Dawn of Night

by Paul S. Kemp

Reviewed by Coral

Erevis Cale sacrificed his body to the Fane of Shadows, allowing it to transform him, in order to protect his friend Jak Fleet. The transformation goes beyond the changes made to his body, these are changes down to his very soul. But dealing with the consequences of this transformation may be the least of Cale's problems. Cale, Riven, Jak and Magadon (their guide) have found themselves transported to a shadow world, with no idea how to get back to their own.

Meanwhile, the Sojourner has plans for the Weave Tap his slaad have retrieved for him. And, thinking that Cale and his comrades are dead, there is no one else to stand in his way. Dispatching his slaad to the underground city of Skullport, all the Sojourner has to do is wait and claim the ultimate power as his own.

I liked this book, even though I had a couple of small issues with it.

It felt like Cale and his comrades spent too much time in the shadow world so that when they finally made it back to their world, the ending where they tried to stop the Sojourner, Azriim and his fellow slaad felt a little rushed.

There was this one part of the book, with Cale and a woman named Varra, that felt a little contrived. Unless she suddenly becomes important in book 3, it seems to me that she was mainly written in so that we wouldn't want to see Skullport completely destroyed.

There was a twist at the end, that I feel came out of nowhere. Not enough build up. Though, for all I know, in book 3 it will turn out to be some elaborate plan or trap.

It wouldn't be the first time this has happened to me (more like the 5th) but I think that I may have missed books that came before these books chronologically. I'm not sure if it was as apparent in the first book, but there seemed to be more references to some mission or adventure of Cale's that previously happened, mentioned in such a way that I think I'm supposed to know what it means, if I had read the books in a proper order. Oh well, I hope that I haven't missed anything important because I didn't read those books first.

Grade : B