Shadow Gate

The blurb on the back cover of my edition of this book gives away a pretty big spoiler for book one. So does the first line of the book, so I’ve had to take a different one for the blog, I don’t mind the odd spoiler with warning, but it’d be a bit mean to surprise-spoiler people with not even a warning.

Events in book 2 pick up where book 1 left them. If you’ve read Spirit Gate you’ll know where that was, and if you haven’t then you should. Honestly, go read it. Yes, it is a huge book, and so is this one, and I’m guessing the next one as well, but that doesn’t matter. They are worth the investment. Anything with giant eagles and flying horses is worth a look, right?

But apart from those attention grabbing elements there show more are plenty of reasons to pick up this series. First of all, the world-building. If you like world-building then you should love this, because it isn’t just one country or culture that Elliott has created here, there are various peoples, just like in the real world. The main focus is on the people of The Hundreds, but there are many “outlanders” and their stories and history are vital to the story.

There are also multiple point-of-view characters, so be prepared for that. Depending on the story, having multiple POV characters can lead me to hurry through the chapters of those I don’t love in order to get back to my favourites, I recall doing that a bit on certain Wheel of Time rereads, but I never felt the need for that here. For one thing most of the chapters are short, so you never felt that anything was dragging you away from any other aspect of the story, even if you really wanted to know what was happening. And then there was the fact that I enjoyed all the voices. Well, enjoyed might not be the right word for those chapters dealing with death, rape, and abuse, and be warned, there is a lot of that, but I wanted to know about all the characters.

To get back to the violence, there is a lot of violence. More than you might think. There is death and there is rape. A lot of rape. But none of it is done to thrill. It is all horrifying and horrible.

And, in part, it ties into one of the themes of the book. Slavery. All of the cultures in Shadow Gate save one are cultures that own slaves. Some call it selling labour and it isn’t intended to be permanent. The differing reactions to slavery are fascinating, and I loved the way that some of the characters seem to be re-evaluating slavery. Slavery to most of us today is regarded as an evil. But for most of human history people have enslaved others. And kind and compassionate people could grow up in a culture believing that it was okay, because when something is everyday and commonplace you can hide its true brutality from yourself. It was wrong, of course, but for someone of that culture to come to that realisation is a very difficult thing.

I also really liked what Elliott did with the character of Keshad. I think, he is, perhaps one of the more unlikeable POV characters, but his is an important story. All his actions were because of slavery. He wanted to be free, that became his only focus in life. His and his sister’s freedom. Nothing else mattered. In another story he could have been a dashing hero. Only in order to escape slavery he did terrible things. Do we, as readers, excuse that behaviour because it was, in a way, forced upon him?

And then there is Shai, again, he is a man who has grown up in a culture where slavery was a fact of life and slaves were, in many ways, disposable. His family covered up terrible crimes to protect one of their own. And in Spirit Gate Shai allows something horrendous to happen before Mei makes him reconsider. But that happened because of the culture he grew up in, his view of slaves and slavery was such that he didn’t see how evil that act was. And the soldiers who actually did the deed, we find out that they saw no wrong whatsoever in it.

It’s hard to read about.

And these aren’t even the actions of the bad-guys!

And I’ve gone on far too long, but really, if you like epic fantasy at all you should read this series. Elliott’s writing is just wonderful. I could read it all day long.

http://www.susanhatedliterature.net/2015/01/shadow-gate/ show less

Many viewpoints split this book to view the successes and disasters in The Hundreds as Mai and Anji build on their victory to establish themselves, as Joss and the reeves cope. The newest Guardians, Marit and the woman once known as Cornflower, each have a part of the story, as do Mai's uncle Shai and the self freed slave Kesh. Some young refugees are added; 3 siblings and their bad-tempered but caring stepmother give a parallax on Mai and the reeves.
All of these viewpoints slow down the pace and disrupt the reader's engagement in the widening the scope of the story.

Significantly better than the first in the series, characters have developed, the plot is focused and there;s much less jumping about, even tough in terms of drama and action it's much lower key.

the change is that the focus is now entirely on the hundred, and rather than being a book exploring contrasts between societies its now much more of a personal one , the consequences of choice and the justifications of power. Many of the details are revealed, we finally know what's going on, although it will be the next book before anyone does something about it.

The 9 god given cloaked Guardians had a falling out, although the details of he reasons are lost, but the cloaks have found new bearers and at least one of the original 9 wishes to show more preserve a tyrannical peace over the Hundred strictly enforcing her ideas of what is right. Marit and Kirit under the guidance of Jochain find themselves only learning too slowly what it means to be a Guardian having discovered their cloaks by accident. Their uncertain alliance might not be enough against Her controlled influence of the others.

Elsewhere Her armies having suffered a defeat, regroup, and those left wishing to preserve a broader concept of justice find themselves with a small respite to rest and recover. Free of corruption new reeves can be trained, Qin soldiers find themselves land and wives, refugees seek shelter and traders look to profit, sometimes all at once. A few enlightened souls even endeavour to understand and prepare for the future.

There are still a few occasions when you lose track of which city is being talked about, and who's travelling to where and why. There's also more focus on a few of the shadowed characters, and these can be unpleasant to read. It's not quite dark fantasy, but it does become close at times, we're spared the explicit and gruesome details. The chronology is consistently linear, which is also an improvement, with one clever passage where Kirit's memories become the tale told out to another character. It's interesting to learn her backstory. Sadly the slightly mystical nature of the non-human characters is broached but never explored for consequence, although the book is long enough already!

Always pleasing when the middle of a trilogy manages to hold pace and even improve from the beginning. show less

This is definitely a bridging novel. I understand the why of the number of characters and at the end they did come together but occasionally I was lost because some of them didn't quite have a distinct enough voice for me. (Your Mileage may Vary)
When Marit was murdered she didn't expect to wake up on an altar. As she investigates whats happeneing to her she discovers that it appears that she's a Guardian. With noone to help her find out what her role is she explores the world with the help of her winged horse. Meanwhile her old love Joss and the outlander Anji try to maintain order with some help from some people around them, and some hindrance.

Marit doesn't know what to do but she can't escpae the fact that someone is looking for her show more and she's not sure who has her best interest and the best interest of the Hundred in mind.

I found it interesting, not as captivating as the first book but I look forward to reading the next book. show less

This is the second book in the Crossroads series, and the middle volume of the first story arc.

As usual, Kate Elliott has managed to craft a storyline that is well written with numerous strands that intertwine; even the subsidiary players in this story are well characterised.

I cannot wait to find out what happens to all the major characters and how their stories will end to the readers' satisfaction. I picked up book 3 as soon as I finished this one.

Book two flowed just as smoothly as book one. Alot like a talented dancer who moves seamlessly from one form into the next. A beautiful thing to experience.

This is very much a story about war. Almost every character, regardless of origin, has or is affected by one war or another. There is magic and a few folks with what I consider mystical abilities but only a select few. However, the story has more of a focus on the struggle of good against evil and the will to survive against all odds. It also does not hold back in regards to the tragedies of war. No sugar coating here. Every facet of human nature and the lengths of cruelty it is capable of, are fully realized.

Read Full Review Here: Dragons, Heroes and Wizards: Fantasy Series Book show more Reviews show less

If all goes well, when you've died, you will go through the Spirit Gate. If there is some corruption, you may pass through the Shadow Gate.

The Hundred is falling into turmoil, war breaking out here and there, due to corruption amongst some of the legendary Guardians. What is corruption? Is it violating the established order for your own gain, for fear, for power? Whatever is behind it, there are 4 guardians who've fallen into misplaced notions of what their role is. There is a fifth who is basically being coerced into helping them, but we feel there is hope for him, with no real idea of how he could be freed from their control.

We learn much more about the Hundred, and it's multitude of people, priests, reeves, as the mystery unravels show more even further. There are strong new characters introduced here, to complement the existing favorites from the Spirit Gate.

As the knowlege of what they are truly facing becomes very apparent, Reeve Josh, Qin outlander Captain Anji, and many of the priests, merchants, and regular people are trying to noodle out exactly how, if possible, can the Star of Life army be fought. Some might give in to appeasement, some might fight, some may flee and hope for another day.

We begin to see the horrors of war, slavery, and general lawlessness flowing into the larger Hundred. There is a lot of cruelty here, but also a lot of kindness. The Hundred is not prepared for all out war, but it is coming, and they've got to make the best of it and some how survive. show less