A Shadow In Summer | 
| Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: EBooks
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $6.39
You Save: $1.60 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  38 reviews
Sales Rank: 10276
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
ASIN: B001AN4WSW
Publication Date: June 28, 1905
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
Gesture and posture convey as much information as spoken words in Abraham's impressive first novel, a fantasy set in a world where poets create and bind powerful shape-shifting creatures called "andat." The Empire hangs on, literally, by a thread; the cloth industry depends on the ability of andat Seedless to magically remove seeds from cotton plants to keep commerce flowing and the barbarians in check. Seedless, who can also remove unborn children from their mother's womb, aims to drive his poet-creator, Heshai-kvo, mad with grief. A love triangle develops among a threesome-Heshai's apprentice, Maati; Itani, a laborer with a past; and the beautiful scribe Liat-as they unknowingly assist the andat in his plot to abort a wanted child. When Liat's master, Amat Kyaan, uncovers the plan, Amat must flee and live as a bookkeeper in a brothel. The complex characters all struggle to navigate a path between their duty to their Empire and to themselves.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 A very "refined" story October 29, 2008
I've only read A Shadow in Summer, and as of yet, none of the sequels. I plan to, because I did find ASiS having an interesting, intellectual plot. What I didn't like about it was that it didn't captivate me like I think books should. It may just be my personal obsession with a lot of action, warfare, plot twists, etc., but I just wasn't on the edge of my seat most of the time while reading A Shadow in Summer. I would recommend it, but not to readers like me. I picked it up because Brandon Sanderson mentioned it, and I love his writing, but Daniel Abraham's writing is far from Sanderson's style or that of Robert Jordan.
Still, if you are patient, you may enjoy it.
Decent novel, but some improvement needed October 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham is the first book in the Long Price Quartet. The second book is titled A Betrayal in Winter (The Long Price Quartet) and the third is titled An Autumn War (The Long Price Quartet). This is the first full length novel published by Mr. Abraham, although according to hi bio he has had several short stories published previously. I have heard a decent about of buzz about this novel, so I decided to check it out. Here are my thoughts.
The plot of this book is a mix of a couple different things. The main plot line revolves around a group of people seeking to eliminate a poet. Now, I do need to say that `poets' in this novel are not your traditional verse spinsters that we are used to. But, I will let the reader figure out what they really are. There are several layers of political intrigue and subterfuge as well. There is also a love triangle that develops between three of the main characters, in a somewhat cliched and obvious fashion. Most chapter are broken up in such a way as to have several different view points, this is fine especially since the chapters are quite long, however, I wonder if shorter more succinct chapters may have benefited the story more. While the plot(s) are wide and sweeping and encompass quite a bit, there are times when things are repeated and the plot essentially bogs down in needless things, while omitting things that the reader needs to know to best understand the story. To me, it almost seems like this book tried to be more than what it really is. If it really concentrated on a couple things, versus every little piece of the plot, it may have come across much better.
The characters in this novel are a mix between interesting and boring. That of course is just my opinion and I fully expect others to like characters I did not, and conversely dislike characters I liked. The main three characters are Otah, Maati, and Liat. Of those three the most interesting was by far Maati. A young man conflicted in his expectations of the world and the reality of what it is really like. Liat, is a lady who works for a prominent house within the city and as such, is an important member of the trades and contracts business. Otah, well, to me he is an enigma. At the start of the book he is interesting and full of questions. Then he transforms into an uninteresting character that seems to be pulled along by the story and has no real direction. One of the side characters, Heshai-kvo (who is a poet) has a scene that seems to repeat itself at least four times in the book. Him stumbling home drunk in almost the exact same manner. It quickly becomes redundant and unnecessary. The dialogue of the characters is a direct mirror of them. At times it is well written and other times it comes across as contrived and just thrown together to further the plot. I will say some of the characters were interesting and kept me reading the book, but there were a few that I could simply care less about.
A couple criticisms about this novel:
1 - Every author has heard the adage show don't tell. In one key aspect of this novel, Mr. Abraham fails miserable. This novel is set in a middle east type of setting. One thing the characters constantly, and I do mean constantly, do is take up poses indicating emotions, answers, feelings etc. However, not once was I able to glean just what a specific pose looked like. Phrases such as "... adopted a pose of acceptance." Are the norm, but I have no idea what that means. To me, this is a major flaw in the novel and severely stunted my enjoyment of it.
2 - Descriptions are hit and miss. There were times where I found great descriptions of scenes, settings, etc. Yet, there were other times where I felt an almost craving for a description only to not find anything at all. Maybe some of these things were left on the cutting room floor, but to have almost nothing at all is not a good thing.
Some things I liked about the novel:
1 - The `magic', if you can really call it that. I like how it was presented, I wish there was a little more explanation on it but what is in the novel makes sense. I enjoy when authors take risks and do new things. I think the aspect of magic in this novel is proof that things can be new in the fantasy genre and not just recycled.
2 - The history of the land, and world building. I could easily see where a new author would scrimp on world building, but Mr. Abraham does not do that here. There is a definite sense of history and scope in this book.
To me this is a tale of two books. Some of it was very imaginative and interesting while at other times it was contrived and bogged down. All of these things can generally be expected out of first time authors. While I was not completely blown away by this novel I did enjoy parts of it, I will most likely be reading the second book in the series but it is not something I will go out of my way to find. For those fantasy fans looking for something different and off the beaten track, this one may be a good read for them. For fans looking to get into the fantasy genre you may want to try a couple more traditional novels first.
Lots to recommend it... September 5, 2008
There is a lot here to recommend this book: very well-written, three-dimensional characters, a novel concept of magic, a fully conceived world and a society that's vivid and dynamic. The book's weaknesses include its pace (a bit too slow) and a significant plot problem: It's hard to swallow that the Khai wouldn't recognize that the poet is Saraykeht's single point of failure. As the wealth of the city depends on the poet, surely the Khai would do everything in his power to protect him. Once you start to question this aspect of the plot, a significant portion of the novel's structure falls apart. While the author wants to pose his protagonist with a moral dilemma, given the ruhtlessness of the aristocracy, it's hard to accept that the Khai would be so blind.
At times, I found the constant posing by the characters repetitive and intrusive. There is something of 'show don't tell' here. But in all, the book is very enjoyable if you can adjust to its Sunday afternoon pace.
Shadow in Summer July 24, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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
Entertaining but quite flawed July 22, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a quick, light, entertaining read. I even enjoyed it enough to want to read the next in the series. The plot was quite captivating, the setting was fleshed-out, deep, and original (a rare find in a fantasy novel!), and the characters were potentially interesting, though, as other reviewers have pointed out, rather poorly developed and, in the final analysis, unconvincing.
The book is severely marred by misspellings, misplaced punctuation (can someone please inform this Abraham fellow that ending questions with a question mark is *not* an option?), and a general inelegance of style. The latter there's no quick cure for, besides the author improving his writing (this is his first novel, after all, so we can cut him some slack); but I find myself distracted from the story, however gripping, of a book like this, whose prose is riddled with faux pas.
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