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wynwicket's review
5.0
A dark fairy tale of a fantasy trilogy -- beautiful writing, with some extremely memorable secondary characters and magical creatures (best use of Gargoyles ever). The somewhat two-dimensional protagonist had me leaning towards giving this four stars, but the ending--which was perfect--took the story far beyond a romantic fantasy and made it something powerful.
nannahnannah's review
5.0
This book/trilogy is incredibly hard for me, personally, to rate and review with an unbiased mind because it's been my favorite since grade school. I don't even have the dust jacket cover anymore, and the book itself is falling apart--but it still has my "this book belongs to ____" written in sharpie (wince!) in huge third-grade block caps in the back cover. It's really that old to me. Then again this 3-in-1 book was published in 1990, and the first novel of the trilogy in 1982.
But I've finally given it enough time to read it that I didn't know every single event (and word! -- I remember writing down every single word I didn't know to look it up). I'm not let down, but I am a bit more critical, at least.
This is the entire Darkangel Trilogy: The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World in one novel.
When Aeriel's mistress gets taken by the Darkangel (a vampyre who drinks souls, not blood), she has no choice but to follow and try to kill him. Instead, she becomes the weaver for the Darkangel's wives, nothing more than wraiths now and who need special clothing. During her stay at the Darkangel's castle, she learns he's not a complete vampyre, and that he can be killed. She needs to journey across the desert to find the exiled guardian of the land, the "lon", and bring back his Starhoof, and then slay the Darkangel. Easy, right? It's especially harder when Aeriel starts to feel for the Darkangel after her stories bring him nightmares: proof he's not completely evil.
No, the true power behind him (and the other six vampyres of the world--moon, actually, this entire trilogy takes place on the moon! knowing that the more interesting this story becomes) is the White Witch, who steals babes and gilds their hearts with lead. If Aeriel can't gather the other six lons of the world before the Witch creates another Darkangel, everything is lost.
As you can see so far, this story is pretty unique, and has a very poetic, fairytale-ish style. It's not for everyone, but it's like nothing else out there. If you want something fresh and new, this is about as fresh as you can get.
It's not without its flaws, though. The prose is sometimes really strange, even for me, who grew up adoring it. And Aeriel, our main character, is way more passive than anything, and lets the plot carry her along wherever it needs to. It never bothered me as a kid, but it's something I wish now was different.
There's also some unpleasant racial coding, especially regarding Erin, the very dark-skinned friend (skin color is strange in this book, but she's read as black) of Aeriel, who at the end is referred to as Aeriel's "shadow", even though it's said lovingly. That as an author isn't a very wise choice to make. Especially since, as a character, she's usually the one doing all the work in the background getting no credit, the one everyone else thinks is always lying, the one everyone else thinks has done Aeriel harm when anything happens, etc. As a white author there's just some things you could think of ... not to do with a very dark-skinned character, you know? Especially when the main character is Very White.
Speaking of, I really disliked the beauty ideals: pale was beautiful, unmarred was beautiful ("you would be beautiful without those scars, etc."), things like that. There was also the matter of "odskins" <-- aka people whose skin color was purple, blue, green, etc. taken as slaves by people whose skin color was ""normal"", that maybe wasn't a good idea. Like if you're going to write a fantasy novel, that could be the part of reality taken out! (Especially """oddskins""")
But all in all, I still really love this book, and I'll probably keep reading it over and over.
But I've finally given it enough time to read it that I didn't know every single event (and word! -- I remember writing down every single word I didn't know to look it up). I'm not let down, but I am a bit more critical, at least.
This is the entire Darkangel Trilogy: The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World in one novel.
When Aeriel's mistress gets taken by the Darkangel (a vampyre who drinks souls, not blood), she has no choice but to follow and try to kill him. Instead, she becomes the weaver for the Darkangel's wives, nothing more than wraiths now and who need special clothing. During her stay at the Darkangel's castle, she learns he's not a complete vampyre, and that he can be killed. She needs to journey across the desert to find the exiled guardian of the land, the "lon", and bring back his Starhoof, and then slay the Darkangel. Easy, right? It's especially harder when Aeriel starts to feel for the Darkangel after her stories bring him nightmares: proof he's not completely evil.
No, the true power behind him (and the other six vampyres of the world--moon, actually, this entire trilogy takes place on the moon! knowing that the more interesting this story becomes) is the White Witch, who steals babes and gilds their hearts with lead. If Aeriel can't gather the other six lons of the world before the Witch creates another Darkangel, everything is lost.
As you can see so far, this story is pretty unique, and has a very poetic, fairytale-ish style. It's not for everyone, but it's like nothing else out there. If you want something fresh and new, this is about as fresh as you can get.
It's not without its flaws, though. The prose is sometimes really strange, even for me, who grew up adoring it. And Aeriel, our main character, is way more passive than anything, and lets the plot carry her along wherever it needs to. It never bothered me as a kid, but it's something I wish now was different.
There's also some unpleasant racial coding, especially regarding Erin, the very dark-skinned friend (skin color is strange in this book, but she's read as black) of Aeriel, who at the end is referred to as Aeriel's "shadow", even though it's said lovingly. That as an author isn't a very wise choice to make. Especially since, as a character, she's usually the one doing all the work in the background getting no credit, the one everyone else thinks is always lying, the one everyone else thinks has done Aeriel harm when anything happens, etc. As a white author there's just some things you could think of ... not to do with a very dark-skinned character, you know? Especially when the main character is Very White.
Speaking of, I really disliked the beauty ideals: pale was beautiful, unmarred was beautiful ("you would be beautiful without those scars, etc."), things like that. There was also the matter of "odskins" <-- aka people whose skin color was purple, blue, green, etc. taken as slaves by people whose skin color was ""normal"", that maybe wasn't a good idea. Like if you're going to write a fantasy novel, that could be the part of reality taken out! (Especially """oddskins""")
But all in all, I still really love this book, and I'll probably keep reading it over and over.
Content Warnings
Minor: Emotional abuse and Sexual assault
octavia_cade's review
5.0
I read and reviewed the books in this trilogy separately, so this is really just for my own records. I LOVE this series. I loved it as a kid and I love it as an adult. Darkangel, my favourite of the three as a child, got five stars from me for the creepy central relationship with an absolutely sane protagonist who understands both justice and mercy. A Gathering of Gargoyles, also five stars, is I think my favourite as an adult, because of the depth of imagery in it, the colour and wonder and beauty and sheer weight of marvellous imagination. The Pearl of the Soul of the World earned four stars - it's not quite as good as its predecessors but there's still a lot about it to love, and I really enjoyed how it ended.
Overall, it averages out to five stars for the series. Only LOTR has ever earned that from me series-wise (probably no real surprise, given that what ultimately triumphs over evil in both is compassion: Frodo's for Gollum, and Aeriel's for the darkangel).
Overall, it averages out to five stars for the series. Only LOTR has ever earned that from me series-wise (probably no real surprise, given that what ultimately triumphs over evil in both is compassion: Frodo's for Gollum, and Aeriel's for the darkangel).
rebecca_3's review
3.0
Above all, this is a high fantasy adventure. In all three books, the heroine, Aerial, is traveling across an extremely fantastical landscape, collecting magical objects that will help her accomplish her goal.
The bulk of the books is spent on world-building and describing the landscape, and strange creatures and characters Aerial comes across. It is extremely descriptive and spends a lot of time using old-fashioned English that is hard to understand. Call me spoiled, but I much prefer the way YA books are written today--spending a large portion of the book in internal monologue, exploring characters and their motives, and expanding the story. But if you love the strange new worlds of high fantasy, this definitely has that in abundance.
I didnt feel that I really knew Aerial or Irrylath, or what was really going on in the story. And I did not find the relationship between them believable.
The bulk of the books is spent on world-building and describing the landscape, and strange creatures and characters Aerial comes across. It is extremely descriptive and spends a lot of time using old-fashioned English that is hard to understand. Call me spoiled, but I much prefer the way YA books are written today--spending a large portion of the book in internal monologue, exploring characters and their motives, and expanding the story. But if you love the strange new worlds of high fantasy, this definitely has that in abundance.
I didnt feel that I really knew Aerial or Irrylath, or what was really going on in the story. And I did not find the relationship between them believable.
Spoiler
At the end of the first book, after Aerial released Irrylath from the curse, he was a completely different person. He didnt even look the same. I have trouble seeing how Aerial could love him before, and after. One or the other version of him, but not both. And I also had a problem with the fact that they were first cousins. I know back in the day people used to marry their cousins (and still do today in some countries). I believe the heroine from Austen's [b:Mansfield Park|45032|Mansfield Park|Jane Austen|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1309203298s/45032.jpg|2722329] even married her cousin and that was only 200 years ago. Also, this series is set in a completely different world where that may be acceptable. But the book was only written 30 years ago, in America. Why try to force us to accept something that she knows would be completely foreign and uncomfortable compared to our way of life? The fact that they were cousins served no purpose. And not only was Aerial Irrylath's cousin, so was the other woman who was in love with him--his first cousins from the other side of his family. The ending totally sucked. It didnt have an HEA. If I had known that ahead of time, I probably wouldnt have read it. But as I said, I wasnt really attached to the characters too much, so I'll get over it.
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