To begin with: Happy Canada Day! May you enjoy some delicious BBQ and Fireworks on this the first day of the seventh month. I am not certain I am going to actually make it out to watch the fireworks, but I am sure some of our neighbours will do the honours anyway.

This is the book cover taken from the internets.

The book: Shadows.

The author: Robin McKinley

The plot: Magic doesn’t exist in the Newworld, only science. Genecor has excised the gene from those living in the Newworld. Instead the populace realise on technology to deal with the weird and dangerous warps to the fabric of reality. Maggie, however, is starting to suspect there is something wrong with her new stepfather. When she looks at him, she can see them: the Shadows. An undulating mass that wriggled free of his own logical shadow. She is not happy about this new development, though she is determined her weird new stepfather is not going to ruin her senior year at highschool.

I am not sure I am doing that good of a job selling this book. Of course, that would fit perfectly with my first impressions. I want to start this review by saying that I like Robin McKinley. I have read most of her novels and enjoyed many of them. She is, or can be, one of the more artistic writers I read. Which is to say there are long expositions of description, perhaps some internal dialogue and very little action. I would, to my brother’s frustration, describe her work as leaning towards watercolour – a little washed out and hard to see. Perhaps more impressionistic?

That said she has some very beautiful prose and I do quite like a number of her other stories. This one was a challenge to get into. It felt like a slog to read the first half-dozen chapters. It was the style, not the story, that was my stumbling block. The narrative is told in the first person (not my most favourite) and it was rambling. It lacked a clear, clean, direct timeline as it tried to provide the reader with a lot of world building. Unfortunately this made for a very tedious start to the book. I had thoughts of putting on my shelf and ignoring its uncompleted being, except I had nothing else to read last night. Fortunately things do start to pick up, the narrator meanders less as she focusses on the present problems. There are still a number of reflective sections when we are told about past events, but those are skimmable.

The world itself is a rather interesting alternate earth. It is very science-fiction, despite the heavy inclusion of magic. The Newworld (as opposed to the Oldworld, Farworld, Midworld or Southworld) is science/tech focused. It is trying to rid itself of magic. It is also facing the regular problem of rips in reality (or some such thing) just like the rest of the world.

The expletives are largely tech focused: ‘hot wire’, ‘dead battery’. It is everyday slang for the characters of the story and a good detail in the world building. Though, it can feel a bit confusing, especially at the start of the narrative when everything is new and odd sounding.

I also really liked the inclusion of Japanese phrases. They were added for world building flavour as one of the secondary characters has a Japanese background. It just so happens that I am currently studying Japanese, so I was tickled to be able to read these inclusions.

So, to sum up this review. The story is rambling, particularly at the beginning. However, if you continue forward there are some excellent world building elements, solid characters and interesting story to be discovered. It is a good read, just not as smooth as some other stories.