Crown of Shadows (Coldfire Trilogy) [Paperback]

C.S Friedman's latest novel and the stunning conclusion to the coldfire trilogy, chronicles the priest Damien Killcannon Vryce and his undead ally Gerald Tarrant's final battle against the Izeu Calesta. The final installation in this epic fantasy sci-fi adventure doesn't fail to impress with a complicated twisting plot-line that enthralls and engages the reader leading to a compelling story.

The first three chapters introduce the main characters; Damien a priest who serves his faith but is slowly drawn from the ideals that he strives to live by, Gerald Tarrant an undead sorcerer infinitely powerful and infinitely vain, following both the will of the devil and his own honor in an attempt to maintain his unnatural life and also his humanity, and finally, Andrys Tarrant, a descendant of Gerald Tarrant, an inept womanizing depressed noble with aspirations to visit revenge on his ancestor for the atrocities he has committed. All of these characters fates are inextricably linked by one being, the powerful demon known only as Calesta, who's unfathomable powers are all ranged against mankind in a war that could cost the race of man not only their lives but their very souls, meticulous in his plans and infinitely careful, from a brood of demons rarely encountered, seldom opposed and never defeated, the world must fight his malign influence and win, but how does one kill an immortal?

The story itself is masterful, her use of description is startling bringing the book to life, the characters are skillfully constructed allowing them to be believable in the fanciful situations with which they are presented, the ideas are inspired if slightly absurd, but the eyes of the reader are blinded to this fact by the sheer ferocity of the writing leaving out little in the way of detail, by creating a miniature world of her own people will forget how obscenely unrealistic a world of magic is no matter whether they favor sci-fi or fantasy novels, and then she creates characters who react to all of the situations realistically enough to be feasible, including every aspect of their society to give an insight into an entire culture. The characters aren't perfect and neither is their world and it is never suggested that it is, it seems a real society with its ups and downs, at the center of it is religion with one central belief and many other subcultures and "pagan cults" as the main characters would put it. A good example of the characters fallibility is Andrys Tarrant who has turned to drugs and alcohol to try and bury his sorrow at the loss of his family to mindless slaughter, this is thankfully far removed from the tired cliché of perfect heroes trying to preserve their perfect worlds.

The description which is vital to any great book is jarringly good, especially when compared to recent blockbusters such as the "Harry Potter" series, this is aided by the colorful environments that are included, a few examples being hell, cathedrals, castles and the most malevolent area of Erna (the world the story is set in.) The Hunters Forest, the denizens she dreamt up to inhabit the world are equally diverse as the environments and genuinely frightening. As a long awaited reprieve from the norm, the emotions of characters are also included to good effect, their views and opinions adding a new dimension.

There are very few problems to be found with the book, the only one that I found was only a slight problem, in that people with short attention spans, or who wish for a light read or just do not read very much, the story line may be hard to follow as it does get very intricate from very early on.

In short C.S Friedman is a literary genius, her command of language is unparalleled and the pure scope of her imagination is titanic, the one problem with the book is that it is easily good enough to be converted to a movie, and it may in such a transition lose one of its most endearing qualities the ability to challenge the reader to keep up, it would lose its remarkable description, and the readers own imagination which in a movie would be done for you, and besides no actor could possibly capture the subtle genius and evil that is Gerald Tarrant. This book is a must.