The Dark Griffin

The Dark Griffin is a story about a griffin and a human. The griffin has an unfortunately difficult life, fighting to survive from the time it's born. I was a bit surprised when I started reading, actually, that the first two chapters are told entirely from the point of view of griffins with humans barely featuring on the periphery. Taylor pulled it off, however. In a section that had the potential to feel like a drawn-out prologue, I was captivated the entire time.

In Taylor's world, griffins are as intelligent as humans, have varying magical powers and can talk. The humans that ride them are called griffiners and learn to speak the language of the griffins. Arren is a griffiner, despite being of Northern descent. His people were, until show more recently, slaves in his city and he looks a bit different to the Southerners he lives among. The only reason he's allowed to be a griffiner is because his griffin bonded to him when they were both and there was nothing to be done about it.

Arren's story is very much one of racism and ostracism. Once Arren's position in society becomes slightly less assured, he quickly finds out how thin the veneer protecting him was. A lot of bad things happen to Arren and almost all of them are thanks to racism against his people. After a comfortable life as a respected citizen with some status, denying his heritage out of shame, it all comes as a bit of a shock to him when he loses (ostensibly only some of) that status. Suddenly people no longer respect him and constantly use dismissive language against him ("Oh, but he's only a member of the slave-race"). (Possibly not a book to read if you're particularly sensitive of/triggered by racism and oppression generally.) In the end, Arren's actions, taken out of a desperation the reader can entirely understand, appear to be increasingly erratic to the people around him, giving them more ammunition to use against him. There were some gut-wrenchingly tragic moments.

I also liked how the racism was not based on skin colour. The small world Taylor created was based loosely on Britain and so there wasn't room, geographically, for wildly different ethnic characteristics. It's nice to be reminded that an ethnic group doesn't have to look completely different to be oppressed. And of course, the themes of racism/oppression explored in the novel are widely relevant to modern culture.

The Dark Griffin is a compelling novel. Both the griffin and Arren suffer due to unfair circumstances they cannot be blamed for, and their parallel stories intertwine to powerful effect. Another brilliant fantasy read by a brilliant Australian author. I have read few run-of-the-mill fantasy novels (particularly BFF — big fat fantasy) by Australians, and The Dark Griffin certainly doesn't buck that trend.

I highly recommend The Dark Griffin to all fantasy fans. In particular fans of any or some of Jennifer Fallon, Glenda Larke, Rowena Cory Daniells or Naomi Novik's Temeraire books will probably probably enjoy this book. Having foreseen a burning desire to read the whole series, I already have the rest of the trilogy on my TBR shelf and intend to pick up book two straight away.

5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. show less

This one I found hard to rate. The story, characters, and dialogue are all very simple, which isn't always a bad thing, but at times they, the dialogue especially, were too simple, almost immature.

But I liked the way the author created the griffins, mostly Darkheart. These creatures had intelligence and could communicate with humans, but were still animals. Darkheart did whatever to survive, and saw no problem killing whatever or whoever to do it.

And I am interested to see where Taylor is taking the story after the events at the end of the book. I guess interested enough to give the next book a shot.

Going into this book I was expecting a traditional 'farm-boy-to-hero' story. A few chapters in I realised that The Dark Griffin isn't what I expected at all. Arren's dark story of betrayal and retribution realistically documents easily how quickly society turns on those who are different. Arren becomes a victim of a set up, designed to disgrace him and strip him of his power. At the first signs of trouble his neighbours and work mates condemn him and he very quickly loses the things he once took for granted such as his job and other people's trust and respect.

Arren is heavily victimised and I wondered for some time why he didn't fight back, until I remembered that he is only nineteen and has led a pretty privileged life until he was set show more up. The author does a wonderful job of bringing Arren's fear, anger and sense of helplessness to life, and I found him to be a very interesting character to read. Once his own friends and lover desert him Arren is forced to look for other ways out of his situation and ends up relying on the enigmatic black griffin Darkheart.

The griffins are a large part of the world Taylor has created, but the origins of their pairings with humans are unclear. In many ways this aspect of the story reminded me of Eragon. The griffins are fiercely loyal to their companions but the humans do not have control over them and they retain their fearsome nature. Since the novel alternates in view-point between Arren and Darkheart, it is easy to sympathise with the griffin as well, especially when his hunting of humans is seen through his eyes as an act of self-preservation. I did feel, however, that Darkheart had a very 'human' voice still - to again compare with Eragon, Sapphira had an alien voice when chapters were narrated from her view-point.

The novel is focussed on the alienation of Arren and Darkheart from all they hold dear, and as such prevents us from exploring any relationships they cultivate. Darkheart loses his family at a very young age and Arren quickly becomes an outcast in his birthplace. Thus I feel the supporting characters fall flat, and although I can see some of them sticking around for the rest of the series, I hope they become more dimensional.

The Dark Griffin is a wonderful read took me completely by surprise. I think any fan of fantasy is missing out if they haven't tried the series out yet - and I for one will be reading the next two books in the series soon. I was also sent the first book of the sequel trilogy, The Shadow's Heir, for review, so I will be reading that as well!

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. show less

Most fantasy books that focus on mythic creatures tend to use dragons. Don't get me wrong. I love dragons, but having a book that focused on gryphons was a nice change of pace. It was enough of a novelty to draw me in. The story can be slow and repetitive at times, yet overall it was a very enjoyable read and I look forward to the next two in the series.

One thing I find lacking in most other books of the same genre are richly written details of the world in which the story unfolds. I'm not actually comparing this book to Lord of the Rings, but (for me) that is one book that fills in so much history and detail of the world and history that the story seems real/plausible. Taylor did just that with her detail and understanding of her world making me feel as though this world did exist (or could). She obviously put much thought into this aspect of the story. Another facet that I found interesting and a nice change of pace is the 'hero'. He isn't some obscure, little figure that rises to hero status and is expected to save the world. Arren discovers that the world in which he lives and all show more notions of right and wrong are not what he first believed. His character's journey was very well written (sorry, I don't want to spoil the story with more details) - giving the reader insight and understanding into Arren and his world. I would most definitely recommend this book to others and I look forward to reading more from Taylor. show less

To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how to review it. Usually things are pretty cut and dry for me. Either I liked it, or I didn't. This book has a wonderfully developed protagonist, great dialogue, scenes that make you happy, angry, infuriated, sad

.....but....

there were parts that dragged a little bit also. The beginning of the book was interesting, we learn about the origins of the black griffin, but then it takes a while to get into the story. Then the story line picks up and the action really starts to get good.

I think it is a wonderfully written book, I believe the author did a wonderful job writing it, but without giving away the ending (or summarizing the book, which makes it pointless for anyone to actually READ IT) I'm not show more sure how I feel about the end of it. In once sense, I was elated...In another sense, I was quite distraught.

This book will definitely fulfill a readers need for a wide range of emotions and action. And, if you like to ponder the meaning of truths, good/evil, and even racism....read this. show less

The first book in the series. In this world, griffins and griffin riders rule from their mountaintop city. Unfortunately for me, this felt way too much like Eragon. Replace dragon with griffin and many things are the same. The attitudes of the riders, the fact that they rule just by being griffin riders. The only difference and it is a small one, is that griffins have magic and riders do not.
Arren Cardockson is an outsider from a northern barbarian family. Normally northeners wouldn't be griffin riders at all, but Arren is. A conspiracy against him sets the events of this book in motion. Not bad, just not that good either.