A review by lissyiszy
Shadow Swarm by D. Robert Pease

3.0

This story was a little harder for me to get into which is probably due to my lack of reading more classically written epic fantasy books. The writing is on par with language of Tolkien and Lord of the Rings. As I am more of a sci-fi/urban fantasy reader I discovered this was a challenging read for me. Also the fact that this story is more for an adult instead of the YA I usually read could be a factor, although I could imagine this could be read by younger readers.

I enjoyed the story but the pacing for me was a bit long and I personally wished for it to be more straight forward. Perhaps I have the attention span of a gnat but I found myself skimming some of the parts to get to the good stuff. There was a lot of description in the story that I wasn't sure was relevant to the story so those were the parts that I skipped. It was well written but I may not have been the target audience for this book.

The dialogue was also unfamiliar to me as I tend to lean more towards modern or futuristic stories. Still there was a certain formal lyrical lilt that I found to the dialogue that I did find pleasing.

The ending was decent. The climax was adequate to what the story was building up to but again I find it was hard to get to that point. Again, because I didn't really have an emotional connection with the characters I didn't find myself upset over any of the multiple deaths in the book.

Perhaps I lean more towards the happy, light-hearted, humorous fantasy stories that this book didn't touch me as one who is a fan of the epic fantasy. Those who are fans of Lord of the Rings and other similar books will find this book more appealing. I'm glad I gave this book a chance because it did awaken my interest in other certain parts of epic fantasy that I may or may not quite enjoy. You should give this book a chance if you like epic adventure stories with rescuing lots of people!

2.7 out of 5 rating for me!

For my full review go to: http://originiquequanimity.blogspot.com/2014/08/book-review-shadow-swarm-giveaway.html