Review: The Land of Darkness

"It is not the land that is dangerous, Callen. The danger lies in your heart. Others have lost their lives searching for the bridge. Are you certain you are prepared to pay that price?"

Jadiel is twelve and things couldn't get much worse—or could they? Not long after her mother is killed in a tragic accident, her father, Kar'el, marries a vile and abusive woman named Huldah, but Jadiel sees how he simmers under Huldah's intoxicating enchantment. Jadiel's wicked stepmother means to get rid of Jadiel, and sends her off with a threat and an impossible task: bring back the leaves from the Eternal Tree by the next full moon or her father will die. Heartsick and hopeless, Jadiel sets out alone and afraid.

Callen, a wordworking apprentice for Jadiel's uncle in Wolcreek Vale, discovers some weathered drawings of an exquisitely detailed bridge made entirely of wood and embellished with mysterious symbols that appear to be ancient script. Obsessed with finding this bridge, he sets off seeking clues to its possible existence, unknowingly beginning a perilous and mystifying undertaking. On his journey, he rescues Jadiel from brigands and learns their quests are linked—as the elusive bridge Callen seeks is crafted from the rare tree Jadiel must find. The trail of clues leads them to the forbidden Land of Darkness, where they must face the greatest dangers of all—what lies in their hearts. (From the back cover.)

The Land of Darkness is the third book in C. S. Lakin's Gates of Heaven series: modern fairy tales with an allegorical twist.

Each of the books are different in their own ways and styles, and only loosely linked, so my review may differ from my reviews for the rest of the series.

The Wolf of Tebron (the first book) was as fairy-tale as fairy tale can be, with beautiful prose and vivid description, with a fairly slow-moving plot. The Map Across Time, in contrast, was a fast-moving, time-travel story with a fairy tale flavor and high stakes.

And the Land of Darkness is neither, unique in its own way and tied to the other books by its world and its genre.

It balances plot and fairy tale, and, unlike the others, was heavily allegorical to the point of obviousness. I'm one of those fellows who likes to dig for the meaning, and I both read and write books that have hidden meanings and good plot. The Land of Darkness, I feel, was my least favorite in the series for this reason. The plot was held together by the strength of the allegory alone, whereas the fairy-tale aspects of The Wolf of Tebron was what enabled the plot to move. But by the weight of the allegory, the plot slowly built up and then concluded itself quite nicely.

And the little strands of continuous plot that are weaving themselves through the stories (such as the Keepers) are building up to something. I can't wait to see what it is. :)

The characters, I felt, didn't quite live up to their potiential I was quite attached to Adin (the main character of The Map Across Time), actually, so even though I "liked" these new characters, I didn't quite love them. And, to be honest, Callen (one of the main characters) really annoyed me at times. But it IS really hard to write such a character. Overall, the characters had good depth, although I would have liked to have the characters of Jadiel and Callen developed a bit more. The development of the minor characters was fantastic, though.

While this book was my least favorite in the series, it's still a great book. The writing quality is top-notch, and the description is beautiful. I'm sad to say that the simple description of a cave put many of my own "scary parts" to shame.

The worldbuilding is quite good, and it would be even better if we had a map to follow, for there are a lot of different locations and references and histories that were hard to keep track of. But that's a good thing; I really enjoyed the worldbuilding.

All in all, the Land of Darkness is a good, clean read, with some rich allegory behind it. Recommended. Rated 8 out of 10. :)

(Many thanks to the author, who provided this an advance reader's copy of this book for free in exchange for a review.  I was not required to write a positive review.)

(You can also see my review of the previous book in the series here.)

Until next time,

Review: The Map Across Time

"Heaven is not impressed with power and strength, but favors those with a true heart.  Let your heart lead you, Adin, for love is what will drive you and protect you.  The solution to all your troubles lies in your past."

An ancient curse plagues the kingdom of Sherbourne, and unless it is stopped, all will fall to ruin. The King, obsessed with greed, cannot see the danger. But his teenage twin children, Aletha and Adin, know they must act. A hermit leads Adin to a magical map that will send him back in time to discover the origin of the curse. Once back, Adin must find the Keeper, who protects the Gate of Heaven, but all he has is a symbol as a clue to guide him. Unbeknown to Adin, Aletha follows her brother, but they both arrive in Sherbourne’s past at the precipice of a great war, and there is little time to discover how to counteract the curse.

One unexpected disaster after another forces the twins to make difficult choices. Adin’s only hope to correct the past is to return to the future to manipulate events so his quest can succeed. Through his trials and failures, Adin learns that nothing can stop heaven from accomplishing its goal, and that all events work for the good of those who trust heaven. An epic fairy tale with surprising twists, embracing the enduring power of love and faith. (From the back cover.)

Okay, I have to admit: I was expecting a good, fairy-tale read with not much force to the plot.  Good, but not great.  That was, in essence, the summary of my opinion of The Wolf of Tebron (Book One of the Gates of Heaven Series).

And I was so, so wrong.

First, I have to hand it to this author: C. S. Lakin has a way of packing a novel full of proverbs and truths (most of which come so naturally to the text that you don't think twice about it).  If you were a highlighting person, this would be one of those few fiction books to highlight.  There were tons of paraphrased verses and proverbs in this book that made the words jump off the page and into real life.

This book excelled where the other struggled: plot.  The story started out a little slow, with little mysterious tidbits to drive us on.  And then, around a fifth of the way through the book, The Map Across Time picks up until it grabs you by the throat and takes you on a wild ride to the satisfying end.  The plot twists are wonderfully shocking, as they should be, and most of the questions are answered by the final page. This was a huge improvement from the second book, making the series jump from "good" to "epic" in the four hundred pages of this novel.

It's mysterious enough that I may have to re-read the Wolf of Tebron to make the less obvious connections between this book and the first; no doubt, the next book will increase the connections even more.

The characters are fantastic.  Each character, to some extent (especially evident in the short snatches we had of a minor character, Merin) had their own unique voice, and all of them were very well-developed.  I loved them.  I really did.  This novel is definitely a prime example of character development.

This novel also had a subtly mysterious take on description.  The description and overall writing had almost a magical feel to it; it certainly enhanced the fairy-tale theme of the book, and made the pages turn quickly.  The use of Hebrew as the "language" helped make it "mysterious" as well.  It really added to the book.

There were very few cons with this one.  I found one or two typos, but nothing too bad.  There were several awkward scenes that could have been written better (like the sudden romance between two characters and a couple other instances), but it didn't detract too much from the story.  The whole time-travel thing became very confusing nearing the end (one time, no pun intended, I lost track of which time I was reading in), and it also made the book seem a bit circular.  The ending(s) reminded me a bit of the end of "Green" (one of Dekker's books that I really disliked), but this book actually had an ending.  The author pulled it off, and I really liked it.

And, to note one last thing: the cover art is definitely phenomenal.  The physical copy has this weird kind of sheen that makes it...glimmer.

All in all, I absolutely loved this book; mysterious, magical, engrossing, with a shining worldview.  I can't wait until the next one comes out.

Rated 9 out of 10. (Five stars.)  Read this book!  Or better yet, buy it!

(This book was given to me for free by AMG Publishers in exchange for a review.  I was not required to write a positive review.)