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A review by anothersolipsist
Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov
2.0
First, a warning: this is book one of a trilogy, and is in no way a standalone work. That said, this book is okay, but not great. It does suffer from being translated: I read this book in English, while it was written in Russian. The translation surely removed some of the author's own writing style. As for the plot - the book's back cover calls it a "truly unique novel". I didn't see that. Shadow Prowler appears to be another version of the Lord of the Rings, of the sort that's filled fantasy literature for so long. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you shouldn't expect anything particularly new.
The plot itself is of the unlikely-hero-forced-to-retrieve-magical-artifact-to-defeat-evil-overlord kind, although there are promises of a third party's involvement which could make later books more interesting. I was bothered by a couple of the background events. Our hero's quest appears to only be necessary because previous generations did suicidally stupid things, apparently with the sole motivation of making life difficult for their descendants. It severely strained my suspension of disbelief. I wish we could have gotten reasons for what they did beyond "the author made me do it".
In conclusion, despite the fact that Shadow Prowler ended on a cliffhanger, I am not planning to read the next two books in the series. I do find myself curious about the nature and motives of this mysterious third party, but not enough to read on.
The plot itself is of the unlikely-hero-forced-to-retrieve-magical-artifact-to-defeat-evil-overlord kind, although there are promises of a third party's involvement which could make later books more interesting. I was bothered by a couple of the background events. Our hero's quest appears to only be necessary because previous generations did suicidally stupid things, apparently with the sole motivation of making life difficult for their descendants. It severely strained my suspension of disbelief. I wish we could have gotten reasons for what they did beyond "the author made me do it".
In conclusion, despite the fact that Shadow Prowler ended on a cliffhanger, I am not planning to read the next two books in the series. I do find myself curious about the nature and motives of this mysterious third party, but not enough to read on.