A review by secre
In Solitude's Shadow by David Green
5.0
In Solitude's Shadow is a fascinating little book with a complex world, wonderful characters and very fast pace. It's on one hand an epic, sweeping fantasy and yet also a deeply personal, character driven series of stories. It's dark and yet it's hopeful. It's a tale of resentment and yet love, prejudice yet never loses sight of just how much some people care, exclusion and inclusion, isolation and family ties, light and dark, power and the responsibility that power should come with.
The plot is clean, yet intricate and multi-threaded; many individual stories drawing together into a stunningly woven whole. There's magic and yet there's also the mundane, average human who can become something more when what they truly care about is at stake. There are horrors committed, for reasons of politics, evil or just straight forward betrayal and yet there are friendships, a mother's love, those fighting against slavery and seeing something more than animals despite all the propaganda.
It's epic fantasy and it draws on the rich history that fantasy authors have at their fingertips, yet it twists and turns into something individual and different. It's dark fantasy and yet even though it can linger on the darkness, the darkness never overtakes the whole even when it seems inevitable. There's always something there shining a light, however out of place. The characters are wholly human; full of flaws, frailties, hopes and dreams. It's a full and rich tapestry and one I wholly recommend to anyone looking for a new fantasy series.
The plot is clean, yet intricate and multi-threaded; many individual stories drawing together into a stunningly woven whole. There's magic and yet there's also the mundane, average human who can become something more when what they truly care about is at stake. There are horrors committed, for reasons of politics, evil or just straight forward betrayal and yet there are friendships, a mother's love, those fighting against slavery and seeing something more than animals despite all the propaganda.
It's epic fantasy and it draws on the rich history that fantasy authors have at their fingertips, yet it twists and turns into something individual and different. It's dark fantasy and yet even though it can linger on the darkness, the darkness never overtakes the whole even when it seems inevitable. There's always something there shining a light, however out of place. The characters are wholly human; full of flaws, frailties, hopes and dreams. It's a full and rich tapestry and one I wholly recommend to anyone looking for a new fantasy series.