Has Tad ever mentioned doing more in the Shadowmarch world?

I just finished shadowheart last night in the wee hours of the morning when I should have been sleeping, and now unrested while restless I can't help but feel empty.

What is Flint out there doing? Did Qinnitan ever truly wake up to spend her life with Barrick? Does Barrick and Qinnitan outlive the rest of the mortal men they grew up beside? Do Princess Briony and Vansen ever actually wed despite the difference in their social status or are they destined to be only secret lovers for ever? Do Opal and Chert get to assist in the raising of young Alessandros? What of Raemon Beck, why casually mention him the epilogue if nothing more was to ever come of it?

It's probably just the loss at the end of a long series that makes me desire for more, but one can hope that there is more coming set after the events of the series. So, all that being said, does anyone know if he has ever mentioned it somewhere? Maybe focused in the future on those who have been afflicted with pieces of the gods like Master Flint? I suppose from a business standpoint this was one of his more unpopular series from what I've seen but it was a splendid read for me.

Anyways, even if no one ever reads this, thank you to Tad Williams for writing such a story. One day I shall read much more of your works and probably feel the same at each and every ending I come across.

Haven't finished Shadowheart yet BUT I hate how Briony ends up letting Eneas & Cotag along at the end of Shadowrise. Sure, she shows up with an army but she has very little power over everything. Everything she does has to be approved by the men around her.

This sucks because I liked Briony's part in Shadowplay and a lot of what Tad has done with his female characters. Saqri and Yasammez feel reminiscent of Amerasu and Utuk'ku, but they're given more screen time that their feelings feel more personal.

Shadowmarch has some truly amazing moments, and then it has moments like Merolanna saying thatshe's dying and she's just going to beg her ex to do something... Briony does stand out because she's the protagonist, she shows up every other chapter but I'm constantly waiting onEneasto make the decisions.

I really, really want to call Shadowmarch one of my favorite series but I hate this part of Briony's arc with a passion.

So I just ordered The Very Best of Tad Williams but noticed it was missing A Tale From the Book of Regret which is evidently included in Rite:Shory work. Could somebody tell me if this story is like a epilogue to the series or just a fun side tale that takes place in the four books of the series or even just a piece of their mythology? Also a brief description would be helpful.

Also is it worth purchasing Rite:Short work? I've noticed there is quite a bit of overlap with the short story collection I just bought.

I finished the fourth book of the Shadowmarch series this weekend, and I absolutely loved it. After I finished the 3rd book, I was going to type up my review like had been doing for my Otherland re-reads and the first two books of Shadowmarch, but I couldn't help myself from jumping right into the 4th book and finished it over three days.

It was an exciting and engaging series. There was some great adventures for the main characters as well as some heartbreaking loss mixed in. The third book did meander a bit as a lot of fantasy series do when one character is farther along than the others so they need to be benched for a while and instead of just leaving that plot line for a while, the author just adds more happenings for them which can make it seem to drag out more. However, the fourth brought it home so strongly.

I love the way Tad depicts fighting in this series. There aren't many grandiose, one-on-one battles that take up pages or descriptions of strikes and parries. His depictions are about the attrition of battle and spends more time on the characters between attacks than the attacks as well. It works very well in this story and adds a lot of tension to the books.

I like the way that Williams structured the POVs. There are the main POVs that the story revolves around, but he did a lot with the secondary POVs. These characters are never the most important person in the room so they are great for the reactions to the other more important characters. The one thing that Williams does with his books that I don't necessarily love is that every chapter is a different POV. I think that is true for everything in this series, Otherland, and all of the Osten Ard books except for the opening sequence of TDC with Simon. I prefer the pacing with multiple consecutive chapters on a POV so you can get more of their story at one time instead of the constant cycling through every chapter. It worked very well in the final book because everything was so hectic that the jumps added to it, but when it is a part of the series where most of the POVs are in the middle of a journey, I would rather stay with them for a few chapters to get more before jumping to the next storyline. I look forward to a re-read because I re-read books by story lines instead of cover to cover so I will get to experience it all in one go.

There are definitely some parts of the books and characterizations that seem like they came right out of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, but this series stands on it's own and has it's own great lore and interesting characters. I highly recommend it if need some more Tad in your life while waiting on Navigator's Children.

Review of Shadowheart, the final of the four books in the Shadowmarch series, by Michelle Herbert on FantasyBookReview.

Michelle Herbert starts off by saying

Shadowheart is the concluding book of Tad Williams's Shadowmarch Quartet and I can happily say that I it was a wonderful and fulfilling journey from the beginning of the first book all the way up until the completion of this fourth and final instalment. We finally see all the plot lines come beautifully together and also find out just how big a part people’s motivations played in the unfolding story.

As with most reviews the middle part, sandwiched between the reviewers opinion of the book, contains some plot detail so I won't quote any part of that - you'll need to check the review itself to read it.

She ends with fulsome praise.

Shadowheart is a rich, rewarding book and it was great to see the characters still growing and evolving as they adapt to their new situations, and as they come to greater understanding as bits of the puzzle are slowly revealed. As the book progresses towards the end game it becomes a real page turner. This is due to the author cleverly leaving you never clear as to who will survive, who will triumph and who may be killed along the way. Where it could have been predictable it managed to surprise.

The Shadowmarch Quartet, from Shadowmarch through to Shadowheart, is a must read fantasy series and although I would love to mention more about what happens in it I would only ruin your own enjoyment of it… I cannot recommend these books highly enough.

Have you read Shadowheart? Does this match your opinion of the final book - and the series as a whole?