Review: The Blackest Heart by Brian Lee Durfee
Blurb:
Gladiator. Assassin. Thief. Princess. And the Slave. The Five Warrior Angels have been revealed, one by one the mystical weapons they once wielded are being found, and an ancient prophecy is finally being fulfilled.
Or is it? For when it comes to recorded history, much is intended to manipulate and deceive.
Returning to the kingdom of Gul Kana, Princess Jondralyn has suffered a devastating loss, discovering that not all prophecy is to be assumed, not all scripture to be trusted. At the same time, her younger sister, Tala, has found faith within herself while facing off against villains, who are using her for their devices.
Hawkwood, the former Bloodwood Assassin, is captured. And the knight, Gault, betrayed by the Angel Prince, can only wonder of the fate of his daughter who has fallen into terrible hands.
All while Nail embarks upon the deadliest quest the Five Isles has ever known.
Review:
I’m absolutely loving this series! It’s been a long time since I spent time in a classic fantasy world so dense with history and so alive with character. This book clocks in at 960 pages, and honestly I think that might just be the longest book I’ve ever read… Let me save you some time, it’s worth every page.
I think in my review of The Forgetting Moon I compared this series to the likes of Joe Abercombie, George Martin, John Gwynne and also Daniel. T. Jackson. While all of these comparisons continue to be true in this next instalment, I found Blackest Heart to more closely compare to Lord of the Rings. The reason I say this is because there are a certain number of characters who were featured in the first book who all sort of group together and team up in this book as a kind of fellowship. Though instead of trekking towards Mordor to cast a ring into a fire, the gathered fellowship have another goal: to find the ancient weapons of the angels and their accompanying stones.
Of course no true fellowship story has a happy ending for all involved… and that is exactly what happens here. The group split and continue their journeys in smaller factions. Something I really enjoyed about this book and what you don’t always see enough in books was the environmental factors. Durfee does a great job at making you feel immersed in the world by having the character deal with real world situations, other than just giving them enemies to fight. I think at one point a character is stranded in a dark cavern with no light, and the writing around the traversal and the mind games involved with being in such a place was just magnificent. Another example would be when they have to traverse a glacier. I genuinely felt cold alongside the characters reading about them getting sucked into the freezing underdark of a long dormant glacial setting. A third example (and my favourite) would be pitting an entire battlefield in a waist-deep channel of sea between two stretches of land. To give you a small spoiler of what happens…. SHARKS!
What Durfee does really well (on top of what I already mentioned) is his character work. His ability to create characters you both simultaneously hate, yet are so utterly captivated by is just a pleasure to experience. I think my favourite of them all is Hawkwood. He’s just so mysterious and humble and cunning and badass that I can’t help but love him. I also really enjoyed Stefan’s perspective (welp) and find his noble nature very heart warming. Nail is set up I guess to be the main character, and while I find his chapters interesting, he is still kind of (absolutely) useless and I really hope Durfee has a plan for him.
Now Durfee, please be aware, if my dear Beer Mug (dog) does not end up alive and well and leisurely retired and well fed in a happy home by the end of the third book, I will be severely disappointed… and we will have words…
I will end this review by saying I am EXTREMELY excited for the conclusion to this tale. It is all set up for a big finish. I will say that my expectations are set sky high, and honestly I’m really not sure how some of these threads will be able to be done the justice they deserve, BUT I do trust in Durfee’s vision, and I believe he has what it takes to leave me satisfied come the end.
