The Council of Shadows
Novel of the Shadowspawn
S.M. Stirling

ROC
May 2011/ ISBN 0451463935
Fantasy
Amazon

Reviewed by Jan Fields

The Shadowspawn have been running the world for a long, long time, and now they are considering bringing human civilization to its knees. Then they'll let the few humans who survive worship the Shadowspawn as they did in days of yore. But not all of the Shadowspawn consider this a good idea. Certainly Adrian Breze and his human lover Ellen, now his wife, are willing to do whatever they need to do to save the world. But things are much more complicated than Adrian could ever imagine. I loved how S.M.Stirling created the Shadowspawn as a kind of Grand Unification Theory for everything the goes bump in the night, with a side order of illuminati thrown in. The Shadowspawn are deliciously creepy and terrifying even before you mix in a potential
apocalypse. Though definitely not light reading, the story keeps you engaged throughout and eager to see what happens next. It may require you do a bit of thinking to keep up, but it lingers long after the book is closed. Who doesn't like that in a novel?