Into the Dark Lands (The Sundered, #1)

Into the Dark Lands (Books of the Sundered #1)

3.59 of 5 stars 3.59  ·  rating details  ·  513 ratings  ·  52 reviews
War has its cost, and the Servants of the Bright Heart and the Servants of the Dark Heart have been locked in a struggle that has defined life—and death—for millennia. But the end is coming, and only the Lady who has served the Bright Heart for the whole of her immortal life has seen it, in a vision that spans time and demands the highest of prices.

Erin is a healer, and ag...more
Paperback, 315 pages
Published August 11th 2005 by BenBella Books (first published 1991)
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Community Reviews

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Dan
Angels and half-angels fighting a desperate war, and wandering through the lot is the Lady, who mourns and angsts because she knows everyone she loves is going to die, but if she tries to save them she'll doom her entire nation. Mourn, angst; ominous foreshadowing; angst, mourn, angst.

There are four books of this, and Michelle West is normally a good author. It's possible that partway through this first book the prophesied doom finally happens, and everyone gets to stop angsting and start fixing...more
Mykle Law
It probably only deserves 3 stars... but I guess I liked it. It does feel a little slow moving for quite a while-- and I always wanted better description of the action scenes.
Chosen champion of the light, Erin of Elliath, Sarillorn the descendants of Lernan, God of Light-- encounters one of the most powerful servants of the God of Darkness, Malathorn (or whatever his name is...) Said servant does not destroy Erin-- as had been his initial intent, and Erin becomes much more intimately aware of th...more
Purse Monkey
The story is set in land where there is Light and Dark. Each has their own God, each has their own purpose: to spread Light/Dark throughout the world. Each Light and each Dark has Servants to fill out that purpose. Servants are immortals that can communicate directly with their God. There are also a race of people that are descendants of these Servants. These descendants are half-mortals and they, too, can communicate with their God but only if they reach their Adult test.

The hero is the First...more
Marajean
So I love the theme of the good girl and the evil guy and the love between them. Every time someone asks for recommendations this book comes up, so I finally bought it and read it.

This book lacks details. That much is true. There's a fine line between too much detail and not enough. I felt like I was given a decent idea of the characters but I was also plugging things in from similar types of books. I really couldn't tell you what any of the characters looked like, including the main characters....more
Chris
Could have been a 4 star!
I agree with several of the other reviewers who gave this book a low score.
It jumped around way too much in the beginning, it took way too long to get interesting and to get to the real heart of the story (it was the author's first book I think).
I started this book, and by page 85, was ready to give up and give it a review of two stars.. Then I went and read some of the reviews, decided to give it another chance, and skipped ahead to where the heart of the story lay (rea...more
Feliciamarie
i loved it!
Ok it may seem stupid and childish but i cried when i read the part when Erin's father died and she went to the funeral i loved seeing Erin struggle through her difficulties and the determination she showed to achieve wad she aimed for, somehow in a really weird way i am proud of all that she has achieved....
I oso liked the fact that we were able to see her grow up throughout the book. Stefanos is a cool character whom i like as i am into the books where heroes are evil but always hav...more
Madame X
I read this one because I it was described to me as high fantasy with a good, very dark romance. The first half of the book traces the heroine's childhood and early adulthood - growing up as a high-caste warrior and healer for the God of Light. The novel jumps from key moment to key moment so we get a sort of highlights reel of everything that happened during Erin's early years.

The meat of the novel - the Beauty and the Beast tale - gets started about halfway through, when Stefanos, the #1 guy...more
Illuminate
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Sarah
The first half of the book sets up the overarching plot of this series, which is the war between the servants of the Light (like angels) and their descendants and the servants of the Dark (demons) and their descendants. This is told through the eyes of Erin, a mortal descendant of the Light who is largely shaped by the losses she suffers in the war. The second half then switches gears and focuses on the unlikely and doomed love affair between Erin and Stephanos, the immortal first servant of the...more
Allison
I'm really not sure what I think of this. It's dark. The endless war between good and evil has no end in sight, and there's death, despair, and betrayal everywhere. Important people die. There's really no relief from it at all, although there's a sliver of hope that things might work out sometime in the next 3 books. If you like your fantasy dark, it's interesting enough that I'd recommend it. I'm not sure if I have the heart to read any further myself.
Mia
I read this book on a recommendation and I have mixed feelings about this. Pacing was very hard to follow and the author tends to swap pov constantly, which is quite disconcerting to read. There were parts that were just so confusing I kind of skimmed over them which mean I lost important details that were hidden in there.

The intro added a few years ago by the author makes sense after reading the book. She says that the start of the book was originally told through flashbacks later, but she rev...more
Lee
I personally liked this book a lot. Having known Sagara from her works on the Chronicles of Elantra I really preferred The Sundered. The female lead in this book is less annoying and was admirable even in her weaknesses. The initial 40% of the book was mostly background story on Erin (the lead girl) and we see her grow into her character and get an idea of what's really happening around this fantasy land. I did not find it totally boring because of all the action scenes and character development...more
Amanda
I love Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra series and so was really looking forward to reading more by the author. But this one was a chore to get through. It's her first book, and I think it definitely shows. It started out well, but the heroine (who seemed promising at the beginning) spends almost the entire last half of the book weeping. Which was annoying, no matter how good her reasons for being upset were. Sagara's writing tends to be dense and isn't the type of writing you can skim through, wh...more
Starfire
Hmmmmm... to be honest, I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as I was hoping to. I got into Michelle West's books with the Sun Sword set and absolutely LOVED it - and everything she's written since, whether under the Sagara or the West name, I've similarly loved.

Unfortunately, the two sets I've read that she wrote before then, I haven't enjoyed nearly so much.

This one felt... just too black and white. I'm not sure why, but light and dark as specific, tangible beings just - doesn't work for m...more
Vamika
This book totally bored and confused me. The PoV was constantly changing, you would have the story told in Erin PoV then it would change completely half-way through a sentence to another person's PoV and then out of nowhere a narrator or Erin starts talking about the history of Light and Dark. I mean seriously! I have read books in different PoV but they at least tell you from the first sentence who it is but this book had none of it. There are so many characters to keep track of and new charact...more
Sbuchler
Genre: High Fantasy

This is set to an epic backdrop of the fight between good and evil (known as Light and Dark in the novel). The main characters are only part human, the other part is divine.

I'm guessing the arc of the series is love balancing pain, and accepting neither the Light or the Dark as ascendant. This novel (the first of 4) is a love story between the First Servant of the Dark and the avatar of the Light. A good half of the book is setting up how Erin (the avatar of Light, known as t...more
Sylvia


Like her other series, this is an extremely complex bit of writing, and it took me a while to get into the swing of it, becoming familiar with all the unique terminology. Because of this, I'm sure when I read it a second time, which I definitely will, I'll get even more out of the story. This is not a happy-go-lucky love story. The characters are tortured and dark, yet they still can't help but find love, which perhaps makes it more beautiful. Ms. Sagara-West is not afraid to make the tough cho...more
Jordan
Sep 20, 2011 Jordan rated it 5 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition Recommends it for: Lovers of LotR, Silmarillion, Dragonriders of Pern, Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful read!!! The characters are simply gripping. I can't wait to read the next books in the series. The last third of the book was a bit difficult to get through for someone who loved the action of the first part and really getting to know the different peoples, their beliefs, and their way of life. But the final third is where the romance hits and some SERIOUS character development takes place. While I'm VERY upset at three of the deaths, I'm praying they will have pr...more
Chris
Okay, before other Michelle West lovers burn me in effigy, let me explain why I'm giving this two stars, and let me also say I love West's writing. The Sun Sword series is one of the best series ever. Go read it now!

This, you will notice, is not the Sun Sword series. It is West's first book, a fact that West tells you and will be obivous to any experienced reader. At times it is unclear who is thinking what and even what is happening. Some of the scenes feel like gothic gone bad, if you know wha...more
Michelle
I love all the Kaylin and Esselieyan books, so I was pretty excited to get her out-of-print debut via ILL. Ouch.

In the later books I like her formal, lyrically descriptive style, and I love her detailed and original world-building. In this one the prose is just stilted, the world-building is cliche and incoherent, and to top it off the characters are pancake-flat with no believable motivations.

Oh well, everyone has to start somewhere. I'll keep on waiting eagerly for more Jewel and Kaylin.
Fred Dickson
It is a little slow starting out, but I never really felt compelled to stop reading it, it was an interesting world set up, and I enjoyed reading about it. The romance was just like you'd imagine, but the whole book is really just the set up for the next three books, and it does feel that way. However, it was definitely worth a read, especially if you are in it for the whole series, and the prices for the kindle version of the series are well worth the read.
Danielle
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Troy
I am usually not one to read romance books, but this book really isn't a romance; it's a love story. It's also very well written. There is a lot more character-building than world-building in this book, making it a good change of pace from epic fantasy.

If you like love stories, this is a great book.
Gaynell
I really enjoyed the second half of this book. The first half was kind of slow going. Of course, we need the back story and world building to understand the series. It is a good vs evil (good girl, bad guy) kind of story, but as the Lady of Elliath says, "There's is some darkness in the light, and some light in the darkness."
Joy
An epic war fantasy with undercurrent of romance between the forces of good and evil or rather dark and light as the story puts it. The premise is love conquers and changes those who have it the least. Well written and engaging and NOT paranormal romance.
Lesleyw
One of the best intros to a series I've read. With one of the few true anti-heroes. (The remainder of the series (for me) didn't live up to the introduction, but I think it was well worth it just to read this one).
Beckycaret Wheeler
I really liked this book for the ending. It wrapped up very well. Some of the reviews say there needs to be more details, but I liked it for the elaborate plot, not the slash-combat descriptions.
Jake Langthorn
This review applies to the Sundered Series as a whole.

Clearly this is a beginning effort, but already, West shows the imagination that marks her later works. This is terrific stuff. Yes, it is dark, but even with the awkward writing style, it is very powerful.
By
could have been five stars but like other reviewers said it took too long to get good. but the romance was outstanding, and the ending bittersweet and perfect for the story.
Krita


I will have to agree with some of the previous reviews of this book and say that I was a bit disappointed with the lack of details in the story and in the characters.
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Into the Dark Lands (The Sundered, #1)
Into the Dark Lands (The Sundered, Book 1)
Into the Dark Lands (the Sundered, Book 1)
Into the Dark Lands (ebook)
Into the Dark Lands (Paperback)

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She lives in Toronto with her long-suffering husband and her two children, and to her regret has no dogs.

Reading is one of her life-long passions, and she is some­times paid for her opinions about what she’s read by the venerable Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. No matter how many book­shelves she buys, there is Never Enough Shelf space. Ever.

She has published as Michelle Sagara (her legal...more
More about Michelle Sagara West...
Children of the Blood (The Sundered, #2) Lady of Mercy (The Sundered, #3) Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light (The Sundered, #4) The Nightingale Sword of Ice And Other Tales of Valdemar

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