Via Book Reviews by Niki Hawkes at www.nikihawkes.com

I will be the first one to admit that the overview sounds a little boring and convoluted. The first time I picked it up in a bookstore, I almost disregarded it right away and put it back on the shelf. The reading gods must have been looking out for me that day because for one reason or another I cracked it open to read the first page… And didn’t stop for thirty minutes. It was fascinating and engaging – starting out by introducing a complex communication system that involves intricate hand gestures that conveys everything from emotion to social status. And you know what? It only got better! Abraham then went on to developed a mind – blowing magic system that was as dangerous as it was beautiful. These elements combined with an unforgettable writing style made for one of the most original stories I have ever read!

Both the communication and magic systems went a long way to build this world, but Abraham expanded on it anyway and created a stunning city that I can still remember vividly years later. Top that off with an incredible cast of characters (who will have you laughing and crying with them by the time the series ends) and you have one of the most memorable stories on the market. All of the characters were amazing and they only got better with each book.

I loved every minute, and I’ll say it again: this was easily one of the best series I’ve ever read. I will definitely be reading it again and will DEFINITELY be buying anything else this author publishes (be on the lookout for my review of The Dragon’s Path – the first book in Abraham’s latest series – hitting the blog sometime next month). Outstanding!

Recommendations: If you have read all the staples, from Robert Jordan to Brandon Sanderson, and are looking for your next great series, this is definitely the author for you! I recommend him as often as I can because of how profoundly his work affected me. Fantasy fans out there – this is a must-read!

Per usual with Mr. Abraham's work, I really enjoyed this one. Clever world-building and an engaging plot, the first of this series flew by. Looking forward to the rest of them.

...A Shadow in Summer is a very promising start to a good fantasy series. It got a lot of good reviews over the years but apparently the sales were nothing to write home about. Tor didn't bother with a mass market paperback edition of the final book. That is a shame really. The Long Price Quartet is a refreshing piece of writing. Concise by the standards of the genre, but without sacrificing the details that make the world believable. In his new fantasy series The Coin and Dagger, he has shifted his approach somewhat to a more conventional approach to fantasy. I enjoy those books but I like these ones better. Hopefully Abraham will move on to something a little more daring once he is done with that series. In the mean time, you could do worse than giving this series a try. It is well worth your time.

Full Random Comments review

I really liked the writing and the concept of "poets" giving literal shape and form to ideas. The characterization was also pretty good for most of the characters. I wasn't emotionally satisfied with the ending but it wasn't enough to put me off from reading more in the series.

An incredibly intriguing first third, an incredibly dull middle and then (incredibly) you realize in the last third that the characters you're reading about are actually really interesting and fit the plot way more than you ever thought they would. An uneven reading experience but one that ended up really positive. The writing is also very impressive for a debut, even if characters "laugh mirthlessly" every other page.

From the first pages on, you know this book is going to be something extraordinary: it grips you, and both the world as the characters are utterly convincing, from the moment they are put to the page. It is fantasy, but it is very much its own thing, and escapes Tolkien's heritage seemingly effortlessly.

It is original and poetic, emotional and thrilling - and yet it doesn't feature any high fantasy action, magic fireballs, enchanted swords or shrieking dragons. Still, the magic is of the best I've come across, and even without a lot of violence the book is a page turner.

It's an exciting story, yet the writing is restrained: Abraham could have taken the ideas behind the magic and showed off, chosing the spectacular path of letting the andat do all kind of neat tricks. Yet he doesn't. He only lets the reader in on what's needed for the story, and in doing so makes that story much, much better than in the hands of a lesser writer.

So, Daniel Abraham clearly is a master. Although this is 'but' a debut, it feels like a very balanced and mature book of someone who has been writing lengthy stories forever. There is no filler here, there is no side plot put in for cheap entertaining effect, no clichéd character for the reader to hang on to. Abraham shows wisdom about the human condition throughout the book, and chooses beautiful images and phrases more than occasionally. This book isn't a lucky shot or a one-off thing. It breathes mastery.

A Shadow in Summer is the first in a series of 4, but it is a story that can stand by itself. At the end of the 331 pages, it comes to its own conclusion. There are no cliffhangers, and yet I can't wait to read A Betrayal in Winter.

I'm surprised this doesn't get mentioned more often in lists or recommendations, and it's a shame it only has 19 reads on this site. I could go on and on about it, but the prologue of the book will do its own bidding. Get it. Read it. Spread the word.

Nowadays, it is only available in Shadow and Betrayal, a single volume combining the first two books of the Long Price.

n  please come visit Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It for more reviewsn

’And love is more important than justice,’ Seedless said.
‘Sometimes. Yes.’
Seedless smiled and nodded.
‘What a terrible thought,’ he said. ‘That love and injustice should be married.’

The main merit of A Shadow in Summer lies in how its Author bound ideas into words and then formed them into a language comprehensible for us, ordinary human beings. As to the lives these ideas led, the choices they made, the roads they had taken and the tales that could be told about it - that is altogether a different matter.

Abraham’s worldbuilding ideas take us to the world where sophisticated and developed albeit waning civilisation of the East struggles for power with quite primitive and brutish ascendant culture stylised in the western manner. The Summer Cities of the Khainate live off on the scraps of an imperium gone by. They are still resplendent, still rich beyond measure, overflowing with goods and pleasures; each of them independent and yet interdependent - immersed in the ebbs and flows of international trade. Arrogant yet secure in their frivolities by the powers wielded by poets. For you see, only the poet is able to grasp and then hold the andat.

What is the andat? Andat are like thoughts made real, ideas tamed and given human shape, thoughts translated by the poet into a form that includes volition, more difficult to hold each time they escape. Inevitably, the more scarce they become, the greater treasure they were. Especially that when faced with the raw but crude power of other nations, the cities of the East had the andat as their ultimate and only weapons.

“I am a slave, my dear. The slave you hope to own.”

I admit, I thought the idea of the andat ingenious in its simplicity. But Mr Abraham surpassed all my expectations when like a fine wordsmith, he wrought a form for his idea and then breathed life into it creating Seedless. Seedless, neither the slave nor a puppet and a little bit of both, simultaneously compassionate god and malefic prankster, neither a monster nor a beast and yet so very elemental and inhuman, is a character so total that he could wander through the pages of Dostoyevsky or Mann, if any of them ever bothered to write fantasy, and never would be out of place.

‘I think we’re past things like forgiveness,’ she said. ‘We’re the servants of what we have to do.’

This is so precisely because characterisation is the second pillar elevating A Shadow in the Summer above the average. It is not merely the gallimaufry of protagonists. The art lies in how with each word they gain depth and colour, how the cardboard figures absorb conventional tropes and fold them into intricate shapes. This book is like a human origami.

You know I look askance at cliches. But here cliches flare with new life; the coming-to-age, the star-crossed lovers, the late lovers, the love triangle, the revenge, the from wares to whores (aka. the bordello tycoon trope), the master-apprentice, the younger son - you will find them all in this novel. But don’t greet them like old friends - they will be as surprising as they are disturbing and inconvenient. Each of the protagonists stumbles upon the very bedrocks of their own personalities and things that render them unique prove to be both a blessing and a curse. This was the main reason why I couldn’t fully connect with any of the heroes and heroines. They were endearing and annoying at once. Too much like the living people, like us: hard to classify, impossible to pigeonhole. None of them has come out whole from the adventure, none emerged strengthened and refined. Not something you usually get in fantasy, more frequently these types of personal stories are found among the classic novels.

“You aren’t a killer. I’m a poet. If we’re going to stop this thing, one of us has to change.”

Among all the characters Amat definitely stands out. It might be that I have a soft spot for elder women in a genre conquered by hordes of cocky adolescents. More probably though, it is how masterfully her arc was written; she reminds me Bujold's characters from the World of the Five Gods. In a word where action only complements a word and the form it has taken, she is a shining supernova.

I really loved how in this book language is more than words. The protagonists communicate via countless poses and each message has a double, sometimes even triple meaning. Speaking is never reduced to merely talking: “He answered with a pose so gentle and complex - thankfulness, requesting patience, expressing affection - that it neared poetry.” I was taking poses as I read on! I also appreciated how the tale gives a laudation of conceived life, regardless of its form and stage.

What are the weaknesses then, you ask? While the personal stories and arc are superb, the overall plot is convoluted and a bit artificial. The personal stories touch but do not meet head-on. They tangle, but the pattern they form is haphazard, inchoate and disjointed. Furthermore, the whole stratagem develops very slowly and not without bizarre hurdles. The balance between what happens, the meanings the events are supposed to carry and then the actual weight of the narrative lacks equilibrium.

Not deeply enough nuanced tension between the lack of free will and the lack of freedom, the general nature of the andat versus the specificity of a flawed design, inconclusive character development of the supposedly main hero built on a twisted sense of loyalty and justice, especially when juxtaposed with his initial rejection of a system that demanded cruelty from him up to the breakup point and lauded him for the breaking - all this together meant that when I finished the book and I was both satisfied and dissatisfied, very disturbed and unsure what to make of the whole story.

I was torn and conflicted in my rating between 3 and 4 stars, but taking into consideration the avalanche of reflections this book has awakened in me, I give it a benefit of depth and raise my rating. A Shadow in Summer is definitely worthy of your attention. However, you need to judge very carefully if the novel is actually for you as it does not cater to all the customary needs of an average fantasy reader. Despite its shortages, I am taking a pose of invitation and encouragement.

Bonus: Read Q&A with Daniel Abraham on Fantasy Buddy Reads.

Also in the series:

2. A Betrayal in Winter ✮✮✮✮✮
3. An Autumn War ✮✮✮✮
4. The Price of Spring ✮✮✮

There are so many authors who fail to present a world which is unique and different from the hundreds of worlds that exist in fantasy. They Fail.

Daniel Abraham succeeds to make his world different. Unfortunately, different does not always mean better.

Plot Well, there isn't any. I am greatly surprised how this became a quartet when there was no story to be told beyond ten pages in the first book. The issue I had with this book is that it never pursues any concept faithfully. It starts off as a philosophical take on life and fails to maintain that. Suddenly we are told that the whole plot is about trading rivalries and despite this there is really nothing much about trade except vague paragraphs about cotton being shipped and weavers and merchant houses. This part was particularly disappointing. It neither explores the philosophical storyline of the poet nor the practical story line of Amat. I don't know why the author chose to write a mere 300 page fantasy book and not reallly say anything.

Characters There are really no noteworthy characters in this book. The seedless was one character which really had potential but it as once again left unexplored.

Magic Magic is one thing that is definitely unique in this series. But as much as I hate to repeat myself, It has been left unexplored. The concept of seedless is interesting and quite innovative. So many potential uses. Perhaps the author has left the exploration to the next books. But there is really no reason given to the reader to progress any further

Posture This I think deserves special mention. It is a good effort. I am not sure if it is part of an actual culture. But I feel writing is not a suitable medium to portray this. For eg, "I am sorry" She took a posture of apology Serves no purpose. The reader already knows what she said. On the other hand just saying what posture everyone took each time just makes it look silly.
This is made worse by making it more complicated. She took a posture of obedience but with a hint of defiance. Now since no posture is explained I could not care less what posture they took every second sentence. Again, a nice touch but perhaps more suitable for a visual audience.

Narration The author jumps from character to character without any real flow. We see a change in pov like clockwork and you never feel like they live in the same world and there is some kind of synergy. Add that with no plot and very forgettable characters gives you a book not worth reading.

I am surprised to see so many people have liked this style of writing. Unfortunately I am not one of them.

When you've read fantasy for as long as I have you get tired of the fact that 90% of fantasy tales revolved around a dumb farm boy who is the missing heir to the kingdom or to long gone magical powers, he has a good heart but can't seem to get the girl, he has to leave home and help the world/nation/kingdom against some Dark Lord, who tends to be archetype and has some old mentor who gives him the sword/magical talisman to win and kick the beejesus out of the Dark Lord. Oh, and then he gets the girl usually or finds someone better than the girl because the girl wasn't a very nice person. Heh.

Back then there weren't too many variations on this tale unless you wanted to read Michael Moorcock or maybe H.P. Lovecraft, though, he's more horror than fantasy.

Nowadays, fantasy is beginning to shift to grittier/realistic tales; George R.R. Martin being at the forefront. So, now, it isn't about such tales so much and if it is the dumb farm boy might not be such a nice guy or he may lose against the enemy. Maybe, unlike traditional fantasy, someone can wear black and not be a bad person.

So, saying all that for those who have walked with the fantasy genre as long as I have, we finally get to encounter a novel that takes another spin.

A SHADOW IN SUMMER has a distinctive Asian flair to it with almost no focus on the usual medieval European setting. Moreover, there isn't some Dark Lord to defeat.

The tale focuses on politics between various factions within the city of all cities. This city has gained the powers of a powerful spirit that has the ability to give the city a major up in the cotton trade by taking the seed out of cotton plants, thus, giving them a huge advantage upon other cities that need to hand pick the seeds out of each cotton bushel.

Naturally, other cities, most notably one similar to a European one, wants to free that spirit or control that spirit so that they can then monopolize the cotton trade.

So the whole story is about various groups either trying to do this or about other people investigating this plot, not quite realizing the full details until later.

One of the world details I liked about this world and that is based on historical facts is that the people communicate very much in body language rather than words so people will be talking and then take on a pose of apology, love, joy, anger or conciliation. It's definitely a nice touch.

So read this book if you like intrigue, court politics and strong characters, who are not the usual archetypes and are actually doing something besides running the from the minions of the Dark Lord.

STORY/PLOTTING/EDITING: B to B plus; CHARACTERS/DIALOGUE: B to B plus; SETTING: A minus; INTRIGUE: B plus to A minus; OVERALL GRADE: B plus.

I’ve been meaning to read Daniel Abraham’s THE LONG PRICE QUARTET for years, because that’s how long Bill and Rob have been talking about it. Since it has just been released in audio format by Tantor Audio, I decided now is the time. I really enjoyed the first book, A Shadow in Summer, which didn’t surprise me at all, and I look forward to reading the next book, A Betrayal in Winter, this week.

In A Shadow in Summer, we’re introduced to a small cast of main characters who live in Saraykeht, an Eastern-inspired land where magic is created and controlled by poets who, through some inborn potential and some training, manage to figure out how to understand and poetically describe some force of nature which is then under... Read More: http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...

The review that hooked me: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
The review that should've hooked me much earlier: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I don't think beginning this series with a marathon reading session while sick was the best approach, since fevers make me to skim faster and I missed some intricacies. Illness also makes me so lazy, such that I was unwilling to move even though I'd hunched down into a painful sitting/crouching/fetal position. Despite that (and despite the visual trumpet-blare of the pompous title fonts, and my current aversion to epics) this was an incredible fantasy story. I skipped ahead and around to follow a character's storyline, just because it was so fascinating. I just finished stumbling through the last bits of the 4 books and I'm going to have to get over my epic aversion to re-read this all properly someday. I would give this series more than 4 stars, a little less than 5 stars.

10 generations ago (which isn't actually all that long, is it? a few hundred years?) an empire fell and now its remnants, called the Summer Cities, still dominate the world with its wealth, based on a fraction of the power it once had. This power comes from control of creatures called andats, 'ideas given volition' is the description from the book I think, that are created by poets; not those laureates who speak at inaugurations or publish slim volumes or, ahem, rhyme stuff ("Stop it! I mean it!" "Would anybody like a peanut?" – that's my kind of poetry), but scholars who strive to completely capture a concept with a special grammar meant for this purpose and hold it in their minds, bending it to their will...magic. The andat takes on the form and personality imagined by the poet, an embodiment of the creator's mind. Unfortunately, once caught and lost, the exact same idea can't be recaptured. If you try, you die. The grammar has to be adjusted to describe it differently if possible; as the years go on, it becomes impossible to find a unique description and the andat, the idea, has to be abandoned. It's possible to bestow an andat upon another person, another poet. Each of the cities has its own poet, each andat's power used to boost the particular trade that is the basis of each city's economy.

The Summer Cities culture is obviously drawn from Asia, with the almond eyes and teahouses, but how beautiful the added touches are! Letters having edges sewn with silk thread are tucked into sleeves; firekeepers maintain braziers along major thoroughfares during cold months; the language consists of as many gestures as words; the suffix -kvo is used for teachers, -cha for respect, and -kya for great affection – grace notes in this wicked awesome story. And man, can this author write. Too many lines that made me pause to appreciate, even in a feverish haze. I wish I had the head to remember quotes to share them, but all I remember is the lift that comes from knowing something is very good.

This first book introduces the world (building it, hah). It begins at the poet school where we learn how they attempt to select the right people to potentially wield andats. Then fast-forward to a young poet sent to one of the cities to be ready to take on the residing poet's andat when the time comes. A plot to destroy the current poet is revealed to be just a feeler. Threading around the plot are all the human relations that complicate everything. There is the expected love triangle, whatever, but better is the delicate hum of Marchat and Amat. Wonderful and quietly sad. Anyway, the feeler plot felt flabby and small until it swelled to include nations and then gut-punches a reader with a series of, uh, punches. In the gut. That final sentence, wow. It's like the whole book was an orchestra just before a performance, sawing bows and turning knobs, an oddly harmonious dissonance (heh, I know, dumb, but when the strings are tuning and don't quite match but all sound like a piece of silk running up your back...that!), and at the last sentence the conductor dramatically raises his baton....

"A Shadow in Summer" has been on my to-be-read radar for quite a while now even though I can't quite recall exactly why I put it on the list. But when Jaws Read Too began her Summer of Series program, I looked over at the first installment in the series, sitting on my to be read pile, mocking me mercilessly and decided it was a good time to commit not only to reading the first book, but also the entire "Long Price Quartet" series as well.

So, I pulled the book out of the pile, cracked open the pages and began to read.

And, again, tried to recall what it was that drew me to the book in the first place. I think part of it was a desire to sample more fantasy novels and to sample series that actually had a chance of being finished sometime within my lifetime.

Reading "A Shadow in Summer," it appears that Daniel Abraham had not only a plan for this book, but also his entire series. And, thankfully, this is an entry in a series that has a definitive plot arc that is resolved by the end of the book. Yes, there are still some threads left open for future development, but it doesn't feel like a massive build-up to a cliffhanger or a 300 page preview for book two in the series.

Instead what Abraham has done is set up a remarkably believable world with some well rounded, interesting characters. Yes, there is a magical system at work here, but reading "Summer" I was reminded of Laura Anne Gilman's "Flesh and Fire" where the magical system was more limited and while there are powerful people within the magical system created here, it can't always be used as a way to easily get out of a situation (aka the equivalent of the sonic screwdriver on "Doctor Who" where its use is defined by whatever situation the script needs to get the Doctor out of without too much effort). The system is also one that the world we're reading about is built around and it has implications both positive and negative to all the various players we see inhabiting the book.

In this world, poets are powerful men who can create andats for a specific purpose. The novel includes one called Seedless who can remove the seeds from things, which is vital to the economy of the setting here. The city is dependent on the cotton crop and the ease of removing seeds is necessity for daily life and the economic survival of the city. But the power extends beyond just the removal of seeds from various plants and into the arena of being able to remove an unwanted pregnancy.

And that plot forms the basis for the political maneuvering that drives much of what unfolds in "Summer." In many ways, the unfolding story is one that can be deceptively slow moving, allowing for the full implications of what's really going on to slowly occur to the characters involved and the reader. Abraham clearly assumes an intelligence by his reader and doesn't have page upon page of infodumps that can bog down many of the bigger fantasy names (I'm looking at your Terry Goodkind). He also avoids the habit of excessive recapping of events and having characters ponder what's gone on before in minuscule detail. The characters do reflect on what's happen, but it feels more authentic and real than I saw in another fantasy book I plowed my way through last summer that could have been shorter had we not had a recap or a character reflection every ten pages.

Thankfully, the novel is also inhabited by a set of fully realized characters, all of whom you'll like and dislike to various degrees as the novel progresses. Abraham takes the tactic of having the characters who serve as the antagonists for the story clearly believe that the story is presenting them as heroes and the novel works better for that. And his presentation of characters as having both noble and un-noble qualities is a nice touch.

And, again, it resolves the main storyline of the novel by the time the last page is turned, even though we have some indication of where things could head for the next novel and possibly the rest of the series.

In short, it's a successful standalone novel and a successful start to an intriguing new series.