Helpful Score: 1
I got a copy of this book to review through NetGalley(dot)com. I loved Marilliers Sevenwater series and was so excited to read another series by Marillier. This book is beautifully written but the story moves slowly and was hard to stay engaged with. The second book in this series will be titled Raven Flight and is scheduled for a 2013 release.
Neryn is blessed/cursed with the ability to see the Good Folk. She is orphaned and all alone in the world, but gets caught up in a plot to save the kingdom of Alban from the evil King who rules it. Outside of the Good Folk her only friend is a mysterious man who has saved her life, but seems to have questionable allegiances. Will Neryn be able to help save Alban from its cursed king?
This book is written beautifully, the description is beautiful, and the landscape is beautiful. Neryn is peaceful and graceful, yet surprisingly tough....like many of Marilliers heroines.
I loved watching Neryn struggle through trial after trial and loved her interactions with the Good Folk. The main thing I really didnt enjoy about this novel was the pacing. The story moves so deliberately that at times I just lost interest. Right at the beginning of the book we know Neryn is trying to get to Shadowfell. By the end of the book she finally arrives there. The rest of the book is the story of her journey.
While Neryns journey does have some excitement to it, mostly it is just a story of survival. She spends long stretches of the book trying to stay warm and trying to find food. She also spends a long stretch of the book alone with her thoughts recuperating in a cabin after her illness. Parts of these stretches are filled with beautiful thoughts and language; but they also come off as a bit boring.
During these stretches Neryn is just too complacent; I just wanted her to do something to make her situation better and she just didnt. Despite her resolve to reach Shadowfell she ends up becoming dependent on the Good Folk and the mysterious stranger. Her dependence on everyone else to survive and her lack of ability to take charge in any situation bothered me.
The book ends well enough, but as a reader we arent at a place that is all that far from where we started. I tried to think about what really had happened over the course of this book and there just isnt much.
Overall an okay fantasy read, I had hoped for something more engaging and more moving though. Marillier writes beautifully and the story reads very poetically. The pacing is very deliberate though and left my attention wandering at times. Neryn is one of those peaceful but tough heroines in the beginning of the book, but as the story continues she becomes too complacent and dependent on those around her. I would tentatively recommend this book to fans of deliberately paced adventure/survival fantasies. I would strongly recommend reading Marilliers Sevenwaters books first though; I thought those books were much better than this one.
Neryn is blessed/cursed with the ability to see the Good Folk. She is orphaned and all alone in the world, but gets caught up in a plot to save the kingdom of Alban from the evil King who rules it. Outside of the Good Folk her only friend is a mysterious man who has saved her life, but seems to have questionable allegiances. Will Neryn be able to help save Alban from its cursed king?
This book is written beautifully, the description is beautiful, and the landscape is beautiful. Neryn is peaceful and graceful, yet surprisingly tough....like many of Marilliers heroines.
I loved watching Neryn struggle through trial after trial and loved her interactions with the Good Folk. The main thing I really didnt enjoy about this novel was the pacing. The story moves so deliberately that at times I just lost interest. Right at the beginning of the book we know Neryn is trying to get to Shadowfell. By the end of the book she finally arrives there. The rest of the book is the story of her journey.
While Neryns journey does have some excitement to it, mostly it is just a story of survival. She spends long stretches of the book trying to stay warm and trying to find food. She also spends a long stretch of the book alone with her thoughts recuperating in a cabin after her illness. Parts of these stretches are filled with beautiful thoughts and language; but they also come off as a bit boring.
During these stretches Neryn is just too complacent; I just wanted her to do something to make her situation better and she just didnt. Despite her resolve to reach Shadowfell she ends up becoming dependent on the Good Folk and the mysterious stranger. Her dependence on everyone else to survive and her lack of ability to take charge in any situation bothered me.
The book ends well enough, but as a reader we arent at a place that is all that far from where we started. I tried to think about what really had happened over the course of this book and there just isnt much.
Overall an okay fantasy read, I had hoped for something more engaging and more moving though. Marillier writes beautifully and the story reads very poetically. The pacing is very deliberate though and left my attention wandering at times. Neryn is one of those peaceful but tough heroines in the beginning of the book, but as the story continues she becomes too complacent and dependent on those around her. I would tentatively recommend this book to fans of deliberately paced adventure/survival fantasies. I would strongly recommend reading Marilliers Sevenwaters books first though; I thought those books were much better than this one.
I write this review from the point of view of a Juliet Marillier fan who, shamefully, has only read a handful of her books (so far!). SHADOWFELL, the first book in her new YA fantasy series, may not be as canonical as some of her other works, but it is still a solidly good fantasy read that will please fantasy and non-fantasy readers alike.
SHADOWFELLs strengths lie, strangely enough, in its great use of common fantasy tropes. Say what? But you hate tropes, Steph! Yeah, well, sometimes you just need a story in your favorite genre with a bit of feel-good predictability. SHADOWFELL does that primarily with its straightforward quest plot, angelic heroine, and simmering romance.
The primary thing that Neryn does in this story is walkall the wayto her destination. Rather than be bored, however, I was fully engrossed in the many adventures she encountered along the way: the people she talked to, the Folk she befriended, the constant tense threat of encroaching Enforcers. Marillier doesnt spend too much prose describing the landscape of Alban, but you know enough to envision Neryn traversing dark forests thick with thousand-year-old trees, bleak rocky landscapes, and mountain ridges with the sharp autumn wind conspiring to push her off the edge of the world. Neryn may only do one thing throughout SHADOWFELL, but the story purrs along in that smooth, pleasant way of good rides.
Neryn is a sympathetic heroine, despite her being almost too good to be true. As she unwittingly completes more and more of the tests that determine her (ahem) calling, she maintains a sort of golden-heartedness that seems only to exist in literature. Neryn follows her late grandmothers mantra of You always have something to give others so carefully that some readers might be prone to rolling their eyes. Nevertheless, she makes for the perfect protagonist for a quest plot, as she encounters, and overcomes, a number of scenarios and obstacles.
Lastbut certainly not leastwe have what probably makes all of Marilliers fantasies stand out the most: the romance. Huzzah, no insta-luv! Flint and Neryns attraction develops almost painfully slowly. Neither one of them had an upbringing that endears them to easily trusting others. Perhaps the thing I appreciated most in SHADOWFELL was how we readers, alongside Neryn, never knew whether or not we could trust Flint. That man sure walks the line between two sides so talently. The uncertainty of Flints loyalty adds a refreshing uncertainty to this literary romance.
SHADOWFELL probably doesnt break any new grounds in fantasy, but its the sort of story that couldve easily gone wrong at the hands of a less talented author. Marillier fans, this book may not be your new Marillier favorite, but it is worth your time. And as SHADOWFELLs voice runs a little younger, this may be the perfect book to give to young readers who have received devoured all of Tamora Pierces books and are begging for more.
SHADOWFELLs strengths lie, strangely enough, in its great use of common fantasy tropes. Say what? But you hate tropes, Steph! Yeah, well, sometimes you just need a story in your favorite genre with a bit of feel-good predictability. SHADOWFELL does that primarily with its straightforward quest plot, angelic heroine, and simmering romance.
The primary thing that Neryn does in this story is walkall the wayto her destination. Rather than be bored, however, I was fully engrossed in the many adventures she encountered along the way: the people she talked to, the Folk she befriended, the constant tense threat of encroaching Enforcers. Marillier doesnt spend too much prose describing the landscape of Alban, but you know enough to envision Neryn traversing dark forests thick with thousand-year-old trees, bleak rocky landscapes, and mountain ridges with the sharp autumn wind conspiring to push her off the edge of the world. Neryn may only do one thing throughout SHADOWFELL, but the story purrs along in that smooth, pleasant way of good rides.
Neryn is a sympathetic heroine, despite her being almost too good to be true. As she unwittingly completes more and more of the tests that determine her (ahem) calling, she maintains a sort of golden-heartedness that seems only to exist in literature. Neryn follows her late grandmothers mantra of You always have something to give others so carefully that some readers might be prone to rolling their eyes. Nevertheless, she makes for the perfect protagonist for a quest plot, as she encounters, and overcomes, a number of scenarios and obstacles.
Lastbut certainly not leastwe have what probably makes all of Marilliers fantasies stand out the most: the romance. Huzzah, no insta-luv! Flint and Neryns attraction develops almost painfully slowly. Neither one of them had an upbringing that endears them to easily trusting others. Perhaps the thing I appreciated most in SHADOWFELL was how we readers, alongside Neryn, never knew whether or not we could trust Flint. That man sure walks the line between two sides so talently. The uncertainty of Flints loyalty adds a refreshing uncertainty to this literary romance.
SHADOWFELL probably doesnt break any new grounds in fantasy, but its the sort of story that couldve easily gone wrong at the hands of a less talented author. Marillier fans, this book may not be your new Marillier favorite, but it is worth your time. And as SHADOWFELLs voice runs a little younger, this may be the perfect book to give to young readers who have received devoured all of Tamora Pierces books and are begging for more.
