Rating: 
Summary: Get the Chills on a Hot Summer Day!
Review: I love this book, it is scary, fun, fast, and really takes you into another world. This book is so creepy, I would recommend that you read it by the fireplace in the winter so you don't turn into an ice sculpture. I had to check the doors and windows twice each time I started reading this book . . . Wonderful fun especially for kids or adults who like fantasy books, comic books, and video games.
Rating: 
Summary: Not even in the same league as H. Potter
Review: I have read all the Harry Potter books and although they are considered children's literature enjoyed the story and loved the characters. I read a review of Shadowmancer and how wonderful the book was and thought the family would love it. As it wasn't in the US yet I had a friend bring it back from a business trip in the UK. What a waste of a favor! I have been trying to wade through this book for the past week and a half. Utterly boring. I feel like I am in Sunday School again just with different names but somewhat the same stories. Please don't waste your time or money on this one.
Rating: 
Summary: C. S. Lewis meets J. K. Rowling
Review: Shadowmancer is a wonderful story, although it is a bit lean on character development and the Christian subtext is, at times, a little too preachy. But the story is rich and very well told, with a fast paced and exciting plot line. Fantasy lovers who enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter will love this one. And at a mere 304 pages, seasoned Harry Potter fans will rip right through it. G. P. Taylor shows great potential as a writer and I look forward to the sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor character development
Review: No matter what some want you to believe, this book doesn't come close to the works of Rowling and Tolkien in readability, plot, and most of all character development. It might have worked had the author taken the time to paint a better picture of where and when it takes place, and given the characters much more of a history so we could get to know them and understand them. The book is very hard to get into because of these failings, and there's no real suspense or sense of awe or wonder in what occurs as the story unfolds. It could have been so much better, and I wonder if the author will make any attempt to correct these failings in the sequel or whether it will be worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: atmospheric and compelling
Review: 3 kids against the monster who wants to control their souls! Wow! Its exciting and compelling. I don't exactly like the wierd creatures so much, but I love the atmophere of the village where they live. It really takes you there to read it. Good job!. Also recommended is Prairie Whispers, another book with real atmosphere of a different time and place. And exciting story of a girl who takes a baby and no one knows it.
Rating: 
Summary: Vaguely Unremarkable
Review: The book, while I did enjoy a few elements of it (one of the reasons it actually eeked three stars from me) was tedious and really seemed to go nowhere. I put it down several times, and each time had to go back and reread the last fifty or so pages because I could not remember what had happened. Shadowmancer is unremarkable, in so many ways that it is almost unique. It almost felt like a book that was required for a class- it would have been good, if it weren't supposed to be educational. Buy it. In paperback.
Then again, if you are that determined to read it, exercise your library card before you decide to buy it- it might save you the cost of a hardcover.
Rating:
Summary: Feh. Ick. Bleah. Overhyped beyond words
Review: It's rather hard to imagine a vicar writing this book, there is enough seeminess to fill a sewer. I think if I hear one more book is 'the new Harry Potter' and than have it turn out this bad I will choke. AVOID!
Rating:
Summary: Absolute Rubbish
Review: All I can say about this book is wow. But that wow is not a stand up and yell cause I just found the best book I've ever read wow, instead it is a quiet, shake my head in absolute wonder wow that I believed the hype and actually paid money for Shadowmancer. This book is perhaps one of the most poorly written books I have ever read. I'd love to say that the plot is ingenious, but it's not. I'd love to say that it's a cliff hanger, but it's not (guess what? God wins in the end - sorry to have spoiled it for you). I'd love to say that the characters are unique and have depth but they don't. The one girl character is quickly put in her place at the beginning of the story when she is changed out of boy clothes into a proper dress that she wears until the end of the story. This is done by people with five fingers and a thumb on each hand, - what interesting insight into their character. The boy main character, Thomas (wanna know a secret, at the end of the story he doubts his faith) is nothing short of ridiculous. His actions are not consistent, his verbal dialog forced and the scene with his mother - well sorry to be redundant but also forced. We have bad guys named Demurral (wait a minute, that wouldn't be pronounced like the word Demerol a very potent narcotic that is often abused on the street is it?) and Finnesterre (not to be confused with his cousin Mr. Sinister). We have good guys named Raphah and Abram, (clearly someone's spell check was on the fritz that day). And we have someone carrying a cross shaped case on his back while he stumbles on a steep stone path - you know that reminds me of something I've heard about before but I just can't place one of my four fingers on it. There are phrases like "he hoped against hope" (rule number one - to be a good writer means you stay away from clichés). "I never thought I'd see the day when I would be asked to stand for God. Can't he fight his own battles?" Just on more example of the absolutely riveting literature found in this book. The scenes are trite and predictable. I imagine that somewhere there is a checklist for Christian literature and this author decided to include everything from that list. In the bad corner we have alcohol, Tarot cards, greed, deception and Halloween. In the good corner we have (far too many) sheep, mustard seeds, Christmas (for no apparent reason other than checking it off of that Christian list), lots of breaking bread and glowing crystals shaped like eggs. To be somewhat fair, I didn't realize that this was Christian literature when I got the book (that fact is cleverly hidden), this is not the type of book that I would normally read. But having said that, I'm sure that there are Christian writers who can develop a good plot with solid characters. This book is about 5 re-writes short of that kind of potential. I finished the book because I read some of the other reviews and thought that maybe I was missing something, maybe the author somehow pulls this off in the last 100 pages, 50 pages, even the last 10 pages, but when I closed the book, I knew I had been tricked just like all the other good people had been in the story. The evil ones lost, the good guys won and I was out the money I spent on this book. I've read in reviews (from Newsweek of all places) that this book may be the next Harry Potter - please. Harry -relax, you've got nothing to worry about. Sigh. Sigh.
Rating:
Summary: disappointing
Review: I began reading this book very predisposed to like it, but found it terribly disappointing. Having heard good reviews and comparisons to JK Rowling and Philip Pullman, I plugged on til the end, hoping that it would get better, but it never did. While I could see that some children might find the story exciting because of the constant appearance of smugglers, trap doors, hidden tunnels and sliding wall panels, I can't see why this book could cross over into the adult market. I found the language stilted and cliche-ridden and the Biblical allegories unimaginative and unilluminatingly obvious. It seemed like Taylor was trying to write a Christian book that would appeal to fantasy readers and Tolkien fans, but the brazen allegory would have Tolkien turning in his grave. It starts rather obscurely, with lots of occultic references, and ends like a Pentacostal revival meeting, but with none of its power because of the clumsy writing. Although the two child characters through the story are supposed to grow into good Christians (sorry, followers of Riathamus), their development is forced. Here's an example of a key point in the development of Kate, a main character who has been completely one-dimensional up to this point (and remains so, I think.): "She had lost all the trust she had in [her father], in fact in everyone. Life with her father had never been easy. It was his drinking that had always been the problem. He would fly into a rage at the slightest thing, shout and scream and then break down in tears. For many years she had thought it was her fault, that in some way she was responsible. Kate could never live up to his expectations, she could never be a child, never play games. Her lot in life was to cook and clean, to sew and mend. These were his demands. He wanted her to be a mother, a servant, but never a daughter. Tonight she had leant that he had been living a double life, and realized that her father had been slowly poisoned by the death of her mother, the guilt, the pain, and now the deception. 'It's not my fault, it's not my fault,' she kept repeating under her breath as she thought of her father and of how he had betrayed her." Taylor is economical with his character development; he gets it over in one paragraph. The monsters/demons/scary things were also equally unconvincing. Tolkien creates some great monsters, Taylor never even gives them good descriptions or personalities, just piggybacks on what we know of other beasties from other fantasy stories. And evil is equally unconvincing and entirely unattractive. If someone wanted to recommend obviously Christian allegorical books to their kids, there are books out there that are better written. John White's Anthropos books ('The Tower of Geburah', 'The Iron Sceptre', etc ) are at least very readable. And other, not overtly Christian books can get kids thinking without resorting to churchy language and religious cliches, just changing names and adding bogeymen. I admire Taylor's attempt to make a good, scary story, and he knows which props will appeal to readers, but I think he needs to keep writing and learn to flesh out his characters and create a more subtle and convincing manifestations of both good and evil. I hope he keeps at it.
Rating:
Summary: Be ready to be scared!
Review: Shadowmancer by GP Taylor is one scary read! Eek! But, that's why I read this book in the first place. I really enjoy books of this exciting genre and believe me this book gave me exactly what I crave. Fun book. Try it. I think you will agree fighting the forces of evil can be both exciting and fun!
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