Customer Reviews

Darkloom

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Deathweave and Darkloom both have the potential to be very good stories. Unfortunately, Osborne focuses only on Arden to the exclusion of all other characters. While there is some minimal development of Rafe and Abbot Grayson, most of the background characters are exactly that - background. We get very little sense of the other characters motivations or aspirations. What could be a very complex tale comes out very flat.

Darkloom is full of action, adventure, and intrigue. I was happy to find it and happy to take it with me to work on the bus to read. Recommended for all who enjoy well-written fantasy and good characters!

Fasten your seatbelts, hangon for dear life, and prepare yourself for yet another action packed adventurous romp courtesy of the resilient and insightful Cary Osborne who has blessed the lover of Sci-Fi futuristic fare with an emotionally endearing sequel to Deathweave. After author Osborne captivated her readership with a climactic roller coaster ride of fast paced turn of events to finish off the drama, intrigue and mystery of Deathweave, it was hard to imagine a successor tome that could further maintain or improve upon the plot and character centered around her heroine Arden Grenfell and the rest of the mainstay principles on the planet Glory. Once again Osborne delivers in grand fashion without missing a beat. Picture Nancy Drew, all grown up, with a very modern day woman's perspective and attitude, complete with a special forces military training background acquired at a reclusive countryside monastery during her impressionable years; throw in an extra dash of strength, wisdom, courage and resolve while maintaining a touch of her youthful innocence and tender caring heart, then zoom forward a few centuries in time. That's Arden Grenfell. Arden's mission is to preserve the peace on Glory, a world desperately trying to come to grips with its own erupting latent anarchy and civil war on the heels of finally achieving intergalactic peace after years of external planetary warfare. Arden's main squeeze and romantic interest, Captain Raphael (Rafe) Semmes, is a likeable rogue salvager who plays the perfect complimentary role as a mischievous sleuthing midlife Joe, a la Hardy Boys fame. Often remote and inaccessible, both emotionally and due to chosen occupation, Rafe proves the typical modern man, sometimes incapable of commitment but willing to lay down his life at a moment's notice in support of Arden through heartfelt profession of his own terms of endearment to her. In a classical time tested story of good versus evil, and heroes matched against villains, writer Osborne displays, in her patent tantalizing manner, the uncanny knack for weaving into each and every personality she creates, the values, standards, hopes and dreams of several present day generations, themselves easily identifying with this world of the future and its fate inspired Glorians. If you're looking for a fun filled feel good fantasy to curl up with on a rainy day, or, searching for a surefire cure for those nagging blues, then Darkloom is the perfect prescription to fill the bill. Enjoy!

Cary Osbornes' sequal to 'Deathweave' is even better than the first book of the series. Her main charachter, Arden Grenfell is an intrigueing one indeed, a woman warrior who places her honor and her duty to her country above all else, while clearly searching for some other meaning to her own life. The plots in this novel are intricate and complex, and the settings are vivid and imaginative. But above all else, it's the intensity and the detail of the sword fights and the hand to hand combat that gives this novel it's flavor.

This book is an abysmal failure. Osborne's characters and world as rotten as month old roadkill. For some reason Osbourne seems to envision the military akin to a lightbulb, something you can just turn on and off in a second or replace by going to the corner store. Glory, despite being having fought a major intergalactic war to a standstill in the recent past somehow eliminates its whole military to the point where there arn't enought troops to guard the queen's castle from more than one command post! Storing all guns on another planet in a single huge armory (susceptable to being blown up), Glory's government has trouble even activating an armed warship in time to deal with a rebellion by a few fanatics waving swords. Osborne's inability to write coherently about anything military is reflected throughout the book by a multitude of shallow, false, trite combat scenes where a bunch of space travelling warriors go at each other with swords. Frankly, the only thing that would save this book is if Mystery Science Theater 3000 lampooned it.