What a great book!

This book has the chance to be the beginning of a great epic fantasy series. The magic system isn't really unfolded until the second half of the book and it's quite novel. The narration is excellant and that makes it an even better listen. Definitely worth a credit.

5 people found this helpful

Good idea just poor execution

"The Shadow Throne" has a lot of potential. "The Thousand Names" (previous book in the series) really serves to set up the series well but stands alone as a good story. My biggest gripe with that book is that it implied a deep magical system but barely dove into it until the end, really serving as a primer for the next book. I could understand that and was excited. Now, after reading "The Shadow Throne" I'm disappointed and turned off from from series. "TST" does almost nothing to further the understanding of the magic in this world, it also plays such a small and inconsequential part of the story that it honestly could have been written without it. The other problem is "TST" is also trying to serve as a setup for the next book in the series but the story itself really isn't all that satisfying as a standalone. There are really two distinct stories here and the second botched the landing of the book by being rushed and anticlimactic. It's truly a bummer because the beginning of the book held my attention well and was building but by the second half I found it hard to focus. Unfortunately I'm not sure I will stick around for the third installment. If the books worried less about trying to setup future stories and made the current ones more exciting they would be better served.

1 person found this helpful

Reader repeats words and stamers

Reader repeats words and stamers inserting umms in multiple places near the end of the story, seems like this could have been fixed in post production.

1 person found this helpful

Way too much focus on Winter's romance

Where book one spent ample time on primary characters story arcs such as Captain Marcus, Ranker Winter, Colonel Janus and Ranker Bobby and their involvement in the long arduous military campaign to restore the rule of a minor prince, book two focused on two main themes, the emergence of Queen Raesinia and the romance troubles between Winter and her lost love Jane.

The story arc of Raesinia was interesting at times yet mostly unexciting scheming on putting plans in place to thwart Duke Orlanko's plans to rule the kingdom from the shadows. Regrettably, the continued focus on Winter, the reluctant soldier, and her on again/off again romance with Mad Jane was over done and often over wrought.

Additionally, book one left us with several characters fates unknown leaving one to expect their roles to be continued in book 2. Two of which being, Jen Alhundt and Ranker Bobby. Where there was tangential reference to each of them throughout the book, they never resurfaced and, in one case, one of them is only cast away near the end of the book, almost as an aside, and the other only hinted to resurface some time later.

There were other disappointments in terms of story movement such as the fate of Marcus's family that Jen had alluded to in book 1 and the way battles were predictably won implementing some crazy maneuver (That's so crazy it just might work!) over what be expected under traditional military strategies. Also, there was very little movement of the fantastical/magical sub-plot story arc that was so pivotal in book 1.

I must again give very high marks to the narrator, Richard Poe, whose voice and inflections often remind me of Rod Serling (of Twilight Zone fame) and went a long way on keeping me interested in finishing the book.

Lastly, I continue to be very impressed with the author's, Django Wexler, abilities as a writer, even though this book went off in directions that made it less interesting than book 1.

1 person found this helpful

Something's awry but I remain cautiosly optimistic

What did you love best about The Shadow Throne?

I love the characters. Not all of them, but the vast majority. Well developed, consistent, appropriately likeable/hateable. Well written, great prose helped to keep me hooked where the story was necessarily slow. Some of the best fight scenes of any writer/book I've read. Vivid, clear, delightfully brutal. The epic moments, the crescendos in this book are, like in The Thousand Names, miniature masterpieces in themselves. There are very few books with scenes so potent that they actual give me physical shivers or bring tears to my eyes, but both books in this series have given me that experience.

What other book might you compare The Shadow Throne to and why?

It's the second in the series and similar in style to the first, obviously. The Shadow Throne took a few turns that I didn't like, did a few weird things, but over all I still liked it and will without doubt be snagging the third book as soon as I can get my hands on it. I have to know what happens to Janus and Marcus, my favorite characters.

There are some differences I didn't like in the performance and editing as well, but they're forgivable.

What about Richard Poe’s performance did you like?

Richard Poe has a great voice for this line of work, and I think a great voice for this genre in particular, as well. I give him an overall thumbs up. His character voices are good, I can often tell which character is speaking just by Poe's voicing. I'm not sure whose responsibility it was, but I did notice that the voices were not consistent from book 1 to book 2. I'd expect the director to catch that sort of thing. And there are a few places throughout book 2 where the voicing is inconsistent even among the dialog of the same character. Again, Poe's voicing itself is wonderful, but he applies it inconsistently in this reading.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

If you read the first Shadow Campaigns book, it's no surprise to you that there is a guy in this book named Janus. He does things in this book that bring tears to my eyes. Manly tears of manly awesomeness. Not even kidding, I started crying as I was driving down the freeway listening to stuff about Janus.

Any additional comments?

I don't know how what went wrong, but toward the end the editing just got really sloppy, trashy actually. You can hear dialog and multiple takes and background studio noise, the reader clearing his throat and trying multiple readings / voicings, etc. The Thousand Names was flawless in this regard. In fact, the first 90% of Shadow Throne was flawlessly edited as well. So I don't know what happened, but the last few chapters here had a half dozen or more editing errors. It's distracting and entirely avoidable, quite a shame. Not a deal breaker though, I still recommend the series.

1 person found this helpful

Pretty good sequel, but...

I enjoyed the first book a bit more. I stumbled across the first book in this series by accident, looking for different book. I spent a credit on it and was very glad I did.

This second book was also very enjoyable. I listened to it over 2 days. For some reason I had a hard time getting in to it early on. The drastic change in setting from the first book took a bit getting used to.

For some reason the Thousand Names that were so important in book 1 barely find mention in book 2. I suppose I was expecting much more with that. Perhaps the author wasn't entirely sure how he wanted to proceed with the supernatural parts of the story and focused on a revolution instead? Regardless, that was the reason I dropped it to 4 stars.

I definitely would recommend this book and the first in the series, The Thousand Names.

1 person found this helpful

Love it!!

So fun ! I loved the ride to the climatic battle
One eagle and the deputies general!!!

A good Socio/Political Intrigue

Excellent performance.
The story itself was very well written with lots of intrigue, and was certainly less military focused than the first book of the series, because it had to be. If I am asked to be critical, I will say that some of the intrigue would have been more well rounded (as in, have greater stakes with more twists)- again being highly critical. overall I would definitely still suggest the book. It is a natural follow-on to the first book of the series.

Intriguing story and masterful narration

A wonderful story narrated beautifully by Richard Poe. If you're looking for a mixture of fantasy and musket warfare era fiction, this is some of the genres best.

in no way as good as the first book.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The vast increase in magical elements from the first book

What about Richard Poe’s performance did you like?

He is a good reader, but this material is needlessly diificult.

Any additional comments?

The first book in this series was well plotted, well paced, and generally a very good listen. Unfortunately the second book has none of those traits.