Darkness Rising Series Overview

Darkness Rising by Kelley Armstrong

A Semi-Spoilery Overview

Encompasses both Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising 

Welp, neither of these trilogies lived up to their ominous-sounding titles. I went in expecting something more in line with what Savannah went through at the end of Thirteen and it ended up being closer to the end of a CW teen school drama. Nothing remotely world-changing or even particularly dark happened in Darkest Powers or Darkness Rising. I think literally the worst things that happened were Nicole murdering Serena and the helicopter crash. I guess you could count Chloe accidentally raising an entire cemetery as “dark” but I saw that coming a mile away so it didn’t feel “dark.” None of this is to say that the trilogies were bad. They weren’t, really. A little bland at times, yes, but not bad.

I think it’s very safe to say that neither the Edison Group nor the Cabals know how to deal with people very well. It’s honestly hard to say which is worse… the circumstances are both similar and very, very different. Both were like: oooohhh, shiny experiments! Sure hope they don’t turn into PEOPLE some day. Sure hope we never have to tell them what we did to them. Oh no! We have to tell them now! Oh no! They don’t want to be under our control! Imprisonment! Murder! Just… you guys. What. The. Hell. Did. You. Think. Was. Actually. Going. To. Happen. You should have Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters that shit. Tell them the truth but make it as normal as you can! These are people, not objects. Thank the universe Sean Nast is helming their future at the end. He and Lucas Cortez were at the top of my “best case scenario Cabal people” list.

Anyway, specifically on Darkness Rising: I quite liked Maya as a protagonist. She was fairly chill through most the the trilogy. Capable in almost every scenario she’s put in. It was definitely refreshing after dealing with Chloe in Darkest Powers. I’m glad Maya did the smart thing with her love triangle, even if I would have loved to see some polyamory involved. Probably just me. But anyway, Maya was a good protagonist.

Rafe and Daniel, being Maya’s love interests/besties were the best fleshed out of the group of Project Phoenix kids. They were bother differing shades of chill boyfriend. Made a nice departure from the Dereks and Clays of the male love interest spectrum. Other than that, I don’t really have an opinions on them. They were there and supported Maya as best they could given the circumstances.

Still not sure how I feel about Ash. He kind of faded into the background once the Project Genesis kids were introduced and didn’t have much time with the Phoenix kids to get really well established. I kept envisioning a young Sam Carter from the Stargate universe whenever Sam was mentioned. Hayley was notable only because she shares a name with my bestie. Nicole for kind of the same reason (my sister’s original legal name this time), though it did help that she was psychotic so… yeah. Most of the rest of the characters were just kind of there and pretty one-note, which is completely understandable in a cast this large.

I think that’s mostly it for my thoughts on Darkness Rising. Better than Darkest Powers but mostly managing to hit the same story beats. Got your setup book, your wandering/traveling book, and your conclusion book. Not sure Darkest Powers would do well as an omnibus, but maybe a two book split instead. Not really sure.

The Rising by Kelley Armstrong

A Spoiler Free Review

I honestly found The Rising to be alright. There was a lot crammed into the last third of the book. The first third kind of felt like flailing and the middle was much more active than I think I was expecting. There’s a lot going on in this book. The last third basically serves as a coda for both the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogies. So yeah, lots going on.

Not sure how I feel about Ash. He largely just comes across as bratty and much younger than Maya and the others. And, with the introductions of Ash, welcome to a lesson in racism from a white author out of the mouth of her Native character. Not that this conversation shouldn’t be had, and often, just, uh, feels a little weird to me… the also white person. As I’m thinking about it (I write these reviews over time and not usually all at once), it would also be odd to NOT encounter racism at all. I honestly think Armstrong does a good job tackling the issue.

I am very glad the Interracial Council and Lucas got brought up here. Heck, I breathed a sigh of relief when Sean Nast showed up. Of all the Cabal people who could have wound up in charge of the Genesis and Phoenix kids, Sean was the top of the list for the ideal person to handle them.

Well Derek’s definitely coming across as more of an ass than he probably needs to be. Not that I didn’t think he was to begin with, but still… Getting these two groups together would probably have excited me if I were younger, but now it’s just like… ya’ll are all waaaay too pigheaded to be any type of real help to each other. Not how it turns out, but those were the initial thoughts. I think Kit being there definitely helped smooth things over between the groups.

Okay first, the ending of this book and this series feel rushed. Second, polyamory is a thing that ought to be considered whenever a love triangle is brought to light. You have more options than monogamy, even as a teenager. Work that shit out. And of course Maya does work that shit out and in a much less dramatic way that I was thinking it was going to go, so I’ll just let all this stuff lie. Definitely wasn’t counting on Armstrong to go the polyamory route. I do also want to say that there’s a paragraph toward the end talking about the dating pool needing to be wider and… just ugh. Why’s everyone always have to be super focused on dating? Romance is not and should not be the end-all, be-all for anyone, period. End mini-rant.

The Calling by Kelley Armstrong

A Spoiler Free Review

Nothing like starting out with an improbable helicopter hijacking and probable character death. Having never been in a helicopter myself, I can’t speak to the realism here, but… I really don’t buy any of what happened in the first 15 pages of this book. Just… feels like they all should have been dead, or crashed, at the very least. Not gonna say I was glad when they did eventually crash, but… yeah. I think it would have happened a lot sooner than it did.

Teens wandering around in the forest is no more interesting than teens hitchhiking across states. I question the adults who are going after them, too. Like, if ya’ll had shown up without guns — even if they are tranq guns — your case would be a lot easier to argue. But no, you choose violence so the teens have a very valid excuse for running the fuck away from you. Seriously, the Cabals and the Edison Group really need lessons in how to treat people.

Anyway, that’s pretty much how this book went. Maya and the others basically running away from Cabal operatives, hoping to head home, and eventually making it. I guess it was a little more entertaining than The Awakening, but not by much. At least there was barely any relationship drama to get into, so that was nice. I’m definitely not a fan of full-on relationship drama.

I did like the fact that Maya and her friends actually talked to each other about their plans. Glad to see actual group dynamics in action. I also like how Maya’s transformations were described and went down.

Pretty bog-standard Armstrong trilogy middle book, to be honest. Ya know, based on the one other specific trilogy of hers I’ve read. Not much actually happened aside from the beginning and the ending.

Skinwalker by Faith Hunter

A Spoiler Free Review

Originally Posted on GoodReads: May 21, 2022

Welp, gave Skinwalker a try and was not impressed. Couple things turned me off: the writing, the main character, and the solve of the mystery. The writing isn’t super bad, else I wouldn’t have finished Skinwalker, but it’s not the greatest, either. It reminded me a lot of things I used to write in high school. Stream-of-consciousness styling that doesn’t actually do the story any favors. As for Jane… she’s some weird combination of super confident and rude and completely oblivious that just doesn’t mesh well. It’s off putting. And as for the ending… well, I have no idea how Jane came to the conclusion she did… and then had the actual answer spoon-fed to her. Not great.

The following are my thoughts while I was reading, followed by my final thoughts on Skinwalker.

Little under halfway through with Skinwalker at this point and I have thoughts. First: the writing style is very stream-of-consciousness until it grinds to random halts in order to describe things. Second: I have a problem with a certain turban and the hiding of weapons. It annoyed me right off the bat and has stuck in my mind as something that just doesn’t make sense. Third: get over this “The Joe, Rick” thing. Just call him Rick or The Joe. Again, annoying. Fourth: read a few reviews that mentioned Beast and how annoyed people were with her. I have zero problems with Beast. She’s a mountain lion, not sure we need to expect her thoughts to be on par with Jane’s.

Speaking of Jane… she’s definitely not even rating in the favorite heroines category for me. She’s really quite boring and inept at doing her job. And inconsistent af. We learn at the very beginning of the book that this is her first foray into working with “civilized vampires” and yet she seems to know more about how they function at times than she should. At other times it’s all “I’m learning a lot from interacting with exactly two civilized vampires.” Add to that a penchant for physical altercations instead of just straight up talking to people as an introduction and you’ve got me rolling my eyes and wondering how she’s not dead yet. Definitely nowhere near the levels of competence in characters I’ve seen her compared to in other reviews (Kate Daniels and Mercy Thompson, for example).

Three-quarters through now… Jane would definitely be dead in almost any other universe with vampires and vampire power structures. Like, yeah, it’s nice to have a little legal paperwork around to subvert a bit of the old “Master Vampire” things, but dude, you’re lucky the Master Vampire didn’t kill you for subverting his authority… or almost killing his daughter-in-law-to-be. Also, Jane REALLY needs to learn to work with cops. As annoyed as I’ve been getting with the Anita Blake novels and their constant “lets talk about how cops work” thing, having a character just straight up baiting them does not sit well with me. You want access to crime scenes, maybe make nice with the cops instead of baiting them all the time. Wtf, woman.

I honestly do not understand where the praise for Skinwalker comes from. I’ve read much better — not versions, but versions is the only word I’m coming up with — versions of this from other authors. The writing is, in my opinion, not where it needs to be to get across the information that actually needs to be given to the reader. It tries to do the blow-by-blow, super descriptive thing but at the same time doesn’t… see my confusion about the turban. I’m also still confused as to how the ending came about… just… Jane suddenly knows who done it and rushes off to deal with it. I mean, that rather sums up all of Jane’s hunting method, really. Just… ugh. I’m not going to be continuing with the Jane Yellowrock series. Not my cup of tea.

Gonna end this on some stuff I did like though. I liked the skinwalker/liver-eater mythology. Always nice to get something other than bog-standard stuff. I liked what we got of actual vampire mythos. Wanted more of that.

If you’re interested, my notes and highlights are visible for Skinwalker over on GoodReads.