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A review by jolietjane
As the Shadow Rises by Katy Rose Pool
4.0
The Age of Darkness series is such a tragically slept on series. It's a multi-POV action-adventure series with romance, mystery, heists, morally grey characters, Queer/POC characters, and tons of cool Mediterranean world-building that draws from north Africa, the middle east, and Greeko Roman cultures. It's also significantly more mature than most YA books- and would feel like an adult SFF if it wasn't for it's Six of Crow style "everyone needs a romance" vibe *(which we will get to later)
Anyway, YEY for good sequels!
This was originally marked as a duology, but it looks like this will now be a 3 book series now, which is actually a pretty good thing, since As The Shadow Rises opened a lot more doors into the story. Nearing the end I found myself wondering how it could possibly wrap everything up in what felt like which a middling book.
As the Shadow Rises neatly wraps up There Will Come A Darkness's wild ending, while also being accessible enough that if say, it's been a year since you've read book one, you can still hop back in and be like "OH RIGHT, THAT HAPPENED. It does a great job reintroducing the characters and repurposing them to move to the next stage of their adventure.
As the Shadow Rises is much more heist and Indiana Jones inspired than the political drama/intrigue focused first installation of this series, but the tone shift is earned and welcome- this book is super fast-paced and maintains that momentum to the end. The world is super well built up, with lots of culture and world history bleeding through the dialogue naturally, and since the world is inspired by many cultures instead of being strictly eastern, western, African, etc, the world feels very complete, even with our characters limited worldview.
In terms of story progression for the characters, I am mixed here.
Epherya's plot was way more interesting. Like wow. Every moment with her on-screen was an absolute joy. Her treasure hunting arc made this book.
Beru gets way more love as well, and though her arc is smaller, it's meaningful and emotional.
Hassan was the other show stopper. I was a little iffy that he was going to have one of those weirdly tropy "prince meets members of the lower class and realizes he's been wrong all along" storyline, but it turns out the rebels that he connects with aren't that great either. His storyline is so complex and political, I only wish it was given more attention.
Anton and Jude though? No thanks.
This is one of those "everyone needs to get paired up" books. The good news? It's all slow burn, and some of the couples have bumps in the road ensuring they won't actually get together until the third book if at all. TONS of surprise enemies to lovers- and while Katy Rose Pool actually sets all of these couples up to interact in the first book, I was actually still pleasantly surprised with some of the pairing choices she made because they were decently bold. Most of the POV characters are paired up with non-POV characters and have super interesting storylines with them.
What this results in are VERY STRONG side characters. I have an issue with books that only focus on POV characters and can't create interesting worlds around them. I found myself just as interested in the side characters, especially the romantic ones, as I did the POVs.
These "side character romances" are also..just..REALLY fun.
You have
- Enemies to lovers Reylo style force bond zombie romance
- Enemies to lovers tomb raiding adventure where they don't trust each other but need to keep each other alive.
The main romance is between two of the POV characters (Anton and Jude) and I personally found it insanely draining/boring/made both characters less interesting. Their chapters were actually the low point of the book for me, which is a little disappointing because it is a M/M queer romance, but I think this could have been fixed at least a bit by removing one of their POVs, we didn't need both especially when their adventure was the slowest and least interesting)
Since a lot of their journey seemed to involve pining over each other or reflecting on their destinies, having both of them switching off only meant more time away from the action-packed stories of the other three characters. These chapters droned and won't have much value unless you are really, really invested in their relationship. It didn't help that these two had my least favorite POVs in the first book as well.
So that's where my 4 stars instead of 5 come in.
Anyway, read this series. It's fabulous and a much needed mature, well rounded, and graceful wildcard in the YA "genre".
Anyway, YEY for good sequels!
This was originally marked as a duology, but it looks like this will now be a 3 book series now, which is actually a pretty good thing, since As The Shadow Rises opened a lot more doors into the story. Nearing the end I found myself wondering how it could possibly wrap everything up in what felt like which a middling book.
As the Shadow Rises neatly wraps up There Will Come A Darkness's wild ending, while also being accessible enough that if say, it's been a year since you've read book one, you can still hop back in and be like "OH RIGHT, THAT HAPPENED. It does a great job reintroducing the characters and repurposing them to move to the next stage of their adventure.
As the Shadow Rises is much more heist and Indiana Jones inspired than the political drama/intrigue focused first installation of this series, but the tone shift is earned and welcome- this book is super fast-paced and maintains that momentum to the end. The world is super well built up, with lots of culture and world history bleeding through the dialogue naturally, and since the world is inspired by many cultures instead of being strictly eastern, western, African, etc, the world feels very complete, even with our characters limited worldview.
In terms of story progression for the characters, I am mixed here.
Epherya's plot was way more interesting. Like wow. Every moment with her on-screen was an absolute joy. Her treasure hunting arc made this book.
Beru gets way more love as well, and though her arc is smaller, it's meaningful and emotional.
Hassan was the other show stopper. I was a little iffy that he was going to have one of those weirdly tropy "prince meets members of the lower class and realizes he's been wrong all along" storyline, but it turns out the rebels that he connects with aren't that great either. His storyline is so complex and political, I only wish it was given more attention.
Anton and Jude though? No thanks.
This is one of those "everyone needs to get paired up" books. The good news? It's all slow burn, and some of the couples have bumps in the road ensuring they won't actually get together until the third book if at all. TONS of surprise enemies to lovers- and while Katy Rose Pool actually sets all of these couples up to interact in the first book, I was actually still pleasantly surprised with some of the pairing choices she made because they were decently bold. Most of the POV characters are paired up with non-POV characters and have super interesting storylines with them.
What this results in are VERY STRONG side characters. I have an issue with books that only focus on POV characters and can't create interesting worlds around them. I found myself just as interested in the side characters, especially the romantic ones, as I did the POVs.
These "side character romances" are also..just..REALLY fun.
You have
- Enemies to lovers Reylo style force bond zombie romance
- Enemies to lovers tomb raiding adventure where they don't trust each other but need to keep each other alive.
The main romance is between two of the POV characters (Anton and Jude) and I personally found it insanely draining/boring/made both characters less interesting. Their chapters were actually the low point of the book for me, which is a little disappointing because it is a M/M queer romance, but I think this could have been fixed at least a bit by removing one of their POVs, we didn't need both especially when their adventure was the slowest and least interesting)
Since a lot of their journey seemed to involve pining over each other or reflecting on their destinies, having both of them switching off only meant more time away from the action-packed stories of the other three characters. These chapters droned and won't have much value unless you are really, really invested in their relationship. It didn't help that these two had my least favorite POVs in the first book as well.
So that's where my 4 stars instead of 5 come in.
Anyway, read this series. It's fabulous and a much needed mature, well rounded, and graceful wildcard in the YA "genre".