Shadow's Daughter

Rating:
Summary: Twain type future based fantasy of swords and magiks
Review: "The great writings are as wine, mine are water, available and enjoyable by the many." -S.L.Clemens Which is a good way to categorize these books. The previous reviewer seems to have missed what made the same book exciting and enjoyable to me. Megan's evolution perhaps captures my interest being realistic, paralelling my own so closely. The logical conlclusion is, that without a common frame of reference, some people can't imagine themselves into a story. There's little joy here. Ocassional humour, but this story is of unpleasant happenings in an imperfect world. That Megan can grow up without being overwhelmed by her experiences and ddestroyed or twisted is the victory. "I've found that just surviving is a noble fight." -B. Joel To my mind, the most fascinating part of the book is the glimpses of history so old it's myth: the 20th century and the apocolyptic war which drove the world back to the bronze age. Throw in a little evolution of psychokinesis and you have the general setting. More swords and political intruige than wizards and spells. Actually, there isn't a wizard or a spell in the whole thing. This story, like Stirling's 'SnowBrother' set the stage for the main characters eventual alliance. Taken as a whole, the 'prequels' are better for adding dimension to the novels 'Sabre & Shadow' (originally released as 'The sharpest edge'... but S&S is enhanced and superior), 'The Cage' and 'Shadow's Son'. Good standalone books, but best read sequentially.

Rating:
Summary: Twain type future based fantasy of swords and magiks
Review: "The great writings are as wine, mine are water, available and enjoyable by the many." -S.L.Clemens Which is a good way to categorize these books. The previous reviewer seems to have missed what made the same book exciting and enjoyable to me. Megan's evolution perhaps captures my interest being realistic, paralelling my own so closely. The logical conlclusion is, that without a common frame of reference, some people can't imagine themselves into a story. There's little joy here. Ocassional humour, but this story is of unpleasant happenings in an imperfect world. That Megan can grow up without being overwhelmed by her experiences and ddestroyed or twisted is the victory. "I've found that just surviving is a noble fight." -B. Joel To my mind, the most fascinating part of the book is the glimpses of history so old it's myth: the 20th century and the apocolyptic war which drove the world back to the bronze age. Throw in a little evolution of psychokinesis and you have the general setting. More swords and political intruige than wizards and spells. Actually, there isn't a wizard or a spell in the whole thing. This story, like Stirling's 'SnowBrother' set the stage for the main characters eventual alliance. Taken as a whole, the 'prequels' are better for adding dimension to the novels 'Sabre & Shadow' (originally released as 'The sharpest edge'... but S&S is enhanced and superior), 'The Cage' and 'Shadow's Son'. Good standalone books, but best read sequentially.

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best novels I've ever read.
Review: ...and that's out of thousands.

I cannot recomend this novel highly enough. Possibly the best I've ever read. Back in '92, I almost decided to not buy "Shadow's Daughter" when I stumbled across it on a bookstore shelf - I was soon very glad I didn't.

This would be fantasy, if you're one of those people who care. Set in the 4900's (Fifth Millenium) AD, after global collapse of civilization in the 2000's.

I am extremely impressed by Meier's skill at making her characters seem REAL, especially in the way she's able to convey a character's inarticulate thoughts in text. A great story, and with moral/ethical messages (for example, on justification) if you care to look for them. This is not a "nice" book - no Xanth here - expect nastiness at least on the level of Drake - but all done so POWERFULLY that it can only draw you further into the story. It's not PERFECT (as Haldeman said, no book is) but, imo, it is a masterpiece.

Meier is, as far as I know, an unknown. Someone this good shouldn't be.

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best novels I've ever read.
Review: ...and that's out of thousands.

I cannot recomend this novel highly enough. Possibly the best I've ever read. Back in '92, I almost decided to not buy "Shadow's Daughter" when I stumbled across it on a bookstore shelf - I was soon very glad I didn't.

This would be fantasy, if you're one of those people who care. Set in the 4900's (Fifth Millenium) AD, after global collapse of civilization in the 2000's.

I am extremely impressed by Meier's skill at making her characters seem REAL, especially in the way she's able to convey a character's inarticulate thoughts in text. A great story, and with moral/ethical messages (for example, on justification) if you care to look for them. This is not a "nice" book - no Xanth here - expect nastiness at least on the level of Drake - but all done so POWERFULLY that it can only draw you further into the story. It's not PERFECT (as Haldeman said, no book is) but, imo, it is a masterpiece.

Meier is, as far as I know, an unknown. Someone this good shouldn't be.

Rating:
Summary: Easily one of the best novels I've ever read.
Review: ...and that's out of thousands.

I cannot recomend this novel highly enough. Possibly the best I've ever read. Back in '92, I almost decided to not buy "Shadow's Daughter" when I stumbled across it on a bookstore shelf - I was soon very glad I didn't.

This would be fantasy, if you're one of those people who care. Set in the 4900's (Fifth Millenium) AD, after global collapse of civilization in the 2000's.

I am extremely impressed by Meier's skill at making her characters seem REAL, especially in the way she's able to convey a character's inarticulate thoughts in text. A great story, and with moral/ethical messages (for example, on justification) if you care to look for them. This is not a "nice" book - no Xanth here - expect nastiness at least on the level of Drake - but all done so POWERFULLY that it can only draw you further into the story. It's not PERFECT (as Haldeman said, no book is) but, imo, it is a masterpiece.

Meier is, as far as I know, an unknown. Someone this good shouldn't be.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I picked up this book in the bookstore based on the words "she becomes a hero". I love reading books about female heros. In the book, I don't believe Megan turned into a hero, but I enjoyed the book very much anyway. Megan is 3 or so when we first start the book. I thought the author did a very good job of capturing the thoughts of a 3 year old. Megan turns into a very mature person faster than most people because she has a very hard life. The only complaint I had about the book was the fact that it was sometimes hard to follow. I'd read one paragraph and then in the next paragraph I wasn't sure if there was supposed to have been a period of time in between it. Aside from that, the book was very good.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: I picked up this book in the bookstore based on the words "she becomes a hero". I love reading books about female heros. In the book, I don't believe Megan turned into a hero, but I enjoyed the book very much anyway. Megan is 3 or so when we first start the book. I thought the author did a very good job of capturing the thoughts of a 3 year old. Megan turns into a very mature person faster than most people because she has a very hard life. The only complaint I had about the book was the fact that it was sometimes hard to follow. I'd read one paragraph and then in the next paragraph I wasn't sure if there was supposed to have been a period of time in between it. Aside from that, the book was very good.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth my time to read
Review: The cover blurb says that the title character, Megan, endures hardships and becomes a hero. Well, the hardships were obvious, but I saw no sign of this hero.

Megan comes across as a strong character, but in my opinion, there's nothing particularly likable about her. I wasn't caught up in her life and found myself mostly just looking forward to being done with the book. Even at the worst points in her life, I found that while I was sympathic to her plight, her own matter-of-fact acceptance of it, gave me little empathy for her.

Another problem, although perhaps it is related to the first, is the language. I enjoy books with new vocabulary that draw me into the culture of the author's world. It's wonderful to be able to derive a new world's meaning from its context. However, Shadow's Daughter had far too much specialized language crowded in, usually in awkward ways, to the point of annoyance. There are actually several pages of definitions in the appendix.

I picked up the book because I liked the cover art and the synopsis. I should know by now not to judge a book by its cover.