Shadow Moon (Chronicles of the Shadow War, Book 1)

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: A beginning to the story that had only just begun...
Review: If you enjoyed Willow, sit down with the Shadow War trilogy, and prepare to see the world we glimpsed in Willow fleshed out - with all the ugliest problems and the most beautiful creatures.

Definitely a darker story than the movie, it nonetheless has more depth, and keeps your attention. I loved the series - even though ***SPOILER*** my two favorite characters from the movie are killed off within the first 50 pages of the first book ***END SPOILER***

That said, when I began this series, I truly thought "Wow - this is nothing like the movie, I think this is going to be a real stinker". Pushing onward, I quickly became consumed by the storyline, and finshed the series in a very short time.

Now my only complaint is that it's over!!

Get through the first 1/3 of the first book, and you'll be hooked. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: A freshman in high school has better ficitonal panache
Review: I cannot believe this book! Chris Claremont, who took the X-Man to unparalleled heights of popularity with exceptional storytelling, and the pre-eminent screen writer of our time teaming up to write a fantasy trilogy sounds too good to believe!

It was.

There was nothing that was worth recomending this book to someone else. While I can forgive a complete change in the cast (thirteen years has passed) I cannot forgive the unbelievably bad writing that pervades the book from beginning to end. Conversations seem to start in the middle and end with no resolution. There is no character development at all. Everything is rendered by plot, but the plot is left obfuscated by the terse, oblique prose that it is nigh impossible to follow along with it. Each character seems to be a carbon copy of the others, and that's not all! The dialogue! Ah, the dialogue that leaves one wondering just what on earth was communicated. At least the characters seem to understand each other, as I did not.

Another thing about novels like these is that there is a certain amount of world building that is incumbent in order to actually build upon the story. The thrill that you get from discovering other world like Middle Earth, or Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time universe, is absent here. The authors assume that you know the history, the geography and the political climates, and when they deign to throw a tidbit your way, it is presented in such a way as to leave you more confused then if you didn't know. None of the wonder that is an importat part of a fantasy series is left intact.

In other words, if they wanted to tell a different story, a more mature story than what was presented in the movie, then I would tip my hat to them. They ~tried~ to do that, presenting nothing more but a mish mash of pages, words, and sentences that is a chore, not a joy, to read.

Please, someone send Claremont and Lucas to a remedial writing class.

(Now I think I understand why the latest Star Wars movies have been sub-par.)

Rating:
Summary: Forget all you know...or think you know (SPOILERS)
Review: When a fan of Willow discovers that there are, in fact, sequels floating around out there, he or she might tend to get excited. Then that person starts Shadow Moon and finds themself a little thrown: Willow is now Thorn Drumheller (why?), Mad Mardigan and Sorca are dead (WHA!?), and Elora Dannan is brattier that a room full of six year olds(well, at least that isn't hard to believe). It seems hard to pick up a world that we left happy and at peace, and then try to establish and expand that world while it is on the verge of a war. Claremont and Lucas seem to be lost in their own immaginations, which are so jam packed with details that they have difficulty sorting them out, and thus leaves the reader equally lost.

That being said, once you settle down and take the world for the world, accept the differences for the differences, and jump in for the ride, Shadow Moon is a good start for what develops into a very good trilogy. Thorn (Willow) has lost just about everything and everyone he knows in a catastrophic magical event that destroyed all of the magical locations around the world. Elora Dannan has grown up respected, coddled, and spoiled, and even a bit feared after the being transported halfway across the continent. It is a world where enemies can still be friends, where allies disappear at a moment's notice, and where the greatest danger often wears the face we trust the most.

Slowly but surely, the mythology that was only hinted at in Willow is unwrapped and unveiled.

Take the book for what I think it was meant to be: a start, a beginning, a stepping stone to the next two books. Use it to adjust, reaquiant, and learn of the world that has a story to tell, and an adventure to take you on.

Rating:
Summary: Shadow Moon
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.