Title: Queen of the Darkness
Author: Anne Bishop
Publishing Date: 2000
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: B
Sensuality: Warm
Queen of the Darkness is third book in Anne Bishop's Black Jewel's Trilogy. I will try to give a brief synopsis of the book without giving away too much of the previous books. Queen of Darkness is the epitome of Good vs. Evil. Jaenelle Angelline is now the Queen and she has foreseen that an inevitable war is coming between Kaeleer and Terreille. Jaenelle, along with her court triangle consisting of Daemon, Lucivar and Saetan will fight to rid the realm of the evil that Hekatah and Dorothea have perverted the land with. The only way to stop it will be to do the most dangerous and unimaginable thing she can: tap into the deadly unstoppable power of her Ebony jewels. By doing so, Jaenelle not only has the power to destroy the evil Hekatah, but all the Blood, including herself.
The interaction between the men and women of Jaenelle's court was a delight to read. These two groups are constantly exasperated with one another. The men have a tendency to be overprotective of their women and the women see it as a nuisance. The women on the other hand always seem to be up to some sort of mischief which in turn makes the men see the women as a blight to their sanity. Yet beneath all the complaints, it is easy to see how much both factions appreciate the other. The women appreciate the men's vigilance and the men appreciate the women's playfulness and laughter.
Coming from a strictly romance perspective, I was a little disappointed with the attention devoted to Daemon and Jaenelle's relationship. Given that this is straight fantasy, and not fantasy romance, my gripes are seemingly irrelevent. This also brings me to the ending of this book. Things are not exactly all wrapped up and neatly tied with a bow. There are some issues left unresolved and I felt somewhat disappointed with the conclusion of the trilogy. A very important question is left unanswered. Certain things are alluded to, but nothing is clear cut. I like things spelled out for me and that is not what I got. Now, having said that, it appears that there are more books that are a part of the Black Jewels trilogy, so maybe some of my questions might be answered in these other books.
If anyone has information that they would like to share about this series, feel free to comment or email me. I plan on doing a Series Sunday post about it. Any information would be helpful about the other books such as Dreams Made Flesh, The Shadow Queen or Tangled Webs. Anne Bishop's website was not very helpful.
Here is what others had to say:
Leontine's Book Realm
Silverworm's Book Reviews
Nice Mommy ~ Evil Editor
5 comments:
Hi Jill,
I had it too with them ending that made me go: huh, WTF what about Jaenelle and Daemon, how does it truly end?!
I really would like to encourage you to pick up Dreams Made Flesh. It gives a romantic story on Lucivar, it fills the gap I found in QoyD and the story of Daemon and Jaenelle is concluded very nicely IMO.
Also, I have just met two blog gals, Renee of Renee's Book Additction and AmyC of Book Wyrm who did a combined post on The Shadow Queen and perhaps on their blogs you can find more info.
http://reneesbookaddiction.wordpress.com/
http://romancebookwyrm.blogspot.com/
Hope this helps a bit.
Hugs,
Leontine
Hey Jill :)
for closure, you definitively need to pick up Dreams Made Flesh - that's the book that will tie up all the loose ends into a nice bow that you want :) I can understand why you'd be disappointed with the ending, but like I say, it wraps up quite nicely in the anthology. Like Leontine says, it also fills some gap (eg: how Lucivar got a wife!) :)
I've reviewed both Tangled Webs and Queen of Shavalar over at Breezing Through. Feel free to drop by and read the reviews :) Basically, Tangled Webs is kind of an extended novella - you get an update on all the characters and there's a story with Surreal.
Queen of Shavalar is basically a new trilogy, but our dear characters such as Daemon, Lucivar and Saetan do make some very important appearances.
I've read almost all of Ms. Bishop's books and love them dearly, but they don't work for me if I've my "romance reader glasses" on, so to speak. Daemon and Jaenelle's relationship continues in bits and pieces in most of the following books and unfolds wonderfully. I'm interested to see how the new relationships work themselves out in her new trilogy, the first book is The Shadow Queen which was released in March 2009. If you're interested, many of her books are listed in the review archive on my blog.
Happy Reading!~ Amanda
I used to love fantasy, but I'm worried to pick it up again. I'm such a genre reader now. I don't know if I could take off my romance novel glasses, as Bookwormom calls them!
Leontine, Yes, exactly, I wanted Jaenelle and Daemon's relationship more neatly wrapped up. Good to know that I might find what I am looking for in Dreams Made Flesh. I will definitely look into it. I will also read both Renee and Amy's websites. Thanks for the info!
Nath, Yes, exactly, all the sudden Lucivar is married with a toddler! How did that happen? I will definitely read Dreams Made Flesh!
Hey Amanda, Hah - good descriptor of "romance reading glasses" Yes we do expect certain things and it is hard to get away from them. I will check out your blog! Thanks for the heads up.
Kate, I know what you mean, which is why when I review anything outside of romance, I will always let you know what to expect in terms of the romance of the story. After all, as a romance reader, that is the most important aspect, right?!
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