A March into Darkness: Volume II of The Destinies of Blood and Stone

Genre fantasy Publisher Del Rey External Links Official Website

Dropping into a fantasy world you are not familiar with is not entirely pleasant. It is disorienting, and though everyone is speaking English, there's all sorts of jargon you have to decipher. At least in this world, there are plenty of good old American clichés to cling to. Though when you're attempting to immerse yourself in fantasy, good old American clichés tend to be a little distracting.

A March Into Darkness is the second book in The Destinies of Blood and Stone series. It follows Tristan, the ruler of Tammerland, and his sister, Shailiha, as they strive to fulfill their destinies by uniting the two opposing sides of the "craft"—basically, magic. They are not entirely certain how they will do this, since the "evil" side of the craft, known as the Vagaries, and the "good" side of the craft, known as the Vigors, have been at war for centuries or more. But the appearance of a mysterious creature known as a Darkling alters Tristan's destiny, and subsequently, the destiny of the world.

I did not read the first book in this series, so there is a huge amount of backstory I'm missing out on. One thing I will say is that the storyline is very rich. There is so much history and characterization here that I found I wanted to know more than this book told me. More importantly, the storyline hooked me enough that I wanted to know what was coming next. It ends on the obligatory cliffhanger.

Since this book is part of a series and is not entirely self-contained, there are some aspects of the plot that feel tacked on. Several chapters devoted to a group of girls adept at the craft being captured, imprisoned, and finally escaping, don't dramatically impact the main plot—Tristan and Shailiha's efforts to defeat the evil Serena's forces. However, this does, I assume, tie up loose plot threads from the previous book, and perhaps sets up more threads for future books. Personally, I find books more satisfying when they are self-contained, even when part of a series. It gives the package a "complete" feel. But those sorts of rules don't apply to traditional fantasy and science fiction, so I must let it slide.

There are some small plot holes the bugged me. Spoiler warning: Once, Tristan is taken by the Darkling and is forced to go with him to the mystical "pass" that separates his world from the world of the warring Ones (the Vigors) and Heretics (the Vagaries). The Darkling tells the prince that he can simply whisk them away to the pass with the craft, if Tristan agrees to go along willingly. If he refuses to do so, the Darkling promises to commit all sorts of atrocities on the people of Tristan's land as they travel, slowly, on horseback toward the pass. Tristan sees these atrocities firsthand. They are terrible—gut-wrenching, actually. But Tristan, for some reason, refuses to go with the Darkling. He lets innocent people be tortured and killed, simply to delay his inevitable arrival at the pass. When he finally concedes to the Darkling, it seems like maybe I am supposed to feel relieved, but actually I'm saying, "Well, it's about time." The holding out didn't seem to fit with Tristan's good character. Fortunately, getting past that sort of plot hole is fairly easy to do.

In terms of the quality of writing, I walk away disappointed. As I mentioned before, clichés abound. The writer has attempted to give some fantasy world flair to the dialogue by using strange phrases such as "Seasons of New Life." But you quickly learn that when a character is, say, "Forty Seasons of New Life," it simply means "Forty years old." It's good, in a way, that he attempts to bring fantasy-world terminology into the story. But this sort of substitution feels a little jerky to me.

Writing gripes aside, it's an intriguing story with a lot of potential. I want to know what happens next, and in a series, that's all you can ask for.