Written to include such elements as magic, witchcraft, superstition, sorcery, history, folklore and smuggling, Shadowmancer has become a book that simply cannot be ignored. Despite such fierce competition as JK Rowling's mighty bestseller Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, The Reverend Graham Taylor's debut children's novel has nevertheless garnered impressive media coverage.

At the heart of his story lies the classic battle between good and evil. On one side Taylor has painted one of the most despicable men possible--Obadiah Demurral, an 18th century vicar who preaches restraint and tolerance to his flock of god-fearing but misguided souls while all the time hiding the fact that he is a shadowmancer--a sorcerer who speaks to the dead--who commands these unfortunates to do his own bidding. For Demurral is intent on seeking to control the ultimate power in the universe. He doesn't want to worship God anymore, he wants to be God. And in the finest traditions of such stories, he will stop at nothing to achieve his dastardly goal.

Lined up against him, however, are some equally inventive good guys. Thomas Barrick, at 13, is the spunky almost-orphan who can intuitively see straight through Demurral's pious act and knows him to be evil to the core. Helping him is feisty tomboy Kate Coglan, Raphah--a mysterious African who has journeyed far to reclaim the precious symbols that Demurral is using for evil purpose, and Jacob Crane, a smuggler with a big grudge against the demented vicar.

The plot might wobble a little in places and the simmering religious overtones might get up a few people's noses, but Taylor's colourful cast is undoubtedly a triumph. The characters are larger than life, engaging, plentiful--and you'll care what happens to them. (For ages 10 and over) --John McLay

2008-08-18 Monumentally bad - a testament to all that is wrong with modern publishing

I stumbled across this much-hyped book only recently in a charity shop. Having waded through it's contrived, irrelevant 'action', tried to engage with marionette characters and marvelled at the sheer incompetence of the prose, I can conclude that its only saving grace was that the money I parted with to get it went to a good cause.

Page after page of head-hopping point of view serves only to kill any possibility of tension or pace. Couple that with stilted dialogue that serves only the plot and not the internal world of the character (it could not do both as the characters change their opinions at will) and here we have, at best, a rough draft of a weak, derivative novel. Taylor does not understand character (we are told in single sentences of authorial interjection why we should care about them, but we are never shown); setting (we just run around randomly from place to place with weather that changes both rapidly and unrealistically according to the plot requirements); pace (ever, but the end is such a damp squib as to be laughable); or drama (if we are to suspend disbelief, please at least give us a believable premise from which to start. That Demurral is supposed to be the ultimate arch-villain is supported by no one in the book except the two main protagonists. What about everyone else in the village?).

Writing for children is often seen as easy as they may not have the critical faculty established by years of experience to know when they are being fed rubbish. But that is all the more reason to make sure what is put in their hands is of the best possible quality. It is disgusting that a book this badly written is marketed at children. Taylor might (perhaps understandably) be laughing all the way to the bank, but the publishers should be ashamed of themselves.

If reviews are to be believed, Taylor has improved with later books (it would actually be impossible to do otherwise), but it's too late. The shelves of a bookshop is not the place to develop a writing career. There are many, many writers who write vastly better books but have not had the hype that Taylor has inexplicably had. I would rather spend a little time seeking them out than read another sorry word of this 'writer's' nonsense. Indeed, if Faber actually thought this was worth publishing, the same goes for anything that carries their once-respectable logo.