The Darkangel by Meredith Ann Pierce
Jun. 6th, 2008 02:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreThe Darkangel is the first part of a trilogy(is this YA? The publisher, and the listing of recommended books in the other two seems to indicate that, but the story really doesn't feel it to me. But then, I haven't read a lot of YA yet. Anyway...) about Aeriel, a servant girl who lives in a desert land. When Eoduin, Aeriel's friend and master, is taken by the Darkangel who terrorizes their land, Aeriel sets out to get her back, both out of friendship, and because she knows that only punishment and eventually being sold off are all that await her with Eoduin's family now. Aeriel is captured by the Darkangel herself, however, and becomes a servant in his household. There, she learns the Eoduin became the thirteenth wife of the Darkangel and has become a soulless wraith who is a madwoman and little more than skin and bones, and indistinguishable from the other twelve wives. Further, she learns that when the Darkangel takes a fourteenth wife in another year, his mother will make him into one of the seven vampyre lords who will take over the world, and Aeriel escapes his palace with the help of the duarough, a dwarven mage who lives under the castle, and sets off on a quest to free him and the wraith wives.
The be honest, if Aeriel's chief goal had been to save Irrylath, the Darkangel, I doubt I could have supported the book. Instead, saving Irrylath is a necessity if she wants to save the wraith wives, hoping that Eoduin really is one of them, and still alive, and saving them is her main goal. While she's drawn to Irrylath, it's made clear that it's a mixture of pity and his supernatural abilities, not out of some deep lust for his being a hot vampire, and she hates herself for it. Irrylath, meanwhile, is thankfully not some goth emoboy angsting for his lost soul. He doesn't even know why anyone would want one, save for power. Instead, he really is a monster, one with shreds of humanity, but more a mad creature to be pitied but feared than a romantic figure. In a lot of ways, he's more of a petty, spoiled, evil child than anything else. To be completely honest, I'm not convinced yet that he's worth all the trouble Aeriel is going through for him, but I'm willing to be convinced.
Pierce also brings in a lot of various mythologies. While the world as a whole has something of a middle-eastern feel to it, there are also definite European feel to the mytharc, and various plotpoints seem to be drawn from specific fables of both. I'm not sure what I think of Irrylath or the romance yet, but I do like Aeriel, and the mytharc that's developing, and how the resolution of one quest resulted in another, bigger quest emerging.
The be honest, if Aeriel's chief goal had been to save Irrylath, the Darkangel, I doubt I could have supported the book. Instead, saving Irrylath is a necessity if she wants to save the wraith wives, hoping that Eoduin really is one of them, and still alive, and saving them is her main goal. While she's drawn to Irrylath, it's made clear that it's a mixture of pity and his supernatural abilities, not out of some deep lust for his being a hot vampire, and she hates herself for it. Irrylath, meanwhile, is thankfully not some goth emoboy angsting for his lost soul. He doesn't even know why anyone would want one, save for power. Instead, he really is a monster, one with shreds of humanity, but more a mad creature to be pitied but feared than a romantic figure. In a lot of ways, he's more of a petty, spoiled, evil child than anything else. To be completely honest, I'm not convinced yet that he's worth all the trouble Aeriel is going through for him, but I'm willing to be convinced.
Pierce also brings in a lot of various mythologies. While the world as a whole has something of a middle-eastern feel to it, there are also definite European feel to the mytharc, and various plotpoints seem to be drawn from specific fables of both. I'm not sure what I think of Irrylath or the romance yet, but I do like Aeriel, and the mytharc that's developing, and how the resolution of one quest resulted in another, bigger quest emerging.