A Shadow in Summer (Long Price Quartet)

Okay, I'll admit it straight away. I bought this on George R. R. Martin's blog recommendation. He never steered me wrong before. We like some of the same authors (Robin Hobb for one!) And if Daniel Abraham studied with Martin, well...

At first, I didn't like this book. I was really into the strange culture and experiences of Otah. But there's this interesting aspect to the people from the free cities - they "pose". In other words, part of their form of communication is using body language. It was really annoying at first, especially because it stuck out in the book like a sore thumb. You'd have a flow going, and then a character would "strike a pose of XXX, appropriate for a AAA to a BBB". It was always in that format. It created a distraction that broke the flow. I also didn't understand why the "magic" users were called "poets". They basically (warning: over simplification here) weave spells to capture a concept, a thought, and trap it in a humanoid form, to do the bidding of the city.

But as I kept reading, I got comfortable with the pose - in fact, I started to really appreciate it as new, and unique -- it is a very creative way to develop a culture. There's a spot where a character meets up with another from far away - one who refused to be spoken to with poses! I thought that was funny when I got to it, remembering how foreign it felt to me when I started reading it.

All the posing aside - this is a great story. Abraham has built a neat world with some really complex characters. You'll not agree with everything the heroes do, but you'll understand them. All the better.

Looking forward to the next few in the series.

Highly Recommended.

Mr Abraham offers a good novel that I thoroughly enjoyed. The two strengths are well realized characters who are true to themselves, believable in their actions, and intriguing and interesting world building. The world he created is familiar and unique at once. The novel focuses on political and mercantile intrigue, rather than the more typical fantasy trope of battles and journeys. This aspect is perhaps the most refreshing. While I enjoy a good journey to the ends of the earth to destroy or find some magical item, its great to explore a novel with more real world issues.

On the weaker side, the plot has some holes and at times was a little slow. But I will take a slow plot with good characters over a fast paced story with shells of people any day. At no point was I bored or not interested.

Overall a good book around 3.5 star for me. I have all 4 books purchased and well through book two now and enjoying it.

When I read praise for Daniel Abraham from both George RR Martin and Brandon Sanderson, two authors who's works I greatly enjoy, I had very high hopes. What I found was an interesting concept without the storytelling to back it up.

Abraham has created the Andat, basically gods created and held captives by humans. He doesn't really go far into explaining how this is done, but I'm assuming that gets done in later volumes so no big deal. Perhaps the most interesting part was the methods by which these god-slaves are used by humans, how they exploit their abilities in order to press an economic advantage sets the stage for some fantastic politics.

The problem is that the politics and story as a whole are never delivered. The events were either very predictable or completely unmotivated. The politics were shallow. The characters were okay, but no one was really intriguing enough to make me care. Also, given the background, I expected assassination to be a major plot element that was completely absent and completely unexplained as to why it was absent.

I believe that there was some real potential here, but Abraham just failed to do anything with that potential. Perhaps I'll give one more volume a chance, but as of right now this is just a mediocre effort.

This first read through, I really didn't like this book. The second read through, I respect the work as a whole.

I thought the beginning was good. The middle is what you should expect from a young, confident writer in over his head: muddled with moments of clarity. The ending was very good. I hope that carries into the second book. Initially, I wasn't going to read any further but I have changed my mind.

The book is 356 pages long; it reads like it is 556. The most compelling aspect of this book is the dialogue; you can actually skip everything else and just read the dialogue. For the most part the characters are not fully fleshed out; they have their moments, some more grand and more often than others. The character of Liat is a complete throw away, with Maati not far behind. The whole communication through body movement thing is annoying; the book would have been a more cohesive read without that silliness.

And I don't think this was meant to be described as a complex tale, because it isn't; it is actually fairly straight forward, it just becomes convoluted by the world he is trying to create. It is obvious that Abraham, or one of his editors, realized this because every so often one of the characters will all of sudden give you a detailed synopsis of exactly everything that has happened up until that point, just in case it wasn't clear enough. Like I said, I found this book to be much more palatable by just reading the dialogue; because that is the story Abraham is trying to tell.

But I must remind, this is his first full length novel, and it is ambitious. To compare Abraham to R.R. Martin is to be sorely disappointed, and that is what I did on the first read through. Through all the flaws and weaknesses of this first book, there were moments and hints of something really good.

I will be reading the follow up with some trepidation, but mostly I am hoping it's a good read.
--jAMES

While the plot and the world are certainly well crafted and entertaining, the development of the characters is the real strength of this novel. Everyone in real life has their good points and bad points, and too many novels cast the protagonists as perfect or nearly so, and the villains as pure evil. In "Shadow", it's clear who the "good guys" are, but they have serious lapses of judgement, wavering ethos, bad habits. The andat, Seedless, is clearly Machiavellian and manipulative, yet I couldn't help but feel a degree of sympathy for him.

If you are looking for a feel-good fantasy, it's not here. If you are looking for a read that takes you to another place and into the minds of different people, give it a try. The plot is self-contained enough that you get a complete story, open-ended enough that I'm anxiously waiting for the next in the series. I also have to say, although it is a minor point, that I appreciate the relatively short length. These days I just don't have the concentration to make it through a book that requires a small team of eunuchs to transport it....

This is a great series. As mentioned by a pervious reviewer for some reason TOR has not released the the fourth book as a paperback yet. The hardcover for it was released July 2009. Which really bothers me as I'd like to have all 4 in the paperback edition and not have to buy the fourth book as a hardcover.
However, Orbit UK has released all four books in two paperbacks that can be purchased for a reasonable price from the store UK:
Shadow and Betrayal: Book one (Long Price) contains books 1 & 2
Seasons of War: Book Two (Long Price) contains books 3 & 4

......this book is beautifully written, with engaging, fully realized characters and a lyricism that I don't often find in fantasy. Abraham's an enormously talented writer with a real gift for creating personality and mood; many of his passages' emotional depth put me in mind of Guy Gavriel Kay (and Kay is one of my absolute favorite authors, so I don't say that lightly). The world he's created is fascinating, exotic but understandable, and his magic system of imprisoned ideas-in-flesh is unique. Characters struggling (and mostly failing) to recapture shreds of an ancient grandeur is a pretty common fantasy trope, but it's seldom done as cleverly or poignantly as it is here.

There isn't a whole lot of action in this book. Readers who want exciting sword-and-sorcery adventure are best advised to look elsewhere. As other reviewers have noted, this is more of a character/mood study than a crash-boom-bang book. I didn't have a problem with that, but other people might; best to know what you're getting into, if so.

My only real criticism (and the reason I'm dinging a star from my rating) is the plot hole that a couple of other reviewers have already pointed out. I won't repeat the spoiler, but it's a pretty big one. I liked the book anyway, but if you can't enjoy a story that suffers from a major logical flaw (though other, lesser, fantasy works have had much bigger ones...), you might want to keep that in mind too.

I read a lot of fantasy. I don't often find an author who writes with such intelligence and charm. I'd recommend this book to anyone, with only the small reservations above.

Fantasy master George R.R. Martin gave A Shadow in Summer a rave review on his web site, and a rousing plug on the book's jacket. Such praise is well deserved. Like all great fantasy, Daniel Abraham's book works on many different levels. It has a tightly crafted plot with lots of twists and turns, snappy dialogue, and believable characters that you care about. Even more interesting, Abraham's characters struggle with moral dilemmas that have no easy answers. Should you commit murder in order to save your enemies' unborn children? Should you betray a friend in order to save your city? Should you teach in a school that mistreats children in order to discover those with the talents that will preserve your civilization?

Abraham's fantasy world is not just another medieval world with fairies, ogres and dwarves. Instead, Abraham serves up a unique world with the flavor of pre-modern China, in which people wear robes and use elaborate gestures as an integral part of their language. A great part of the pleasure of this book is exploring this fascinating world and slowly discovering the nature of the magic that underlies it.

Daniel Abraham is a major new talent. I can hardly wait for the next book in this series.

I find myself in a curious position with this book. On one hand, even while conceding there is the huge plot problem that is frequently mentioned, virtually everything the positive reviews say is true. This is really the kind of fantasy that we need to see a lot more of.

On the other hand -- and I say this reluctantly -- only a few of the reviews broach a key point, namely that this book is made needlessly difficult to understand. Some novels thrive on distinctive styles. Patrick O'Brian, for instance, is impenetrable for a hundred pages and then you break the code and you're staring in the face of twenty volumes of literary heroin. But this novel, to paraphrase the great film critic Duncan Shepherd, requires rereading but doesn't necessarily reward it.

A big part of the trouble is that there is cutting back and forth between multiple narrative threads that have characters with similar names: Tuuni, Naani, Maati, Machi, Marchat,Marat, Ariat, Amat, Anet, Annat. And a key concept is `andat', which is some kind of spirit trapped in human form that can control trade, births and other things. (Another reviewer asks some really good questions about what the dickens andats look like before being caught and how they have their powers.)

The names, take two: Dai, Tahi, Heshai, Oshai, Orai, Ovi, Oyin, Otah.

The names, take three: Milah, Mitat, Muhatia, Maj.

Then Liat and Itani are lovers but Itani, you discover fairly quickly, is really Otah.

These are a good chunk of the names. It's Fiction 101: avoid names that either sound alike or look alike on the page and if you can't do that, make sure you firmly establish one character before bringing in their twin.

So that's one issue. Another issue is an overreaction to a problem that made old science fiction ridiculous, namely extensive and clunky exposition (lampooned these days for dialogue in which characters tell each other things that they already know). This novel goes to the other end and explains very little. As a result, I was completely mystified for much of the novel. It didn't feel like suspense; it felt like I was reading volume three of a series and I was expected to already know everything. As an experiment, I reread the first chapter and it was much clearer. But I still can't explain some basic things, like the technology level of the societies or -- and this is big -- why the potential for a forced abortion of someone from a faraway country would get everyone so bent out of shape. I'm assuming that the technology level can't be _that_ high, which means that infant mortality rates would be, so why would the possibility of a fetus dying receive so much scrutiny? A whoremonger in the novel kicks prostitutes in the stomach until they abort, so why the fuss about this one stranger?

These needless confusions aside, the novel have a lot of panache and inventiveness. This is why you get very positive reactions and then those along the lines of, "This is book is really annoying. Hmm. . . I think I'll go read the next volume."

I should also add: seriously great cover art. Hats off to Stephen Martiniere. I normally don't pay much attention to cover art and have no idea who Martiniere is but if all book covers were all this good I'd be blowing a lot of money on fantasy art books.
----------------------------
The above review has generated some discussion, largely debate about whether criticizing the book for being unclear was a fair assessment. There are two comments by Robert Gamble (fourth and seventh chronologically) that are marked as containing spoilers but clarify a very key plot point. My sense is that they don't contain anything that a professional reviewer wouldn't say: they only speak about the intended plan of one of the characters, not necessarily about what happens. As such, I don't think they spoil anything but instead go along ways toward responding to the issue of a possible involuntary abortion. Furthermore, Gamble's second post is a good defense of the opaqueness of the writing.

The Cities of the Khaiem shine like jewels in the East, and the brightest is the port of Saraykeht. The realm's profitable cotton trade flows through the city, quickened by the artistry of the poet Heshai. For in the East, a poet's art can become incarnate as a powerful spirit-slave (andat), and it is on the shoulders of Heshai, master of the andat Seedless, that the weight of Saraykeht's continuing prosperity balances ... a weight outsiders would gladly topple.

In these delicate times, first-time novelist Daniel Abraham chronicles the poignant choices of a handful of characters seldom seen in the "fantasy" genre: a middle-aged, female overseer of a foreign merchant house; her aging employer, the house's lord; her young assistant; the assistant's lover (a common dock-laborer); and Heshai's newly-arrived apprentice. Together and individually, without sword or spell, these elegantly-realized few will determine Saraykeht's fate.

Mr. Abraham, quite often a poet himself in fashioning the novel's lacquer-smooth prose, has written a marvelous novel--a "fantasy" by virtue of its setting and the andat's power, but a fantasy that can be gleefully dropped in the lap of anyone complaining of generic, Arthurian or Tolkien-esque settings; paper-deep protagonists; or unrestrained gore. "Shadow" (Book One of the planned "Long Price Quartet") is both fresh and literary, and as Mr. Abraham has spent years writing short fiction and honing his craft, he deserves every compliment that comes his way.

Although "Shadow" is not a perfect book--some will no doubt label the communicative custom of "poses" (e.g. "[he] took a pose half query and half command") as a device to cheat and tell emotions instead of showing them; and there is a plot issue as mentioned after the spoiler alert--it is a book worth owning and, likely, re-reading. Fans of Barry Hughart ("Bridge of Birds") and Guy Gavriel Kay ("Tigana") should take special note of this tale. Four summer-bright stars.

** Spoiler Alert **

The plot is driven by a Western conspiracy to remove the poet and andat and thus cripple the city. The execution of the story is solid enough that one may not pause to consider the larger picture; but in retrospect, it seems implausible that the conspirators would adopt their complex, innocent-life-taking scheme when assassinating the poet would work just as well. Of course, it could not be a blatant, traceable act, but a well-planned "accident"--perhaps a roof tile falling on the strolling poet (as it does on others in an actual scene), a mugging, or the consumption of "bad" liquor or drugs--would work equally well and with fewer contortions.

I am in love with this book. The characters, which in some ways are familiar (the Hidden Prince, for example) are richly written, real people with real lives rather than fleshed out stick-figures who only serve to advance the plot. The relationships are complex, both friendships and emnities are well founded, and the interactions are genuine, almost making the reader feel embarrassed to be evesdropping on conversations rather than reading them in a work of fiction.

Mr. Abraham amazes me with his ability to paint details into scenes with an economy of words, relying on mastery of vocabulary rather than volume of prose. Having only read of the place in this book, I feel I know Saraykeht. It's seedy dockside, it's glorious noble quarter, it's teahouses, inns, and places where workers toil at their labors are all familiar territory to me. I can hear the beggars singing for alms, the the prostitutes singing for clients, and the food vendors hawking parchment wrapped parcels of fish and ginger or sugar-glazed almonds. The climate of the place is so well detailed that it too seems like another character.

The plot and storyline are also impressive. I have read enough novels to this point to be tired of over-reaching tales of high improbability. Mr. Abraham's story is above all things believable, written on a scale that takes no great leaps of faith to bring to life in the mind's eye. Normal people doing business, living and working in a world where the greatest magic is not wizards raising armies of undead or lobbing fireballs about the firmament, but that of the Poet, who once in his lifetime chants a song that's taken him years to write, to capture a thought and make that thought flesh and purpose. Court intrigue is at play here, not high wizardry and grand adventure, and I applaud the author for it. This story is pure, well considered, and believable.

I had just finished the Game of Thrones books and was jonesing for more of the same. For the first time ever, I actually looked up books recommended by an author- George RR Martin, to be precise. I hoped to find something in the same vein. I got Shadow in Summer because I couldn't immediately find other books on Martin's list.
I was somewhat bored and confused for the first 2/3 of this book. I was not quite sure in what type of world or era this story takes place. It seems to have some Asian/Far East innuendo, but not quite. Nor was the whole "poet" idea explained in a very satisfactory manner. And why are there no horses or any other type of transportation (other than ships) mentioned in the entire book?! Do people walk or sail everywhere?

I also find it odd that there is such a similarity in vocabulary to the Game of Thrones books. I.e. "the watch" and others that struck me but I already can't remember.
I finished it because I dislike leaving a book half read. I did not feel compelled to continue with the series.
Unfortunately, I was bored the next day and came across the second book, which is, in my opinion, a rip off of Martin's work, and after that book, will not read any more in this series.
Interesting to note that Abraham actually went to writing workshops at which Martin taught/presented. Hmmm.

Would not recommend.

I picked up this book on the recommendation of Brandon Sanderson, another TOR author I love. Like Sanderson, Daniel Abraham creates a colorful, elaborate world with an intricate political system. His characters are multi-layered and believable. I really enjoyed the interaction of Otah, Maati and Liat. Love triangles are always juicy! What I missed though was the lack of magic and plot twists. You never find out what Seedless and Heshai-kvo can do with their powers. The story moves along at a slow pace. Daniel Abraham never gets the action going at full speed. I also agree with some of the spoiler alerts from other reviewers. Why didn't they just do that to begin with?? I give it 3 stars and I'm interested enough in the story that I'll probably read the other books to see what happens.

This book is truly not well written. The writing style seems amateurish and forced. The descriptions of a persons stance are really strange and give absolutely no indication of what their stance actually looks like. Example: "Otah switched to a pose of thanks appropriate to the end of a lesson" or "Tahi took a pose of acknowledgement that held a nuance of confession of failure" and "Tahi took a pose of agreement, the sipped his wine", but what do these poses LOOK like? There is nothing here at all the build a picture in my min of what these characters look like or what they are doing. It got so frustrating that I found myself gritting my teeth at every instance, which was often many times in a page.

What other description is given is of the "telling" not "showing" variety. We are told what a character is saying or feeling or thinking rather than shown, and it gives for a very involving read. As in another book by this same author, A Dragon's Path, I found the writing itself to be forced, exaggerated and over-the-top as if trying to force me as a reader through dramatic tellings of abuse and neglect to feel sympathy for and connect to the characters, but all it really did for me was to make me feel the opposite. Such as "He was not loved or wanted in his home, and he understood that thinking too much about this truth would kill him." or "And today was another evil to be borne as the day before and the day ahead." and "They were the fantasies of the frightened and the weak, and he knew that if he clung to one, it would shatter him. Dwelling in the misery of the school and hoping for nothing beyond survival was the only way to keep his soul from flying apart."

And, the dialogue is really bad. The characters discuss things and ask questions and give explanations of things they would should (and would) already know about. As example:

"We throw these boys away much as their fathers have. What becomes of them I wonder?"

"Much the same as becomes of anyone, I imagine. The ones from low families of the utkaiem are hardly worse off than when they came. The ones of Khaiem . . once they take the brand, they cannon inherit, and it saves them from being killed for their blood rights. That alone is a gift in its way."

The teachers wouldn't be talking like this, of things they should already know, of things that are common knowledge. Its examples like this, of lazy writing, to explain this world the author has created, but as a reader, it makes me loose my belief in the characters. It makes me see the writer and not the characters since the real people of this world wouldn't be conversing so about things that are common knowledge or asking questions they already know the answers so.

Descriptions are given in the same fashion, an example of "telling" and not "showing" over and over. Such as "Tahi, his old student who had once been a boy like these, sighed." and

And there were some sentences that simply didn't seem to make sense, such as ". . . to melt know with the heat of their own bodies walking without the cold penetrating to their hearts." And ". . . "how many realize we are teaching them nothing?" "We teach them all. Letter and numbers, any of them could take a trade after they leave the school." "But nothing of use." (nothing of use? If they can learn to read, write and their numbers, how is that nothing of use?)

I bought this book (and The Dragon's Path) because of the high rated reviews and his description as a author like George R.R. Martin. This author is NOTHING like Martin, not in skill or world building. I will say, he seems just as creative. I have hopes that his skill will increase in time. I could not give this book one star because the story and setting is very creative, though I feel it is poorly executed.

My first suggestion would be to be skeptical of the high reviews (I really found zero justification for such high praise) and read the free sample and see if you can handle the odd use of "poses" and the exaggerated, overly dramatic writing style. I for one wish I had. I will not be spending money on any more books from this series, nor this author at this time.

First off, let me say that I greatly enjoyed this novel. All of the characters were appealling and round, undergoing personality changes and realistic struggles for their positions in life. The fantasy element (namely, magic) was also extraordinarily well-done; Abraham managed to combine keeping magic as a powerful, but background force; and making it at the forefront, of great importance.

I won't mention any specific spoilers, but some unique characteristics are mentioned below.

Possibly the most fascinating thing about this book is that it is well-written fantasy, and very enjoyable, while not possessing almost any of the traditional fantasy elements. There are no massive battles (or duels, for that matter), no epic villains, no terrifying monsters, and the magic, while powerful, is not particularly showy. It's amazing, really.

The book is very well written, and the character are deep. The universe Abraham has created is reasonable, if clearly based on historical societies. At any rate, his research is extremely thorough, and the setting holds true. The problem is the plot. It is so unreasonable as to have ruined the book for me.

***************** SPOILER ALERT ************************************

The Galts weave an intricate plan to destroy a key person, Heshai. The plan takes over two years to implement, is completed, and then, doesn't achieve its ends. If the plan had worked, and Heshai destroyed, we are told the city will be invaded.

But then, at the end of the book, one individual in the space of a day or two, easily kills Heshai! Why on earth didn't the Galts simply send an assasin to kill Heshai years ago? It would have been laughably easy. And then, when Heshai is killed, why is there suddenly no invasion? It makes no sense that I can see. There are a couple of other gaping plot holes like this, too, but I'll spare you.

If the author holds the other pieces together, but with plots that make sense, I think he could be excellent. I might read the second book, but only after checking with someone else that has read it first, specifically on this issue.

A thriving center of commerce, the city-state Saraykeht depends on the magic of a detained Andat spirit, Seedless, compelled to do the biddings of the sorcerer Heshai-kyo as long as his owner lives, but once his possessor perishes, he dies too. The Galts Empire conquers everything in it path except for Saraykeht in spite of the powerful thrusts of the invincible military. Using trade as a means to get small forces inside the city, the Galts begin to set in motion the murder of Heshai-kyo, which subsequently would lead to the demise of Seedless and ultimately Saraykeht.

Teacher Milah-Kvo catches student Otah Machi sneaking out of the city. Otah explains he will go elsewhere as he disgraced himself in the class. Instead his teacher suggests a different safer alternative as a black robe to serve as a bodyguard to an andat and its owner. As Otah inadvertently learns about the assassination plot, Seedless works on a ploy to destroy the mind of his possessor by driving Heshai-kyo insane with grief over losing a child that the andat plans to remove prematurely from the womb of the sorcerer's beloved.

This is a terrific opening fantasy that uses two major fabulous subplots in which either could have serves as the plot, but instead brilliantly tie together to establish a strange magical world that seems plausible and real. The tale is action-packed, but it is the cast that makes everything seem plausible and exciting. Fans of deep sagas will want to read book one of the Long Price Quartet, A SHADOW IN SUMMER, as this will be on everyone's short list for great genre 2006 novels.

Harriet Klausner

I had mixed feelings about this book. On one hand it was very well written for a debut. Lots of visual imagery making it feel like I was reading a painting come to life. The characters were anything but cliche and I found myself feeling like I knew each and every one of them. I also empathised and sympathized with them during the book and that is a sign of strong characterization. I also have to give Abraham serious props for making the book ~300 pages and not needing to go longer, this can be hard to pull off. So why only 3 stars?

Well, I'd actually give it 3 1/2 if I could but this book suffered from a major flaw and it was fundamental so it kind of ruined it for me. It is one of those "why didn't they do this?" questions that when answered usually sounds like "because then the book would be 10 pages." What we have is a beautifully described land reminicent of the medieval orient. At one end we have Galt, a war mongering country hell bent on taking over its neighbors. One of those neighbors is Saraykeht, one of the summer cities, which is a group of neighboring cities to the east. All of these summer cities are protected by an andat which is a kind of god-ghost that is controlled by a human poet from the city. The god may not want to protect the city but if the poet demands it, it pretty much has to (to keep a long story short).

To become a poet, one must go through years and years of tough schooling and even then only a few make it. For a thousand years the summer cities have been protected because of their control of these andat. Here is the flaw.

**Spoiler Alert**
If a country's sole means of defense is an andat, which is controlled by a single person, this person being extremely rare and hard to produce, don't you think that person would be under gigantic amounts of protection? Don't you also think this person would face constant threats of assasination from enemy countries? Not in this book - never mind that his andat hates him and would love to see him dead (thus freeing his slavery). If the assasin ran out of bullets the andat would have tossed him a full clip (ok, ok, I know). This situation could never happen because the Galts would have assasinated the poet 999 years ago and no andat would be protecting anyone.
** /Spoilers **

If you can suspend this disbelief, you might really like this book. Like I said, it is well written and the characters are well developed. It isn't action packed, another reason my score was a little lower than others, and I found myself wishing for a little more adrenaline - this could be my own shortcoming, so I didn't penalize much for that. I never thought about quitting though, so that is a good sign at least. I'd say read it if you like original, character driven fantasy without cliches and cheese. Don't read it if you like action or can't look past a few fundamental holes in the security, uh, I mean plot.

Edit: I just noticed that a few other reviewers pointed out the same flaw as me so it appears pretty obvious. I feel bad for the author because someone should have caught it before publishing the book and I'm confident he'd change a few things is he could go back and do it over again. I'm guessing the next few books will see this plot hole disappear and the author will reap the rewards of his talent.

I could not put this novel down. Abraham breathes full life into his characters and story. Political intrigue, heartbreak, and betrayal mix seamlessly with magic and culture. It is a rare fantasy novel that brings believable characters to the reader. The author has a true grasp of human nature and its complexities. I cannot wait for the rest of the story to unfold in the other three books.

The characters in this book make it awesome. The story is not amazingly great, but is still good enough for a five star review. I did enjoy it all the way through. And the main character Otah is awesome. I wish I could be as awesome as him.

I picked up this book based mainly on the opinion of Martin, whom I hold a high amount of respect for. I would honestly consider this book a pretty well written fantasy, if a bit on the light side. Its a short book, so it lacks some of the world building detail and depth that most great fantasy books have...but it makes up for that through the use of atmosphere. I like alot of his descriptive writing, it feels a bit surreal at times. Alot of fresh ideas are sprinkled throughout also, especially the whole Poet concept.

I found the actual plot to be a bit thin also, and...how should I say it...un-epic?

The only real negative thing I have to say though, is how many spelling and grammatical mistakes were in the book. I really hate to be reading a book, getting really into it, and every freaking 3 pages there is a mispelled or misplaced word. Literally every 3-5 pages in this book you will find something wrong with the text. It was horribly annoying...almost ruins the whole book.

Still worth reading, even buying.

I've read most of Abrahams short stories and always enjoy the deeper elements behind them. "A Shadow in Summer" didnt disappoint. From the prologue on I was hooked and eagerly await the rest of the series.

This book came highly recommended from a list of top fantasy books I often reference. Within minutes of starting this book, I fell into a deep coma like sleep. I've heard taking drugs to help you sleep is bad for you, so I probably won't delete this from my kindle in case my insomnia comes back

Abraham's world is something very different from what is portrayed in much of fantasy literature, as it seems to be based on more eastern cultures then western, however it does not take him long to establish the culture's rules into the reader's imagination. The "magic" system established within is also different, very interesting, and not over used compared to many fantasy books.

Book was received as scheduled :). It took some time to establish the charachers, but I am now hooked for all four books. The storyline does not follow the same kind of 'witches and wizards' stroyline as many other fantasy books of the genre. Hannahal

Freedom of speech is a marvelous thing to be treasured and revered. But if your speech (or writing) offends people, loses their respect for you, and turns them away from your books - is it truly free? Without cost?

It is not that difficult, the English language so deficient, nor any author's imagination so limited that anger, disgust, derision nor any other so-called reason for foul language can be justified in the business of writing quality entertainment. ENOUGH WITH THE CRUDE LANGUAGE!

I cannot understand the good reviews for this book. They must be from Abraham's friends and family, because this book is absolutely horrible. Do not waste your time reading A Shadow in Summer because absolutely nothing happens from page one to the end. It was just the most boring book I have ever read. By telling you that nothing happens, I am not spoiling anything, because there is nothing to spoil. I'm glad I got this from the library and didn't waste my money on it.

And by the way, the author's use of "striking poses" to describe unspoken gestures is just ridiculous.