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3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Vomit
ACTUAL RATING: 3.5 ⭐
All queens are sacred…
For a book I referred to as “boringly average” managed [b:Three Dark Crowns|28374007|Three Dark Crowns (Three Dark Crowns, #1)|Kendare Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1469265712s/28374007.jpg|42750582] to noticeably pique my interest. It was still somewhat weird when I felt an urge to pick this up straight afterwards. Even stranger was that it only took me three days to completely devour it.
As a sequel is One Dark Throne a rather spectacular improvement, but as a YA fantasy novel it still remains average.
This sequel picks up right after the events of the first book. The Year of the Ascension has arrived at last. And the three queens, Mirabella, Arsinoe and Katharine, are pitted against each other in a fight to the death. When the year ends, the Island of Fennbirn will add a new queen to its history – and her two sisters will forever be forgotten.
As with Three Dark Crowns, is the promise of a thrilling battle between triplets quite misleading. The stories of Mirabella, Arsinoe and Katharine are equally as much about romance, friendship and sisterhood, as they are about bloodshed. More so, you could argue.
“No matter how far I go, I’m still your person. We stand together now. We are together now…”
With such an emphasis on relationships – both romantic, platonic and familial – one could say this is actually a character driven story attempting to become its plot driven synopsis.
Compared to the first instalment offers the sequel a plot which is both more explosive and exciting. But with so many good fantasies out there, it’s difficult to still not feel a bit let down. My biggest issue with the plot being how the attempt at creating action results in messy story- and character arcs.
I for one am a sucker for character driven stories. If done correctly can good characters save even the messiest of plots. However, in the case of both Three Dark Crowns and One Dark Throne the characters are across the board lacking.
One Dark Throne drastically improves on some of the characters, their dynamics and their relationships. Notably, I would say the developments of Arsinoe, Mirabella and Billy were all highlights to me.
I sadly can’t say the same for the rest of the cast. They all feel underdeveloped considering I’ve spent around 800 pages with them. Most infuriating in particularly One Dark Throne, was the illogical changes made to the fundamentals of certain characters. This mostly refers to the character of Katharine and her confusing inconsistency throughout the story.
I don’t know where to put the blame for the poor characterisation. Maybe it’s a result of the multiple point of views, but I understand why [a:Kendare Blake|4086715|Kendare Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1276645449p2/4086715.jpg] felt it necessary to include them.
Personally, I liked how the jumping between characters and locations offered the reader insight into strategies and information unknown to other characters. In the next instalment I just hope we’ll get a bit more details – both about the characters, their looks and the world they live in.
Low magic does not do only what one intends, but nor does it speak in falsehood…
The world Blake is creating holds immense potential, but just as with the characters it suffers from the attempt at creating explosive action. Instead of cracking the world open and letting it blossom, we get another fight or big misunderstanding.
After two books you would think I had clear ideas of the geography, cultures and magic systems, but I don’t. The closest we get is the excessive use of location-names. At times it feels like they are meant as replacements for actual place descriptions. Almost as if you could insert a “refer back to the map” in parentheses after each name.
Same goes for the different magical clans, their cultures and traditions.
Between the three I feel I have the best understanding of the magic itself. Both in Three Dark Crowns and One Dark Throne is a sizable chunk of time given to explaining its nature and limitations. I, however, still have a few questions I would like to have answered sooner rather than later. For example: Is low magic only unreliable when the plot needs it to be?
As for the different cultures and traditions I truly have no clue. New details about them are strictly used as plot-devices. Making it so that their only purpose is to move the plot forward, instead of building the world.
When the battle is done, the crown is won.
I ended my review of Three Dark Crowns by saying how I wished for One Dark Throne to show me the sun – show me the potential I saw buried within. At times it did.
When the action took a backseat and the true story – the character driven story – showed itself, the sun shone. Because of this I haven’t given up yet.
This series is already easy and enjoyable to read. Now I wish for it to crack open its potential, not rely on its plot or action and let the characters drive the story. Here’s to hoping [b:Two Dark Reigns|37486213|Two Dark Reigns (Three Dark Crowns, #3)|Kendare Blake|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1518542871s/37486213.jpg|56756327] manages to take this series above average.