Shadows Upon Time

The title says it all. This book is a must read for those already neck deep into the series. Flawless execution on the author’s part.

This series had a lot of promise in the beginning but too many issues arose and those same issues continued on throughout the series.

**Spoilers**

I will start with the few positives I take from this series: CR is a talented writer, he knows how to form sentences and I think there are some great sci fi concepts in this series that aren’t derivative of other series.

My first issue with this series is I do not care for the character of Hadrian Marlowe. He is an overly arrogant character constantly telling people “I Know!” Even when he doesn’t know or is wrong. By the end of the series he addresses the Emperor by name given his disdain for the man and his place in the empire although that doesn’t stop Hadrian from commanding those under his command expecting the same obedience and respect as if Hadrian was still a lord in the hierarchy of the empire. Too many times he thumbs his nose at those higher up the chain and by all rights of this universe he should’ve been executed after the events of book 5…but wasn’t because the author loves this character so it doesn’t matter what rules he breaks.
Another issue that has been a continuing issue in this series since at least book 2 are the amount of repeated arguments or events that continue to take place in each book. For example: character A and B will have an argument and come to an understanding. Then character A and B will go to characters C and D and have the same argument and the same conversation and this happens in every book! This book had it 3 times where he tells his daughter not to follow him the daughter argues the same argument in each of the instances. It is maddening to read and it’s book padding (there’s a second instance of a repeated scene towards the end of the book. He (the author) also uses the same phrases and it drives me nuts. I started counting and I don’t have the final number but the amount of times a character says “I know!” It became an eye roll (almost all of them are from Hadrian). This also goes into another issue I have with the character. When a character “Knows everything” it’s not interesting, it’s not enjoyable and even if he’s wrong but still acts like he does know everything that not an interesting character or story.
Finally, we get to the story. While I feel like the author has fairly good prose his story was a mess. In the last several books he ends the books but then the story continues on in each book and I’m not sure he knows how to end the story without the extra padding. This series feels derivative of Dune in many ways but Dune to me feels more fleshed out and more realized. There’s a villain in this book that has had its name mentioned but not enough was done to bring this ending to light and it feels like it was mostly done in this book. This books big action scenes also feel like reading the book of Revelations in that it feels overly symbolic instead of literal and I didn’t enjoy how many of the final battles took place. The author also has the tendency to compare what Hadrian is going through to many of the literary or mythic figures in literature and I get that CR is a big fan of Greek mythology but by comparing his hero’s journey to these it feels lazy. Just tell us how your character is feeling we don’t need the add on.
I know many will like this series and I’m glad for those that enjoy it but I won’t read it again.

Merit in reading the series but ultimately not fulfilling and was glad to be done. You’ll most likely find yourself skim-reading to get to the end faster and not in a good way.