Wednesday, December 1, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

 





Dark Rise is the type of Young Adult Fantasy I haven't read in a long time - the type of classical British/Western YA Fantasy featuring a chosen one, a Dark force returning to power, and group of teens discovering they're maybe the only ones who can stop it.  In fact, as you might have guessed from the title, it's very much a book channeling elements from a specific classic YA Fantasy series: Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising (although it's definitely dealing with tropes more general to the genre as well).  That said, this is not a straight forward take on the genre, and it's one that certain people i respect on social media had been hyping for a bit, so it piqued my interest for a while.  

And well, Dark Rise is certainly a really interesting take on the genre, especially once it gets into its second act and begins to subvert genre expectations.  The book's main duo - chosen one Will and orphan girl with evil blood Violet - form a really strong pair as the two are drawn in to the conflict between light and dark and soon learn that things are not only dire, but are far more complicated than they seem.  You will be able to guess how some twists will turn out, but not others, and the book finishes in a satisfying place that also will leave you curious on how things will turnout in the next book in the trilogy.  Still the book is relatively short, and really could've used a bit more development for a couple of other important characters to make those twists really land, which prevents it from being really great.  

Trigger Warning: Discussions of Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia.  
----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
16 year old orphan dock boy Will thought he had found a life he can breathe in - a life involving hard work at the docks and poor pay, but it was enough to live a life on.  But then he finds himself chased once more by the strange people who killed his mother, and gifted a magical amulet and told to find people called the Stewards....only to get captured by his pursuers.  

Violet, the half-Indian bastard daughter of a proud British family, was so proud of her brother Tom for being accepted into the service of Simon, Lord Crenshaw, who ran a powerful trade empire, and who branded his men with his mark - the letter "S".  But when the ship near the ceremony is attacked by strange men called Stewards, Violet tries to help, only to find herself inside one of Simon's ships looking a boy chained and imprisoned....Will.  

In the commotion, Violet and Will find themselves taken by the Stewards, who explain to them of an ancient conflict between Light and Dark, and the Dark King who is on his way back to conquer all...if the Stewards can't stop him.  But Violet's family seems to be serving the Dark King - can she really be fighting against them?  And what will happen to her if the Stewards discover who she is?  And Will is supposedly of the bloodline of the Lady whose magic is key to stopping the Dark King...a magic Will can't seem to actually touch.  

And as Will and Violet learn more, they soon realize that they do not have much time left to act before the Dark King's plans start to come to fruition, and that the Stewards' halls are not nearly as safe as shelters as the Stewards would have them believe......
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Dark Rise very much portrays itself as a very classic-style young adult fantasy novel for its first act.  You have a battle between forces of Dark and Light, who battled in ancient times with good barely triumphing, with the Dark gaining in strength in the present (1700s era London/England) once more.  You have a chosen one who should, based on his bloodline, be able to tap into the magic that once saved the Light from utter annihilation, if he can learn to wield it....a chosen one who is even named "Will", ala The Dark is Rising.  And you have an ancient order of what are essentially Light wielding Paladins, who include such typical archetypes as: 1. The Paladin who will do whatever it takes, no matter the rules, to do what's right; 2. The young trainee and his father who don't trust our Chosen One for being an outsider and believe in the rules; 3. The Paladin who is in the enemy's hands and whose rescue is necessary in order to save the day; and of course 4. The evil betrayer who was once a member of the Paladins but is now the Dark's most loyal and dangerous servant.  Everything clearly adds up to build onto a story of the type many of us have definitely read in our childhoods.  

Naturally Pacat takes the story in very different directions, although the extent of which is something I won't spoil.  So for instance, we have Violet as our co-lead - a girl whose Indian blood makes her considered expendable to her actual family but not to her brother Tom, who is one of the major enforcers of the Dark.  And so she's conflicted about her allegiances because she does love her brother...and because the Stewards act quite clearly like they would not accept her if they knew her bloodline....and when its revealed, they really don't do so.  Violet's a great character as she struggles with her magical strength to fight for what she believes to be the right thing even despite allies who give her every reason to distrust or like them.  And of course there's Will, who is clearly from the start the designated Chosen One, but isn't just reluctant to be so, but doesn't ever seem able to manifest the powers associated with his prophesied position - and whose greatest loyalty is to Violet rather than the Stewards.  And Violet and Will's relationship never turns romantic, despite the usual young adult setup of male and female point of view characters tending to go in that direction.  

The same is also true with much of the plot involving the conflict between Light and Dark, with characters you would usually expect to possibly turn to evil instead going to different directions and characters you'd expect to be reasonable mentors turning out to be more grey than usually portrayed, and the resolution going in directions that well....this is the first in at trilogy.  There are occasional moments of predictability - a magical artifact is introduced off hand early that is clearly destined for one of the characters, which will lead the reader to just be waiting for it to finally reach that character's hands (which it does).  And to be fair, the book does struggle with one of its other major characters, the third point of view character, a 16 year old girl Katherine who is betrothed to the man who is the book's main antagonist, and is meant to have a romantic relationship with Will.  Katherine's arc, and her romance with Will (and her tag-along younger sister), doesn't really work because she and Will basically have no time together in the plot to form that connection, and Katherine disappears for long stretches of time.  Even the moment of revelation for Katherine occurs off screen, which just makes her seem far more ancillary than she's meant to be.*

Spoiler for the major last act twist in ROT13: Guvf vf zber n ceboyrz jvgu gur obbx'f znwbe svany npg gjvfg:  Jvyy vfa'g gur oybbq bs gur Ynql, gur urve gb gur Yvtug'f cbjre, ohg gur oybbq bs gur Qnex Xvat, naq gur cebcurfvmrq ivyynva, naq jura Xngurevar svaqf bhg naq gevrf gb jvryq gur pbeehcgrq oynqr, vg xvyyf ure.  Zrnajuvyr, Xngurevar'f lbhatre fvfgre fheivirf haqre Ivbyrg'f cebgrpgvba, naq vf zrnag gb or pyrneyl gur erny Pubfra Bar....rkprcg jr'ir arire tbggra gb xabj ure, naq Xngurevar'f gentrql oneryl erfbangrf orpnhfr jr'ir oneryl rira tbggra gb xabj XNGUREVAR, qrfcvgr orvat gur cbgragvny ebznagvp vagrerfg.  

Still, despite those problems, which could've been resolved perhaps with 50 more pages here and there, Dark Rise is an interesting take on a classic genre, and now that we've gotten the setup out of the way, I'm really curious where the book will go from here.  

  

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