The Dark Age
category: fantasy, young adult, author:Traci Harding
book 1 of The Ancient Futureoriginal copyright 1996,
read in January 2011
Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10
This is a children's book. Well, young adult, perhaps. Even more, it is for girls.The heroine is a modern girl -- with long, flowing and possibly curly hair -- who is drawn back in time to the fifth century AD. There, she uses her clever mind, her charming ways and her saxophone, to win hearts and minds. She also uses her karate skills to fight for... I almost said, to fight for right. In reality, she fights for her own right.
This is a pleasant enough book with strong fantasy elements. Not least is the fantasy of being so nice that everyone is instantly convinced that you are always right.
When Tory -- the heroine -- meets the Dark Age knights, she impresses them by knocking one out with karate blows. When Tory is captured by the evil dudes, she does her best... but has to wait for her Prince -- the incredibly handsome one, with the long blonde hair -- to rescue her.
When Tory decides to rewrite the laws of the Dark Ages to include gender equality, to exclude forced marriages, to replace prostitution with education and to introduce the weekend, she presents her ideas -- and they are accepted. "Wait till that realise what it really means," she is told. And that is the full strength of the debate... There is not even any follow-up where people actually do realise what it really means.
Absolutely fantastic fantasy!
On the other hand, it's easy to read, with no nasty surprises. For example...
The heroine has been captured. The evil witch cries, "Rip her clothes off and search her thoroughly!" The evil henchmen drool and lick their lips. The castle lookout cries, "Look out! We're being invaded by an army of convenient outsiders!" "Oh bother," says the evil witch. "Oh well, leave her clothes on, don't hurt her yet, we'll have time to torture her later..." Phew! That was close :-)
There's time travel, past lives, souls reborn falling in love with the same people as in previous lives... There's fairies, kings, knights, ordinary-girl-gets-to-be-goddess... Multiple planes of being, fortune-telling as standard practice, karate as proof of good guy status and a lot of mystical hocus pocus.
Which all adds up to a lot of fun. Except in the middle, where the marriage, crowning and match-making was just a tad tedious.
Harding has used time travel and magic with wild abandon. Yet it all -- somehow -- seems to hang together. When the heroine deals with her past lover reborn in a future body, she deals with it. Quite well. We are not left thinking, that's ridiculous! Rather, we think, Ha! that's tricky!
All the fantastic fantasy is used casually and... realistically... Well... realistically within the context of this fantasy world. That is, in broad daylight it's ridiculous -- but Harding's style encourages the willing suspension of disbelief.
If I were a teenage girl with a love of fantasy, princes and independent-minded princesses, I would love this book. As an older man, it's fun. But I won't worry if I never read books two and three of the trilogy.
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1 comment:
I thought, let's re-read The Dark Age, then read on into the second and third novels in this saga.
Phew !
This time around it is just too... too... sweet and shiny for me :-( I had to skim, to skip, to get to the end before I was overcome by sugar-rush.
I did try to start the second book, Atlantis. I read one chapter... Took a break by reading Harry Potter #1 -- a brilliant book! I don't think that I will read any more of Atlantis.
It's not a "bad" book. Just too saccharine sweet for what I want right now.
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