Dark Rise

As you start this book, you may think that it's another one of the mediocre "Chosen One" stories that are so ubiquitous in fantasy, especially children's and YA fantasy. You'll immediately notice a lot of capitalized words signifying important worldbuilding vocabulary, a convention that mediocre YA fantasy is infamous for. It's also very, very obvious that this author has read Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. But if you can get past all the mediocrity front-loaded in the first half of the book, you may be surprised where the story takes you. There are some great character moments, good twists, and compelling relationships in the latter half of this book. Dark Rise is mostly memorable because it has a lot more to say than most YA: in show more drawing on Tolkien, Rowling, and other fantasy of the kind in the way it does, it makes a critical commentary on those works that I've never seen presented in this format. The book also alludes strongly and interestingly to themes of queerness, race, and immigration, even without making issues like racism and homophobia explicitly central to the plot. In the end, I found the book to be fairly enjoyable and not at all generic--and though many parts of it were awkward or not to my taste, the ending of this book left me desperate for the next one. show less

Okay. So buckle up.

Do you want a book that has all of the ingredients of a regular coming-of-age, prophesy, LGBTQ fantasy but then MAKES SOMETHING ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THAT YOU END UP CRAVING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE?! Because this book delivers that experience. Stupidly strong female character who you LOVE? Prophesized hero/villain trope with a twist? And a dash of HOMOEROTIC SEXUAL TENSION? MAGIC? MURDER? MYSTERY? AND its just the first book in the series that for SURE will RIP your heart out and STEP on it and make you BEG for MORE?! Then you should definitely read this book.

Also, if you liked The Captive Prince series, you know that C.S. Pacat delivers a great fantasy read with unexpected twists and turns that both END you and WARM show more you. I HIGHLY recommend. like SO MUCH. show less

"I think what people were is less important than what they are. And what people are is less important than what they could be."

An actual, proper, redemptive, light-and-darkness romantic plot? In MY young adult genre? (Could it be? Lord, I can only hope).

Darklina but make it gay. And good.

***

This…this is some good shit.

The first half or so seemed so hackneyed that it had me tugging my hair in frustration. The opening chapters are a real greatest-hits parade of the mid-late 20th century fantasy I grew up on: Orphaned protagonist, mysterious mother who went to the grave with a secret (my personal favourite cliche, but still), plucky girl co-protagonist dressed in boy’s clothes, the resurrection of dastardly ancient evils, a savagely show more destructive sword that is totally-not-Stormbringer...

None of it bad, per se, but just…lacking a certain spark.

Dramatic Proper Nouns abound (The Dark King; The Lions; The Remnants; The Reborn) as though this were some kind of off-brand “Build Your Own Fantasy Epic” kit, rather than a passion project from an individual creative mind. An ancient language of magic does exist in the setting, so more inspired titles for the major players would have added some welcome flavour.

In fact, a great deal of the basic plot is derived from Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising, which Pacat has stated was the reference for the title (in an act of deliberate iconoclasm), (and there are quite a few jabs at Cooper's genre descendants, including Rowling and Bardugo). To my eventual delight, just about every moment that seemed like inconsistent characterisation, foreshadowing with the subtlety of a blackjack in the face, or some other kind of slip that should have been caught by the editing, turned out to be red herrings or deliberate misdirection which makes delightful sense once the plot (finally) accelerates into convoluted, manic intensity in the second half.

My worst criticism is that the prose is very bland and unmemorable for the most part, which is a great shame when the imagery is dominated by light and darkness, flames and stars. (I’ve not read Pacat’s other adult novels, so I don’t know whether this is her usual style, or whether she’s tried to make it easy on a younger audience).

The idea that “epic” fantasy requires an outsized cast is a nonsense and a trap for writers, I think – a couple of the characters or subplots might’ve been trimmed without too great a loss; Violet in particular seems to exist mostly for the sake of diversity, being the primary female and mixed-race character, but unfortunately her storyline (at least in this book) is the least original, least compelling, and seemingly least important with regard to the grand scope of events that happened in ancient times.

The only thing I’d heard about this heading into it was that it had a queer romance, and that wasn’t well established early on either; it had me worried that it was going to hastily tacked-on, or else wholly relegated to subtext (that being said, it was some fucking glorious subtext, but still); happily, it did pull together very nicely in the end, and the novel finishes on a brutal cliffhanger which made me scream out loud with frustration and thwarted catharsis when I turned over to the acknowledgements page, and now I’m slavering for book 2.

Edit: Upgraded from 4 to 5 stars because I'm still buzzed about this after a week. show less

Can a book cure depression? No, but this one sure got close. Admittedly I may say that about every good book, but I'm in a dark place and this book was truly a joy to read.

I really liked "Captive Prince". I enjoyed the parts of "Fence" I've read. I love this book. It's not just in the way it's possibly a love letter to nerdy stuff I grew up with, but also in the way it read like poetry, particularly in the second half, much like "The Last Unicorn" always did.

I love all the characters (particularly James, but also Violet, Will, Cyprian, Justice, Devon...). I love the world-building. I love how it feels nostalgic - like how reading new fantasy stories as a kid felt. Not that this isn't a book adults can enjoy, but that it just had that show more kind of whimsical feeling a lot of truly good fantasy has, and that I read a lot more when I was younger. But told in a more subversive light that I can better appreciate now.

Perhaps my biggest criticism is that the first... 1/3 or so feels kind of slow? (And a lot happens in that first 1/3, so that may just be a personal thing). But I was still curious to keep going, and sticking through it is incredibly rewarding. And that first 1/3 is still quite enjoyable. The second half of the story packs a wallop.

The way Pacat sprinkles hints of things throughout is quite amazing. I guessed a lot of things early on because of them, though one particular reveal might have been a mix of reading previews and peaking at the end, so I could spot the hints as I came across them. It felt like a fun mystery novel in that sense. I'm usually not good at that kind of thing, so it was nice. Truly, really great job.

One pairing does remind me of "Captive Prince", and honestly I just want to read more about them. Hoping we get more of them next book. It's just wonderful. And all the relationships in this are excellent. There are a lot of beautiful lines in this that I'm not going to quote because this is already too spoilery for my comfort. Truly a well-written, amazing story, that I plan to read again soon. Look forward to the rest of the series. show less

Will has been running from the people who killed his mother for as long as he can remember. When his latest escape finds him with the Stewards, a group of people sworn to fight the Dark, he learns more about his own destiny and starts training to take up his place in the fight.

This book walks a fine line between taking influence from some fantasy classics (LOTR, The Dark Is Rising, etc.) and just being a glorified remix of some of the classic tropes. In the end, I really enjoyed it as it had time to come into its own. I'm looking forward to reading book 2. 4.5 stars.

This book was very… frustrating.

There were a lot of aspects I really liked about it, namely the characters and the Meaningful and Intense relationships between them. Also, the theme of how preordained your fate actually is and how (or if) you can fight it was not lost on me. I’m not a huge fan of Western fantasy and its obsession with knights and battles between good and evil, but I can see the appeal.

My main problem though is that it feels like a huge prologue, never quite getting to the meat of the story. It’s incredibly verbose too, which is so weird, considering the tightly-wound Captive Prince books. It really felt like the text was going in circles, repeating itself, to the point where I started thinking, “Okay, get on show more with it”. Is it a YA thing? I don’t seem to encounter quite as much explaining in the adult literature. The uneven pacing and the jarring effect of jumping between POVs didn’t make the reading experience smoother. Why does it feel like a debut novel? I know Pacat is an amazing writer, but the whole thing feels stymied and not developed enough for me to really sink my teeth into.

Anyway, I’ll be continuing with the series, since the possibilities it dangles feel intriguing, but overall I can’t help but feel a bit disappointed. show less

An average 3 star fantasy at first, but there were some interesting turns hidden in the second half and I guess the second half was only this impactful because the first half felt so standard?
There is so much delicious dramatic irony... It's in the dialogue, the descriptions, the foreshadowing and the way the characters think. I could not stop thinking about this book.