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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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RULERS OF THE DARKNESS I hate to admit it, but I’m getting a little bored of the
‘darkness’ series. The idea of
a magical conflict is interesting, as is the care HT takes in describing the
world and its rules. In many ways,
the Darkness world ranks with the world of Harry Potter. So why am I bored? Partly
because HT was trying to write an analogue of World War Two, with a few
differences, but most of it is the same. I
knew that the offensive in the middle of the book would fail, because it was a
clear analogue to an offensive in OTL. HT might have done better to write a fictionalised version of
WW2. Sadly, the analogue does not hold too well.
The power politics between Lagoas and Kuusamo should not be the same as
the 1940 power politics between Britain and America, but HT presents them as
though they are. Blood Magic, introduced by the Argarve, has no analogue in
OTL, although it serves a Pearl Harbour purpose.
HT’s Japan-equivalent (Gyongyosians) fight both the US and USSR
equivalents at the same time, which would have been suicide for our Japan. There is considerable character development.
HT does not shy from killing off his characters; two very important
characters meet their deaths in this book, while several others do not advance
at all. Krasta, for example,
remains an effective collaborator, which she reasons away as allying herself to
the strongest person when she’s less honest with herself, but she admits to
being fear of her consort when she’s alone in the privacy of her thoughts.
One would think her treatment towards the end of Book 3 (Its not
explicit, but it appears that she was forced into anal sex) would convince her
to use her contacts for her country. Instead,
resistance from the nobles seems to depend on a man whose prime motivation is
pleasure and Krasta’s brother. Other characters do better.
Fernao finds himself working with his country's traditional rivals to
develop magic and he finds himself fighting his own desires for his married
colleague, Pekka. Other characters simply try to live their lives apart
from the war around them. The love story of Ealstan and Vanai, who must
hide Vanai's Kaunian identity so she isn't arrested by the Algarvians, or Istvan,
who every day lives his life as a soldier, afraid that his shame is never
revealed to his comrades. HT’s analogue falls down with its nobles.
It seems that no nation in his world is free of princes and kings, who
are all (with one exception) a pretty bad bunch.
While this may be an analogue of the outdated French command in 1940, the
relation between the kings and their people is often poisonous.
The one exception, Skarnu, is forced to live the life of a peasant.
One would expect the common people to have a few words with their nobles
after Argave is defeated. None of the nobles really resembles their OTL counterparts.
Swemmel of Unkerlant is far stupider than Stalin, it is a miracle that
Rathar does not dispose of him. HT’s world is a wonderful analogue to our World War Two.
However, there are two really big flaws.
The flaw with the magical physics is that there seems to be a cross
between the ‘science’ and the superstition types of magical law.
On one side, magic needs tools to work, on the other, mages seem to have
some kind of personal power in them, cursing is something that really works
here. Both Harry Potter, the Hawk
and Fisher novels and the Age of Misrule books present better use of magic as
magic, rather than radically different technology.
Readers looking for magical stories may feel a slight jar. The second major flaw involves the Kaunians.
HT presents them as Jew-analogues, with a holocaust that uses them for
fuel for the blood magic. BUT –
the Kaunians have some kingdoms which are not contested with natives, nor do the
Kaunians follow a different religion. Dying
their hair keeps them safe. Further,
it is not a crime in HT’s world to sleep with a Kaunian, even for the
Nazi-equivalents and there are some friendships between them and the Kaunians. Strange world. Don’t let my gripes stop you from enjoying the series.
As a creation, the world of Derlavai is remarkable, showing off HT’s
prowess. There are so few nearly
perfect sci-fi/fantasy worlds – the only perfect one being the Nights’ Dawn
Trilogy – that this is a good addition. You’ll
find that there’s something for everyone here; battle scenes, love stories
(but fewer sex scenes than most of HT’s works), characters you can identify
with and much more….
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