Helpful Score: 1
A master thief named Shadow Harold doesn't realize he's the only hope the kingdom, Siala, has from the rising dark forces of The Nameless One until he finds himself under the commission of the king to retrieve the a magical artifact that has the power to keep the Nameless One at bay. Unfortunately, not only is the artifact located in the dangerous Hrad Spein, but Harold seems to be finding all sorts of trouble even before the trip begins...
At first, I was incredibly torn on my impression of SHADOW PROWLER. At first, I thought that there wasn't a dab of originality in the entire thing: a reluctant thief-hero, orcs and dark elves, a darkness (led by The Nameless One) rising to crush the good nation... But my opinion has changed.
I was a bit surprised to find that the majority of SHADOW PROWLER takes place before the journey to Hrad Spein even begins. Then again, I sort of enjoyed this, because I can find journey epics to be a little silly if each volume has to obtain a new and different goal. Rather, Harold spends his time before the journey getting into trouble with various people: a mysterious figure called the "Master," the guild master of the thieves' guild, and a strange assassin...
As four the protagonist, Harold is both likable and unlikable, which is exactly how a thief should be really. (Although some of his comments regarding women really rubbed me the wrong way, they were far between, so I'm willing to let it go for now.) He was clever enough, sentimental at the right times, and action-oriented at others. While he may never be one of my favorite fantasy characters, he is certainly memorable.
Many of these scenes will seem familiar. I won't list them, but I spent quite a lot of the book feeling as if I had read this before. While this would be a fault in many books--and is to an extent in SHADOW PROWLER--it's also a redeeming quality. Strange, I know, so I'll explain further. Pretty much every element of SHADOW PROWLER (if not every) has been used successfully elsewhere in epic fantasy fiction. The journey to the magic artifact, the artifact that can bring down the evil enemy, the enemy called "The Nameless One", and even further--the very scenes and characters are pulled from the fuzzy familiar memory of fiction. Ordinarily, this would immediately mark an author as someone without imagination and unable to come up with a world of their own. However, as I suspected SHADOW PROWLER of this verdict, I felt that it didn't quite fit. There wasn't something right about calling the world unimaginative or repetitive. Simply speaking, SHADOW PROWLER was too compulsively readable (indeed the action never lets up) to be so. I spent the rest of the book trying to figure it out.
I think I have. My personal opinion is that SHADOW PROWLER means to delve into the memory banks of epic fantasy and pull up certain elements for its own use--and possibly commentary--on that fiction. I can't imagine that Pehov is so sheltered of an author that he's unaware of how if one skinned his plot and characters down to the bones it would easily overlay the bones of LORD OF THE RINGS. And so, I have to believe, because he obviously has talent, that he wants to invoke Tolkien and the others--and then twist it.
Sort of like Pehov's goblin-jester character, I have a feeling that SHADOW PROWLER is easy to underestimate.
That's my personal theory--and possible a justification for enjoying the book, even when the story is a familiar one. I'm hoping that Pehov will justify my interpretation further with the next book.
Otherwise, SHADOW PROWLER has it's issues. The narrative flow isn't as smooth as it could be in places, the comedic elements (the jester, the surly thief protagonist, many dark scenes with tones of humor) are sometimes well-timed and sometimes off, but overall, I'd hesitantly recommend the book for those epic fantasy fans with a good sense of humor. Reading through SHADOW PROWLER could have easily been a rehash of Tolkienian ideas, but instead it became a sort of genre-aware run through those familiar scenes and places. Perhaps, guiltily, with a quicker pace than those original stories.
I'm still weighing in on what I think of Pehov's series exactly. Undeniably, I had some fun reading SHADOW PROWLER, but the second book will make or break the series for me.
My last thought: because everyone has been griping about Harold's tendency to refer to himself in the third person: I liked it. It fit the offbeat feel of the book and was unusual.
At first, I was incredibly torn on my impression of SHADOW PROWLER. At first, I thought that there wasn't a dab of originality in the entire thing: a reluctant thief-hero, orcs and dark elves, a darkness (led by The Nameless One) rising to crush the good nation... But my opinion has changed.
I was a bit surprised to find that the majority of SHADOW PROWLER takes place before the journey to Hrad Spein even begins. Then again, I sort of enjoyed this, because I can find journey epics to be a little silly if each volume has to obtain a new and different goal. Rather, Harold spends his time before the journey getting into trouble with various people: a mysterious figure called the "Master," the guild master of the thieves' guild, and a strange assassin...
As four the protagonist, Harold is both likable and unlikable, which is exactly how a thief should be really. (Although some of his comments regarding women really rubbed me the wrong way, they were far between, so I'm willing to let it go for now.) He was clever enough, sentimental at the right times, and action-oriented at others. While he may never be one of my favorite fantasy characters, he is certainly memorable.
Many of these scenes will seem familiar. I won't list them, but I spent quite a lot of the book feeling as if I had read this before. While this would be a fault in many books--and is to an extent in SHADOW PROWLER--it's also a redeeming quality. Strange, I know, so I'll explain further. Pretty much every element of SHADOW PROWLER (if not every) has been used successfully elsewhere in epic fantasy fiction. The journey to the magic artifact, the artifact that can bring down the evil enemy, the enemy called "The Nameless One", and even further--the very scenes and characters are pulled from the fuzzy familiar memory of fiction. Ordinarily, this would immediately mark an author as someone without imagination and unable to come up with a world of their own. However, as I suspected SHADOW PROWLER of this verdict, I felt that it didn't quite fit. There wasn't something right about calling the world unimaginative or repetitive. Simply speaking, SHADOW PROWLER was too compulsively readable (indeed the action never lets up) to be so. I spent the rest of the book trying to figure it out.
I think I have. My personal opinion is that SHADOW PROWLER means to delve into the memory banks of epic fantasy and pull up certain elements for its own use--and possibly commentary--on that fiction. I can't imagine that Pehov is so sheltered of an author that he's unaware of how if one skinned his plot and characters down to the bones it would easily overlay the bones of LORD OF THE RINGS. And so, I have to believe, because he obviously has talent, that he wants to invoke Tolkien and the others--and then twist it.
Sort of like Pehov's goblin-jester character, I have a feeling that SHADOW PROWLER is easy to underestimate.
That's my personal theory--and possible a justification for enjoying the book, even when the story is a familiar one. I'm hoping that Pehov will justify my interpretation further with the next book.
Otherwise, SHADOW PROWLER has it's issues. The narrative flow isn't as smooth as it could be in places, the comedic elements (the jester, the surly thief protagonist, many dark scenes with tones of humor) are sometimes well-timed and sometimes off, but overall, I'd hesitantly recommend the book for those epic fantasy fans with a good sense of humor. Reading through SHADOW PROWLER could have easily been a rehash of Tolkienian ideas, but instead it became a sort of genre-aware run through those familiar scenes and places. Perhaps, guiltily, with a quicker pace than those original stories.
I'm still weighing in on what I think of Pehov's series exactly. Undeniably, I had some fun reading SHADOW PROWLER, but the second book will make or break the series for me.
My last thought: because everyone has been griping about Harold's tendency to refer to himself in the third person: I liked it. It fit the offbeat feel of the book and was unusual.
