I was given a copy of this book shortly after it was released in 1993, and I loved it. I am just now (8/5/00) reading it for the third time, and it is as enjoyable now as it was the first two times. As in all heroic fantasy, the climax of the story is readily obvious, but the plot twists involved will keep you guessing about the details. The character development is very good; I can see the brothers Podlowsky in a number of my friends (or is it the other way around?).

This is a tale of two Brothers from our world who are transported to a land of magical wonders and dangers, both are skilled martial artists, and survivalists with a range of skills that will save their lives and others that they meet in the strange land of Palenoc. If you like action, dragons and all manner of beasties and ghosts, both evil and not so evil, then this book is for you, pure enjoyment is what Id call it, full of well rounded characters, just the right hint of mystery, and of course its got martial arts, (gotta love that!!!} which means a lot of A-- kicking!!! (A movie please!!!!} So I do hope you sit down and curl up with a cup of something and enjoy the next few hours, you wont regret it.

Apparently, some magical force is invading Greyhawk, a fine medieval city. It kills some of the famous and dignified seers of Greyhawk. The murders aren't random and it seems that the magicians who cast the murders don't want the seers to tell the future - some kind of scheme is being plotted. Garett Starlen, head of the Nightwatch of Greyhawk is troubled by the murders and plans to investigate the happening together with his comrades. A sense of helplessness prevails in Greyhawk and Garett is the only one who can save it from being.......

The book is very fun to read and altough it's fiction, it's classic fiction (dragons,wizards,magic). Until the end it keeps you wondering what is the force who bothers Greyhawk. The book is written in a rich language and gives you the feeling you're actually in that era. The only thing that made me give this book 4 stars is that i expected a more sophisticated or rather longer ending. GREAT BOOK - READ IT !!!

TSR obviously did not know how a good stuff when they see one. Some of its best books were published in innocuous covers with hardly any marketting support while it pulled out all stops for a number of its worst written drivels.

Night Watch, written by Robin Wayne Bailey (Thieves World), was published in 1990, just as TSR was experiencing a lot of difficulties (which they oft do but that's another topic). Gary Gygax, founder and anchor writer for the Greyhawk series, had left and the company turned to other writers to carry on the Greyhawk series, the results which was so bad that it cancelled the series before Night Watch was printed. As a result, Night Watch was published without the customary Greyhawk logo.

Despite not being a role-playing gamer, the author took painstaking efforts to study the Greyhawk setting for his first and only (to date) Greyhawk novel. The results produced should put to shame the works of many other TSR authors who began with greater familiarity, both past and present.

Instead of trying to ride on the formula of previous Greyhawk writers, Bailey created his own - a detective thriller in a fantasy setting. The novel was placed in an undefined time in Greyhawk, and without contradicting any canon, could be fitted almost anywhere in the Greyhawk timeline except the major wars.

Rather than revisiting the same scenes mentioned in the earlier Greyhawk book (Saga of the Old City), Bailey made his main character, Garett Starlen, captain of Greyhawk's Night Watch. He gave a brief glimpse to Garett's past, just enough to present him as an honest man, educated and competent in his duties without unjustified idealism, and was good enough to inspire loyalty from other competent subordinates - Blossom, a seven footer amazonian, Burge, a half-elf who hated his faerie ancestry, and Rudi, a short fighter sensitive to his height (or lack of).

Greyhawk, in an ordinary day, was bad enough. The poor had a hard life, regardless whether they had an honest job. The rich, protected by the privilige of wealth, spent their hours protecting their wealth. The district for temples were lined with religious institutions of varying, even opposing, dispositions. The city was governed by the Directorate, composed of various factions of power, including leaders of the Thieves Guild and Assassins Guild. All were aware that orderliness, with a smattering of chaos, was in their best interests and hence the Watch was not merely an instrument of the elite.

Magic was very much part of life in Greyhawk, and the story opened with the successive murders of the city's fabled seers by their own instruments, all within one night despite being quartered in different parts of the cities. It fell to the captain of the Night Watch, Garett, to investigate those murders, which were certainly caused by magic. While the Watch could normally seek help from the Wizards' Guild, there was no response at the Wizards's Tower, and no sane person would intrude a wizard's lair, much less the Tower of the Wizards's Guild.

Further disturbances in the form of unusual flocking of black birds, inexplicable departure of the city by elves, warned Garett that an approaching danger, which was why the seers had been killed. Garett could get no help from the Directorate, whose members were more keen in protecting or promoting their own interests than the city's. It would take an intercession from one of Oerth's legendary Circle of Eight to provide Garett with the clue to the threat and the instrument to overcome it.

Readers familiar with Dungeons and Dragons or Greyhawk settings might be put off by the portrayal of magic in this book. Instead of the usual spells like wands of fireball, the investigating characters were virtually bereft of magic. Instead of an adventuring group mixture of paladins, clerics and magic users, they were all fighters belonging to the Night Watch. And when contact with the Wizards' Guild was lost, there was no other magic-user in the city of Greyhawk they could turn to, a phenomena any Greyhawk fan would vow as impossible.

But as someone who appreciates the essence of fantasy more than game-mechanics or statistics from RPG supplements, I really like what the author had done.

The clues were well laid, but it took the main character to act upon his gut instinct and against incompetent superiors to get anywhere. Critics who say this is another Thieves' World novel in Greyhawk guise are probably right, but it should not mar the enjoyment of the novel. I need only to point to the Knights of Crown series by Roland Green, set in Dragonlance setting, as another example of enjoyable fantasy novels borrowing an established setting but lacked the distinctive "essence" of the setting. Even the recently published novel Keep on the Borderlands which was based on a well-known Greyhawk classic had hardly any Greyhawk-ness in it.

Having said that though, while I regret there is no sequel to Night Watch or Garett Starlen, to date, any further work should include more of Greyhawk-ness.

I read this book 8 years ago and I enjoyed it a lot! The action takes place in the City of Greyhawk, but not the City of Greyhawk you're used to. It takes place in the future, a future where the mayor Nerof Gasgall and the Circle of the Eight had misteriously disapeared. The captain of the City Night Watch must investigate several murders to prevent a civil war between the city's temples. Great book!

Dragonkin contains something fairly original for the fantasy genre, which is both good and bad. The story comes from the points-of-view of various fantasy and animal species ranging from dragons and griffins to unicorns and hummingbirds. This gives the novel a fealing of uniqueness despite the rather run-of-the-mill fantasy plotline it uses to advance the story. The problem is, these creatures have such human tendencies that they might as well have just been human from the beginning. In the long run, though, I thought this actually strengthened the story by giving it a Disney-like quality that gave me a frame of reference to build from that a truly unique point-of-view may not have been able to do.

What keeps me from offering a five star rating is just how human the animals are. While I can accept that the fantasy races have human qualities, hearing about bears and wolves building houses and such, just like humans, was at times a little too human. Had these and other real-world animals acted like animals, this story could have been considered a classic.

Wow. What a story and adventure. Robin's way of humanizing these dragons and other creatures had me caught up in an alternate reality full of fun. They became so real and human I could identify with many of them from my own perspective. I would catch myself, one minute rolling on the floor laughing at the antics of Bubble, a tiny hummingbird, who just about steals the story, and crying the next. A true fantasy: very Bailey, very good, very worth reading.

I found this completely by accident while looking for another book, but when I saw the cover and the price I couldn't pass it up. Am I glad I didn't. It's wonderful! The dragons are as fully developed as any human characters could be. So are all the other creatures, the gryphons in a nastier but fun way. The story is almost stolen, though, by Bumble the Hummingbird. At times this book is almost heart-breaking, but at other times it makes you laugh out loud. The forest of Wyvernwood is a very interesting and mysterious place with all sorts of fantasy creatures and real animals live together. I read it to myself, but I fully intend to read it again to my daughters.

Delightful mind morsel. Innowen and Razkili are very lovable main characters, the plot is thrilling, the beauty of it will leave you floating in a cloud of euphoria for days. My only gripe is, after I finished the book, I lusted for more about the lovers. Dangit, they never did the deed...

Shadowdance was my first introduction to the world of SciFi & Fantasy. Few books I've read have brought both tears and joy to my eyes. I loved Robin's poetic words to describe ordinary objects and the way the author took me to the dark side of sex and mankind. Robin's character development and use of gay overtones added a beautiful dimension to the fantasy. The love between Innowen and Razkilli gave me, a gay reader, an emotional feeling I could identify with.

I just found and read this book, and I'm completely in awe. It's dark and grim, and yet ultimately uplifting. Bailey's prose is tight and lush. His scenes are visual and intense, and he sustains a level of poetry throughout the entire book that few writers achieve. The magic is subtle and beautiful. No lightning bolts shooting from fingertips here, no fireballs or flashy stuff. In fact, one of the things I like best about this book is that it completely avoids all the cliches of most fantasy. I really like the bronze-age setting, and Bailey's research really shows. But most of all, I like the intensity of the building relationship between Innowen and Razkili. Like everything else about this book, the characters are subtle. They develop and grow as the story progresses. This book is definitely one to keep and reread again and again, and I'm delighted to have discovered this author.

I found it to be a hot flame broiled expeience. The characters believible and likeable. Mr. Bailey is a wonderful story teller. Like a spider traps you in his web, with his delightful and exciting tale.

As I read my way towards the end of this book via the iffy prose of the first two chapters, the obvious filches from other sources ( Forbidden Planet, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and Blade Runner ) complete with scene descriptions and dialogue, the Twains' cheesy repartee, and the contradictions between this story and the originals, I considered Roy Batty's final line with respect to R.W.B: "Time to die," or perhaps even more appropriately: 'A CURSE upon Master Clark Ashton Smith and all his heirs, who thought to pick my brain and slip away, false fleeting agent of my old enemies. Upon him the Long Death, the paramental agony! When he strays back as all men do. The fulcrum (0) and the Cipher (A) shall be here, at his beloved 607 Rhodes. I'll be at rest in my appointed spot (1) under the Bishop's seat, the heaviest ashes that he ever felt....' ( Fritz Leiber: Our Lady of Darkness.)

In the last couple of pages the contradictions were resolved by the use of a, 'draught of forgetfulness,' provided by Sheelba - which was a relief. But the story really had nothing new as regards the core ideas, which were mainly derived from, The Cloud of Hate, Ill Met in Lankhmar, and The Price of Pain - Ease. A lot of descriptive detail was introduced, yet no more effective than the original in conveying the layout of Lankhmar - a city plan would be of considerable help, if one exists.

There are some good sections in this book: The Silver Eel and The Tower of Koh - Vombi chapters, in which R.W.B's own writing style works very well, a viable alternative to F.L's. Generally, however, the writing is insufficiently polished, lending a somewhat plodding quality with over worded sentences, and the inclusion of redundant background detail. Realistically, its all an exercise in raking over, and adding a different perspective to what would be better left alone.

At heart, Robin Wayne Bailey is serious about Fritz's work, but would be better employed writng a Fafhrd, Gray Mouser like series of his own. And White-Wolf and the Estate of Fritz Leiber would be doing a better service to themselves, their customers, and the memory of Fritz Leiber, by keeping the original work - IN PRINT.

I anxiously awaited this book, but with a bit of fear. Leiber's Lankmar novels have long been favorites of mine and I feared what a different author might do. Originally Leiber and Bailey were to work on this one together, but Leiber passed away shortly after they signed the contract.

Bailey surprised me be capturing Leiber's "flavor" while making the story much more meaningfull to people of the '90s.

This is a must read for fans of Leiber's Lankmar stories and a great place to start fot someone that has never read the series. Leiber would be proud.

If you like Sword & Sorcery, even if you have never read Leiber, you will enjoy this book. If you have read Leiber, you'll enjoy it even more.

Usually when an author tries to step into someone else's shoes (series), the fit is not exact. Being a fan of Leiber's Fafhrd & Gray Mouser, I was a little worried Bailey would disappoint me. He didn't. Swords Against the Shadowland has all the adventure of the original series, all the action. Bailey's style is not quite the same as Leiber but he did not try to force it to be. Instead he created a strong story worthy of the series rather than a pale copy of it (a fault many authors fall prey to in trying to continue someone else's series). He did his homework and included links to previous stories, the character's backgrounds, and Lankhmar itself. What emerges is a Fafhrd & Gray Mouser tale that can rest on the shelf with the others with no shame.

The book is good enough it could stand on its own, but by being part of a series I like it is that much more enjoyable. I eagerly await any more, confident Bailey will do right by Leiber's duo.