Official Review: Shadow of the Makarios by Grant T. Reed

[Lovely_Loreley]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Shadow of the Makarios" by Grant T. Reed.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Shadow of the Makarios by Grant T. Reed is a complicated novel involving many different storylines, a band of ordinary people destined to be heroes, and a threat to all of mankind. The makarios are violent and unpleasant people, larger than the average man, with distinctive white hair and golden eyes. Long ago, they lived alongside the people of Eyndegaria, but their hatred and contempt led to war. Now only a handful of makarios are left in the realm, and they have a plan to free their brethren from their imprisonment all those years ago. There is only one old man who knows and understands that this is a horrific threat to Eyndegaria and the surrounding countries, and he must convince an officer of the watch and a grieving soldier (among others) to step up to the challenge of facing the deadly makarios.

While this book embodied the archetype of the hero’s quest, it also did so much more. It was a complex web of stories woven into a mostly consistent whole. At any given point in the novel there were two or three plotlines unfolding, such that chapters swapped between one set of companions and the next. I liked that the author balanced the book in this way, as it gave me time to mull over what had just happened in one place while reading about simultaneous events elsewhere. The overall effect was one of mystery: did that character just die? Who is chasing them? Will they make it out of the city? Sometimes by the time a character came back on the scene, I forgot where he had even been before that and had to go back through the book to refresh my memory.

Overall I loved the writing style. The aura of mystery surrounding the makarios’ plan made the book a very exciting read, as key points were only revealed every so often and in such little increments that the complete picture took a while to unfold. The syntax was for the most part phenomenal, the one exception being the author’s quirk of including commas after sentence subjects, where I had never seen commas placed before. (Example: He, chuckled and accidentally bumped into the dwarf’s shoulder).

Despite how much I enjoyed the story itself, I can only give the book 3 out of 4 stars. I think many people would enjoy it. Anyone who loves to take their time with a good thick novel will be pleased by the nearly 500 pages that this one offers. The characters are for the most part enjoyable, with their own quirks and backstories that make them each distinct. In general, I think this book would suit the fantasy-lover who enjoys reading about quests and grand adventures with plenty of danger. I, however, had some pretty big issues with parts of the book, and while I do think these things might not bother others as much, they prevent me from giving the book four stars.

My main problem with the book was the narrator. At first I thought that the way the author told the story was quite unique and interesting. While the narrator is a character within the story itself, it is not his own story that he tells. The narrator, who remains unnamed, calls himself a historian of the realms and has an uncommon ability. He is able to separate his spirit from his body and travel in spirit-form over great distances, such that he can live in a remote cabin but be able to witness things in far-distant countries (like Eyndegaria) and record events as they happen. I thought this was cool, until I realized that it posed a problem in terms of consistency. Because the narrator is a character, and not some omniscient overseer, he should only be able to witness events in one place at a time. There were definitely times, however, when simultaneous events occurred many miles apart and the narrator claimed to have been present at all of them.

The narrator also seemed to have a lack of morals that really bothered me. He lusted after a woman he had never actually met (she was involved in the makarios plot so he only ever saw her when in spirit form). This was not the problem; the problem was that the narrator watched her having sex with her lover, and the scene seemed to exist merely for the narrator’s pleasure/anguish; the woman in question did not have much of a role in the book other than as an object of lust. At another point, the narrator felt the need to enter into one of the protagonist’s dreams. This came across as an extreme violation of privacy; not only was the man having a nightmare about his past, but he also explained it to one of his companions (who had been woken up by his cries) only a few pages later. It was unnecessary for the reader to receive the information twice, and simply came across as the narrator’s abuse of power.

The ending was another problem for me. I read the author’s foreword and he clearly stated that this book was meant as a standalone novel. There will be no sequel because to the author, this is a complete story. That may be true, but I strongly disagree. By the end of the novel, hardly anything was resolved. True, battles had been fought and many had died. The survivors were getting ready to move on and heal from everything that had happened. The protagonists completed their quests (but did not necessarily succeed). In a sense, there was an ending…but it was more of a pause than anything else. For one thing, the entire novel leads up to a single event that might or might not occur depending on whether the protagonists succeed in their various quests. The novel never reaches that point. The conflict itself is set to continue, a new protagonist is introduced in the epilogue, and the very last sentence of the story basically says that trouble is brewing and bad things will happen in the near future. I do not call that an ending; I consider it to be a cliffhanger. I would have read the sequel if it were ever written, but that does not seem likely. If you dislike being left in the dark about the fate of an entire cast of characters, you have been warned.

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Shadow of the Makarios
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Like Lovely_Loreley's review? Post a comment saying so!

[reedg06]

Thanks for the review. Glad you sort of liked it. The series will continue at some point, I just haven't found the time since undertaking my Vellian series. I work full time and write when I can ....c'est la vie.

[Lovely_Loreley]

I understand I did enjoy it, and I'm glad to know that you plan to continue it at some point...your comments in the beginning are a bit misleading though, in that case. Letting readers know that there is a planned sequel would be better than leading us to believe that that was the end of it. I was so frustrated that I wouldn't be able to read the rest of Acacia's story!

[zeldas_lullaby]

Great review, very thorough! Sounds unique with the narrator situation.

[Lovely_Loreley]

Thanks! The narrator was definitely unique. It really made me think about other narrator techniques (general 3rd person, omniscient, that sort of thing) and wonder if other authors have meant for their narrators to be characters in the story as well.