension scene in Shadow Moon is one of the most haunting scenes I can remember in recent fiction. REad them!
Rating:
Summary: story and writing come together
Review: George Lucas uses Chris Claremont's style of weaving words to bring a formidable story to life. Willow's power has grown by leaps and bounds as he tries to piece together the cataclisyms that has spread across the world, mourning the loses of too many friends in the process. Now with the ascension of Elora Danan and the emergence of the false Willow, the Deceiver, he must save the Twelve Realms from destruction and bring Elora to her prophecy. Lucas's main story allows Claremont to delve into the hearts and minds of the world around Thorn (Willow) like the movie is incapable of. The Twelve Realms' inhabitants are brought to life with astounding detail (but what do you expect from Claremont?) as we learn about the prejudices and the wants and needs of all the races having to live together to survive. The characters have grown beyond the movie to take a 3 dimensional life of their own. The books are exciting, and, as with all of Claremont's works, wrote with incredible detail of emotions and interaction. I couldn't put any of these three books down.
Rating: 
Summary: Where's Willow?
Review: The movie Willow is one of my favorites. It is high spirited, filled with classic wisecracks, and the fighting scenes get the blood flowing. The book, however, is a different story. All of the color and excitement is leached out. Madmartigan and Sorsha are neatly excised before the story even begins and when it does, all you see is Thorn piling up rocks in a state of depression that never leaves him throughout the story. Then our kindly Willow goes around breaking people's bones and tromping about like a crack veteran dwarf warrior. I could see no connection between Thorn and Willow. I kept wondering if this was a different Nelwyn, but Thorn is Willow, or Dark Willow if you will. I didn't let Thorn discourage me because I was expecting the Brownies to save the day. They too were lamentably grim, just like their once lively companion. The characters are so awash in their own misery that a reader has no interest in getting close to them. Shadow Moon gets better though when you can finally accept that it has nothing to do with the movie and treat it as if it were new. Even so, Lucas and Claremont are able to do MUCH better than this.
Rating: 
Summary: WOW, this was NOT what I was expecting!
Review: After I heard that a new book was coming out that would continue the adventures of Willow, I was so excited! I was looking forward to seeing the characters I loved so much in action again, with the same fun and adventurous tone that the movie and its novelization presented prevailing. If that is what you are expecting as well, do NOT pick this book up, it will burn your hands. Nearly all my favorite characters were gone after the first chapter, without a satisfactory explanation (and I've read all 3 books, there never is a satisfactory explanation). The characters who do remain are warped into virtually unrecognizable shells of what they once were, and the world they inhabit is so bleak and depressing it made me long for the good old days of Bavmorda! To add insult to injury, the writing style was convoluted and drawn out, and the action was disappointing. Preserve your good memories of Willow--don't ruin them with this novel!
Rating:
Summary: Stay away
Review: This book made me wonder if the George Lucas and Chris Claremont that wrote it are the same two men that I know. This story was horrid and you shouldn't bother reading it. The writing was really bad, and the characters were one-sided. The simple fact that Madmartigan and Sorsha died before the main story started made me almost put the book down, but no I continued on. However after reading it to about page 300 I just couldn't go on through the tortured of reading it and I placed the book on my bookshelf were it will stay for a very long time.
Rating:
Summary: George Lucas had this written because he DID love Willow!
Review: Contrary to the review below, George Lucas had this written because he still loved the Willow story! When Bantam asked if there was any stories he'd like to explore as novels rather than films, he IMMEDIATELY jumped at the chance to tell the 'true story' of Willow - the movie was just backstory (think of it as the 'Hobbit' to these series of novels). George Lucas outlined the entire saga, and worked hand-in-hand with Chris CLaremont, who did the actual penning. Lucas didn't abandon the project, he just had osmeone who was better at puttng words on a page help him :)This trilogy is incredible, with the 3rd book's ending being an INCREDIBLE payoff to fans of the movie and these books. Keep reading!...............
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment.
Review: With names like Lucas and Claremont, this should have been a good book. I've enjoyed Chris Claremont's work on the X-Men. I've certainly enjoyed George Lucas's film work. Given that, this should have been a REALLY fantastic book. It wasn't. Why not? The plot was forced, the character development non-existant, and the writing was AWFUL. Every time something had to be explained, it was compared to something else. Every time. Just try to count the number of times you read "It a was like" or "It was the same as" or "like the time when" - you'll go insane [if you have the book, try this - open to some random page and read - you'll find the one of those three phrases within two pages]. And every time Thorn was in pain, it was worse than the last time. Every time he was confused, it was worse than the last time. Every time anything happened, it was worse than the last time. Whatever. Not worth the time to read. If Lucas makes it a movie, it might be worth a matinee.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent style and ideas
Review: Every great once in awhile a mark of excellence will appear, and I found not just "Shadow Moon", but the entire Shadow Chronicles, one of these rare marks. The writing style in itself is one of the strongest points, with a lack of overly-used cliches and catch phrases. Instead an intricately imagined and well-thought plot was drawn out. Instead of just saying, "Thorn casted a Fireball spell", this book would have taken a simple line like that and explained in great depth how the spell was cast and its results. This (and the following books) have proved to be a great successor to my favorite movie "Willow". If there are any weaknesses, it would be the story sometimes gets a bit confusing, and characters wearing themselves out to near-death and then 'suddenly' popping back to life.
Rating:
Summary: A Fantasy Classic
Review: If you are curious enough about this series to be reading this, then don't delay, just order it! The Shadow War chronicles are as great as the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sagas, and sometimes superior. Lucas worked closely with author Chris Claremont and the result is the action driven dark fantasy of Claremont and the spirituality, whimsy, optimism & incredibly intricate world building of Lucas. If this brave new world leaves you slightly bemused do yourself a favour & check out the ultimate Willow web site. Just go to Lucasfan.com & click on Willow.com - you'll find all the info you will ever need to get up to speed on this classic saga which is the best since Tolkien's Lord of the Rings!
Rating:
Summary: A nice, average story but poor writing
Review: I love George Lucas. I love Star Wars and Willow, and I couldn't wait to read this sequel to Willow. But it isn't worth reading it. don't buy this one! It's not worth your money at all, not even when you're a great Lucas-fan like me.
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