Mark Barlow

I received this from the publisher to review but I’ve been a big fan of James Maxey for a while having read most of his books and reading his blog. This book, Greatshadow, is labelled as being the first in a new trilogy set in a fantasy land that has no connection with his Bitterwood novels other than both having dragons, the latter having intelligent humanoid dragons in a very real, biological sense and Greatshadow having more in the way of traditional fantasy with dragons that have powers and connections to the elements, the titular Greatshadow being the element of fire. 

A woman warrior, Infidel, (something of a sword for hire) has her long time platonic partner die near the beginning who then continues to narrate the story from that point on as a ghost, following Infidel everywhere without her ever knowing that he is present. Along the way they meet all kinds of characters of all types: orcs, dragons, immortals and gods. Certainly Maxey has decided to create a world that is only hinted at but appears to be larger than what is shown in this novel, possibly with a mind to setting more stories within it. It is interesting, feeling more like a fantasy world from video games than typical books.

The dead narrator is interesting but leads to some problems. As the story is told directly through his eyes he can’t know what is going where he can’t see but there was one or two scenes that describe a conversation between characters that he is nowhere near yet he is describing exactly what they are doing and saying. It jarred with me and brought me somewhat out of the events yet wasn’t too much of an oversight to ruin things.

The story is set up as an action adventure with various action scenes that wouldn’t be amiss out of a video game, much like the setting as I said before. Because of the setting he can show some great action scenes that, although outlandish, do make sense within the world and the sort of powers that the character would wield. There are magical powers and the main character of Infidel being super strong with skin like metal. Certainly she proves to be a compelling character, being a tough warrior princess while still being incredibly beautiful. Her looks are mentioned often, actually, including descriptions of nudity at various points. I don’t really know if it was important story-wise to learn what her pubic hair looks like but you’ll find descriptions of it anyway. It feels too much like pandering to the young male demographic and didn’t really need to be included. She is also not particularly nice, often killing innocent creatures for her own gain. I don’t feel that main characters have to be nice, it’s often annoying reading about characters that are too nice, but Infidel often verges on being a straight out bully. I don’t think that’s what Maxey meant.

I was satisfied with the ending which set up the next book in the series nicely. Once all three books are out and they’re read together it will be a good experience as this first part feels like an introduction. Maxey has already proven himself to be a great writer and despite some problems I had with this novel I still thoroughly enjoyed it. Recommended.