Shadowheart (Tad Williams)

Shadowheart
(The Shadowmarch series, Book 4)
Tad Williams
DAW
Fiction, Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: Midsummer approaches, a night of great celebration and dark portents... a night which draws many eyes and armies to the ancient castle of Southmarch. In the long-ago times, the land beneath the castle saw the last great battle of the gods, when the maimed Crooked imprisoned his fellow deities in perpetual sleep beyond the boundaries of this reality, then sealed the rift with his own dying essence. But Crooked has finally died, succumbing after millennia to his final wounds, leaving the rift vulnerable to those who would seek to exploit its power. But only a madman would ever think they could harness the strength of the sleeping gods, gods whose long exile has driven them more than half mad...
Briony Eddon, with the help of the Syannese Prince Eneas, races to Southmarch, intent on reclaiming her family's throne and paying back the usurper Hendon Tolly for his betrayal. The odds of even reaching the beseiged castle are nigh impossible, but she hasn't lived through the Hell of the past year simply to give up. Too many good lives have been lost, and she has many a blood debt to carve out of Tolly's flesh.
Beyond the Shadowline, in the timeless keep of Qul-na-Qar, Briony's twin brother Barrick can no longer be properly called a mortal. Burdened with the Fireflower, the strange and ancient memories and magicks of the faerie kings, he can scarcely recall his old life, his old family... yet he and the faerie queen Saqri feel the call of Crooked's rift. Unlike mortal men, the Qar have not forgotten the terrors of the days of the gods, terrors that may reclaim the world and all who still live upon it - but they are a faded, dying people, divided against themselves over long-harbored grievances.
The southern autarch Sulepis, god-king in name, beseiges Southmarch with his nigh-inexhaustible forces, determined to become a god in truth. As his cannons shatter the towers of the castle, his armies delve into the Funderling tunnels beneath, seeking the deep and sacred cavern where Crooked's rift - long worshipped by the diminutive Funderlings - awaits him.
Meanwhile, the usurper Hendon Tolly scarcely bothers defending his own people against the Xixian forces encamped on the keep's doorstep. He, too, knows something of the secrets that lie beneath Southmarch... and if the heathen southern madman thinks to become a god on Midsummer Night, why can't a determined northern nobleman do it, too? He has already made contact through a strange and potent mirror, but opening the gateway requires gods-touched blood. Eddon blood.
Between them all, forces unseen since the last days of the gods Themselves stand ready to be unleashed... and whatever survives the coming cataclysm can never be the same.

REVIEW: The finale to the epic Shadowmarch series, this should've earned a solid Great rating. The tension constantly ratchets upward as new layers, new complications, and new stakes come to light. Fights both on and off the battlefield come together in a suitably epic climax, tying together most of the threads William wove throughout the four volumes. Characters have grown, and many fall, even as others are left to rebuild what lives they may after the great, final battle. Unfortunately, the final stages feel a little drawn out, with some conclusions feeling less earned than contrived. The final purpose - or lack thereof - of a few characters (one in particular) came close to dropping it the rest of the way to a flat Good rating. On the whole, though, I enjoyed the quartet and the world it wove in my mind. I just think the whole thing might've been stronger had it been trimmed by a few chapters.

You Might Also Enjoy:
Scriber (Ben S. Dobson) - My Review
A Song of Ice and Fire series (George R. R. Martin) - My Review
The Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy (Tad Williams) - My Review