It's always fun when one dives into a new book with no expectations whatsoever and comes away rather impressed. Well, I suppose one could find amusement in diving into a new book and coming away thoroughly annoyed and disgusted, though that amusement might be more for one's friends and/or readers-of-written-reviews as opposed to oneself. Luckily (for me, at least), this particular instance is of the former case. I knew nothing about The Conqueror's Shadow, nor had I ever heard of the author, Ari Marmell, and yet I did, indeed, come away quite impressed and will add him to my list of authors to keep an eye out for.

I'm tempted to end the review there: being in the dark about the book worked for me, so why wouldn't it work for you? But, I then realize that even having read even this far means you, dear readers, are now colored to some extent already, and thus I ought to go ahead to discuss more details of the book (aren't you lucky?).

The Conqueror's Shadow focuses upon Corvis Rebaine, a man who had, with the help of demon-enhanced magic and a powerful shape-changing weapon (oh, and a large army... that helped, too), attempted to take over the world, where he was given the nickname of The Terror of the East. He was unsuccessful, though not for the reason(s) most people assume. Nearly 20 years later, he is living a quiet, rather anonymous life when a new warlord appears and attempts to finish the job that Rebaine himself had attempted. Will Rebaine get pulled back into his former life? Will he side with the warlord or now try to protect the very land that he had once tried to conquer? Will he be able to find the answers he had sought 20 years previously? Oooh, what drama!

I found the story to be quite engaging. There were some worthwhile twists thrown in, without getting terribly convoluted or complex. Marmell's writing style is straight-forward, with a good flow to his prose, though he does perhaps tend a bit to having all of his characters have the same sarcastic sense of humor.

What I particularly liked about the book was how it gave hints at a deeper background and history of the people and the world without getting bogged down in too much exposition. And yet, it gave enough information to be interesting but not frustrating. An example: Rebaine has himself one of the legendary Kholben Shiar, powerful weapons that change shape to match the soul of the wielder. For Rebaine, it's a large axe, but if someone else were to take up the weapon, it would become a dagger, or a spear, or whatever. We learn a bit about how powerful these weapons are, and a little of the legends behind them, but that is it. There is much more potential history to be explored, but all we, the readers, get are just tantalizing glimpses along with the information necessary for the plot. It is surprisingly well done.

This is due in part to Marmell's writing experience with various Dungeons & Dragons Supplements. He is used to thinking of fantasy worlds in terms of different aspects that may speak to a gamer while still leaving plenty of room for a gamer's own spin on things.

It wasn't a perfect book, though; besides the aforementioned affinity for characters to all attempt to be snarky and/or sarcastic, there is also an odd disconnect with the Rebaine character himself. He comes across as a pretty decent guy, and yet did some pretty evil things back when he was attempting to take over the world. He doesn't quite seem to have his past deeds haunting him like it seems they should, nor does he come across as the evil person who would normally do such things. It's odd. Not too distracting, but odd. I still enjoyed the book, however.

There is a sequel just released for the book, The Warlord's Legacy, which I look forward to locating and reading, but The Conqueror's Shadow stands alone quite well. I don't believe that Marmell necessarily had it in mind to turn it into a series. So if you're in the mood for engaging, enjoyable Fantasy, I would definitely recommend this. And now I need to figure out if I should start gaming with D&D again and give Marmell's supplements a try!

I kinda want one of those Kholben Shiar.

   -- K. Burtt