TEST
There’s a saying to the effect that the task of poetry is to either take the unfamiliar and make it familiar, or vice versa. As a long-time fan of fantasy fiction, I’ve always thought the same applied to that genre. Unfortunately, Dark Dreams does the exact opposite: it takes the unfamiliar and keeps it completely alien, making it difficult at times for the reader to even know what’s going on, let alone identify with or feel for the characters. Add this problem to the unlikable cast and a writing style that seems deliberately vague, and you have ample reason to leave this one on the shelf.
The story, second in the T’En trilogy (which is one continuing story about a single couple, played out over three books) picks up with young Empress Imoshen and her soon-to-be bond-mate General Tulkhan at an impasse. He is a the leader of the conquering Ghebites, who have recently destroyed much of Imoshen’s homeland, Fair Isle. She is the sole survivor among the royal family, and as such, has been claimed as a mate by the General in hopes of uniting the country and lending some legitimacy to his rule. The Ghebites are a warrior race who value women almost not at all. They are brood mares and nothing more, incapable of thought or reason. Meanwhile the people of Fair Isle have a comparatively advanced culture, where martial arts are still practiced, but as ritual rather than defense, where the only duels fought are duels of poetry, where learning is prized, and women are at least equals, heading both church and state. The peoples have little understanding of each other, and the lead characters are no different.
The General mistrusts Imoshen’s every move and word, assuming at every single opportunity – regardless of how many times he’s been proven wrong – that she seeks to betray him. Unfortunately this malaise and seemingly deliberate stupidity infects nearly every character at some point. The entire plot is dependent on countless misunderstandings, almost all of them difficult (if not impossible) to believe. Tulkan claims to love her once or twice, but none of his thoughts or actions support this, so the reader is left wondering who he’s trying to kid. In the first few pages of the book, Tulkan thinks: “Bed her? Yes. Trust her? Never.” I had an pessimistic premonition that this scenario would define the book, and in fact, I was sadly correct; the exact same thought could have been at the end instead of the beginning and fit just as well. The relationship makes almost no progress in over 400 pages, leaving the reader mourning the hours spent going absolutely nowhere with characters who didn’t merit the interest in the first place.
It was tough to ignore Imoshen’s name – accent it on the middle syllable and you have “emotion,” an embarrassingly obvious gesture toward symbolism. But that’s just the beginning. She has more problems, including a would-be hubby she claims to love (and any reasonable person will want to shake her and shriek “why?,” but she swears she does). She also has a former betrothed who also happens to be the only other living Throwback, a pure member of the T’En, a mysteriously gifted race that had conquered and mingled with the Fair Isle population hundreds of years before. In fact, her mysterious gifts can be summed up as follows: they are whatever is convenient to the plot at the moment. No pattern is at all discernable. Sometimes she reads minds, sometimes she can confuse people at will, or coerce them mentally. Other times, she brings the Parakletos, legendary escorts of the Dead. Still other times, she turns dead bodies to stone (white marble, naturally), or senses the new life inside her. There’s an episode with a snow leopard, and despite several re-readings, I’m still not clear on what happened there. In any case, these gifts inspire fright and loathing in pretty much everyone except Reothe (her betrothed), despite the general insistence that the T’En are revered.
To make things more complicated, Reothe (who happens to be her cousin, and thus royal as well as T’En) is leading a resistance to the Ghebites, and still wants to be bond himself to Imoshen, and naturally become Emperor. Imoshen, despite claiming to love Tulkhan, feels deeply for Reothe (and one will no doubt wish to resume the shaking and shrieking, as he’s not a particularly nice fellow either), and this gives Tulkhan more than enough reason to believe she wants to join Reothe and overthrow him. Of course, she proves him wrong about a million times, but he doesn’t see this as any reason to change his mind. But when he takes a break from reviling her for her supposed rebel leanings, he keeps busy by assuming that every time she meets with a man in private (which is often, since she’s interviewing potential diplomatic interpreters for him – interesting in itself, since there is no time in the book where it’s clear what language is being spoken, nor a single instance in which any person doesn’t understand everything said), she must be sleeping with him. And when he forbids her to meet with men, she hangs out with her female companions, causing him to conclude that she’s carrying on sexual liaisons with women. And so it goes. For 435 pages.
While the dramatic plot and characterization difficulties represent a huge obstacle for the reader, the writing presents a far greater problem. The author seems to be deliberately vague about nearly everything that should by rights save the book. Every detail about the fantasy aspect of the story is referred to or mentioned casually without ever being explained, making it completely inaccessible to the reader. Even if the book contained sympathetic and believable characters, they would still be trapped in a story which the writer seems to not want the reader to understand particularly well. The end result was the impression that the author had little understanding of either fantasy or romance as genres, and was attempting to overcome that fact by writing in them. Sadly, the story probably could have been stellar in the hands of an author who could properly execute it. Unfortunately, this book left me wanting less, not more. An inarguable F.
Grade: F
Book Type: Fantasy Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 29/07/01
Publication Date: 2001
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.