While Mathew scares himself silly with foul fishy monsters from the depths, I have been enjoying two massive slabs of epic fantasy, in the form of Tad Williams‘ Shadowmarch and Shadowplay, the first two volumes of the Shadowmarch trilogy. I have a massive amount of respect for Williams – I would credit his stunning Memory, Sorrow and Thorn ‘trilogy’ (volume three was too massive to be published as a single volume) with igniting my interest in the world of fantasy beyond Lord of the Rings. The Shadowmarch trilogy marks his return to epic fantasy after a detour via science fiction (the Otherland series) and several standalone novels, and I was very excited when Shadowmarch was published – so excited that it sat on my shelf for several years! Only after Little, Brown kindly gave me a copy of Shadowplay did I feel moved to get stuck in, and I am glad I did. I have now read them both within the space of a couple of months.

Shadowmarch begins in the city of Southmarch, the royal seat of the Eddon family, rulers of the March Kingdoms. Several races other than humans inhabit Southmarch: living in the rock beneath the city are the Funderlings, a sort of cross between dwarves and hobbits, while in the dockside districts of the city, which is an island connected to the mainland by a causeway, live the Skimmers, a race of not-quite-human fisherfolk and sailors; finally, unknown to the rest, the tiny Rooftoppers (think The Borrowers with bows and arrows) eke out their existence. To the North lies the Shadowline, behind which mortals dare not venture – those who do emerge mad, or do not emerge at all. The Shadowline was created by the Qar, the fairy folk, as a sort of peace wall after the inability of humans to live alongside them resulted in much mutual bloodshed. To the peoples of Southmarch, the events before the creation of the Shadowline have faded in to legend, so it’s safe to say they’re all in for a bit of a shock when the fairies emerge from behind it.

As the first novel opens, Chert Blue Quartz, a Funderling, discovers a small boy abandoned near the Shadowline – and worse, the Shadowline appears to have moved closer to Southmarch. The King of Southmarch, Ollin, is the captive of a foreign despot, held for a ransom his kingdom cannot afford, leaving the country in the hands of his son Prince Kendrick. Kendrick’s younger siblings, the teenaged twins Barrick and Briony, miss their father and chafe at their royal duties and limitations. Lest things seem too focused on this northern kingdom, we also venture south, across the sea to the kingdom of the God-King and tyrant, Sulepsis, the Autarch of Xis, where we follow events in the life of Quinnitan, a girl in the service of one of the temples in the gigantic palace complex. The stage is set for three volumes of Williams’ complex plotting, wide range of characters and clever world-building.

It’s beyond the scope of a review such as this to describe the multiple plotlines that make up these books, the characters who we meet along the way and the reverses that many of them have to endure, but I will say this: Williams has devised a more complex plot than his previous fantasy trilogy, and seems to have learned some lessons about momentum. While a few sections drag slightly, and he is still prone to throwing in dream sequences, the frequent switches between characters maintain the pace pretty effectively. Most crucially, at the end of Shadowplay, it’s still not really clear what the overall story arc is – what is the significance of Flint, the boy from beyond the Shadowline? What are the Autarch’s intentions towards the March Kingdoms? Also unlike the earlier works, there are many more grey areas for characters to inhabit and we are not always sure who the good guys are, or what motivates them. This is in contrast to the (very enjoyable) ‘goodies v baddies’ approach in Memory, Sorrow and Thorn.

Williams writes exceedingly well – he evokes the atmosphere and scenery of a range of settings beautifully. His characterisation is a major strong point (not always something you can say about fantasy writers) and his command of language is better than ever (ditto!).

In the development of this new trilogy, one can feel the influences of writers who have come in to the fantasy genre since Williams started and made a big impact – K.J.Parker for the moral ambiguity, Steven Erikson for the complex mythos that underpins the whole story, and R. Scott Bakker, especially in those parts of the book set in the Autarch’s court. I enjoyed these books immensely, and unusually for a fantasy trilogy, at the end of the second book I have very little inkling of how the story will play itself out. Roll on Shadowrise!

Bookmark to