Featuring stories from Eric Shanower, Troy Riser, Michael Tierney, and seventeen other masters of the form, FANTASTIC VOYAGES is all about doors --
Queen of the Dark Things
FTC Statement: Reviewers are frequently provided by the publisher/production company with a copy of the material being reviewed.The opinions published are solely those of the respective reviewers and may not reflect the opinions of CriticalBlast.com or its management.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. (This is a legal requirement, as apparently some sites advertise for Amazon for free. Yes, that's sarcasm.)
Submitted by RJ Carter on Sat, 06/14/2014 - 02:00
The latest book delivery gifted me with one bearing C. Robert Cargill's byline. This is one of the things that merits a call to stop everything and pore all efforts into one review.
Having read and loved and shared Dreams and Shadows, I was eager to see what Cargill would do in his next novel. And I was more than delighted to learn that Queen of the Dark Things was going to revolve around Colby Stevens and Yashar, two of the central characters from the first book, making the magically knowledgeable Colby something of a South Texas Harry Dresden. In Queen of the Dark Things, we get to see a little more of Colby's younger years, and the training he received in the Outback of Australia.
Colby becomes a pawn in a plot that reaches back four hundred years, and a curse that has nearly reached its culmination point. However, the plot has backfired on the five demon dukes who hatched it, and their brethren have elected to use Colby as their agent to rescue them.
The titular Queen herself is a powerful spirit -- someone who in a different time was a good friend of Colby's. But perceived betrayals and mistaken destinies have torn things apart, and put both on the path to a confrontation where one of them must die.
Cargill's plot is intricate, and his resolution is ingenious and delicate. It's such an engrossing ride that I can even forgive the glaring plot inconsistency involving one of the characters. I can forgive it, but I'm still obligated to detail it.
One of the five demons who have been captured is Bune, who is described as the three-headed dragon. Each of the five has a unique ability to damn souls, as do all of "The Seventy-Two," the band of demons who have conscripted Colby into their service.
However, I got lost when, in Chapter 45, Colby has a lengthy conversation with one of the Seventy-Two, to glean more information that will help him with his quest. That demon's name: Bune. Now, gather seventy-two people in the same room, and it's almost a statistical certainty that two of them will have the same first name. That's how I choose to read this, because after I meet Bune the Leopard, I later meet Bune the Three-Headed Dragon. They're quite obviously not the same character, so they must just share the same name. But that's me being overly forgiving because I so very much enjoyed the rest of the story. So on a personal level, I loved it. But on the critical level, I have to make the reader aware. Just doing my job, Mr. Cargill.
Grade:
4.0 / 5.0
FEATURED ALBUM
Songs of faith, family and moving forward.
Latest Release
