Book 00049: Shadowmancer by G. P. Taylor
Title:
- Shadowmancer
First Publication:
- 19 June 2003 by Faber
Trivia:
- This book has garnered some controversy for it's negative portrayal of Witches and pagans, whom it claims have been tricked by and worship the Devil.
- Tony Lee has adapted Shadowmancer into comic book form for Markosia.
- Universal Pictures has acquired the G.P. Taylor bestseller Shadowmancer for an amount ranging in the seven figures. It will be the studio's first real foray into children's fantasy/adventure, should it come through.
- Reverend Obadiah Demurral’s vicarage is based on the main building of Fyling Hall School.
- At the end of Shadowmancer, the effects of Pyratheon's use of the Keruvim to distort time and reality is also the beginning of G.P Taylor's follow-up novel, Wormwood. The book's main protagonist, Dr. Sabian Blake, is studying the comet Wormwood when the sky-quake from the north hits the city of London.
Awards:
- #1 New York Times Bestseller
- Nominated for the Nibbies British Awards
The urge to buy fantasy novels would have been my undoing. I was bugged by the great impulse to buy books whenever I see one that fitted my taste. I was not able to stop my self as I kept on coming back to the nearest book stores almost everyday.
That was on my early years then. But it all changed when I bought G. P. Taylor's books. It's not because I was disappointed by his books (for they were quite good), but because I regretted buying books on impulse when I actually cannot read them all. So I decided at that time to buy books, one at a time, to give it all my focus and attention. That's just fair, right?
Plot:
The story takes place in Whitby and concerns the evil sorcerer and his dying mother. Demurral has unleashed a demonic race called the Glashan who were imprisoned at the dawn of time for rebelling against God. Led by the evil Pyratheon, also known as the Devil, they join forces with Demurral so that they can find the other Keruvim and harness its power to overthrow God and rule the universe.
It is eventually revealed that Raphah is the other Keruvim, so Demurral and Pyratheon try to capture him, so that they can kill him and turn him into an Azimuth (a slave spirit) in order to activate the Keruvim's full power.
At the climax of the story Thomas, Kate and Raphah meet an angel referred to as Seruvim, a play on the word Seraphim, named Raphael who goes by the alias, Abram Rickards and a showdown takes place in Demurral's church during which Raphah is killed and Pyratheon obtains the Keruvim. He recites the incantation to activate its power and the world is temporarily plunged into night. Pyratheon thinks he has succeeded in stealing the power of God and gloats. However Abram then reveals that while Raphah is dead it has no power and all Pyratheon has done is meddle with time. After Abram restores life to Raphah, the sun rises, Abram is revealed in his true form and Pyratheon and Demurral flee.
Abram tells Thomas, Kate and Jacob Crane to take the Keruvim away to another land so they leave aboard Crane's ship, The Magenta. However in the closing page of the book it is revealed that they are being stealthily pursued by sea-demons, called Seloth.
Grade: B
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