Rating: 
Summary: Disjointed and dull
Review: This book failed to get and hold my attention. It's not the religious underpinings, it's the wildly inconsistent style. The action starts quickly but it's so poorly described to become both boring and confusing!
Rating: 
Summary: Shadowmancer, not the best book, but a good read anyway.
Review: I saw the author in an interview on some morning news program a couple of weeks ago. I thought his book sounded interresting, but proceeded to mostly forget about it.Two days ago I was in a book store and saw the book on the shelf. The cover artwork caught my eye and I read the information inside the jacket. The information on the jacket reminded me of the interview so I decided to buy the book. Taylor's Shadowmancer tells the story of three teens who are on a quest to save an artifact that had been stolen and resold. The artifact is purported to have some type of mystical powers. The story takes the teens through some tense situations where they must defend themselves and the artifact against very powerful spiritual beings and against people who would use the artifact's powers to obtain more power for themselves. I thought the story was very enjoyable. It was not the best book I have ever read, but it was not one that I gave up half-way through either. If you enjoy books with some adventure mixed with suspense and spiritual warfare, you will probably enjoy this book. If you are offended by any mention of religion or spirituality, this book is probably not for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Breach of Promise
Review: So many possibilities for a great story, but alas, all squandered in the hurry to cram the book with too much undeveloped information. Within this relatively small book we have fallen priests, smugglers, dragoons, witchcraft, betrayal, greed, murder, exorcisms and even healing of the sick. We also have Boggles, Thulaks, Hobs, Hedge Witches, Dunamez, Glashan, Seloth, Wiccamen, Varrigals, an Azimuth and a War Dyke. We are treated to names like Obadiah Demurral, Beadle, Dagda Sarapuk, Gebra Nebura, and Azrubel. Unfortunately, the majority of these intriguing concepts are under-developed, and the story hops around like a drunken March hare. The basic underlying concept is simple - it's Riathamus (God) versus Pyratheon (the Devil), each with a couple of gophers to assist them with the good old battle between good and evil. Unfortunately, it's not very well written, and you can't be sure if the author is writing for children or adults. The storyline is definitely childish, but some of the concepts are adult. Maybe if J. K. Rowling hadn't written and published her little wizard stories, this book may have been a better read, but in the light of Harry Potter, it's a poseur. This is the little book that tried too hard. Amanda Richards
Rating: 
Summary: Bleh
Review: Quite frankly, a terrible book. If you HAVE to read this book, wait a few months and borrow it from the library. The characters are flat and undeveloped. Their history is written out in their introduction instead of slowly being revealed. Their character development falls flat, even the plot itself falls flat. The book was waaaay too preachy, but I thought until I could deal with that until I came to the ending which was horrible. Quite frankly, the author should have stuck to his job instead of deciding to try something new. Like many before me, I wish I could give 0 stars but sadly Amazon doesn't allow that.
Rating:
Summary: A fun book, but it has problems
Review: Like many other reviewers, I picked up this book because of the comparisons to Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. It's not as good as either of those, but I think the author shows real promise. The biggest problem felt like a lack of cohesive editing. The media has made a big deal of the fact that Taylor self-published this book before a publishing house picked it up, but I don't think anyone took the time to conduct a thorough editing of the book. It reads like a first draft. Yes, characters are shallow. Yes, the plot takes twist that don't always make logical sense. Those are first-draft problems. On the other hand, the plot is fun. And like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, there's a definite line drawn between good and evil. Taylor does not believe in gray characters in this book, and it's nice to read about good people struggling to accomplish good deeds -- especially with such an overtly Christian message layered on top of it all. This is an author to watch when he comes out with a sequel -- a well-edited sequel. He's already telling a good story, and I think he'll put out a top-rate book if someone (himself or his publisher) forces him to shore up the weak points from this first book.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: The book was truly disappointing. As an avid reader of fantasy I too was deceived with the false advertisements that this was the next Harry Potter. It is neither that nor anything close to Tolkien or even Eragon. The book is poorly written and quite disjointed. I do not recommend this book for either young adults or adults and as a teacher I would highly discourage it from being put in any classroom library.
Rating:
Summary: Great reading for teens and adults.
Review: This is a quick read that will be enjoyable to readers from their teen years through older adults. A strong story of good versus evil. Also recommended Chrisian reading for teens to adults, Bruce Conn's "The Curse of Durgan's Reef."
Rating:
Summary: Much Ado About Nothing: Imitation is Another Word for Fake
Review: Arrogantly advertised as "Hotter than Potter," and as an appropriate non-occultic Christian alternative, Shadowmancer is neither.
As Graham Taylor told the BBC,
"A lot of the pagan stuff in my book is genuine material. Part of Demural's prayer to invoke the sea is taken from the witches' rite of invocation. So people can find far more stuff in my book than in Harry Potter."
Also disturbing, and more than slightly sacrilegious, is the toted magical powers of a self-aware (read "living") golden cherub stolen from the Ark of the Covenant. With it, the Arch-villain believes he can wield power over the god of the book.
Make no mistake: this god is (wink) God. Yet although the religious symbols are taken from Judaism, Christianity, and Muslim tradition, Graham renames the Almighty, lest the reader suspect the plot is slightly (gasp) religious in nature.
Not content with "borrowing" themes from C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, Steven Spielberg, and J.K. Rowling, Graham re-writes sacred biblical material.
Poorly written and possibly profane, Shadowmancer is a cheap imitation of its betters.
Rating:
Summary: Great material, Love the spiritual insight, hated the ending
Review: Athough not a real fiction reader, I decided on reading Shadowmancer becuase of the hype that it was recieveing in Christian circles. Being a Christian that I am, I was very excited about a book that combined a spiritual otherwordly subject matter with an adventure story set in a very exotic and fascinating world of 1800 England. I was intrigued early in my reading and was very excited about the book but as i read, i felt that I was stumbling along a path of half finished character development and an ever more predictable plot. I still applaud the author for blatently exploring the spiritual side of the unseen in this book, I just wish he would have developed deeper characters and a more developed ending otherwise this would have been a 4 to 5 star subject for me!
Rating:
Summary: Good idea - Needs work
Review: G. P. Taylor seems like an interesting individual and his story has possibilities, but unfortunately the writing style is amateurish. The characters are so underdeveloped one hardly cares that they spend the entire time in mortal danger. The plot, while interesting, is shallow, contrived, and woefully thin. Taylor forces his story, like a child gasping out a startling event - the details are sparse; events are jumbled; and characters wander in and out for no apparent reason.
This book was a difficult read largely because the many flaws in the plot development ruined the action. For example, the description of Demurral's conversion from well-intentioned preacher to dark lord was completely implausible and inadequately explained. I found myself wondering what actually happened to explain his monstrous make-over. This is only one of many inconsistencies and shortcomings that distracted from the excitement of the story and made for a tedious and frustrating reading experience.
I heard that Taylor originally self-published the book. Maybe the editing got left out in the process. It's too bad. The author has a good idea, but his basic writing skills need work.
One final caution: this book is far darker, scarier, and more occult than Harry Potter, to which it is frequently compared. It is not for younger readers. I found it in the library in the yount adult section.
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