A review by everydaymagic
Greatshadow, by James Maxey
3.0
I'm glad I made it past the opening, which seemed very slow and static, with the protagonist watching everything and doing nothing--it almost killed my interest. BUT...I give the author credit for trying something very hard and taking a huge risk with this opening, because while Stagger is the POV we're in, the protagonist of the story is really Infidel, his female companion.
The story starts as little more than a D&D type escapade, but eventually digs deeply into morality, theology, love, second chances, and more--all while keeping up a happy patter between the questing characters, and moving them along in their quest to kill the dragon. I really loved the interplay between the goons, and the goons and Aurora, and the fact that Aurora and Infidel, along with the Black Swan, are all very powerful women in their own rights. Still, there was much "male gazing" about (Stagger was a bit moony, IMO), and I didn't find that Stagger actually had much of a character arc. While it was nice to see him letting the more capable Infidel handle things, he did this straight through, from the start to the finish. Now, maybe there's more to come in Book 2, but Book 1 seemed a final product, so his change didn't seem substantial enough to satisfy me.
All that said, this was a fun book. Lots of jokes and ribald fun. Serious adventure fans will love this one! I want to give the story 3.5 stars, just for the character interplay (especially between Reeker and Menagerie), but I'm stuck with only whole stars.
The story starts as little more than a D&D type escapade, but eventually digs deeply into morality, theology, love, second chances, and more--all while keeping up a happy patter between the questing characters, and moving them along in their quest to kill the dragon. I really loved the interplay between the goons, and the goons and Aurora, and the fact that Aurora and Infidel, along with the Black Swan, are all very powerful women in their own rights. Still, there was much "male gazing" about (Stagger was a bit moony, IMO), and I didn't find that Stagger actually had much of a character arc. While it was nice to see him letting the more capable Infidel handle things, he did this straight through, from the start to the finish. Now, maybe there's more to come in Book 2, but Book 1 seemed a final product, so his change didn't seem substantial enough to satisfy me.
All that said, this was a fun book. Lots of jokes and ribald fun. Serious adventure fans will love this one! I want to give the story 3.5 stars, just for the character interplay (especially between Reeker and Menagerie), but I'm stuck with only whole stars.