Started: 17/07/20
Finished: 23/07/20
Spoilers: No
Holy fuck!
I'm speechless.
First off, I want to formally apologise to this book's predecessor for rating it only 3 stars. In my defence, I do state in my review for Godblind that I was in a massive fantasy slump and that the book was genuinely good, I just couldn't get into it because of my slump.
I'm now thinking I did that book a massive disservice by not rereading it, cause I think I might have enjoyed it a lot more sans slump.
But this book . . . Holy shit. This book.
Characters
In book one my favourites were Crys, Ash and Tara.
In book two my favourites are still Crys, Ash and Tara, but I also fell in love with Durdil and Mace.
POV characters that I didn't enjoy in book one, I ended up finding genuinely interesting this time around. Such as Dom, the Blessed One, and Corvus.
I still struggle a little with Rillirin and Gilda for some reason. But not because they're bad characters, I just don't feel such a connection to them as I do, say, Crys or Tara.
You know what I really appreciate though?
People died. Lots of people died. Some in blazes of glory. Some in unexpectedly simple ways. Others died off page, which was even more shocking. But the main take-away - people died.
Anna Stephens wasn't afraid to go there and get bloody and commit to the massacre she was unleashing. Even though some people that I loved didn't make it, and - yes I shed a tear - I still can't help but love the fact that so many big players died.
This is one helluva ballsy book.
Plot
It's crazy. It's chaos. It's everything I want from a Grimdark AND MORE!
One thing you should know about me before I start screaming incoherently. I love battles. And I don't just love battles, I LLOOVVEE battles.
Whether it's books or TV, nothing can induce a smile quicker than a bloody good battle.
Let me tell you, this book - this whole book - all 400 pages, is a BATTLE. The seige of Rilporin.
And I'm. Living. For. Every. Second!
And this wouldn't be an Anna Stephens book without a graphic torture scene. It wasn't as toe-curling as that infamous hammer scene from Godblind, but it still had it's moments. To be frank, I don't think she could possibly top that hammer scene, and to be even franker, I don't think I want her to. *internally grimacing*
But Darksoul does something very different on whole from Godblind. And it's a truly masterful feat. It almost feels like book one was building up to this moment. Like book one exists so book two can thrive. And thrive it does. Keeping a reader engaged for an entire battle and keeping it interesting is hard. Now imagine keeping the reader engaged for the entire battle when the entire battle is the entire book!
Anna Stephens, I take my hat off to you, madam.
Writing Style
Well the writing is just fantastic.
It reads so quickly. The pacing, the flow, everything about the writimg is incredibly fluid. It's smooth. You barely notice fifty pages slipping by.
The chapters are short, which I love. In my review for the first book I commented that the short chapters made it difficult to connect to the characters, but I suspected I wouldn't have that issue with book two, having already been introduced to the cahracters.
I was right. Because I was familiar with the cahrcaters, it didn't bother me that the chapters were short.
Now lets talk about the dialogue. It's brilliant. It's natural. The characters talk how real people talk, which is the best kind of dialogue, obviously. No one enjoys contrived dialogue, do they?
This book handles the dialogue incredibly well. It's a joy to read.
Final Impression
There aren't many series out there in which I like the second book more than the first. In fact the only other examples I can think of are The Two Towers, and Ed McDonald's Ravencry. Most other series suffer from 'middle book syndrome.'
This book doesn't.
Fuck me, it doesn't.
Simply put, I need more. I don't just want it. I NEED it.
Comments