Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Best of 2024 ezine!

Summary and Reviews of Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor

Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor

Shadowmancer

by G.P. Taylor
  • Critics' Consensus (9):
  • Readers' Rating (3):
  • First Published:
  • Apr 1, 2004, 304 pages
  • Paperback:
  • May 2005, 288 pages
  • Genres & Themes
  • Publication Information
  • Rate this book

About This Book

Book Summary

An apocalyptic battle between good and evil is vigorously, violently fought in British author G.P. Taylor's suspenseful, action-packed fantasy.... a pageturner bursting with magic and myth. (Ages 11 and older).

Vicar Obadiah Demurral no longer wants to worship God--he wants to be God! Obadiah Demurral may be a vicar, but knowing what master he truly serves would come as a shock to the villagers of Thorpe. Craving power and filled with insatiable greed, he has welcomed a darkness into his life that enables him to do terrible things, in the hope of harnessing control over the universe. He will stop at nothing, and as a shadowmancer--a sorcerer who speaks to the dead--he even commands restless souls to do his bidding.

Who will stand against him? Young Raphah has come from another continent to reclaim the precious artifact--dangerously volatile in the wrong hands--that Demurral has stolen. Even younger and less experienced in the ways of battle are Thomas and Kate, accidentally drawn into this war between good and evil, this struggle against Demurral that brings them face-to-face with the powers of darkness in an epic battle.

The Dark Storm

It was a still October night. On the cliff top the harvest was gathered in and sheaves of corn were stacked together to form peculiar straw houses. A bright silver moon shone down on a calm sea. In the distance the silhouette of the Friendship, a collier brig, could be seen picked out against the waves. The sails of the ship looked like the flags of a small army preparing for war.

The brilliance of the full moon penetrated the darkest depths of the wood that gripped the tops of the cliffs. A small, darkly clad figure in a frock coat and knee boots stumbled along, carrying a long black leather case, timidly following a tall, confident man with long flowing white hair.

Nearby, a fox lay hidden in the undergrowth, dreaming of fresh rabbit, when suddenly it was woken by the panic of a deer bolting from the cover of a holly bush and running deeper into the darkness of Wyke Woods.

"What was that?" The small man was startled and his voice jumped and quivered. ...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

Amazon.com - Karin Snelson
An apocalyptic battle between good and evil is vigorously, violently fought in British author G.P. Taylor's suspenseful, action-packed fantasy.... a pageturner bursting with magic and myth, and will appeal to fantasy lovers who don't mind the Bible mixed in with their boggles. (Ages 11 and older) 

KLIATT - Michele Winship
The traditional religions of early Britain as well as modern divination practices come into Taylor's line of fire. However, his message is clear—evil is always punished and only the faithful will be saved in the end. Ages 12 to 18.

Library Journal
With a 250,000-copy first printing and a strong publicity campaign in the works, this British best seller will surely find an American audience. Highly recommended for all collections.

Publishers Weekly
Taylor, a vicar himself who is making his writing debut, offers plenty of action, suspense and mystical creatures, all sure to hold appeal for fans of the fantasy genre. Ages 12-up. 

VOYA - Elaine J. O'Quinn
This novel is a different kind of fantasy, partly because of the allegorical elements of the Christian faith and partly because the book manages to provide a strong critique of the shortcomings of organized religion, exposing the deception of power and forcing the issue of true faith....The readers of this text will come to it for different reasons—a high compliment to any author. Ages 15 to 18.

Children's Literature - Amie Rose Rotruck
Taylor's reliance on telling emotions rather than showing does not help the reader develop a rapport with the characters. Nevertheless, the struggle between good and evil, told in a rather unusual setting in a unique way, makes up quite a bit of ground lost in character development. Ages 12 up.

Kirkus Reviews
The Great Adversary makes another bid to overthrow God in this Pullmanesque fantasy, set on the haunted Yorkshire coast. Loaded down with meditations on inner faith, and diatribes against human society (particularly organized religion), this doesn't quite achieve the cosmic sweep for which the author is plainly reaching-but that may come in the sequels. (Fiction. 12-15)

School Library Journal - Bruce Anne Shook
Grade 7 Up-The atmospheric Yorkshire coast is the setting for this good versus evil fantasy..... Biblical allusions abound, sometimes bordering on direct quotes. The theme of the triumph of love and light over pure evil reflects the Christian gospel message, with overtones from Paradise Lost. Thomas has dreams or visions of someone who can only be Jesus. Raphah heals a deaf boy and casts out demons. He is also brought back from death. Whether teen readers will understand all this is a matter of conjecture.

Booklist - Jennifer Mattson
The characters are either ecstatic believers (It's as if I was blind, and suddenly the blindness is gone), candidates for conversion, or evil adversaries, and although Taylor introduces some deliciously scary demons and monsters, the moments of high drama are merely interruptions in what amounts to a rather ponderous sermon, suffering from characters too overshadowed by pyrotechnical plots and thematic enthusiasms to fully fire the imagination. 

Reader Reviews

Sarah

You Must Read this!
This is a great book with original characters and such an interesting storyline that just won't let you put it down!
Kamer

This is a great book
The book reader

Shadowmancer
Full of fun, adventure, and some suspense. A breathtaking ending!

Write your own review!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked Shadowmancer, try these:

  • Merrow jacket

    Merrow

    by Ananda Braxton-Smith

    Published 2016

    About this book

    In this breathless and beautifully crafted tale, twelve-year-old Neen Marrey must separate town gossip from town lore to learn the truth about her mother - and herself.

  • The Sea of Trolls jacket

    The Sea of Trolls

    by Nancy Farmer

    Published 2006

    About this book

    More by this author

    The year is A.D. 793; Jack and his sister have been kidnapped by Vikings and taken to the court of Ivar the Boneless and his terrifying half-troll wife; but things get even worse when Jack finds himself on a dangerous quest to find the magical Mimir's Well in a far-off land, with his sister's life forfeit if he fails.

We have 5 read-alikes for Shadowmancer, but non-members are limited to two results. To see the complete list of this book's read-alikes, you need to be a member.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
    by Lynda Cohen Loigman
    Lynda Cohen Loigman's delightful novel The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern opens in 1987. The titular ...
  • Book Jacket: Small Rain
    Small Rain
    by Garth Greenwell
    At the beginning of Garth Greenwell's novel Small Rain, the protagonist, an unnamed poet in his ...
  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: The Women
    The Women
    by Kristin Hannah
    Kristin Hannah's latest historical epic, The Women, is a story of how a war shaped a generation ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
In Our Midst
by Nancy Jensen
In Our Midst follows a German immigrant family’s fight for freedom after their internment post–Pearl Harbor.
Who Said...

Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Big Holiday Wordplay 2024

Enter Now