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rachel_abby_reads's review against another edition
1.0
This book is a reminder that a book can be inoffensive (in terms of sex and language) and still be bad. Bad. The cover jacket says "fast-paced" and "action packed" and the dust jacket describes a conflict between two brothers.
The book follows several characters with varying degrees of closeness: Wren and his daughter Kayla, Corin (victim brother) and his friend Dusty, and wizard's apprentice Adriel (Adrien?). They are being chased hither and yon by assassins hired by Corin's brother, and oh, yeah, there are demons and weird covens, but none of them have much to do with the story. There is some weird back story that causes Wren great angst that is never addressed or apparently relevant, and these people really only get anything approximating rest towards the end of the book, when the "heroes" get split up and have a four day ride to the tower for the final confrontation.
1) There is no reason to care about any of these characters. They are all flat, they are all dull.
2) The main conflict, the "why" of the novel, is that Brother A wants to bring a demon into the world to destroy it, and needs the blood of Brother B to bind/summon it. Brother A is in for a page or two at the beginning, and 5(?) pages at the end. For the rest, he has a gang of assassins with an infinitely renewable supply of henchmen to chase Brother B and assorted other tag-ons.
3) (This is stupid I have to include it.) Brother B (17 years old!) manages to escape from bad guys and ride out 30 min ahead of experienced warrior Wren. What kind of crappy warrior is this guy that he can't catch up with him for 5 days?
I've always wanted to write my own novel, to tell some story that is loved and shared. I never have, and I suspect that it's because ultimately I would write something as hackneyed and cliched as this stupid thing. As irritating as it was, I'm even more irritated with myself for finishing it.
In short: clean does not equal good.
The book follows several characters with varying degrees of closeness: Wren and his daughter Kayla, Corin (victim brother) and his friend Dusty, and wizard's apprentice Adriel (Adrien?). They are being chased hither and yon by assassins hired by Corin's brother, and oh, yeah, there are demons and weird covens, but none of them have much to do with the story. There is some weird back story that causes Wren great angst that is never addressed or apparently relevant, and these people really only get anything approximating rest towards the end of the book, when the "heroes" get split up and have a four day ride to the tower for the final confrontation.
1) There is no reason to care about any of these characters. They are all flat, they are all dull.
2) The main conflict, the "why" of the novel, is that Brother A wants to bring a demon into the world to destroy it, and needs the blood of Brother B to bind/summon it. Brother A is in for a page or two at the beginning, and 5(?) pages at the end. For the rest, he has a gang of assassins with an infinitely renewable supply of henchmen to chase Brother B and assorted other tag-ons.
3) (This is stupid I have to include it.) Brother B (17 years old!) manages to escape from bad guys and ride out 30 min ahead of experienced warrior Wren. What kind of crappy warrior is this guy that he can't catch up with him for 5 days?
I've always wanted to write my own novel, to tell some story that is loved and shared. I never have, and I suspect that it's because ultimately I would write something as hackneyed and cliched as this stupid thing. As irritating as it was, I'm even more irritated with myself for finishing it.
In short: clean does not equal good.
bibliomaineiac's review against another edition
3.0
I gave this three stars, mostly because of the potential it had. The basic storyline was good, if still based off the old fantasy comfort zone of "long lost young man discovers he's the needed hero" line. After all, there is a reason this has worked so well over the years. However, what could have been an epic fantasy book, or even a trilogy/series, was cut down. The overall writing was basic and rushed. The various journeys of the characters takes place in what appears to be month or so. Side quests are achieved nice and neatly in a single chapter. Battles are over in a paragraph after just a few flicks of the wrist. (The author uses that term way too much.) Also, attention to details was needed. The character "Cade" was referred to as "Cane" at least once. A village described as being northeast of the town of Merrifield is northWEST of it on the map. Small things like that, that added up over the course of the book, bothered me. The story just felt very immature and after reading about the author, I see why. He started writing it while in high school, and it feels like it. It lacks the maturity that this story deserved.
terminatee's review against another edition
3.0
This wasn't bad, but seemed to bear the marks of a young and inexperienced writer, which this author is. Plenty of action; I was drawn to purchase the book when I read that on the cover. Some occasional descriptions that I enjoyed. But a lot of the prose was so-so, and a lot of the dialogue sounded stuffy.
teawolf's review against another edition
2.0
The plot of "The Tower of Shadows" is very cliche. A lot of it is. I think that I would normally give a book like this two stars--so why does this one get four?
The writing. Bowling's writing style in this book is fantastically descriptive and beautiful, and I got very strong images of what was going on while I read this. In fact, the writing was so great that I didn't notice the book's cliche-ness very much. So while I wouldn't normally recommend this book to anyone other than those who can stand Eragon (though I guess this book's plot isn't nearly as bad), I can also recommend it to anyone who wants to see a great example of great writing. Readers and writers looking for inspiration and technique ideas should definitely give this book a spin.
The writing. Bowling's writing style in this book is fantastically descriptive and beautiful, and I got very strong images of what was going on while I read this. In fact, the writing was so great that I didn't notice the book's cliche-ness very much. So while I wouldn't normally recommend this book to anyone other than those who can stand Eragon (though I guess this book's plot isn't nearly as bad), I can also recommend it to anyone who wants to see a great example of great writing. Readers and writers looking for inspiration and technique ideas should definitely give this book a spin.
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