Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Roc (2006), Paperback, 528 pages
Description
Four thousand years ago, a great war took place among the gods, which shattered their heavenly realm. This Sundering created the land of Myrillia, where near-invincible gods live amongst men. Yet the weapon that fashioned the Sundering may also strike down the immortals, as failed Shadowknight Tylar discovers. He witnesses the death of a god, whose blood heals his deformities but brands him a Godslayer and a hunted criminal. Tylar flees with now god-like powers, seeking to avenge the god's death and clear his name. He must ultimately confront the greatest god of all and face the supreme treachery ...
User reviews
LibraryThing member BeezerMN
Shadowfall by James Clemens is the first book in a new series titled The Godslayer Chronicles. Evidently, Mr. Clemens also wrote another fantasy series, but I can not comment on that as I have never read it. When I first picked up this novel I thought it was a first time author, simply because I
The plot of this novel is epic in scope and delivery. There are many things going on, first off there is the death of a goddess. Who killed her and for what reasons is the crux of the story. Vindicating a wrongly accused man is one of the subplots that continues throughout the pages as well. There are also several levels of political underpinnings, both between factions of the gods, but also the leaders of the First Land. For good measure, there are also a couple of characters who have many questions about who they are and where they came one. Mr. Clemens has woven together many plot points, yet at no time does the story seem to drag or get muddled based on how many things are going on. In fact, having all these things going on seems to help the story flow as there is always something going on. The reader is constantly challenged not to put down the book. The adage of `just one more page' applied often while reading this novel.
The characters in this book are also very well thought out. Characters such as Tylar de Noche, Dart, Pupp (my favorite), Rogger, Krevan and many more. For several characters there is a great deal of character development present in this novel. However, not all of that development makes sense one hundred percent of the time. The character's dialog is also well done, it seems that every character has their own unique voice. At times, in some fantasy novels, every character talks the same leaving a guessing game for the reader to decide who is really saying something, not so with this novel. The characters in this book are rich, detailed and not the least bit clichéd.
A few draw backs about this novel.
While the world is richly detailed, interesting, and fresh. All the talk of Graces and body fluids seems to hamper the overall story. I understand that the Graces are important to the world and the set up, however, at times I felt as though they were being shoved down the readers throat instead of just being mentioned.
Also, I would have liked to see a little more explanation on the gods. Where they came from, different names, just more information. I felt that, even though the gods play an important part throughout the book, they were the least developed. Hopefully, in the next book they will be more developed.
Mr. Clemen's prose is very good and allows the reader to flow from page to page, but also point of view to point of view. I really enjoyed how he allowed one chapter to focus on one character instead of trying to jam multiple things into a chapter. This allowed for a casual, but focused, flow of the novel.
A I mentioned above, the world is richly detailed and obviously took a great deal of time to fully flesh out. It is rich with history and has just enough of a unique feel for the reader to stay interested, but not enough to confuse the reader.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much. It is a fantastic fantasy epic and one that seems to be skirting under the radar of most fantasy fans. I can easily see myself recommending this book to every fantasy fan. There is something in this novel that should please everyone. A great read, and I am eagerly looking forward to the next book.
Show More
had never heard his name before. However, within the first twenty five pages it is evident that Mr. Clemens has a gift for writing. The plot of this novel is epic in scope and delivery. There are many things going on, first off there is the death of a goddess. Who killed her and for what reasons is the crux of the story. Vindicating a wrongly accused man is one of the subplots that continues throughout the pages as well. There are also several levels of political underpinnings, both between factions of the gods, but also the leaders of the First Land. For good measure, there are also a couple of characters who have many questions about who they are and where they came one. Mr. Clemens has woven together many plot points, yet at no time does the story seem to drag or get muddled based on how many things are going on. In fact, having all these things going on seems to help the story flow as there is always something going on. The reader is constantly challenged not to put down the book. The adage of `just one more page' applied often while reading this novel.
The characters in this book are also very well thought out. Characters such as Tylar de Noche, Dart, Pupp (my favorite), Rogger, Krevan and many more. For several characters there is a great deal of character development present in this novel. However, not all of that development makes sense one hundred percent of the time. The character's dialog is also well done, it seems that every character has their own unique voice. At times, in some fantasy novels, every character talks the same leaving a guessing game for the reader to decide who is really saying something, not so with this novel. The characters in this book are rich, detailed and not the least bit clichéd.
A few draw backs about this novel.
While the world is richly detailed, interesting, and fresh. All the talk of Graces and body fluids seems to hamper the overall story. I understand that the Graces are important to the world and the set up, however, at times I felt as though they were being shoved down the readers throat instead of just being mentioned.
Also, I would have liked to see a little more explanation on the gods. Where they came from, different names, just more information. I felt that, even though the gods play an important part throughout the book, they were the least developed. Hopefully, in the next book they will be more developed.
Mr. Clemen's prose is very good and allows the reader to flow from page to page, but also point of view to point of view. I really enjoyed how he allowed one chapter to focus on one character instead of trying to jam multiple things into a chapter. This allowed for a casual, but focused, flow of the novel.
A I mentioned above, the world is richly detailed and obviously took a great deal of time to fully flesh out. It is rich with history and has just enough of a unique feel for the reader to stay interested, but not enough to confuse the reader.
Overall, I enjoyed this book very much. It is a fantastic fantasy epic and one that seems to be skirting under the radar of most fantasy fans. I can easily see myself recommending this book to every fantasy fan. There is something in this novel that should please everyone. A great read, and I am eagerly looking forward to the next book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Power_to_the_J
I picked up this book on an impulse without haring anything about it or even recognizing the author (I've read Wit'ch, but at that moment my memory was a tad fuzzy. Anyway, I had about fifteen books held in my quickly numbing arms, and knew that I had to narrow down my selection or go hungry for
When I got home this book still stuck with me, so I kept reading, and was delighted to find that Dart and her story kept me as engaged and interested as Tylar's. I sprinted through the first 200 pages or so, loving every twist and wonderful new location and/or creature. The ending of this book wasn't all I hoped for, sadly. It seemed rushed and almost like a different book compared to the rest of the text. It took away from the overall enjoyment.
Usually, I'm very much against black-and-white terms within books, especially in fantasy (most likely because it's so common), but I liked this book. It wasn't truly black and white; more like dark gray and light gray. Either way, Clemens pulled it off and did a fantastic job of it.
Even though I have something of a sour taste in my mouth thanks to the ending, I'm still going to pick up Hinterland and--hopefully--enjoy it as much as I did this one.
Plot (8/10): Engaging and new, something that I love. The gods have been talked about so much in prose, but I still really enjoyed this plot, despite all of the weird gods-peeing stuff. That was a little bit gross.
Characters (8.5/10): The dialogue was sharp, and each character had a distinctive voice. I loved all of the protagonists and hated all of the antagonists. Every main character was very nicely developed, and I liked witnessing that (and hardly noticing it; only realizing it when I think back now) happen. Some of their growth seemed a little "off" to me, but it didn't hinder the experience too much.
Style (9.5/10): Extremely well done until the funky ending, which is why I take away .5 from this category. In my fantasy, I like a well developed world with new things for me to experience and find believable, but I don't want it to overpower the prose. Books like Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself and Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind are two examples of that, and I can happily add Shadowfall to the list. Everything is explained to me in a way that gives me a clear picture in my mind, but it isn't overpowering and takes nothing away from the overall storytelling. This book kept some pretty good tricks up its sleeve, and there were plenty of twists, most of which I couldn't see coming.
Total: 26/30 or 4 and a half Stars.
In conclusion, this is an excellent book and one that I recommend, and I hope that the next book brings the freshness from the first and gets rid of the writing that concludes this. I suggest reading this.
Show More
the night. So, I began reading the first chapter of each book, eliminating the ones that I didn't like by the end of the first page or so. When I came to Shadowfall I was instantly sucked into Tylar's world as he tried to make it out of the fight alive, and added that to my "buy" list. When I got home this book still stuck with me, so I kept reading, and was delighted to find that Dart and her story kept me as engaged and interested as Tylar's. I sprinted through the first 200 pages or so, loving every twist and wonderful new location and/or creature. The ending of this book wasn't all I hoped for, sadly. It seemed rushed and almost like a different book compared to the rest of the text. It took away from the overall enjoyment.
Usually, I'm very much against black-and-white terms within books, especially in fantasy (most likely because it's so common), but I liked this book. It wasn't truly black and white; more like dark gray and light gray. Either way, Clemens pulled it off and did a fantastic job of it.
Even though I have something of a sour taste in my mouth thanks to the ending, I'm still going to pick up Hinterland and--hopefully--enjoy it as much as I did this one.
Plot (8/10): Engaging and new, something that I love. The gods have been talked about so much in prose, but I still really enjoyed this plot, despite all of the weird gods-peeing stuff. That was a little bit gross.
Characters (8.5/10): The dialogue was sharp, and each character had a distinctive voice. I loved all of the protagonists and hated all of the antagonists. Every main character was very nicely developed, and I liked witnessing that (and hardly noticing it; only realizing it when I think back now) happen. Some of their growth seemed a little "off" to me, but it didn't hinder the experience too much.
Style (9.5/10): Extremely well done until the funky ending, which is why I take away .5 from this category. In my fantasy, I like a well developed world with new things for me to experience and find believable, but I don't want it to overpower the prose. Books like Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself and Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind are two examples of that, and I can happily add Shadowfall to the list. Everything is explained to me in a way that gives me a clear picture in my mind, but it isn't overpowering and takes nothing away from the overall storytelling. This book kept some pretty good tricks up its sleeve, and there were plenty of twists, most of which I couldn't see coming.
Total: 26/30 or 4 and a half Stars.
In conclusion, this is an excellent book and one that I recommend, and I hope that the next book brings the freshness from the first and gets rid of the writing that concludes this. I suggest reading this.
Show Less
LibraryThing member rdjanssen
Shadowfall centers on Tylar de Noche, a former Shadowknight who is accused of being a godslayer as he is the only surviving witness to the murder of a goddess. From there the story takes on the life of a mystery tale as the protagonist and his allies must discover who is behind the murder and what
This was a good story and a fast read. Clemens shows some remarkable talent for imagery and storytelling. At times the action was fast and fierce and James easily pulls the reader along. At times this was slower and methodical, allowing the reader to catch up with the plot and reveal hidden secrets.
One interesting aspect of the book/series is the authors use of humours. Humours are the fluids of the body: blood, “seed” or mense, sweat, tears, salvia, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Early medical science was based in a person’s humours being balanced as an indicator of good health, and in truth there is something to this notion. In Shadowfall, there are beings known as gods who “grace” humankind with their humours, each fluid having a different purpose.
I enjoyed the story, but for all its world shattering scope didn’t come off quite as epic as it should have. Nonetheless, this is an entertaining story and is continued in a second volume titled Hinterland.
Show More
their motives may be.This was a good story and a fast read. Clemens shows some remarkable talent for imagery and storytelling. At times the action was fast and fierce and James easily pulls the reader along. At times this was slower and methodical, allowing the reader to catch up with the plot and reveal hidden secrets.
One interesting aspect of the book/series is the authors use of humours. Humours are the fluids of the body: blood, “seed” or mense, sweat, tears, salvia, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. Early medical science was based in a person’s humours being balanced as an indicator of good health, and in truth there is something to this notion. In Shadowfall, there are beings known as gods who “grace” humankind with their humours, each fluid having a different purpose.
I enjoyed the story, but for all its world shattering scope didn’t come off quite as epic as it should have. Nonetheless, this is an entertaining story and is continued in a second volume titled Hinterland.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Chipped
James Clemens paints a world crowded with schizophrenic Gods, daemons, knights and other monsters all overly obsessed with bodily functions. Full of twists and turns which while interesting are fairly predictable as the plot develops.
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
Tylar de Noche is already in trouble, he was betrayed and broken in a slave ship. He was once a shadowknight of the realm, now his sword hand is useless and his legs and back are twisted. He comforts himself with drink, and one day as he goes home he finds himself drawn to a woman's screams. He
Tylar finds that he has to be the pivot in an attempt to save the world.
It's interesting and while it is quite a large book I found this quite an interesting read. I was drawn into the characters and really wanted to know what was going to happen next. I do want to read more of the series and see what happens next.
Show More
holds her in his arms as she dies and he realises that she's in fact a goddess and when other people arrive they think that he's the killer.Tylar finds that he has to be the pivot in an attempt to save the world.
It's interesting and while it is quite a large book I found this quite an interesting read. I was drawn into the characters and really wanted to know what was going to happen next. I do want to read more of the series and see what happens next.
Show Less
LibraryThing member bjanecarp
Shadowfall was written by James Clemens in 2005, and is the first book of the Godslayer Chronicles. It follows three characters through the world of Myrillia. A goddess is killed and a young broken knight named Tylar, who was expelled from his order, is framed for the murder. A girl named Dart is
Speaking of magic: Clemens' chosen system (and also Myrillia's world economy) is based on the humours (in the Renaissance sense, meaning bodily liquids) of the gods. that's right: to gain magical power, you rub yourself, or an object, in a god's blood, phlegm, pee, poo, sweat, tears, semen, menses, etc. The whole idea is simultaneously fascinating, because each of the nine humors has a magical effect, or Grace, and disgusting. Need I really go into why it's disgusting?
The plot is a fantastic circle of twists and turns, accusings, recriminations, and forgivings. I wasn't sure until the end of the book who to suspect was the bad guy, and who was the hero. Was Tylar good or deluded? How about Dart's Friend Laurelle? Is the thief Rogger a betrayer, or is he just playing a game? I honestly didn't know, and that kept me reading, just to see who would fall into which camp. Poor Tylar is hurt, stabbed, bled, mutilated, had his fingers broken multiple times, had his hand smashed by a hammer at one point (!) His characters don't often get a chance to breathe.
The book would be wonderful, if only Clemens could write.
Sigh. He managed to highlight just about every pet peeve I have with the fantasy genre. One-or-two word paragraphs." Only one person could descend. The godslayer.. He created a badly-explained, and frankly silly unnecessary, ancient language, printed entire paragraphs of text his unintelligible script. the magic sword RivenScryr, for example, comes from the synthetic tongue; the words mean "light" and "dark," and used to be spelled "ryvnn" and "skreer." You've got to be kidding, right? Apart from the EE/I/Y vowel drift, where they magically swapped with one another (and presumably make the same morpheme), who cares? If you want to call your sword, RivenScryr, I'm cool with that. The linguistic heritage from your silly language doesn't give it any more plausibility than, say, calling an entire race of people "hobbits."
His every-single-page use of question paragraphs; also annoying: "Who could she tell? What could she say? How could she explain? ." (p.33) Don't lead me with your ridiculous narrator. Tell me the story, and let ME decide which questions will be important. I promise I'm a big enough boy to figure out what things are going on in the plot.
I also might ask what the title means at this point, because at no moment in the book did it seem to relate to anyone, or anything that was being described.
Finally, and most dreadfully, were his cringeworthy sentences such as "Though an ache still lay buried deep inside her, where no scrub brush could ever reach, Dart put away her bucket and broom and broke open a fresh bale of hay." (p. 33) The sentence itself not being bad enough, the protagonist had been raped less than three pages earlier, and the reader doesn't really need the quite unneccesary "scrub brush reaching" image after a particularly painful scene. I promise you, Mr. Clemens. OK... So in his defense, Clemens (it's a pseudonym, his website says) was trained to be a veterinarian. Maybe he has a more clinical insight into rape, but I found it shocking. This was the first of many "You've got to be freaking kidding me" moments in the book.
Clemens' website (or maybe it was Wikipedia; I forget which) also says he was heavily influenced by Edgar Rice burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells: each author was active prior to 1930. I'm not sure he reads current fantasy/sci fi literature, and if so, how much he's gleaned from his peers. Maybe he's mimicking style that was fantastic 80+ years ago. I'd love to believe this, but I simply can't make that connection. I think his writing is just awful.
The plot was fun. His characters were almost engaging. Dart was annoyingly mousy; Tylar too self-sure, and Kathryn, who miscarried from 10 years earlier, still "absently touches her belly" every time somebody mentions her former betrothed, which as you might guess, happens quite frequently, since it's a book about him. James Clemens' narrative voice was painful, and his actual writing style is an antiquated embarrassment. I think won't be reading book two of the Godslayer series, although I could possibly get my hands on a copy about 50 yards from here. The bad outweighs the good, and it's a pity, because what was good had plenty of promise.
Two of Five stars.
Show More
raped, and against all odds, is selected to be a Handmaiden of the oldest god in Myrillia. Kathryn, the former bethrothed of Tylar, is named Castellan of Tashijan (the Shadowknights' "home base") by an unlikely new Warden who may be mixed up in some dark magic.Speaking of magic: Clemens' chosen system (and also Myrillia's world economy) is based on the humours (in the Renaissance sense, meaning bodily liquids) of the gods. that's right: to gain magical power, you rub yourself, or an object, in a god's blood, phlegm, pee, poo, sweat, tears, semen, menses, etc. The whole idea is simultaneously fascinating, because each of the nine humors has a magical effect, or Grace, and disgusting. Need I really go into why it's disgusting?
The plot is a fantastic circle of twists and turns, accusings, recriminations, and forgivings. I wasn't sure until the end of the book who to suspect was the bad guy, and who was the hero. Was Tylar good or deluded? How about Dart's Friend Laurelle? Is the thief Rogger a betrayer, or is he just playing a game? I honestly didn't know, and that kept me reading, just to see who would fall into which camp. Poor Tylar is hurt, stabbed, bled, mutilated, had his fingers broken multiple times, had his hand smashed by a hammer at one point (!) His characters don't often get a chance to breathe.
The book would be wonderful, if only Clemens could write.
Sigh. He managed to highlight just about every pet peeve I have with the fantasy genre. One-or-two word paragraphs." Only one person could descend. The godslayer.. He created a badly-explained, and frankly silly unnecessary, ancient language, printed entire paragraphs of text his unintelligible script. the magic sword RivenScryr, for example, comes from the synthetic tongue; the words mean "light" and "dark," and used to be spelled "ryvnn" and "skreer." You've got to be kidding, right? Apart from the EE/I/Y vowel drift, where they magically swapped with one another (and presumably make the same morpheme), who cares? If you want to call your sword, RivenScryr, I'm cool with that. The linguistic heritage from your silly language doesn't give it any more plausibility than, say, calling an entire race of people "hobbits."
His every-single-page use of question paragraphs; also annoying: "Who could she tell? What could she say? How could she explain? ." (p.33) Don't lead me with your ridiculous narrator. Tell me the story, and let ME decide which questions will be important. I promise I'm a big enough boy to figure out what things are going on in the plot.
I also might ask what the title means at this point, because at no moment in the book did it seem to relate to anyone, or anything that was being described.
Finally, and most dreadfully, were his cringeworthy sentences such as "Though an ache still lay buried deep inside her, where no scrub brush could ever reach, Dart put away her bucket and broom and broke open a fresh bale of hay." (p. 33) The sentence itself not being bad enough, the protagonist had been raped less than three pages earlier, and the reader doesn't really need the quite unneccesary "scrub brush reaching" image after a particularly painful scene. I promise you, Mr. Clemens. OK... So in his defense, Clemens (it's a pseudonym, his website says) was trained to be a veterinarian. Maybe he has a more clinical insight into rape, but I found it shocking. This was the first of many "You've got to be freaking kidding me" moments in the book.
Clemens' website (or maybe it was Wikipedia; I forget which) also says he was heavily influenced by Edgar Rice burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Jules Verne, and H.G. Wells: each author was active prior to 1930. I'm not sure he reads current fantasy/sci fi literature, and if so, how much he's gleaned from his peers. Maybe he's mimicking style that was fantastic 80+ years ago. I'd love to believe this, but I simply can't make that connection. I think his writing is just awful.
The plot was fun. His characters were almost engaging. Dart was annoyingly mousy; Tylar too self-sure, and Kathryn, who miscarried from 10 years earlier, still "absently touches her belly" every time somebody mentions her former betrothed, which as you might guess, happens quite frequently, since it's a book about him. James Clemens' narrative voice was painful, and his actual writing style is an antiquated embarrassment. I think won't be reading book two of the Godslayer series, although I could possibly get my hands on a copy about 50 yards from here. The bad outweighs the good, and it's a pity, because what was good had plenty of promise.
Two of Five stars.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Carl_Alves
Shadowfall is a mixed bag of an epic fantasy novel that doesn’t quite live up to the hype bestowed upon it by some of the impressive blurbs on the front and back cover of the novel. The basic concept of the story is that gods have settled over the lands of Myrillia. When one of these gods is
Although there was some entertainment value in reading the novel, it was heavily flawed. For one thing, the whole part of having to harvest the gods’ bodily fluids was just silly. Right from the jump, it took me out of the novel, and I had a hard time taking it seriously. The novel bent over backwards to make a big deal of inserting twists and big reveals, but they telegraphed them from a mile away, and when the reveal finally happened, it wasn’t very surprising or pack much punch.
The writing itself was fairly mediocre. There was nothing technically wrong, but it also didn’t captivate me. There were some interesting plot points and some intrigue in the novel, but the problem was every time my interest rose, something brought me right out of it. The ending was climactic but I don’t find myself wanting to dive into the next book in the series.
Carl Alves - author of Battle of the Soul
Show More
killed, fallen knight Tylar de Noche is thrust into the middle of it, when the dying god inserts her essence into Tylar. Hunted down, he is determined to find out just what is going on. Meanwhile, an insurgent group of knights called The Fiery Cross are part of an overarching conspiracy working against Tylar.Although there was some entertainment value in reading the novel, it was heavily flawed. For one thing, the whole part of having to harvest the gods’ bodily fluids was just silly. Right from the jump, it took me out of the novel, and I had a hard time taking it seriously. The novel bent over backwards to make a big deal of inserting twists and big reveals, but they telegraphed them from a mile away, and when the reveal finally happened, it wasn’t very surprising or pack much punch.
The writing itself was fairly mediocre. There was nothing technically wrong, but it also didn’t captivate me. There were some interesting plot points and some intrigue in the novel, but the problem was every time my interest rose, something brought me right out of it. The ending was climactic but I don’t find myself wanting to dive into the next book in the series.
Carl Alves - author of Battle of the Soul
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
528 p.; 6.76 inches
ISBN
0451460502 / 9780451460509