Shadow Prowler (original 2002; edition 2010)

This one took me a long time to get into. In fact up to about 80 pages before the end I wasn't really planning to read the sequel, but somehow it crept up on me and I'm curious about Harold and what his future will be. It sounds like there's more to him than just thief and so curious about what's going to happen to him. Several of the other characters I'm not as invested in but now I have a fondness for him.

A lot of this book is dedicated to setting up the world and the people in it and why the quest is so important, and there are also some moments of Harold being thrown into visions of the past which are also there to set up ambiance and do some worldbuilding. I felt that it is possibly a style from Russia but it's not my favourite style of fantasy story. Interesting and I'm reserving full judgement until I finish the next book. ( )

This is the first book in a popular Russian fantasy serie. There were times that I regretted that I haven’t read Russian so I could have read the original edition. It started little slow but got better towards the end. Mainly because it took far too long to Harold to actually leave to the quest, but after he does things started rolling smoothly.

A thief called Harold is framed into stealing an object before being recruited by the king to the most dangerous burglary in his life. He has to steal a Horn from Hrad Spein. He gets help from people from different races; dwarf, gnome, goblin, elves and human warrior group called The Wild Hearts. The elves are no Tolkien-elves but are nearly as ugly as orcs with fangs.

I liked the snarky, quirky Harold. The story is told from his point of view in first person so we get good look what goes on in his head. It reminded me of David Edding’s Belgarion-serie.

All in all, I found the book good and I’ll definitely read the next one! ( )

A debut novel from a (talented) Russian author, Pehov demonstrates enough in this first book to ensure he is one to keep an eye out for and enough to get excited about for the follow up books in the trilogy.

Initially, the book appears to be a classic, cliche filled fantasy epic trilogy that has all the conventions of usual fantasy series. The quest for an object that could save the world, an age old prophecy that appears related to the main character and the quest, the involvment of Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Ogres, Goblins and other such beings, however, do not underestimate and let this put you off.

The style is brilliant, the main character Harold, a master thief (always a favourite occupation of mine) is well written and thought out. The book is told in first person narrative through the eyes of Harold, who often refers to himself in the 3rd person during his exploits. He provides a witty & humourous account, filled with subtlety and you can't fail to like the anti-hero and his talents. It did make me think of the Lies of Locke Lamora (a favourite book of mine) in terms of the master thief but Pehov although ticks a lot of cliche fanatasy boxes he delivers them in a unqiue and creative way.

I'd highly recommend the Shadow Prowler, not just for the book itself, but also for the potential for the series that Pehov is delivering. For a debut novel I thoroughly enjoyed it, and there is still plenty of time for Pehov to surprise and provide an exciting trilogy that could rate very very highly. ( )

A fairly enjoyable read that just pleasantly whiled away a long journey for me. It's a mixture of high and low fantasy, though inclining upwards as the story progresses. I found the thief protagonist good company and the setting had enough novelty to keep me interested. Harold's criminal nature makes him a bit more fun than many heroes, and even partly justifies his habit of keeping things secret, though it does still seem to be for plot convenience at times.

In many ways it's fairly tropish fantasy: Dark Lord rising somewhere, kingdoms squabble, Only You Can Save Mankind. There's a motley band of soldiers from the key races, a dotty jester who may be more than he seems, and a prophecy that seems to indicate the protagonist is a destined hero. To be honest those are not especially novel, but they're done competently and didn't fill me with boredom. Elements like the Hrad Spein and the Stain seem promising, and so far I've enjoyed the way magic and monsters are handled. Pehov's world isn't all clean-cut and noble; on the other hand, despite focusing on a thief and his exploits, it doesn't plummet into depressing grimdark. There is crime and betrayal and unpleasantness, but he doesn't dwell on suffering or on squalid and miserable things. It's a pragmatic take on things, which seems fitting for Harold, whose eyes we see through.

The book has the common problem of quest fantasy in including few women, but does better than some; while there's only one woman in the Merry Band, there are at least a couple in flashbacks who play significant roles, and one (who may or may not be important) on the other side. From Harold's musings, I have a suspicion that Miralissa might end up as a love interest, which would be disappointing, but it hasn't happened so far. As the main magic-user of the group, I'm hoping she'll get more attention in future books as things (hopefully) get weirder.

There are some issues with the writing / translation. At times it's interestingly quirky, while at other times it just feels clunkily translated. "Pardon me for the foolish pun, but the Street of the Sleepy Dog was sunk in a deep sleep." So... did you just forget to insert a pun, or..? There are also some names (especially army regiments) that I suspect worked a lot better in Russian. One chapter includes a poem or prophecy, which doesn't either rhyme or scan well; I wonder whether it did in the original (and was simply translated without rewriting it). It's possible that even in the original Pehov didn't see any need for it to rhyme, as in the story it's been translated from ancient Orcish, and maybe he didn't just feel the need include a comment about it - it's so hard to know with translations. Various sections feel uninspired, but it's not a case of consistent blandness that I'd tend to blame on Pehov, so I suspect it may be a translation issue. Typos are scattered lightly through the book, including 'explained' for 'exclaimed' at one point; it's a bit irritating but not a major problem. In general the book feels like it could really have done with a decent English editor and maybe another translator to help smooth things out; given Pehov's already doing well with the Watch series (which I haven't read, but is mentioned on the blurb) I'd have thought they could justify the effort.

One particularly unfortunate line reads: "Elves look like people, except for their swarthy skin, yellow eyes, black lips and ash-grey hair. And those protruding fangs[...]". Firstly, it should probably say "like humans", because generally "people" makes more sense as a catch-all for intelligent races and "humans" is used elsewhere. Secondly, it implies that humans can't have swarthy skin, dark lips or grey hair, which obviously they can. Indeed, at least one human in the book is described as having swarthy skin, and grey hair is really pretty common. Though the book in is first-person narrative, there's nothing else to suggest Harold has such a narrow view of humanity, and lacking any such justification it's really best not to include sentences that can come off as a bit racist. I really feel like someone should have picked up and changed this sentence.

The worldbuilding is mostly interesting and Pehov handles it fairly well, without huge infodumps. The dream sequences sometimes feel a bit overdone, or like excuses to tell the reader what's going on rather than necessary parts of the story, and unless there's a really interesting explanation in the end, I might be irritated.

On the whole, though, it's reasonably written, has plenty of enjoyable scenes (I have a particular soft spot for thieving sections), monsters and magic I haven't seen before, and the protagonist is a reasonable companion. I had fun reading it and I'll be looking out for the sequel. ( )

A fairly standard epic fantasy that's supposed to be quite big in Russia. This is a starter book of a trilogy which is being translated by Andrew Bromfield who did an admirable job of the The Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. The Nameless One is raising an army of the bad guys (giants, ogres and other fell creatures) and intends wreaking havoc on the divisive lands of the good guys, picking them off one by one until world domination is complete. The king of the first of those realms recruits master thief Shadow Harold to save the world, after he's passed a quick test to prove his worth that is. Harold accepts the commission, as the alternative is to rot inside of a prison that no-one has ever managed to escape from and gets busy making his preparations for the journey. It's obviously not quite as simple as that and by this time you're two thirds of the way through the book and the real quest hasn't even begun.

After various adventures within the city, Harold and the chosen companions which include a princess of the Dark Elves along with two other elves (one Dark, one Light), a company of warriors from the Wild Hearts and the captain of the King's personal guard. They are soon caught up by the king's goblin jester who provides the light relief on the trip.

After having said all that, Shadow Prowler is not a bad read but neither is it a very good one. There is nothing here to make it stand out from the crowd of dark fantasy novels currently available. The characters are well drawn and Harold is likeable enough and this is probably the book's most redeemable aspect along with the interplay of the group once assembled and set on their way can be quite fun. It does show promise and I'll read the second in the series and see how it goes from there. ( )