This Dark Endeavor

I love this book SO much, I can't write a deserving review. I can't quite convey all of my emotions. It is so much more than I was expecting it to be, and leads me down two distinct paths. On the one hand, it's magical, adventurous, dramatic, and romantic. And, on the other, terrifying, heart-breaking, and absolutely tragic. I feel almost gutted. It got under my skin and in my head in a way that doesn't normally happen when I read.

I haven't been moved to tears like this by a novel since I read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It's not quite a powerful story like that classic, but it really got to me. In many ways, I also felt the way I did when I read The Hunger Games trilogy because the characters go through such incredible show more trials and conflicts that I got completely sucked into the story. In This Dark Endeavor, I couldn't help but be uneasy through the most dangerous parts, as if I were right there experiencing every frightening, squeamish moment along with the characters. I cried myself to sleep the night I finished it (cat-lovers, beware).

In this prequel to the original classic tale, of which I'm already a huge fan, Victor Frankenstein is a sixteen-year-old living with his father, mother, twin brother, Konrad, and his distant cousin, Elizabeth. Just so you know, in the original, Victor had no twin brother, only younger brothers, and he had always loved Elizabeth from the time she came to live with his family.

Konrad comes down with a grave illness, and Victor decides to study forbidden magical alchemy in order to save him. In his family's Swiss chateau, he discovers a hidden Dark Library (very cool!) filled with several tomes on alchemy, which Victor develops a healthy obsession with. He secretly enlists the help of an old alchemist in town, who requires that he and his friends fetch the three ingredients to make the Elixir of Life, a potion that gives a person immortality.

He, Elizabeth, and the hilariously charming, although scardy-cat, Henry Clerval set out on some death-defying adventures in order to procure the unusual items. The adventures are exciting, like those of a Middle Grade adventure novel. Although, I wouldn't suggest this novel for younger children, as we get a lot of insight into Victor's thoughts about his growing attraction to Elizabeth—if you know what I mean.

The romantic drama is spectacular! Here is a love triangle that shouldn't annoy anyone, even those who typically hate them. Unless you hate already knowing who will likely end up with whom, and since this is a prequel, we do already know. But, this doesn't ruin a thing. Each character involved is firm about whom they love—no one waivers, and no one gives anyone the wrong idea (at least not consciously). Elizabeth is worthy of being stuck in the middle. Best of all, Victor likes to put his passion where his mouth is (pun intended), and nothing but excitement ensues.

Victor is surprisingly heroic, and he's hardly that in the original novel. He also has an inner darkness which drives him to do scandalous things. In other words, he's a 'bad boy.' This darkness is only beginning to develop inside him, and it will lead to incredible tragedy, which you can read about in Mary Shelley's novel. In his own way, he is perfectly flawed, and I love that kind of complexity. But, I'm sad, as well as ecstatic because I know what lies in Victor's future, and now that I actually sympathize with him so much, it's depressing…

This book is amazing, and even if you haven't read Frankenstein, you'll still be able to follow it. It may help to enrich your experience by reading the first few chapters of the original, but Oppel takes many liberties in changing the canon. The novel stands very well on it's own, and all the characters are wonderful. By the end, there's a hint of more to come, since Victor's hardly finished studying alchemy, and like a proper mad scientist, he remains totally obsessed. I hope I get to read more, so, so much more…. show less

This book combined a lot of my favorite elements: early science, alchemy, forbidden knowledge, a hopeless quest, and a Gothic setting. While he's given some motivations that weren't present in the original novel, this version of Victor Frankenstein is at least as arrogant, impulsive, and disturbingly obsessive as Shelley's character, to the point where he's more of a villain protagonist than an antihero. (There's probably also something to be said about the way in which Dr. Polidori, the character in a wheelchair, is portrayed as creepy and untrustworthy.) I'd really like to see the same Gothic tropes I listed above used in a story with a more sympathetic protagonist.

Subtitled 'The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein', this first volume in a duology strives to explain how Victor Frankenstein was set on the dark path that led to his creating the monster. It does so very successfully, and I couldn't help wondering why no one else had come up with this idea before.

This book introduces the reader to the 16-year-old Frankenstein twins, Victor and Konrad, who live in the ancestral chateau bordering Lake Geneva in Switzerland. When Konrad falls dangerously ill, and fearing that conventional (i.e. late 18th century) medicine will not yield any results, Victor, his cousin Elizabeth, and their friend Henry resort to a medieval alchemical recipe for the so-called Elixir of Life (the dark endeavour of the show more title) to save his life.

This is a novel clearly written with teenagers and young adults in mind, but which will equally appeal to adults who may, or may not (as in my case), have read the original by Mary Shelley. It deals with very adult emotions, so I would be reluctant to recommend it to anyone under the age of twelve.

Written as a first-person narrative from Victor's point of view, we witness the complicated relationship between Victor and his brother that is characterised by love, competitiveness and envy, and which is in danger of being poisoned by Victor's unrequited love for Elizabeth, because she is already in love with Konrad. Victor is a very complex character, full of contradictions, filled with passion and ambition, but also capable of merciless self-analysis. As we delve deeper into the novel, we discover a dark undercurrent running through his thoughts and actions, but thanks to the skill of the author, this progressively secretive and devious side is entirely plausible and a logical follow-on from the carefree young man we encountered at the beginning of the book. The prose is fluent and atmospheric, with some of the set pieces (like the Dark Library, the Sturmwald, the alchemist Polidori's underground laboratory and the caves beneath the Jura Mountains) especially memorable. Here the writing becomes gripping in the extreme, propelling the reader forward to a breathless conclusion. As well as the surroundings, the characters inhabiting this gothic tale are also marvellously well drawn: the Frankenstein twins, of course, but also their parents, steeped in reason, the gentle and yet so passionate distant cousin Elizabeth, the loyal friend Henry with his love of poetry but fear of heights and claustrophobia, the creepy physician Dr Murnau, and last but not least the alchemist Julius Polidori in his strange laboratory with a pet lynx.

Whilst I was reading, I could picture everything in perfect clarity, and participate in the characters' hope and despair in trying to cure Konrad. I would not be in the least surprised if some producer didn't recognize the novel's potential and turn it into a feature film before long. Until then, I can console myself with the thought that the sequel has already been commissioned. I can't wait.

(This review was originally written as part of Amazon's Vine programme.) show less

Victor Frankenstein has always felt slightly overshadowed by his elder twin brother Konrad. Konrad is kinder, more intelligent and stronger than Victor and is loved and admired by the whole household, family and servants alike, in a way that Victor knows he never will be. But when Konrad falls dangerously ill with a seemingly uncurable fever, Victor knows that he will do anything to make his brother well again and against the wishes of his parents he starts to dabble in alchemy, trying to concoct an Elixir of Life that will make Konrad well again.

Kenneth Oppel has written a prequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, featuring a young Victor Frankenstein at 16. I have read the original Frankenstein before but it was some time ago and I show more don't think you need to have read it to enjoy this prequel.

I thought Oppel did a really good job with the characters of Victor and Konrad Frankenstein. We know Victor Frankenstein isn't exactly a saint as an adult and you can see the beginnings of this in the arrogance and jealousy that Victor exhibits as a young man. It would be all too easy for Oppel to have made Victor a very unlikeable character as young man but he's managed to show enough of a dark side to Victor to make it believable that he becomes the adult Victor Frankenstein but there's also enough of a good side to him to make him a character we can sympathise with. Again, Konrad is clearly the nicer of the two twins but not so nice and good that you end up disliking him or finding him annoying.

After a bit of a slow start I found myself more and more drawn in to this gothic tale. Once I got to the last 70 pages or so I really couldn't put the book down. This is apparently the first of two books about young Victor Frankenstein and although most readers will be pleased to hear that the first book doesn't end with a cliff-hanger ending, there's still plenty of scope left for a second book. I really enjoyed reading this and it's made me want to reread Mary Shelley's original Frankenstein. I hope it also inspires young people to go on to read that great gothic classic for the first time. show less

I first stumbled across Mr Oppel's work through his brilliant Airborn (and sequels), and when I discovered that his writing talent was now being focused on a prequel to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein how could I be anything but very excited?

This excitement was not misplaced. I had expected a dark, gothic horror-based story but instead I got so much more. The horror element is more psychological than most stories of this genre written for teens these days - rather than gore it relies on steadily building tension through some pretty dark scenes, interwoven between scenes of pure action and adventure, with a smattering of romance thrown in for good measure. However, for those of you who hate the 'R' word it is an essential part of the story, show more and anyway it is certainly not the sort of romance that will have boys throwing the book across the room in despair.

This Dark Endeavour tells the story of young Victor Frankenstein and his twin brother, Konrad. Just as with many twins, the two boys differ in personality quite considerably: Konrad is the laid-back, confident one who seems to be good at everything he lends his hand to, whilst Victor often feels in his shadow. This feeling of inadequacy grows even more in Victor's mind when he discovers that his growing love for his cousin Elizabeth is not reciprocated, and instead she and Konrad are fast becoming an item. Despite their differences though, Victor and Konrad and very close and when Konrad falls dangerously ill with some mysterious condition Victor will do anything to try to make in better.

I am not an expert on the period in which the story is set so I am not able to comment on the accuracy of the author's historical detailing. However, accurate or not, the quality of his prose gave me a very real sense of being there in eighteenth century Switzerland. It was a time when science, religion and superstition were 'battling it out' for supremacy in the minds of many of the inhabitants of Europe, and despite the massive leaps that were being made in the various fields of science there was still a belief by some in the ancient study of alchemy. Early on in the story Victor stumbles across a hidden 'Dark Library' within the family home, a room lined with shelves full of mysterious, heretical and potentially dangerous books. When it seems that no doctor is able to cure his brother, it is to one of these such books that he turns, and from this moment the story starts to be engulfed by a sinister darkness.

To outline the adventures that Victor embarks upon in search of the ingredients he requires in order that a potion can be made would be to spoil the story for you. There are moments where you would be hiding behind a cushion if this were a film or TV drama, but where another author may have created a little more blood splatter, Oppel relies purely on his ability to get into the minds of his readers, much as Mary Shelley did with her original story. In fact, on finishing this I immediately re-read her story (yet again), and with this as a comparison I felt that Mr Oppel had done a great job of protraying the voice of the young Victor Frankenstein.

If you want something a little more challenging and psychologically scary than the likes of Higson and Shan for your Hallowe'en reading (or for that matter at any time of the year) then you really should give this book a try. I believe it is the first book in a pair of stories, and I for one am really looking forward to seeing where Mr Oppel takes us next. show less

I love Kenneth Oppel. Well, at least I love his books. His Airborn series was one of the best middle grade series I have ever read. The only reason why I did not read his bat series is because a personal disinclination towards talking animals (unless it is Manchee from the Knife of Never Letting Go. Poo Todd! Poo. Squirrel, Todd), but I hear it is fabulous.

So imagine my excitement when I discovered he wrote a book riffing on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein! Oppel. Historical fiction. Old-fashioned 18th century Gothic horror. I. am. so. there.

As usual, Mr. Oppel does not disappoint. The Frankensteins live an idyllic life. They are well off, having a country house in the countryside outside of Geneva as well as a townhouse. Victor and his show more twin brother Konrad are very close to each other as well as their cousin, the beautiful and spunky Elisabeth. But the picturesque scene crumbles when Konrad falls ill. Victor turns to the alchemical secrets in a hidden chamber, secrets his father does not want him to investigate in order to find a cure for the wasting disease afflicting his brother.

Oppel does a brilliant job of telling a story from the perspective of the villain. And as villains go, Victor is complicated, nuanced and arrives at his villainy not through bad intentions but through a twisted desire to do good. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Add a heart-breaking love triangle, shady alchemists, rare cave-dwelling fish as big as small whales and you’ve got yourself a fine tale to wile away a winter’s eve.

I am doing some homework in terms of my own writing these days, and am thinking a lot about scene. How they need to be tight. How they have their own story arcs, with beginning, middle and ends. How nothing can be superfluous. Oppel sets his scenes brilliantly- in fact the first scene of the book is genius. The reader is immediately drawn into the story by the first sentence: “We found the monster on a rocky ledge high above the lake.” Then a few pages comes the unexpected twist. The reader then thinks the surprise is over, lets their shoulders down, takes a breath, only to be thrust right back into the tension. The first scene also serves as a wonderful foreshadowing for Victor’s journey into the dark side of alchemy. Oppel is indeed a master craftsman- I am looking forward to reading the sequel, which is now waiting for me on my desk! show less

They might as well rename this "the younger years of Victor Frankenstein" because that's basically the idea.

In This Dark Endeavor, author Kenneth Oppel tackles the unknown younger years of the mad scientist behind one of the best known horror stories of all time. For some strange reason, I knew absolutely nothing about this book prior to winning it from blog giveaway, so I went into it with virtually no expectations. What I found was something completely incredible that will change your view of the classic Frankenstein story.

Victor and his twin brother Konrad have been inseparable their entire lives. Along with their beautiful cousin Elizabeth, the trio have spent much of their lives going on adventures. But their carefree youth comes show more to a grinding halt when they stumble upon a Dark Library filled with forbidden texts about alchemy and other ancient medicines. Even though Victor and the others are forbidden from returning, Victor is drawn back to the Library when Konrad becomes strangely ill with a disease that has no cure. To save Konrad, Victor and Elizabeth team up with their friend Henry to unleash an ancient alchemy.

This book is incredible. Just completely, absolutely incredible. The writing is vivid, sharp and powerful. The plot is engaging and fits perfectly into the Frankenstein mythos. But most importantly, the characters leaped off the page, especially Victor. I was wondering how another author could possibly re-create that mad scientist, and Oppel does it perfectly. Victor is a powerful character with believable motivations and realistic passions and obsessions. And even though I didn't really like Victor, I understood him. It's nearly impossible for any author to do this so well, and even though it's been a long time since I've read the original Frankenstein, Victor seemed like a much more sympathetic character here.

Even though this book was a little slow at the beginning, I was on the edge of my seat by the end. The tight action combined with overwhelming emotion kept the tension high for much of the latter half of the book. It's been a long time since I've read something ingrained with so much passion and emotion, and I was hooked up until the very end. show less