Customer Reviews

Dark Divide (Rune Sword, Vol. 5)

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"Dark Divide" is the fifth book in the "Runesword" series Written by Mark Acres. It continues to detail the further adventures of our four Outcasts; Bith a young human sorceress, Caltus a young human warrior, Hathor the vegetarian troll and Endril the world weary elven archer. In this installment the group faces Malendor, an ancient elven vampire and nemesis of the elf Endril. Malendor, a servant of the ever present Dark Lord controls vast armies consisting of soldiers, cultists, creatures and of course the undead. As Malendor begins forcing his will upon the Northern settlement of Trondholm our heroes must once again halt the Dark Lord's evil plans. Here are my thoughts on Dark Divide;


Pros

+ Story detailed a bit more background on Endril's past and why he was banished from Elven lands.

+ Quick and easy read.

+ Plenty of use of the undead which I always find interesting.

+ Had a bit of a darker tone at times than the previous books.

+ Short but engaging battle at the end of the book.

+ Cover art by Larry Elmore.

+ Clear use of Dungeons & Dragons style spells and creatures. Creatures such as wights, zombies, vampires, wyverns and spells such as Death, Levitation, Fireball and Dispel Magic. Easy to follow if you've played the role-playing games in any form.


Cons <Contains spoilers>

- As with all other books in this series the ending was abrupt and rushed.

- Yvaine unbelievably turned to evil almost instantly.

- Malendor completely underutilized his undead legions and magical items. A perfect example was his Wight Wyvern Riders. He only used them for scouting, not in combat. He also had an entire chest of magical items of which he only used one. Why?

- Endril is depicted as a stereotypical foppish, dandy elf, yet again.

- Cal and Bith, still utterly annoying. Brash, impulsive, whiny and all together irritating. I could happily do without either of them.

- Cal's squire was named Orlac in one chapter then Olaf in another. Where was the editor?

- Who was the vampiric orc Gobslobble? The only other previously mentioned orcs in the story were Gutstomper and Bloodseeker. Rather confusing.

- No world map or the region of Trondholm.


Dark Divide, at times, had a few interesting ideas but much like the previous books did nothing to really improve the series. In the author's defense, this book did follow more of the original purpose of the Outcast companions which involves following the Norse God Vili, finding the lost Runeswords and destroying the Dark Lord's minions. Dark Divide was slightly more interesting than most of the previous Runesword tales but it's still nothing I'd recommend to avid fantasy readers.

Cal and his companions must save the Kingdom of Tronholm when a vampire looses his zombie hordes on the land of the living to secure the region for his Dark Lord.