Customer Reviews

When Darkness Falls (The Obsidian Trilogy, Book 3)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I really enjoyed reading the first two books. The problem with the third book is that it suddenly resolved everything, without using any of the plot elements that had been hinted at and amplified through the first two books. I felt somehow cheated, as if I had been sold a flashy gemstone that turned out to be nothing but cheap glass. After all the effort to paint the demons as powerful, evil, and intelligent, they show virtually none of those qualities in the third book. The impending "war" turns out to be one battle. There were so many possible directions the book could have taken, instead it just plodded along and suddenly dropped the reader off a cliff into oblivion. It would have been better to make this series four books if that was necessary instead of trying to conclude everthing in the last few pages of the book. The ending of the story really wasn't even believable.

First I have to say that I enjoyed the first two books of this series. However, I feel extremely cheated at the end of this book. This book seemed more about war strategy than plot and character development. As a previous reviewer stated there was so much that was left out.
*Kellen's relationship with father
*The whereabouts of Kellen's mother
*Relationship developments with Idalia and Vestakia

Also the final battle...I have to say it...was pathetic. After all that happened the bad guy is just poof defeated, no witty lines, and Vestakia never even meets her father...which I have been waiting to read. I don't know if they just wanted this story over with, but the effort and time was not applied to this ending as have been with others. I am a avid fantasy reader and I can honestly say that this was one of my most disappointing conclusions ever.

While I agree with some of the negative points regarding the simplicity of this concluding book, I must say that it really was a page turner. Once it got going, I really was enjoying the pace and energy and looked forward to enjoying the conclusion.

This is always a good feeling to have when reading, and I think the authors did a fine job creating a world that came alive.

Finally, I do have to say, I am thankful that they actually wrote a trilogy, and if that means a few of the details are sacrificed, to keep it a trilogy - then thanks to them! I've been a little frustrated recently getting to the end of a book (The most recent being the excellent George R.R. Martin books), and finding out that the story won't be complete for 7 books! Another 2 years minimum to find out how that excellent story turns out! Geesh!

Thanks for a good read!

I'm not going into story details, since it's been done already. I'm going to write about the trilogy as a whole instead of just this last book.

Okay, the story wasn't terribly original (but then, what is nowadays?) but it was so well told that I didn't care. I could hardly tell that it was written by two writers. (The giveaway was that one of the characters was described once as having horns that swept back over her head, while in another book she was described as having shorter horns. But, why quibble?)

It's hard to come up with something original these days, so I look at quality of writing instead of looking for the next Tolkien. Not alot happens at the beginning of the first book, but the writing is so good that you're sucked in anyway.

Not only that, but it's a trilogy. The story actually ended! There could be more written after this book, but the story itself wrapped up nicely.

There's usually a love story angle in fantasy books and this one has two of them. One was handled quite well, while the other was hardly touched on. Personally, I wish there was more of that and just a little less action.

Did I mention that the first book started slow? Well, after the first third of the first book, the action picks up and hardly stops. The action is described very well. I got all three books at the same time and I couldn't stop reading until it was done.

I don't buy hardbacks until I've read the book and find that I really like it. I'll be picking up the hardcover editions of all three of these books. Plus I need to start reading more Mercedes Lackey books!

This was may favorite Lacey book ever. The whole series was excellent but the third book really hit the mark. Without giving anything away the book got better as it progressed and the ending was very enjoyable. I have read several other Lackey books and I always thought they were above average but this series really raised my opinion of her skills. I was looking for something to read after several Terry Brook's series, George R.R. Martins "Fire and Ice" books, Jennifer Fallons "Second Sons Trilogy", and several Robin Hobb books. This book delivered. I hope you treat yourself to the entire series.

I am torn! It definitely makes a nice change to finish a trilogy in three boks, as opposed to the recent trend of endlessly drawn out series-es... but it also illustrates why the longer series can be a good choice.

"When Darkness Falls" wraps up the story to the Obsidian Trilogy very well, with satisfying progress and unexpected twists, but it loses much of the charm seen in "Outstretched Shadow" and "To Light a Candle" in doing so, because there's just so much packed into it. The pace is fast- very fast- and we just don't see as much of the characters we've come to love as they hurtle along their way.

An excellent story, but I would have liked to see more between Kellen and Vestakia- a year of no interest and then that quickly?- and the Kellen and Lycaelon thing had potential that didn't show; even Idalia and Jermayan's romance felt like it was put in from obligation. The people in the story aren't the driving force in this one.

Definitely worth reading, and went more smoothly on the second read, but do not expect the same feel as from the first two books of the trilogy.

I fell in love with the first two books in this series - I even bought them! (Amazing if you realize how addicted I am to using the library instead) However, this book just could not compare to them. The first two were fresh and each one had an amazing storyline that expanded upon the previous. This series is definately the best Mercedes Lackey has written in quite some time and I was sorely disappointed that it ended this way. Each novel connected characters in ways that I couldn't even have predicted and created a world solely its own, yet relatible to ones that we have read in others and even our own. The second book took a turn into an entire new adventure from the first, which was highly refreshing since many trilogies tend to stick to the same basic format in all three books. The magic, sadly, was lost in this final chapter.

When Darkness Falls starts off on a good foot, but it goes downhill from there. The plotline seems hastily thrown together as if she was trying to find out a way to resolve all the problems she'd created. I expected the final battle to be more momentuous than it was, the two previous books' battles far surpassed this one in description and action. The whole destruction of the evil was pathetic; they went down easily and without a definitive end. Even the romance languishes in this novel with the romance between Kellen and Vestakia finally tacked on at the end in a corny way. This ending basically ruined the two previous books for me. It took a great build-up and let it die a slow tortuous death, causing the reader to cry out in agony at the ending wondering, "Why?". I just wish this wasn't the end of this series so that Mercedes Lackey could have some hope of redeeming this disappointing novel.

Book three is the final book of the Obsidian Trilogy. It takes up where To Light A Candle left off with the Allies fighting the minions of the Endarkened and trying to find a way to stop the War of Spirit that the Demons are waging.

The main characters from the first two books are all here, but the antagonists from Armethaliah are played down and really barely seen in this book at all. Knowledge of the enemy comes to us more from the eyes of the Light trying to find out what they are planning, than from the omnipotent view from the author.

This book, more so than the other two, builds suspense because we are not in on so much of the secrets as we were in the first two books. We find out pretty much at the same time they do what is happening.

I found it thrilling and I couldn't put it down, but I am biased as Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite writers. On the other hand, The Outstretched Shadow was the first book of hers that I actually read, and that caused me to start reading her other works so...

It is imaginative, and moving and I recommend it to anyone that likes fantasy.

Outstretched Shadow is the first book. To Light a Candle is the second.

***Spoilers Ahead***

Towards the end of the book I was absolutly positive there HAD to be another installment in the series because it kept going with no resolution in sight.

Unfortunatly, I was wrong.

In a typically Mercedes Lackey move the book goes on and on and on, following the characters practically day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute and then ends abruptly.

I honestly felt there was no point to most of what I read. It seemed that half of the book was spent following Kellen as he travelled from place to place and back again while he whined over how ruthless he was becoming. Then we spent another good portion of the book reading about Savilla torturing various creatures and walking around naked. And finally, Jermayan, who also seemed to spend half his time just travelling back and forth between cities and camps and so forth. Oh, and let's not foget Cilarnen, who spend most of the book holed up in one place of another while he fiddles around with all his new books and equipment.

Then we get to the end, the final battle, the culmination of all our effort in reading through hundreds of pages of character and plot development....and they wrap it up in MAYBE 30 pages.

There was absolutly no resolution in my mind. It was like the ending was simply an after though: "Oh, yeah, and the good guys win. The end."
The demons are supposed to be a mighty and powerful race but they go down seemingly without a fight. To be honest, I was more intrugued by Kellen and Shalkan fighting the stone mastiffs than I was about the final battle. It was just way to easy, convenient, and stereotypical to be enjoyable.

To end the story, of course, there had to be the relationship resolution. I wasn't bying these flimsy relastionships from the beginning, it was just very fast, very forced and very out of place. So Jermayan gets Idalia....sort of but it was the relationship between Kellen and Vestakia that really got me. They spent most of the trilogy avoiding each other yet somehow manage to fall in love and then at the very end: "Oh, by the way, we can have sex now. I love you."

In all, it was disappointing. Many questions weren't answered and they left a lot of loose threads hanging in their hurry to wrap it all up. If they hadn't spent almost the entire book focusing on the pointless they could have made so much more of it.

Perhaps the problem is my own: that I have read too many fantasy novels (could such a thing be?).
The story is a derivative of most fantasy novel and borrows liberally from it's predecessors. Hmmm, average young man (mage) conveniently becomes a gifted war wizard (err knight mage).

As I read this book and the series I kept thinking that I had read all of this before, because I had in a dozen different forms.

Elven cities sound as if they are were created from a random word generator and would actually be amusing if it wasn't so painful.


These are just some highlights of my problems with these books. Others have stated the problems in much more detail than I.

They are not terrible books, but only buy them if you've got nothing better to read.