Book 13 Nov 2006 07:44 pm
Tower of Shadows
Here is another fantasy title. Tower of Shadows is by Drew Bowling. This is a first novel for Drew. He started writing this book while in high school, and he is now a college sophomore. The back of the reader’s copy describes the book as “following in the footsteps of his literary heroes- Terry Brooks, Anne McCaffrey and Orson Scott Card” which made this book Extra-desireable to me.
This is my actual copy here! (Isn’t that fun?)
Anyways, the story was really interesting. It started off really strong with a prelude. Then it goes to “current time” and alternates between a few different characters. Drew was very clear with each of the characters and their situations and the only problem I had was that all of a sudden, I was really far into the book! He connected all of the characters quite well.
The brother to one of the characters is tne nemesis, creator of the evil that is about to be unleashed, etc. I was not as scared of him as I think I should have been. Part of this is that I read really fast and sometimes miss important bits. Another part is the concept of redemption. The brother has a good idea behind his evil acts, so I ended up feeling more sorry for him than scared of him. All the way through the end, the characters surprised you and made you proud at the same time. It was a pleasure to read, and I’d recommend it to anyone. Plus, it even pirates AND dragons, and how can you go wrong with that?
Another fault with alot of fantasy is that it is basically fantasy-romance. Tower of Shadows however had no romance, and even though I am addicted to romance novels, it is a pleasure to read fantasy without the romance factor.
According to Library Thing the release date is December 12th, 2006, though my advance says January 2007 release. That site also refers to Tower of Shadows as “Tower of Shadows: Book One of the Tides of Fate Trilogy.” It does fit that it would be a series, as almost all fantasy is anyways.
Promotion for the book was done online (check out Jive magazine for their little promo), and then Drew was scheduled to be at the San Diego Comic Con (that was this past July) but should also be at the New York Comic Con (Feb 24-27, 2007).
Its a good book, and if you support him, then there will be more! Check it out, this coming December!
Tags: adult, anne mccaffrey, books, bowling, dragons, drew bowling, ellynrie, evil, fantasy, magic, novel, orson scott card, pirates, terry brooks, tower of shadows, wizards, young adult
on 29 Nov 2006 at 9:45 am 1.Book Embargo » Poison, Magic, Fire said …
[...] In my Tower of Shadows post I referred to a problem in fantasy writing. Too much romance. A lot of fantasy these days seems more romance fantasy, that just straight fantasy. It makes you wonder where all the strong heroines are, the ones that don’t put their man first… [...]