Shadow Prowler, Tor Books, English translation by Andrew Bromfield, copyright 2010, 557 pages
About Book Tastings: In a book tasting, we read only the opening 25 pages of a book. We’ll tell how the book begins and then say whether those pages inspired us to continue reading the book. A book tasting is not a book review; it doesn’t evaluate the entire book. (For more about Book Tastings, click here)
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Shadow Prowler is an epic / high fantasy novel. It’s book one of The Chronicles of Siala trilogy.
The first 25 pages, which I read, are comprised of chapter 1 and six pages of chapter 2.
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Shadow Harold is creeping through the streets of Avendoom at night. This is not unusual for him. Lately people fear being out at night because demons have appeared in the city since the Nameless One began stirring in the Desolate Lands.
This night Harold finds the streets strangely quiet. He hears hasty footsteps and Harold freezes in the shadows. A winged demon falls upon a man passing nearby, kills him, and then flies away carrying the body. Afterwards, the normal night sounds return.
Harold cautiously moves from shadow to shadow to his destination, a large house which is the residence of Duke Patin. Harold, a master thief, took a commission to steal an item from the duke’s collection. The house appears quiet and unoccupied. Harold expects only a few servants inside. Harold then thoroughly checks his equipment.
When picking the lock of a side gate, Harold hears horsemen approaching and hides. He sees thirteen riders: uniformed royal guardsmen and a mysterious veiled woman with two cloaked riders beside her. He thinks it strange. A few minutes later, another group of uniformed horsemen gallop by. Harold waits some time before he returns to open the gate.
Harold enters the duke’s house by the kitchen door. He knows the plan of the house. A servants’ staircase leads to the second floor. He carefully treads toward the ducal apartments.
In the corridor, there is a garrinch, a monstrous watchdog creature. Harold hides in the shadows and luckily the garrinch passes him by.
Harold is surprised to see a light under the ducal bedchamber’s door. He hears voices. One voice is recognizable as the duke’s, the other voice sounds malicious. They are arguing about loyalty and plans of the king. The argument ends with a scream from the duke.
Harold peeks into the room and sees the duke with his throat ripped out and a winged demon with yellow eyes by the open window. Harold shoots the demon in its back with his small crossbow before it flies away.
Harold grabs the item he was hired to steal and makes a run for it. In the corridor he is spotted by the garrinch watchdog. Harold throws the contents of a phial into the garrinch’s face. The beast is overpowered by magical itchiness and Harold escapes. He knows the city will be in an uproar tomorrow.
A couple of days later, at twilight, Harold discreetly goes to The Knife and Ax in the Port City district of the city. Harold’s presence gets some malicious glances from others in the establishment. The owner and innkeeper, Old Gosmo, is a former thief. Gosmo passed the information on the commission to steal the item from the duke to Harold. Harold inconspicuously passes the bundled stolen item to Gozmo and, in return, inconspicuously gets paid in pieces of gold. One of the inn’s serving men immediately takes the item to an unknown client. Harold fakes amazement upon hearing the news that the duke had up and died recently.
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The first 25 pages of Shadow Prowler feature the tale of a burglary told in first person from the point-of-view of the thief himself. This burglary ended up being more complicated than he expected. Along the way, we learn of various ominous developments happening in the old, walled city of Avendoom.
The English translation of this Russian book starts by successfully setting a dark atmosphere. There’s a feeling of impending doom. It’s written in a highly readable way.
There is evidence of fantasy worldbuilding. In this world, there exist magicians. Other humanoids such as dwarves, gnomes, ogres, and giants are mentioned. A feared Nameless One is restless in the icy Desolate Lands. But none of these have been encountered yet in the first 25 pages of the book.
Harold the thief completes one thieving contract job. I don't know whether the item he stole - a gold statuette of a dog - will become significant later. There are various worrisome issues which seem to need tackling, such as the winged demons hunting in the city at night. What direction will this thief character go next? I want to continue reading this book to find out.
