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A review by drewdaimonia
The Dark Volume by Gordon Dahlquist
3.0
Dahlquist has his own, distinct - no, idiosyncratic - a term wherein no judgement is passed, neither good nor bad - writing style, halting, broken - and yet fast-paced, like a derailed train that nonetheless careens with reckless speed towards its final destination - marked by frequent use of dashes and ellipses, complex sentences which interrupt each other - and, of course, interrupt their interruptions - and dialogue that flows equally as wildly... each character's speech or thought cut short as another begins, and given additional flavour by erratic use of italics on seemingly random words...
There are positives, of course - the descriptions are vivid and lush, like the dark-green moss and pernicious weeds that grow upon the grey stone of neglected graves... using a slightly dated, archaic, formal vernacular which colours the alternate-history period setting... indeed, it feels wholly appropriate - and every scattering of pages he drops an astoundingly specific metaphor - like the maternal gift of a rain-bloated worm into the yearning mouth of a fledgling thrush - at such a quality and frequency I am not sure I have seen employed by another writer.
It's a shame about the plot. This sequel starts well enough - our protagonists re-scattered, confused, each untangling their own mystery, facing their own corresponding villains - but ultimately there is nothing new, just a tidying up of the previous book's loose ends, and as such it works more as an extended epilogue than a story in its own right. It's an enjoyable read, crammed with the same barrage of unlikely rescues and escapes from one perilous situation after another, but here the stakes feel lower, the central intrigue less interesting, than if a new plot and new villains were introduced to stand on their own two feet.
There are positives, of course - the descriptions are vivid and lush, like the dark-green moss and pernicious weeds that grow upon the grey stone of neglected graves... using a slightly dated, archaic, formal vernacular which colours the alternate-history period setting... indeed, it feels wholly appropriate - and every scattering of pages he drops an astoundingly specific metaphor - like the maternal gift of a rain-bloated worm into the yearning mouth of a fledgling thrush - at such a quality and frequency I am not sure I have seen employed by another writer.
It's a shame about the plot. This sequel starts well enough - our protagonists re-scattered, confused, each untangling their own mystery, facing their own corresponding villains - but ultimately there is nothing new, just a tidying up of the previous book's loose ends, and as such it works more as an extended epilogue than a story in its own right. It's an enjoyable read, crammed with the same barrage of unlikely rescues and escapes from one perilous situation after another, but here the stakes feel lower, the central intrigue less interesting, than if a new plot and new villains were introduced to stand on their own two feet.