_Shadow in Summer_ is a very unique addition to the fantasy genre. There is no sword or sorcery here, no 'maguffins' to wage war over and no band of heroes trekking over hill and dale. Now as a fantasy fan I do enjoy all those genre tropes, but I also enjoy finding something a bit different to sink my teeth into and Abraham's _Shadow_ was a satisfyingly original epic fantasy read.

The only real "magic" in Abraham's world takes the form of the andat, which are superhuman beings. The andat are concepts given form by poets, and bound to their will. These powerful genie like creatures are rare because the same concept usually cannot be bound twice, and poets who fail pay for it with a grisly death. This is also part of the reason poets are rare. Nevertheless, the power and threat of the poets and their andats is enough to give the only country which wields them enough power to remain autonomous in a world largely taken over by a hostile Western empire.

This isn't a fantasy novel where kingdoms go to war, but rather a tale of espionage and betrayal as the enemy attempts to insidiously get rid of one of the andats who speeds up cotton production, thus greatly helping their country's economy. Of course no one wants the country wielding the power of the andats to know they are being secretly infiltrated - their vengeance would be terrible. The story focuses on several of individuals caught up in the conspiracy and how they react, which sides they choose to take, and the moral dilemmas they face by their choices.

The pacing is quite leisurely and slow, which may put off some readers, but it fits well with Abraham's detailed, poetic descriptions of life in this fantasy universe which is built with great care to detail. The depth and intricacies of Abraham's universe and his literary writing style should delight many epic fantasy fans.

I will be reading the next in the series. 4/5 ( )

An unusual and well-written fantasy; while this is the first in a set of four it stands alone reasonably well. While the fantastic elements are few, they are utterly pivotal, and this book couldn't have been written as mainstream. The fantastic elements center around andat -- abstract ideas forced into bodies and controlled by poets. Only one andat, "Seedless", who can remove seeds and thus has given the city of Sarakhet a crucial edge in the cotton trade, appears on-screen, but he is utterly critical to the plot. The characters are diverse and well-realized, and the plot is interesting though a bit slow to get started. The setting is unlike any I've read, and I recommend this book, with one caveat that I feel I have to make since nobody else has done so yet:

If you are pregnant, or are grieving a miscarraige, do not read this book now. Wait, and come back to it later. ( )

It’s a thrill when a new, really good fantasy writer comes along, someone comfortable with the old tropes and willing to explore them with new ideas. Daniel Abraham is off to a good start with A Shadow in Summer, a fantasy rich with politics and a new, strange sort of magic that partakes in equal measure of the mercantile and the poetic. The driving force for many of the characters is a love of country or city, a love of home; for others, it is a love of the ethical, the true, the moral; for some, it is both. This first book of a quartet – “The Long Price Quartet” – is quite promising.

A Shadow in Summer has obviously been influenced by The New Weird, even if it is not part of it. The city of Machi is its own character, a vaguely Asian trading center where cotton rules because of the presence of the andat Seedless, a creature that can cause cotton seeds to drop from the boles without human intervention. Seedless is a living poem, created by a high caste of humans who can hold visions created of and composed of words and ideas, and sometimes even create them with the perfect words in the perfect order. In this world, poets are among the most honored and rewarded of humans because of their ability to bring forth the andat.

Whether the andat appreciate being used, however, is another question: they don’t. They incessantly attempt to escape, and as years go by, they are sooner or later successful. As a result, it is harder and harder for a poet to find a new andat that is of any commercial use, and no one has any interest in an andat that can’t be used for profit. Seedless is one of the last who has value – for once an andat is called, it is very difficult, often impossible, to catch it again. An andat comes from blissful nothingness into a simulacrum of life, devoted to easy service but experienced as unpleasant servitude. A poet, on the other hand, comes from a childhood of unceasing, brutal labor and discipline – called “training,” of course – into a life of honor, dignity and riches. The dynamic between the poet and the andat, therefore, is that of one who has escaped slavery and now owns a slave of his own.

The characterization in A Shadow in Summer is particularly well-drawn. Otah is a student of poetry for whom the brutality proves to be too much, despite his remarkable talent. Maati is the poet for whom Otah once did a kindness that was not a kindness, a man both weak and strong, who longs for the honor of holding an andat within his power but recognizes, too, the wrong of it. Seedless itself is sly, sad, smart. Amat is a canny woman who longs for mercantile power, who has the brains of a capitalist and the scheming of a tycoon.
But it is the plotting that makes this book especially fascinating. There is so much scheming, so many plots within plots, that the reader must pay close attention in order to understand the complexities of this well-imagined society. The book holds the best of mystery even as it partakes entirely of modern, urban fantasy.

Best of all, A Shadow in Summer tells an entire story in the first book of a series of four. The reader isn’t left hanging on a cliff edge, hoping that the next book comes along before interest falls off. To the contrary, this book whets one’s appetite for more because of the very skill of it, that is, because of Abraham’s ability to tell a single, unified story while still leaving plenty of room for further development. I’m looking forward to Winter’s Cities, the second book of The Long Price Quartet, because this author has what it takes to tell a story, the same way I look forward to the next Swainston or Mieville. I hope we’ll be hearing a lot more from Abraham. ( )

Where to start? First off this book was not what I thought it would be. It is more of a literary work that a standard fantasy trope.

This is a book about relationships and human interaction. What is the true nature of love? Responsibility, loyalty, nurturing, sex? How do we express our love of others? Just a few questions this book raises.

I must say the first half of the book was slow for me and I was tempted to not finish the book, but I pushed through and the story picked up pace and held my interest.

My problem: No real action. Lots of narrative (too much), and dialogue (not a bad thing). For such interesting world magic, trapping "forces" in human form bound by a poet, this was not explored much. We see only one of these "forces." For what it is, the book is good. Just not my favorite type of read.

Overall a pretty good read, but do not expect any action to speak of. Recommended. ( )

My Bookspotcentral review ( )

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.a... ( )

The thing that drew me into this book was the blurb on the cover from the Genius himself, George R. R. Martin. I took this book home and began reading it that night–something that doesn’t always happen–and was fairly impressed by the prologue (I believe this is the original short story). However, there were a few problems from the get go that seemed apparent throughout the book.

First off, Abraham seems to be too much of a narrator instead of going into his character’s heads. He doesn’t tell me what they’re thinking as much as I’d like, and when he does their motives seem odd, and too often does he have a character do something, ‘not knowing why, even as they did so.’ It feels like he’s forcing his characters to have an arc, or at least advance a bit.

Most of the characters were good, although some of them felt a bit similar and had strange reasoning for the choices they made. Another problem I had with them–an issue I had with Brian Ruckley’s Winterbirth–is that none of the characters seems to have a sense of humor, or even be amusing to read about. In both debut’s, the darkness is too over-the-top because of this, compared to characters like Tyrion and Glokta in the works of Martin and Abercrombie, respectively.

One of the shining points of Abraham’s writing is his dialogue, which comes off the page feeling very realistic. Yes, some of the scenes were a bit melodramatic, and I didn’t feel very emotionally attached to any of the characters, it was still good, all in all.

The plot was odd, since there wasn’t much of one. Some would argue the same for other books that I immensely enjoyed (like Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself, for example) but these are two different beasts. A Shadow in Summer could’ve started anywhere before page 200 of this volume and I still would’ve understood everything and perhaps enjoyed the book more. It could’ve started at chapter 16 of 31, now that I look back, and might’ve been a better read. That being said, once this thing got going, it was very good.

And yet, there weren’t any cliffhangers in this book. In every book I’ve read, just about, there is at least one end of a section or chapter where I tell myself that I simply have to see what happens next. That wasn’t the case with this, not once.

Worldbuilding is a large part of some authors’ writing, and is almost a sub-genre in and of itself. Personally, as long as it doesn’t overpower or leave me guessing, I don’t much care. The building here is good, and seems to be well thought out. Abraham is good at sprinkling in this information without completely overpowering the reader, yet I still felt like I knew a substantial amount of stuff from this world by the end.

All in all, it appears I may have been spoiled recently. With debut’s like The Lies of Locke Lamora and The Name of the Wind in bookstores, it’s hard to remember that not all debut’s are of such quality. Abraham’s isn’t, more at the level of Elantris or the before mentioned Winterbirth. This is a decent book from a promising author and, despite it all, I will be reading book two, A Betrayal in Winter. ( )

I wasn't sure about A Shadow in Summer. I'd read a summary that sounded intriguing so I picked it up from the library. Once I got about 3 chapters in, I had a very hard time putting it down.

This is a very lush, sensual novel. Abraham concentrates on details and his world is very captivating and real. He likes to describe from all senses, so his world has sight and sound but also texture and scent. The culture has an elaborate systems of gestures, formal poses that people use to communicate additional information clearly, which gets a little repetitive sometimes but overall had a nice effect. For the magical element, he has the andat, powerful beings created and controlled by poets. These are like small gods, as they are concepts or ideas which have been forced into physical bodies by the strength of the poet's words. However, the andat despise their servitude and long only to destroy themselves and return to abstraction. They work to break the control of the poet who bound them while the poet tries to train an apprentice to continue to hold the binding after he dies.

The plot of the novel follows the andat Seedless and his plot to break his poet Heshai. The empire stays powerful because of its andat, and Seedless' job is to remove the seeds from cotton for the textile industry- but Seedless can also remove a child from the womb. The plot against Heshai ends up involving a half dozen characters who get caught up in it.

Really, almost all the action could be summed up in a sentence or two. Not a lot actually happens in the book. The characters are its strength, as each is a very real, believable person who has to make hard choices and change as a result. Once I got in their world, I found it hard to get out, and I was interested to see what would happen to them. ( )

George R. R. Martin blurbed it, and I can see the similarities, but Abraham seems to be working in a much smaller world. The characters and story kept me entertained, but the ending seemed concrete enough that I have no desire to move on to the rest of the series. ( )

This one really didn't grab me right out of the gate; I'll try it again later some time. ( )

Finally got around to reading Daniel Abraham's fantasy debut, A Shadow in Summer, and it was quite enjoyable. The premise: there are "poets," magicians of sorts who can capture an idea, an "andat" and bind it into corporeal form. The bond between poet and andat is strong, and in many ways, the andat is a reflection of everything the poet is, wants, or isn't, and the powers of the andat (put to use by the poet) keeps the cities wealthy and safe. But all of that's about to change when an andat does everything in its power to break free of its bond to its poet, and it doesn't care who it uses to do so.

It's a quiet fantasy, and not really epic in an adventure/action sense. Abraham really, really focuses on character, and it's fascinating to watch the relationships play out. Also enjoyable in this was the Asian-influenced culture, obvious in the names (Otah, Maati, Liat, Amat), setting, and even gestures.

The prologue, I'll tell you right now, is the weakest part of the book, so when you give it a shot, get through the first chapter at least. :) The rest of it is solid, and I look forward to getting the rest of these books.

The full review, which does include spoilers, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Daniel Abraham's A SHADOW IN SUMMER

Happy Reading! ( )

A Shadow in Summer introduces us to the empire of the Khaiem, a nation of city states that has been the dominant force in the world for thousands of years. They hold dominion by making use of the Andat, a group of spiritual entities with powers equivalent to magic. While normally lacking a corporeal form, the Andat can be trapped in human form by poets who use verse to define and enslave them. In the city of Sarakeht, the local Andat is attempting to manipulate events to gain his freedom by conspiring with various factions to force an economic and political crisis.

Abraham has constructed a beautiful world with far-eastern undertones and social castes; the characters convey emotions and social nuances through a series of nonverbal gestures and postures. It’s an interesting idea that allows the characters to subtly convey more complex emotions without obvious exposition.

This first installment of the series is starts a plot that will obviously take time to develop; this isn’t a series that is non-stop action. The closest comparison I can make is that it is more of a Gene Wolfe type series where the subtext is more important than any other aspect of the novel. I look forward to the next three books. ( )

The first in yet another epic fantasy series. ("The Long Price Quartet") However, it was strongly recommended by Jay Lake (Mainspring). So I thought I would give it a go. Written by Daniel Abraham.

Yeah, I know. Why would I start another fantasy series. Why should you read *this* one? There are many fantasy debuts in a year. Why is this one worth my time, or yours?

This one has the advantage of having original elements.

The novel begins with a prologue in a traditional vein, with a student at a school for "Poets", those who can control the arcane beings called the Andat. The student's apparent failure as such is actually the key to success and he is invited to become a *real* student.

And then he walks away, rejecting a system he sees as wrong.

So, with the prologue throwing us off kilter, the action shifts to Saraykeht, and a set of viewpoint characters. Maati is a traditional protagonist, one of the students of the system that the prologue's Otah rejected. Liat is a young worker in one of the Houses of the city, and Amat is the most untraditional of all, a middle aged to elderly woman who has spent years working in the same House.

A conspiracy involving the andat of Saraykeht, Seedless, draws in these characters, the poet, Heshai, who ostensibly controls Seedless, and then there is the mysterious beau of Liat, a laborer who is far too uncommon to be a common laborer...

The culture of the city and the milieu is distinctly non-Western in a way that reminded me of, say, Tekumel. Characters use "poses" and body language in a way that reminded me of courtiers in dynastic China.

Although this is a debut novel, the writing is mostly clear and fluid, and the characters are well drawn. Abraham has clearly read widely in Epic fantasy, enough to play with our expectations and undermine them, as he does best in the prologue.

I can see why Lake liked it so much, and the book also has an approving blurb by none other than George R.R. Martin. For once, such blurbs are more than just chatter. I have hopes that the subsequent novels will improve the writing even more and that Abraham will prove to be the equal to the ambitious goals and world that he has started to illustrate here. I enjoyed the book and I will read the further novels in the series. ( )

An excellent debut novel: "A Shadow in Summer" is an excellent debut novel by Daniel Abraham, and a promising opening to the "Long Price Quartet" of which it is the first volume. Abraham, an experienced writer of short fiction, creates a universe that manages to be both exotic and mundane, and features a cast of captivating characters, often conflicted and drawn in shades of grey. The scenery and settings are beautifully evoked through light and elegant descriptions that reveal only as much as they need to in order to spark the imagination.

The story revolves around a plot to liberate the "andat" Seedless, a god-like figure chained in corporeal form by the "poet" Heshai, and forced to serve and protect the city of Saraykeht. With Seedless out of the way, Saraykeht would lose its competitive advantages in textiles and trade, and be vulnerable to military assault. The central characters are Maati, Heshai's apprentice and one of the very few selected to become poets, and Maati's former mentor Otah, now a renegade who rebelled against the cruel processes used to weed out potential poets. They are connected to the aging trade advisor Amat through her apprentice, and their mutual lover, Liat. Caught up in the whirl of events, Amat and the others attempt to defend Saraykeht and maintain its andat's captivity, while being driven in other directions by forces outside their control.

Unlike volumes in many recent fantasy series, "A Shadow in Summer" manages to resolve this plotline, and can be read as a stand-alone novel, not merely one portion of a larger work. Even better, it is not the sort of doorstopper work that has also become common in the genre, clocking in at 350 pages in a small, mass-market paperback edition.

Granted, "A Shadow in Summer" is not perfect -- it was a bit slow to get started, not really grabbing me until about a third of the way in, and many reviewers have commented on a troubling plot hole. However, despite its few flaws, I enjoyed it thoroughly, and look forward to getting my hands on Abraham's next work. ( )

A Shadow in Summer - Daniel Abraham (DNF)
Fantasy; book 1 of The Long Price Quartet.
I'd seen this mentioned around the blogsphere and thought the premise looked rather good - a world where an empire maintains its mercantile power by having poets make fundamental ideas take physical form and use their resulting power to the empire's advantage. The idea was clever, but the characters didn't grab me and about a third through I found myself bored and wanting to read something else. After starting that something else, I found I didn't feel any desire to go back to this one. A pity, as the idea was great, but it wasn't enough to save the book for me.

Very good SF/Fantasy - can't wait 'til the next one in the Long Price Quartet comes out. ( )