| Title | : | Shadow Moon (Chronicles of the Shadow War, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0553572857 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780553572858 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 452 |
| Publication | : | First published September 1, 1995 |
The genius of Star Wars creator George Lucas and the vision of Chris Claremont, the author of the phenomenally bestselling The Uncanny X-Men adventures, merge in what must be the fantasy event of the year.
In Shadow Moon, war and chaos have gripped the land of Tir Asleen. An ancient prophecy reveals one hope: a savior princess who will ascend to the throne when the time is right. But first, a Nelwyn wanderer must face forces of unimaginable malevolence and dangerous, forbidden rites of necromancy to bring back a powerful warrior from soulless sleep.
Shadow Moon (Chronicles of the Shadow War, #1) Reviews
-
This is pretty much the worst book I've ever had the misfortune to read.
Having really enjoyed the movie Willow, on which these books are supposedly but secretly but not really at all based (they apparently weren't allowed to actually use the name Willow in the book, which, as it turns out, is ok with me because they didn't deserve to), I sought out the three books in this series over the course of several months. I wanted to have them all so I could read them straight through without interruption.
I made it through the first book, just barely. It's terrible. Really, really, really terrible. Claremont's background writing for comics did not serve him well here. Hyperbole piled on hyperbole in a never ending crescendo of increasingly ridiculous and completely gratuitous drek.
I forced myself to finish this one, and started on the second one, hoping it might pick up, but I just couldn't do it. My eyes literally refused to register words on the page. I was so disgusted that a briefly considered going back to the bookstore and purchasing every copy of these books they had, and burning them, just so nobody else would be exposed to them. But of course, that wouldn't have worked, would it.
So, instead, I am telling you Goodreaders- please, for the love of all that's good and true, do not so much as glance at these books. Like some ancient eldritch tome of Lovecraftian lore, you will lose sanity from even glimpsing the horrors that lie within.
And, in case that wasn't clear, I'm not comparing this stuff to Lovecraft. Lovecraft's stuff is (mostly) pretty good. I'm comparing the Shadow War series to the fictional mind-destroyingly blasphemous books portrayed IN the works of Lovecraft. Except that they won't give you any sorcerous powers or pacts with ancient evils, they will just kill your brain cells.
Stay. Away. -
Remember Willow, the movie about the young Nelwyn wizard and the young human child? All of the fun characters like Madmartigan? Either George Lucas didn't or told Chris Claremont to do whatever he wanted.
Why do I hate this book so much? Madmartigan and Sorsha die in the first chapter! Willow becomes Thorn Drumheller and wanders the world after his village is destroyed. Pretty much everything I enjoyed about Willow was gone right off the bat. If you're going to make a sequel to a fun fantasy movie geared at kids, how about not making it dark and depressing? -
I had forgotten about this book and trilogy until I saw something about a new Willow series in production for the Disney+ streaming service. I have only vague memories of the details of the story, but all of the 1-star reviews sound about right. I must have picked these up from the "free store" in the student family apartment building I lived in at the time (a leave what you don't want, take what you want place run by volunteer residents). I was pretty out of touch with the broader world of fantasy, simply reading whatever drifted my way or what my friend from Australia happened to have on his shelf, which is how I read
Elizabeth Haydon's romantic fantasy Symphony of Ages series, another odd choice from that time in my life. His shelf also included
The Deed of Paksenarrion which was a little better. I really should have been spending more time in bookshops and/or the major city library system that I had easy access to.
Anyway, now I know that my semi-fugue state that I recall from reading this was likely due to the book's content and not solely due to my mental/emotional status at the time.
Update December 2020: This book was recently featured in the "372 pages I'll never get back" podcast, including one episode titled "The worst book I've ever read", which is saying something given the selection of books those podcasters have tackled.
Update December 2022: The new Willow series has premiered. I have to assume that it follows this book religiously. I mean, this was Lucas's vision, right? Will the show be renamed Thorn Drumheller? -
READ THIS BOOK IF:
- You like jumping from one place to another in the space of 0.001 second, at the whim of your author, with no reason or grounding at all
- You don't like books where something INTERESTING happens
- You like being confused by characters that are referred to by about three different names
- You don't have to buy it
- You know where your receipt is, if you have bought it
- You strongly believe that movies need to be better than the books they are based upon.
George Lucas should stop writing books (I hope he already has - I honestly can't be bothered to do my research) and stick to making movies. Really, the greed of some people! Publishers included - why bother printing a book (that, in complete honesty, is CRAP) for the sole reason of trying to scrape in a few more dollars? Don't you have actual WRITERS for that?
I'm not even going to give this book to charity. I'm going to put it on my garden as mulch, where no poor soul will have to read it again, and it will have some REAL use! (Or in the recycling bin. Tough choice.) -
4.5 Stars~
“The dragon’s line of flight put this side of the dorsals in sunlight and even that faint and fading radiance, he saw, was enough to paint the outline of body and wings in continuous flashes of crystalline fire, as though the dragon was formed of the same golden, glowing substance as the sun itself.
It was a beauty so wild, so elemental, it made him ache.”
Are you familiar with the movie, Willow? If not, it’s an 80’s film starring Warwick Davis, directed by Ron Howard and written by this lesser known dude, George Lucas. But you probably haven’t heard of him ::pushes glasses up bridge of nose::
Yes! George Lucas. THAT George Lucas!
Willow tells the tale of Willow Ufgood, a reluctant farmer who dreams of becoming a magician. He stumbles upon a baby who has washed up near his village in a raft. He is chosen to return the baby, who is thought to possess special abilities, to the land of the humans. Naturally, things do not go as planned. He finds himself having to protect the baby from an evil queen who wants to destroy her and take over the world.
Although originally panned by critics, it has become a cult classic. I loved it as a kid so damn much! I still love it.
Not to sound like a broken record, but this is where I warn you that if you haven’t seen Willow or read the novelization, you probably won’t want to continue reading this review, as it will clearly give away more than a few details of that story and what becomes of Willow and some of the others.
If you haven’t seen Willow, then you need to rectify that shit! So do that. You owe it to yourself!
Shadow Moon is the sequel series to the film, following Willow Ufgood after the battle of Nockmaar. The war-torn land is in chaos after being decimated by a Cataclysm, leaving Willow in turmoil. Devastated, he gives up his name to assume a new identity and separate himself from the past. Thorn Drumheller, aka Willow, wanders around Andowyne with the brownies and some eagles, searching for answers as to what caused the disaster. Along the way, he learns everything he can about magic, becoming a talented sorcerer.
Thirteen years later, Willow/Thorn is called upon once again to come to the aid of Princess Elora Danan, now a spoiled brat. The fate of the Great Realms rests in her hands, but she doesn’t give a fuck.
“The walls were blood, the air was blood, he was blood, awash in it, alive in it. Around him were scattered the shards of his soul, but he could no longer tell which were his and which the Demon’s; there was scarlet everywhere, everything looked the same.”
I discovered this series at a used bookstore early last year. I had to get them! For one, the entire series was together. Huge bonus. Plus those covers! George Lucas! Fantasy! WILLOW! There was no way I was leaving that store without them in my possession.
I’m a bit surprised at the relatively low rating on Goodreads, because I thought it was bloody great! This is high fantasy, which is something I’ve been longing for more of lately. I’m a bit burnt out on all the GRIMDARK GRIMDARKNESS that I tend to read. Sometimes I just want a fucking epic Tolkien-esque quest, which I find myself gravitating towards in the winter months, especially. This fulfilled that craving and then some!
Although slightly confusing at first, the threads of the story intertwine in such an entertaining way. Stick with it, if you can. For me, it was worth the complex first few chapters. However, if you are expecting Willow and the other returning characters to be the same as they were in the movie.. don’t. This is darker, without a doubt. The characters have been through SOME SHIT™ and it has taken a toll on them.
In a strange twist of fate, I saw that René Auberjonois had recently passed away and one of the articles listed his numerous projects, including narrating this series on audiobook. Oddly coincidental, indeed.
Monsters and magic and fascinating characters and unknown evils and cheeky humor. I couldn’t help but lose myself in the deliciously vivid, descriptive writing. The worldbuilding was immersive and though considered a continuation of Willow, it truly stands well on its own.
Shadow Moon is a wickedly fun adventure! -
This book has the distinction of being the only book I've ever actually taken back to the bookstore to get my money back. Not only didn't I want it in my house, I didn't even want it on my credit card. It's a horrible piece of work. It's so bad I'm surprised the principals have their names attached.
I'm not going to go into specifics other than to say the writing is so awful that I suspect it was really penned by an intern or an experimental Turing sentence compiling program rather than (probably) by Chris Claremont. I've enjoyed Mr. Claremont's work as a comic book writer. His X-Men saga is right up there in the pantheon of the graphic literature form with any other writer. But from what I can tell the only real literary value of this book is that it serves as a great example of how those skills don't necessarily translate into standard prose.
The majority of the characters introduced in the film (and novelization) are killed off at the beginning of the book, leaving behind mostly the characters meant to be comic relief, and our hero, Willow, drops his name--and most of his personality--and heads off, apparently as a sort of alter ego. So, right off the bat, most of the first installment is invalidated or at the very least turned on its ear. Worse, the plot of this book is a long, meandering travelogue bearing little if any resemblance to the world that that was already established and filled with one depressing encounter after another. On the whole, I suspect this book was a reworking of something that Claremont had already put together years ago (a first fantasy novel of his youth?) that had been rejected by publishers until he got Lucas' name attached. It reads like something he altered here and there to connect it up to Lucas' product. Hence killing off all the characters from the first film/book and the renaming of the major characters. At least, that is what it read like to me.
A good hint about the quality of this book is the dust jacket that focuses almost entirely on the past accomplishments of Claremont and Lucas. There's literally only a few vague words about the actual content of the book. Apparently, you're supposed to buy this book out of obligation to the past achievements of the contributors. It's a very strange cover. However, once one picks up the book, that cover makes a lot of sense. There's no selling this book on its merits.
In any case, I wouldn't pick a copy of this book up again unless someone told me there were dollar bills between all the pages. I can't recommend it to anyone who isn't looking for an example of just how bad things can possible get and still get published. -
I tried to read this, I really did...but it was just....well I put it down. I read the synopsis, I liked Willow and like the idea of a continuation. I really, really wanted to like it. But I just could not get interested in the book.
It's just...bad.
Sorry. -
"Grimdark Fantasy" is a disputed concept, but I think it can be pretty well summarized as "not-Willow". In Willow, the 80s George Lucas/Ron Howard family film of which Shadow Moon is purportedly a sequel, there is little real violence and less sex. There are good guys and bad guys. The good guys are all cute (Elora, Fin Raziel), attractive (Madmartigan, Sorsha), or both (Willow, Meegosh); the bad guys wear skull masks or the costume of the Queen from Snow White; and all that's needed to turn a bad guy good is an ardent declaration of love. There are fairies and brownies and trolls, a love potion, magic acorns, escapes via sledding down a snowy mountain; the villain's most evil deed is to turn people into pigs; much screen time is devoted to the facial reactions of an adorable baby. In other words, it is a fairy tale*, not even a post-Lord of the Rings fantasy, but a post-Hobbit fantasy, a post-Disney fantasy, sweet and funny and fun. Willow is a bit of a grumpy old dad, grouching at Madmartigan's irresponsibility and having to deal with fairies and trolls, but he has many moments of delight, fantasizing with Meegosh about the heroes' welcome they will recieve, gaping in amazement that Madmartigan really is a great swordsman after all. Madmartigan is full of life, doing somersaults of joy on being freed from his cage, heartily enjoying his blackroot and his wacky womanizing adventures; the brownies take their fun at others' expense but certainly have a lot of it. It's a happy movie, about, ultimately, happy people.
Well, not this book. By the first chapter, all the characters in the movie but Willow, Elora, and the brownies are dead; the brownies have lost all sense of humor (and seem to have switched personalities; now Rool is the straight man, and rather dreamy) and only retain their abusiveness, and Elora (when we finally get to her, halfway through the book) is an emotionally stunted brat. As for Willow, his name has changed (in a truly inexplicable decision) to the pseudo-meaningful "Thorn Drumheller", and he is now a tediously miserable, world-weary sad sack in whose unpleasant POV we will be stuck for four hundred pages. For this book's Willow (I never thought of him as "Thorn Drumheller", though that is exclusively used as his name for the entire book, and my brain forced his every line of dialogue, however out of character, into Warwick Davis's voice), every task is an almost unendurable grueling slog of misery, and so, fellow reader, will this book be to you, should you (like me) force yourself through it. It's the grimdarkification of Willow, and it makes no fucking sense.
It is interesting to reflect how Claremont's comics background ill-serves him here. Added to these few holdovers from the movie are some new characters, none of whom has any kind of personality, but who, I can easily see, would be distinguishable if illustrated in comics. For example, Ryn, who I gather is a sort of seal-man (the whole takes place in FANTASY SAN FRANCISCO BAY, so I assume he is based on the sea lions who hang out there), has no psychology or voice and his actions and reactions are flat and inexplicable, but he would stand out as a drawing, all furry and cute-but-lethal. Geryn, a sort of white knight, is distinguishable from the others only by virtue of being written in excruciating 80s-comics Scots dialect. Everyone in the book has the Stan Lee-derived comic book mannerism of calling people by their job, or worse, a sort of inexplicably familiar, slangy title; "Drumheller" itself is one of these. I alter clothes for a living, but nobody says "That's what you think, tailor," much less "thread-puller" or whatever.
Similarly to the characters, the very very many "action" scenes are brick-wall reading, illustrating the need for a change of medium. Whether a swordfight, a shipwreck, or an erupting volcano, every single one is indecipherable, endless, boring beyond belief; but of course in a comic the action would be illustrated, so at least you'd know what the hell was happening, which is decidedly not the case in Claremont's extraordinarily un-evocative prose. (When I was about 10, I told my friend Tim that I didn't like "description" and often skimmed to the next dialogue, which he still remembers, and will occasionally ask me, when I'm reading Virginia Woolf or something, "but don't you hate description?" By now, when a lyrical passage evoking the moonlight and the woods in Hawthorne or a riotous scene in Pynchon is like my favorite thing to read, it had become hard to imagine why I ever felt differently; but now I remember. It's because I was reading shitty fantasy novels. And this is worse than most.) The magic, which is also frequent and difficult to follow, probably could not be drawn, and is marginally less impossible to read, though by the time you get to the midpoint of the book, where Willow works one spell for forty punishing pages, you do begin to wonder why Claremont is so committed to drawing things out forever, and going on and on about how awful it feels. Movie Willow, as we have seen, smiles and enjoys things now and again; for Book Willow, literally everything he does (even, somehow, in flashback) is the most taxing struggle of his entire life, he has nothing left to give, one tiny featherweight will crush him now, he's barely survived, bleeding, battered, driven beyond all endurance, he succeeds! We turn the page, and he is called on again; he summons the will, and it is the most taxing struggle of his entire life, he has nothing left to give....
It's worth remembering that the grimdark thing, in some sense at least, started in comics. Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns came out ten years before A Game of Thrones. And Claremont, writing this book in the "grim and gritty" 90s, was probably only responding to industry trends. Shadow Moon, like its comics contemporaries like Spawn or whatever, doesn't reach anything like the ridiculous baroque parody-except-too-stupid-to-be-parody grimdark extremes of contemporary comics, where, I hear (you couldn't pay me to read a comic book these days) the Joker has the skin of his own face removed and wears it, rotting, as a mask. It's just boring, like those 90s comics; angsty, meaningless, joyless, and boring. I may attempt Book 2 someday, because I have heard that the series picks up then, but if so it will be a long time coming. I thought I would take a week to read this; it took me a month of misery, and I don't want to put myself through it again anytime soon. I am only happy that the most infamous point of Claremontiana, his fondness for incorporating S&M themes, is confined to a few dozen pages of Willow chained in a dungeon, and a paragraph or two in which 13-year-old Elora Danan is bound in a full-face leather gimp mask. Small mercies.
* I hesitate to use the term, knowing that the sort of people who like grimdark are the sort of people who think that fairy tales used to be dark, man, and that's the real fairy tales, the one Walt Disney doesn't want you to know about, the real shit. People who think that folklore's oral transmission should stop where they say it should, instead of being a living tradition--a characterization they would dispute, because they don't see themselves that way, but rather as noble defenders of reality. Not too much unlike the comics writers of today, who grew up on those 90s grim-and-gritty comics, who have no imagination or curiosity about the world, a pathetically stunted worldview, and who seek (desperate hope) to shock their 4chan peers with their trivial antics, claiming "realism" all the while. -
This book has been on my bookshelf, unread, for almost 20 years. Every time I went to a used book store I saw a couple copies, and yet I still never got around to reading it. Until now. I was disappointed in the story and how little I cared about any of the characters. The book successfully pulled me in by promoting itself as a combination of Claremont and Lucas, but I didn't find any of the imagination or craft I remembered from 'Uncanny X-men' or the original Star Wars trilogy. Or for that matter, even the movie, Willow.
-
To start off, this book/series is not for everyone.
I love the movie Willow and I still watch it on a regular basis. When my husband told me that there were novels that were sequels to the movie, I got really excited, then forgot about it. This past holiday season, I randomly started thinking about them, and told my husband that I wanted the series for Christmas.
I started reading Shadow Moon the next day and couldn't put it down. The prologue is depressing and the first little bit is a little confusing, but once you start getting into it, it really works. I read all three in a week and I'm about ready to read them again. They really got me thinking and I still bring points up to my husband forgetting that he hasn't actually read them.
Now, the story is interesting and quite a bit different especially in the third book when you find out exactly what's happening. But the writing itself is a little too descriptive, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when the same adjective is used about 30 times in one chapter, it can get a little irritating. Especially when tat adjective is a rarely used word and a bit formal.
Then, there's the fact that Chris Claremont writes comic books, and there were a few times where I got the feeling he didn't actually know how to write a novel, e.g. keeping track of characters, pacing, etc. For example, in book two Elora Danan dies her hair black, in the third book, her hair is black because of a spell. That drove me nuts. I had to correct it in my mind as I was reading and I hate having to do that. It makes me wonder what his editor was doing while said editor was supposedly reading the manuscript.
Other than really picky things that I had issues with, I really enjoyed the series and I'm looking forward to reading it again. But if as a reader, flaws like the ones above completely ruin a book for you, do not read these or you will hate them. But if you can look past those issues and into the story itself, it's definitely worth it. -
Just finished and want to rate this as the worst book I’ve ever read all the way through. So very many things don’t work in this book.
Clichés are rife in the prose and they make an already unclear narrative additionally frustrating.
The story is really hard to get caught up in. The author wanders off telling the reader the most meaningless things that are either obvious or irrelevant or told at the most inappropriate moments in the action. It makes the main character seem like a distracted idiot at best and kicks the reader out of the flow constantly because we know it’s a tic of the author.
In parallel with this extra spillage of words is a lack of enough description to follow what’s happening, especially when there is any kind of action. We’re constantly being told everything but what we need to know.
Scene breaks and chapter breaks make no sense either. Chapter breaks are often just the next moment of the same scene whereas we’ll change locations and jump through time without even an extra space between paragraphs.
The magical universe in this book can be summed up as: whatever needs to work right now but can’t work later for arbitrary reasons with poor excuses.
I won’t go into the jerky character development of convenience, the weird naming schemes, or the utter lack of editing.
If you somehow need to do penance for a personal slight to a fellow fantasy fan and want to feel fully redeemed by excessive suffering? This is the book for you. -
Someone needs to tell George Lucas that it's okay to create a story without having to make it a sequel.
As a sequel, it sucks. Willow bears no resemblance to himself from the movie to the book. In fact, the two Willows are so different that they don't even have the same name. I felt that Mad Martigan and Sorsha were characterized so tersely that they too did not resemble themselves. Forgive the DnD reference, but at what point did Willow go from mild mannered farmer to multi-classed fighter/barbarian/druid/cleric/sorcerer? There is a chapter of normal Willow, and then after a ride on a dragon, he morphs into a dream PC for a munchkin. -
Finally. Finally, I've finished this. With the multitude of problems with this book it comes away with one award; probably most infuriating book I've ever read. And that is not an exaggeration.
I love Willow. It’s one of my favourite films, from when I was a kid to now. Fantasy mixed with humour, loveable and excellent sword fighting. I knew that Willow was meant to be the first film in a new series of films, essentially George Lucas’ fantasy series of films after his sci-fi blockbusters. But after Willow wasn't a major hit, plans for sequels were shelved (though Disney+ is now planning on it bringing it back as a TV show). It wasn't until my fiancé got me this for Valentine’s day, I never knew the story continued in a book series instead. Written by George Lucas and Chris Claremont, a big writer on X-Men comics, I was excited by this; a continuation of a story I fell in love with as a kid. I read it at the first opportunity, as soon as I finished the book I was reading.
Oh. My. God.
I've read books with a bad story. Books with boring characters. Ones with bad dialogue and a rambling plot that seem to take forever to read. Now, put all those together and you get Shadow Moon.
After the events of the film, Willow became a powerful wizard. Not like the High Aldwin or even Queen Bavmorda. His power is like multiples of ten more powerful, with powers that weren't even hinted at in the film. Teleportation? Healing the gravely injured? Reading minds and seeing through the eyes of other people and even animals? All this and more, Willow can now do without much effort like spell casting or potions. While asleep at home, Willow astral projects himself (another ability thrown in there) on to the back of a giant dragon (which itself might not be real) that is intelligent, where they have a conversation about reality and existence. Elliott then finds himself at the city, Tir Asleen, where Sorsha, Madmartigan and the Princess Elora are found. Walking around the fortress, Willow’s friends; Sorsha and Madmartigan don't realise that Willow is only an astral projection, thinking he's really there. After a quick conversation he looks over a sleeping Elora, gives her a teddy bear that's he's been making, before waking up back in his bed.
Cut to the next chapter, time has jumped 15 years, and much has changed. A massive mysterious event has torn the land apart. Tir Asleen has been wiped off the map. Madmartigan and Sorsha are dead, and the fabled Princess Elora Danan is at the capital, unseen for years. Willow wanders the land towards Elora, but now goes by the name Thorn Drumheller.
But forces are in play; an ancient evil is emerging and secretly corrupting people of the 12 realms and perhaps even Elora herself.
It's this what was happening? Some of it yes but by the end I was just glad to be finished with this mess, not on what the story was. This was perhaps the worse written book I've read. In multiple ways. From the most basic, the writing is a complete disaster. Over explanation, just going on and on with nothing happening, you get lost, and it doesn't end. In the end you are just seeing words on the page, none of it sinking in. It also fails as a sequel, ruining established characters and throwing in elements that weren't even hinted at previously. I don’t care about spoilers here, just to try and discourage people from reading this. Killing off Madmartigan and Sorsha off screen straight after the prologue in a passing comment, isn't just a lazy, it's disrespectful to the story and fans. It's like killing off Gimli and Legolas between the Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers and no one really mentioning it. Perhaps if the characters that took their place were better it wouldn't have been as noticeable, but they weren’t. Not even close. For anyone who loves Willow, to be told that Madmartigan isn't in the sequel, they would be shocked as I was especially in such an uneventful, low key way.
Willow is now Thorn Drumheller. And except for the prologue isn't called by his actual name again for the rest of the book. Why Thorn Drumheller? In the prologue, when Willow was astral projecting at Tir Asleen, Sorsha says he needed something of a more imposing name like...Thorn Drumheller. So, after the ‘event’ Willow goes by Thorn. But it isn't a secret identity really. Characters from the film, the Brownies, Rool and Franjean call him Thorn. He refers himself as Thorn, people who know him call him that, it just seems odd and out of step with what I guess most of the readers would expect. So, it's not a secret identity, for Willow to be incognito, for all intents and purposes is his actual name now.
Remember the dogs in Willow, the weird looking ones that are part dog part warthog? And everyone just thought they was a fantasy monster dog. Well, they are a lot more important. They are demon dogs. But they are a kind of werewolf I think, or kind of controlled by a sort of werewolf, someone whose been corrupted or infected. I'm not sure; just another one if those things in this book which is badly explained . It's made worse that someone controlling a pack of these demon dogs at the beginning of the book is someone close to Willow; Faron. Who's Faron? Don't know. Somebody that Willow knew after the film and before this book, but seemed very important to Willow, but you never get any context, and then he dies. A long-winded pointless dead end. Someone important to Willow but not someone we've been told about or explained, is one apparently out of nowhere, turned evil and then he dies and they carry on. This is just one example of this type of writing that happens here.
There is so much in here that wasn’t even hinted at Willow, and while bringing in new elements is good, the scale of these ‘developments’ is huge. The magic systems and monsters seemed massively overpowered compared to the movie. I get stuff had to be toned down in a movie, especially in the 80s, because of cost and level of special effects, but that should mean the two should sort of meet in the middle. Here though, Willow is more powerful than either the High Aldwin, that Willow was hoping to be a sorcerer’s apprentice to and even to Queen Bavmorda. He can almost bring people and animals back from near death, read people’s thoughts and talk to animals, go invisible, astral project and more. He seems too powerful now, is hard to think why stuff seems too be hard to do. One of the reasons the new Star Wars films can be a mess is because the ‘force’ is shown to be doing stuff out was never shown to be able to do previously, in all its other films. Here, I’d say it's worse, the jump in the power of magic in this world, and to be used Willow, who ended the film a moderate sorcerer at best is huge.
The other characters in this book, don’t help the story move either. Other than Willow (and Elora much later), the only characters from the movie that are with Willow pretty much throughout the book are the Brownies; Rool and Franjean. Their comedy sidekick act has now changed to being more miserable and constant whining to Willow just grates. As they weren't even that favourite of the secondary characters in the film, it makes the absence of Madmartigan even more noticeable.
Filling in the Madmartigan warrior role, is Geryn; a ranger (because that isn't at all a fantasy trope) that is on the search for a missing sorcerer called Willow. For some reason he was written with a strong Northern UK accent, rather than just say he had a strong accent, and this really slows down the pace. He lacks any real personality, he appears at the very beginning, he accompanies Willow to the capital then vanishes before popping up again every so often before coming back at the conclusion. Like with the Brownies Gethyn just constantly complains to Thorn/Willow.
Elora is now 15, spoilt, chubby (book goes into detail on this) and angry. And again, another characters that constantly belittles Willow. There's Khory, this gets complicated, as she is introduced halfway through and by this stage, I was pretty much lost. She is some sort of demon child after Willow made a deal with an ancient demon at the capital. She's just mysterious; the whole she isn't human and doesn't understand human ways trope used in sci-fi a million times with robots. She is explained to be important, yet there are while sections where I forgot she was even there. Ryn, a sort of otter person (another thing not mentioned at an in the film), a whole race of otter people. He's a bit more fun of a character but you get very little of him and is definitely more of a c-list character.
There are more characters; I'm not sure who the main villain is. There's the demon that lives in the castle, which was so badly explained I don't really have a clue. Then there’s Anakerie, the Princess of the Maizan, who’s desperate to claim her father’s throne. I'm not sure if the demon is corrupting her or not, maybe.... But the writing just leaves me clueless.
The main reason why this book is such a mess is the writing.
Descriptions are both overly complicated and vague at the same time, in locations, people, actions; everything. You get lost in mumbling, extensive explanations whereby the end you've lost what is going on and just plodding in a fugue state. Words, paragraphs just blur together in a thick mess.
Writing is so heavy and convoluted I got lost repeatedly. I kept reading, not letting it beat me, hoping that is get to a point where I could catch up and get back on track. Sometimes I got back on track, getting what I thought would be a good place to carry on, but it wasn’t long before the writing knocked me back. It is so hard to follow stuff appears to happen out of nowhere. For example, Geryn vanishes when a magical demon starts a forest fire, no mention of where he went out what happened and none of the group mentioned it. Perhaps it was mentioned but I got into one of the vague, fugue states and just missed it completely. There are many instances of this throughout the book, where the plot is lost in a thick swamp of bad writing.
It’s so confusing. And the authors just keep going on and on. It keeps jumping between different locations, some are maybe not even real locations, more in the mind, with no set up at all. One minute Thorn is hiding in the castle gardens next he's talking to some demon completely out of the blue. Happens multiple times. So many dream states, hallucinations, astral projection or Insight.
I mean, I’ve read bad books before, but nothing on this level. The whole structure of the writing was just a mess, nothing else comes close. Normally I’d say boring is worse, but this incomprehensible writing has changed my mind.
One line did make me roll my eyes. Willow Ufgood? Now that's a name I haven't heard... In a very long time. Really George? This your little in joke?
I feel George had very little to do with this book other than getting a staff member to cash the cheques, while Claremont changed the names from his own fantasy novel to characters from Willow. It’s the only explanation I can come up with on why everything is so different. It’s shocking that the between the writer of the Star Wars trilogy (just the originals at this point) and an acclaimed writer on the X-men could have written something this inept.
I think this is the longest review I’ve ever written, but that’s because I’ve never read a book as bad as this. Here you have two things working against the book; 1. It seems to treat the beloved film Willow with contempt, altering the characters and the world beyond recognition. 2. Its written so badly that it’s like walking through extra thick treacle.
My fiancée keeps threatening me she’s going to buy the other two books in the series. I don’t think I could force myself to go back to this. For fantasy fans and fans of the movie I’d say stay well clear, not even to read out of curiosity. Avoid at all costs. -
I cannot believe that I'm giving out not one but TWO reviews that are only 1 star in only the span of a month. You know they're bad books, becuase I give out one star reviews so regularly. It feels painful even giving a book 1 star, because I feel guilty for not properly appreciating the book, but I do have to be honest with my rating system.
This book makes several controverial choices. There were several possible directions that Lucas and Claremont could have gone with this series, and unfortunately, they chose every possible wrong direction to go. This is one of the most ill-advised books I've ever read.
I should preface by saying that I absolutely loved the Willow movie, and bought this book in anticipation of the t.v. series coming this fall. Thank goodness, the series appears to have no ties to the books. But I am a fan of Willow, so I thought this might be an interesting read.
I was already swayed by the incredibly low ratings on goodreads. Wow! When a book gets this bad coverage you know somethings up. Then again, some of my favorite books have been ratings bombed, so that does not mean anything necessarily. But sadly, those reviews were correct.
The first issue with this book is the basic approach. When you write a sequel, you usually want to keep the same characters, same universe, and same feeling. This book basically jettisons all three and keeps a "bare bones" approach to being a sequel to Willow. Let me explain why.
1. Characters: Willow Ufgood is only named that in the prologue. Another character gives him the nickname of Thorn Drumheller, but then the authors decide to stick with that name for the rest of the book. Why the name change? I never understood even after finishing the book. Other than Willow (Thorn Drummheller), the two brownies from the movie appear, but no other characters really appear. The two best characters from the movie, Sorsha and Madmardigan, are only present in the prologue and then are absent the entire book . Elora Danan is present, but we last saw her as a baby, and what we see here isn't pleasant.
2. Universe: This book is kind of set in the world of Willow, but not really. The prologue features the lands we know, and Willow explores more lands in a dream, revealing how big the world is. After that, the entire book takes place in a land that is totally foreign and has no resemblence to the world of Willow, except for the terminology that different species use for each other (peck, Daikini, Nelwyn, etc). Even the magic system is different, and thus it feels like an entire different universe.
3. Feeling: This book has such a bleak feeling. Willow has some dark moments, but this book feels entirely dark. There is a Demon present for almost the entire book, and it is not pleasant to read. What made Willow such a great movie was the schlocky fantasy tropes for kids. Instead, whatever vestiges of fantastical elements remain, they are anything but fun, and instead feel like an attempt to write a traditional fantasy novel.
This criticism does not mean that all sequels have to be carbon copies of the original, or that they cannot include new worldbuilding, characters, or tones. In fact, what makes a good sequel is oftentimes the story branching out. But the best sequels and continuations at least keep the spirit of the original, and still feel accessible to the audience. This is one reason that another Lucasfilm tie-in property like "Heir to the Empire" worked so well after a hiatus from Star Wars, because it kept the characters, tone, and worldbuilding consistent while still introducing new elements. It still felt like Star Wars, and this book does not feel like Willow.
The style in this book is utterly bizarre. Claremont spends so much time describing the journey, trying his best to imitate tolkien. But if you take out all of his descriptions, the book would be significantly shorter and more fun (and its not that long a book!).
I am curious why this book lists both Lucas and Claremont as the authors, but the sequels only give Lucas a story-by credit and give the written by credit to Claremont. Was this for marketing or was it because Lucas had much more involvement here.
Overall, I am so frustrated with this book, and I cannot express how poor quality it was. It does give fantasy and media tie-in fiction a bad name. If I taught a class on tie-in fiction, I would use this book on exactly what NOT to do. Very poorly executed and produced. Even the map and ocver were poorly designed. 1 out of 10.
Side note: Book two is listed with most retailers at 20-50 dollars, and book 3 is listed at 70-100 dollars. And that's the mass market paperback. Why so expensive. Were there that few copies made? I thought that really baffling. -
This trilogy is amazing. It continues to rank as one of my favorite series in modern fantasy. I don't understand any of the bad reviews I've seen. Specifically, let me clarify the following:
1. This is loosely tied to the movie Willow, which was amazing. However, it is not a simple continuation of that particular story; rather, it's a complex narrative (set in another part of the world) that examines Elora's growth into womanhood. Shadow Moon focuses mainly on Willow and his reunion with Elora, setting the stage as it were, while the two other books shift to Elora as the main character. It's brilliantly done, and a wonderfully fresh spin on typical SciFi/Fantasy.
2. People say it's "too wordy" and "jumps around" too much. It's as wordy as Tolkien when it comes to descriptions, nothing new there. There is a large cast of characters, and they're often split up, so you do get bounced around a bit, but it's not distracting. Interestingly, there is a section in Shadow Moon where Willow's focus is constantly, frantically shifting from one scene to another, but it's intentional and makes perfect sense within the scene.
What pulled me into the story so deeply is the way Claremont writes about magic. This is a unique universe - not your typical Wizard, Dwarf, Elf, et al. You have a wide range of fantastical creatures to keep you entertained, but more importantly a rare characterization of how magic works within this world. It's organic, emotional, and wonderful to behold. My friends and I really geek out when we talk about how magic is portrayed in SF/F, and this series always comes up as a favorite example of how to do magic in a new way.
I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you haven't read it yet, I urge you to give it a chance! -
Why is George Lucas trying to destroy my childhood? It wasn't enough to curse the Star Wars movie universe with Jar Jar Binks or release a 4th Indiana Jones films with aliens/Shea LaBeouf in it. Now he intends to torment me even more by haunting me with books based upon the movie Willow.
'Based upon the movie Willow' is a term I use loosely. It is like Chris Claremont wrote a fantasy trilogy and then George Lucas came along and said, "What would be cool is if I just put the names of some the characters from Willow in here!". There's even a couple of lines from Star Wars in the book which aren't even amusing and are completely out of context i.e. 'Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...'
I've been putting this trilogy off for a 'long time' as it just seemed to radiate evil like some form of ancient spell book which would drain my soul. Unfortunately it done just that and I'm faced with a really difficult task of reading books 2 & 3 for the sake of completeness. The best thing about this book is the cover art...oh and the last line of the book as that meant this nightmare of a novel was finally over.
If you think I'm being harsh then just give this a go. I dare you to try and make sense of what is going on and why. In the acknowledgements at the front, Lucas states that this book is "for fans of fantasy everywhere". If he had any respect for those fans then he wouldn't have published this garbage. If you ARE a fan of fantasy - give this one a miss. -
Absolutely terrible. I read this when it first came out because I was insanely excited to have more material for Willow. It's still one of my favorite movies. But I wish I had never even heard of this book.
It really has nothing to do with Willow. , and Willow immediately changes into Thorn Drumheller, a character that doesn't resemble Willow Ufgood in the slightest. Chris Claremont's writing is ponderous and purple in the extreme (take his overwrought comic books and multiply them by 400 pages); I still can't believe I finished this book. I certainly didn't bother with the other two books in the series.
Maybe if you're coming at this as a completely original fantasy series, it's okay? I still loathe Claremont's writing, but maybe that's just personal preference. But if you loved Willow and think this is going to be a nice follow-up to the movie, please. Put this book down. Back away. Maybe set it on fire. But whatever you do, don't read it. -
This is an exhausting book to read. I think I understand what the authors were trying to do, but they superbly missed the mark. I can't fathom the need to constantly have page long paragraphs full of descriptors for a concept that could be completed in a sentence. It got to the point where if a long paragraph appeared, I just read the first and last sentence. I was no more lost than having read the contents in between. Literally a quarter of this book (something like 100 pages) has the main character "trapped" in a dungeon, and having out of body experiences to describe things happening elsewhere. Here's a thought....why not just use a 3rd person narrative for the whole text? It would give the book more coherence than all the leaping around out of body, full of descriptions that contribute nothing to understanding of what's going on.
I'm really enjoy fantasy books, but this is one of the hardest I've slogged through. Please listen to the podcast 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back for in depth comedic shredding of this text. It really deserves it. -
I wanted very badly to enjoy this book. It wasn't that it was poorly written, but, somehow, I think it very safe to say it definitely was not well written. If you like the story of the film Willow, do not read this book. It may take away some of the magic of the movie. I stopped roughly halfway through when ideas such as steam engines and demons with feelings and children came into play. No, thanks. Suspension of disbelief is one thing, attempting to string along your readers on something that hardly makes sense is another.
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You know, if you're going to literally blow up favourite characters from the previous story and remodel other characters, why not just make up new characters and not pretend it's connected to its predecessor in any way. Read this a long time ago, but if I recall, once I managed to get over my initial annoyance over this, the book was okay, though it did not inspire me to continue with the series.
2021 Update: I own all three books, have read Game of Thrones and am curious about the similarities, and I want to make sure I'm prepared for any easter eggs the new TV series has to offer... -
Dull and plodding. Not what I expected from a continuation of the WILLOW soryline--and this from Chris Claremont, the best of the writers from the X-Men's best period, and George Lucas who...ok, I guess I HAVE seen the Prequel Trilogy. Maybe this was his warm-up for the bad writing in that?
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Because the internet seems to hate this series, and because I have been hankering for some good ol' George Lucas lore, I decided to read this.
I grew up on Willow. I am not dedicated to the lore like some, but I enjoyed it because it was Lucas creating another fantasy tale that wasn't Star Wars. I think George is amazing when it comes to stories, and I think George's strength is fantasy with qualities - good and evil, mysticism and lore. But can he write a script? Fuck no. Does he need someone to bounce his ideas off of? Fuck yes.
Which is why this series intrigued me. Which is why I think he went with Chris Claremont. Now. I know Chris as the creator of the X-Men. I know Chris is renowned and truly amazing, because frankly, who isn't when creating a very famous set of people. George Lucas and he teaming up together sounds pretty fucking amazing.
But unfortunately, it's not so fucking amazing. This book is very confusing. The prose is very vague at times, and I can't tell if it's George Lucas or Chris Claremont that is making it vague.
The story? Well, let me give you a summary:
SO. LET'S WRAP THIS UP:
There is a new evil. One that knows who Willow is but Willow doesn't know who it is.
Elora is more than just a baby that saved the world once, she is a baby with magic powers.
In the group there is: Khoury (demon girl), Wyr (harry man creature), Elora, the two brownies, Willow (called Thorn), and from time to time the eagles that Willow soul bonds with
The people after them are: Kari (the princess), Mohdri (the Capt that the Deciever stole the body of)/The Deciever.
There is some prophecy now that says the world will rebuild itself in ice or fire.
The Deciever wants to possess Elora Dannan, nobody knows why.
I feel what makes this book suffer is that George Lucas didn't have anybody hash his thoughts out. And Chris Claremont was probably not the best person to write the book. Hence, you get this hodgepodge story that has a story, hidden in its depths, but is confusing as fuck. There are times that it feels like Star Wars; there is some sort of balance or respect to mankind and the earth; there is a good/evil theme, that's all Lucas.
I am continuing this series because I find it weird that nobody has actually really written a hashout of what these books are about. I'm probably off in my dechypering of this book, but if I'm the closest anybody will get to making a summary of this thing? So be it. -
I wish just for this that I could leave no stars. Don't let Lucas near the literary side of things ever again, please, publishing world. Boring, badly plotted, ill-written, I mean, just a gigantic anchor attached to an albatross around my neck while I was reading. This is the most awful traditionally published book I ever read.
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There are some reasons to like this book but the reasons against are too numerous, they just overwhelm everything. It's a Michael Bay movie for the last third of the story, from the whole world blowing up to the story taking logical leaps that leave the characters by the wayside. There are hints here and there about who they are dealing with and I understand that it's not going to be answered in this book but still yet, the hints aren't enough.
Writing this now I'm not making much sense but in my defense it is A) 4:30 and B) I just finished this confusing-ass book. -
I remember loving the movie Willow, so I gave this book another read. I liked the demon voice. I liked Willow's eagle and brownie companions. Other than that, I can't say I enjoyed a whole lot about it. Nor did I understand a whole lot about it. The writing style made my eyes swim quite a bit, but even if I could have stayed focused, I don't think the plot details would've been much clearer.
I probably should just track down a copy of the movie instead of picking up this book again. -
![[Name Redacted]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1347082397i/287915._UY200_CR0,0,200,200_.jpg)
A promising start to a trilogy of novels set after the events of the film "Willow", this book has a decidedly darker feel than the movie. It was inventive, well-paced and beautifully written. Sadly, subsequent novels were so cliched and haphazard that i gave up on the series...
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No matter how many times I read this book I always enjoy it. I get totally engrossed by the story and characters and never want the book to end. Amazingly well crafted.
