Black Feathers (Black Dawn, #1) by Joseph D'Lacey

Feb 19, 2013 karen rated it really liked it

Shelves: welcome-author, netgalley, oh-no-biiiiiiirds

who knew joseph d'lacey had chops??

see, i have come across his name before. in fact, i own both

and

because they looked like such good/bad horror novels: cannibalism and creepiness, and i figured when i needed a dose of splatter-horror, they would be there waiting for me.

but i may have misjudged.

because this book is actually good-good, not some campy b-movie book that is junk food for the brain. and looking more closely at his other books, seeing them labeled as "eco-horror," this book begins to ...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013, angry-robot

In a time much like ours, the world is falling apart and Gordon Black is on the run for reasons he doesn't completely understand. In the far future, a girl named Megan Maurice finds herself chosen to learn the Crowman's story. Is the Crowman the world's savior or its destroyer? And what is the connection between Gordon and the Crowman?

Wow. If I knew how great this book was going to be when I bought it, I wouldn't have let it linger on my to-read pile for so long.

Black Feathers tells two stories, In a time much like ours, the world is falling apart and Gordon Black is on the run for reasons he doesn't completely understand. In the far future, a girl named Megan Maurice finds herself chosen to learn the Crowman's story. Is the Crowman the world's savior or its destroyer? And what is the connection between Gordon and the Crowman?

Wow. If I knew how great this book was going to be when I bought it, I wouldn't have let it linger on my to-read pile for so long.

Black Feathers tells two stories, one featuring Gordon Black in a world that's quickly going to hell in a hand basket because economic and environmental collapse and another featuring Megan Maurice in a world that's almost medieval in tech level, centuries after the events in Gordon's tale. There's a lot going on so I don't want to give too much away.

Gordon is on the run from The Ward, a bunch of heavies that have risen up and taken over when things started going south. The Ward are slowly gaining power and fear Gordon for reasons he is initially unaware of. Megan has been selected to be a Keeper, someone who learns and tells the Crowman's tale and has special nature-priest abilities.

Gordon and Megan are both compelling characters. Gordon's loss drives him toward a destiny he isn't very sure of and Megan's role as the next Keeper helps fill in some of the gaps in Gordon's tale and hint at things to come.

The two settings are well developed. The Black Dawn, the near future of Gordon's time, is all too believable with food shortages and martial law. Megan's time, the Bright Day, is a simpler time of people living in harmony with nature in the ruins of the past. Megan's time reminds me of the world of Gathering Blue while Gordon's, although nearly the present, definitely has a dystopian feel.

The book has a strong ecological message: If you don't treat the Earth well, she's going to settle your hash. With the two young adult protagonists, this could be classified as a YA book but it lacks the tedious love triangles and teen angst so I can see why it isn't marketed as such.

If I had to gripe about one thing it would be that I have to wait for the concluding volume in the series, The Book of the Crowman, to see how things shape up.

Nothing like a really good book to make you see how crappy a lot of the things you read are. Five stars! ...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Regina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: post-apocalyptic, fantasy, favorites, arc-publisher-netgalley-edelweiss, will-continue-series, words-with-friends-challenge

I loved this book so much and just realized I never posted my review. If you like fantasy and apocalyptic books, then you should read this book. Black Feathers is a beautifully young adult story set in England at the time of an apocalypse. This books looks at what people do to survive but yet there is also an interesting mythology. I am often not impressed with world building in an apocalypse novel -- I am reading it for the story of how people survive. But this book impressed me. Interwoven int ...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Lou rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, horror, supernatural, end-of-days-dystopian

“When the final days came, it was said that Satan walked the Earth in the guise of a crow. Those who feared him called him Scarecrow or sometimes Black Jack. I know him as the Crowman”

This excerpt is from the very first line of the novel.
With regard to this creature with black feathered wings and sharp lethal beak I have had many a harrowing encounter. There was, let me mention first, this movie The Birds by a master of the dark Alfred Hitchcock and then there was appearing of this black fea

“When the final days came, it was said that Satan walked the Earth in the guise of a crow. Those who feared him called him Scarecrow or sometimes Black Jack. I know him as the Crowman”

This excerpt is from the very first line of the novel.
With regard to this creature with black feathered wings and sharp lethal beak I have had many a harrowing encounter. There was, let me mention first, this movie The Birds by a master of the dark Alfred Hitchcock and then there was appearing of this black feather creature many times in The Stand by Stephen King a master-craftsman storyteller of the macabre. To top it all one day of a winter month driving my car, stooped at a red light, I see to my right on a patch of grass two crows attacking a beautiful cute squirrel mercilessly, it had no joy in escaping the onslaught of this creatures of death, these symbols of doom.

Now to bring you to the attention of this story aptly titled Black Feathers I feel a conspiracy brewing here and the markings of the darkness rising the Crowman cometh. This being a story of fiction I agree has no resemblance in the realm of the real world I know but low and behold I cant helpeth, I seeth the signs of the darkest days riseth upon us all.

Now to this wonderful captivating tale set in a world plagued and strife with unrest, social disorder, crime, and debt ridden. There are two gleaming diamonds among the rough from two different families who are to lead and have a part in the destiny of the earth and in its darkest days a key importance in the order of the world. One is a boy, Gordon, not yet reached adulthood that finds that he is on the run due to certain desperate and deadly circumstances, he runs from the Wardsmen, another menacing presence of the macabre.

The other main important character in that of a girl, Megan, she has been taken under the wing of Mr Keeper he is to guide her on a road, the likes of magic and the surreal.

Then finally the star of the show the Crowman when and how will he come the story shall divulge you of this knowledge, It is not often the denizens of a town have the Crowman visit, sometimes people refer to him by the name of Black Jack or the Scarecrow.

There are many images of the macabre painted with words in this tale land stricken terrified by disaster and the end of days ahead but there shall be some light for the people are in need of saving.

The author has done well crafting great characters and having the reader feel the scenes in showing the turn of events in his great writing. I still remember his successful tale of macabre Meat and as Stephen King said about that novel “Joseph D’Lacey rocks!” I am sure he would say the same and give a nod to this novel.

Megan and Gordon’s’ destiny is set in motion and to be fulfilled they are to see the dark days that befall the world ahead, the reader will learn of their part in the workings of this page turning unstoppable train journey of a tale to an unknown destination and end.

This story has epic qualities like that of The Dark Tower series by Stephen King that went on for many volumes, The Black Dawn Saga has plenty more to come in its next installment and I anticipate it to be just the right length and hope it to have volumes with the same quality of writing. The reader I hope will learn that the U.K has amongst themselves a very capable writer to paint with words and embed them amidst a realm away from the reality, of our daily trappings, a passage of time to escape to for a while the darkness sets aside into an equilibrium and balance.

“It was a man. At least, I thought it was to begin with. He was tall and thin with a proud chest. He wore black from head to foot: the black hat, of course, and about his shoulders a coat of black plumes, which dropped to below his knees. The coat was open, though, and I could see his tight black trousers over his slender legs. The bottoms of his trousers splayed out over his boots, making them seem huge. At his cuffs, too, sprouted sleek black feathers and the sun, gone cold somehow, caught them and twinkled there like quartz on velvet. The feathers obscured his hands. His black hair was long and silky, like it was wet. And his face…’

“When the Crowman returns to our land you will know that the dark times are at an end. For he will spread his wings across this nation and draw away the black veil that has covered it for so long. It will be a cleansing. It will be death and rebirth. Pray for his swift arrival that we may be delivered. Pray for the coming of the Crowman that we may be, at last transformed.”

Review also @ http://more2read.com/review/black-feathers-by-joseph-dlacey/ ...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Bob/Sally rated it really liked it

Shelves: post-apocalyptic

For a book in which very little actually happens in terms of plot development, Black Feathers was a fantastic read. It's the story of twin journeys, separated by untold years, and intersecting at the moment of the apocalypse which lies between them. What Joseph D'Lacey has crafted here is a story that's equal parts Stephen King and Robert McCammon, but with an environmental message at its heart, as opposed to a spiritual one. It's dark and it's grim, but it's also magical . . . wondrous, even.

Th For a book in which very little actually happens in terms of plot development, Black Feathers was a fantastic read. It's the story of twin journeys, separated by untold years, and intersecting at the moment of the apocalypse which lies between them. What Joseph D'Lacey has crafted here is a story that's equal parts Stephen King and Robert McCammon, but with an environmental message at its heart, as opposed to a spiritual one. It's dark and it's grim, but it's also magical . . . wondrous, even.

The plot, as I mentioned, is deceptively simple. On the one hand you have a young boy by the name of Gordon Black, feeling from the martial law brutality of The Ward, and searching for a mysterious, messianic figure known only as The Crowman. On the other hand you have a young woman by the name of Megan Maurice, apprenticing herself to the village Keeper, and searching for the young boy from her dreams . . . who may just be The Crowman. Gordon's is a tale of apocalyptic horror, a struggle for survival in a world that is rapidly approaching its end. Megan's is a tale of almost epic fantasy, a coming of age story marked by dreams, prophecies, and magic.

Similarly, the world-building is just as simple, enough to set the stage and ground our expectations, but not to overwhelm the characters at its heart. We see a world dying around Gordon, marked by food shortages, civil wars, and environmental catastrophes - all of which takes place off the page. We see a world reborn around Megan, marked by medieval like struggles for survival, with only the barest glimpses of the world left behind. It's a smart move, with the subtlety of the landscape making the ruined city of the story's final set-piece work so well.

This is primarily a character study, which is fine because both Gordon and Megan are such strong, well-developed characters. They're authentic in terms of their age portrayal, making their accelerated maturity that much more convincing. Neither is convinced they are anything special, and neither feels the need to step up and achieve any sort of heroic deeds. They are young and vulnerable, but with a core of strength that is only revealed through conflict and challenge. Both are likeable characters as well, children you desperately want to protect, even though you know you have to let go . . . to let them find their shared destiny.

As for the men of The Ward, they are appropriately sinister, single-minded, and religiously dedicated to their cause. They do seem as if they may actually be intent upon saving the world, but only so that they can control everything in it and about it. These are men for whom torture begins with pain and disfigurement, merely for the sake of making their subjects uncomfortable, long before any sort of questioning begins. They're also a bit comic, in a morbid, black-humour sort of way, and in the most unexpected moments.

It's a great read, well-told, with a narrative style that flows quickly and easily. I was hooked by the end of the first chapter, and kept finding it harder and harder to put the book down. There's a great sense of mystery to the story, one that is guaranteed to keep readers coming back for the second volume. I suspect it will be a very different story, with the world-building established and coming-of-age element already covered, but I'm anxious to see how it all gets resolved.

Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins ...more

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Jul 04, 2013 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobook, fantasy, magic, paranormal, horror, apocalyptic, dystopia, post-apocalyptic

In this novel we follow two stories, going back and forth between one and another. One features Gordon Black, whose birth into a world much like ours heralds the beginning of the end. Society makes its descension into the "Black Dawn", an era marked by environmental and economic collapse, poverty, starvation, and anarchy. The second story takes place hundreds of years later, focusing on Megan Maurice, a girl living in a future where humanity's level of technology has effectively reverted back to In this novel we follow two stories, going back and forth between one and another. One features Gordon Black, whose birth into a world much like ours heralds the beginning of the end. Society makes its descension into the "Black Dawn", an era marked by environmental and economic collapse, poverty, starvation, and anarchy. The second story takes place hundreds of years later, focusing on Megan Maurice, a girl living in a future where humanity's level of technology has effectively reverted back to the dark ages.

Both characters are linked by a connection to the mysterious figure known as The Crowman. Gordon and Megan each undertake their own journey in their own time, struggling to discover more and understand their roles in determining the world's fate.

This book started out very strong, and I liked the development of these characters, even though I preferred Gordon story line. We are there from his birth, getting a better glimpse of his life growing up with his family. This made me feel a keener sense of sadness while following his tale as he experiences his losses, fears, and despair at what he perceives to be his personal failures.

Megan's story was interesting as well, but I just didn't feel as connected to her world or her character. While her future setting is admittedly a very unique and imaginative one, I couldn't help but feel the details lacked a certain cohesiveness, making it a challenge to wrap my head around concepts like the nature of her magic or Keeper's duties. Maybe a greater emphasis on Gordon was intended for this novel, but in my opinion the author did a much better job with his character over all, developing him and building his world.

Anyway, I wish the book could have continued its momentum for me all the way through, but around three-quarters of the way in, my attention started waning. The climax, if I was indeed correct in identifying it as such, left me cold and wasn't as engrossing as I'd anticipated, and I ended up mostly zoning out through the rest. I admit this might have cast a shadow upon my final thoughts, which is unfortunate, because this wasn't a bad book and I really enjoyed the beginning. Somehow, it'd just lost its steam for me towards the end, but I will say I'm still very much looking forward to the next book to see how things turn out. ...more

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Jan 18, 2013 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, netgalley

My full review is here:
http://wildersbookreview.blogspot.com...
...more

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Mar 06, 2013 Christal (Badass Book Reviews) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013-favorites, favorites, dystopian-post-apocalyptic, magic, multiple-leads, alt-history, fantasy-aka-swords, shady-government-agency, time-travel, arcs

See this review and others like it at BadassBookReviews.com!

4.5 stars - Joint Review with Regina

The main characters, Gordon and Megan - Gordon and Megan each have their own journey to adulthood and responsibility to accomplish in this book. Even though they live in different time periods, their lives and destinies overlap and their survival really depends upon the other.

Christal: Megan and Gordon were wonderful characters. Though I was drawn a little more to Megan throughout the book, I think th ...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Mieneke rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013, fantasy

I hadn't really paid attention to Joseph D'Lacey's Black Feathers until Angry Robot revealed its cover and it intrigued me enough to check out the synopsis again. At which point it really grabbed my attention and I was pleased to get my hands on an ARC. Black Feathers is both an apocalyptic tale and a post-apocalyptic narrative, due to the two temporal strands that are woven together. I found myself equally caught up in both of them and I couldn't tell you which my favourite story arc was.

The ap I hadn't really paid attention to Joseph D'Lacey's Black Feathers until Angry Robot revealed its cover and it intrigued me enough to check out the synopsis again. At which point it really grabbed my attention and I was pleased to get my hands on an ARC. Black Feathers is both an apocalyptic tale and a post-apocalyptic narrative, due to the two temporal strands that are woven together. I found myself equally caught up in both of them and I couldn't tell you which my favourite story arc was.

The apocalyptic strand of the story tells us of the life of Gordon Black. He is born in troubled times, as the earth is breaking down and global society is slowly being taken over by a totalitarian party called the Ward, that has shades of the Nazi party and takes corporate greed and consumerism as its lead ideologies. From the start there is something special about Gordon, who is seemingly always watched over by crows, rooks and other corvids. A sensitive child given to night terrors, he grows into manhood in a world that is slowly turning evermore nightmarish. What makes it even more disturbing is that Gordon is born in the year 2000 and some of the tale plays out in our current day. And while a lot of the elements enabling the complete break-down of society aren't as far along in truth as they are in the book, many of the things D'Lacey uses as indicators of the coming end are reflected in our world. The fact that as I write this we've just had the coldest Easter since 1964, doesn't really help to optimistically dismiss D'Lacey's vision as complete fiction. When Gordon reaches the age of thirteen, everything falls completely apart and the earth seemingly rebels and in a series of catastrophic natural disasters, mixing deluging rains, earthquakes, mudslides and everything else she can throw at humanity, wipes out a large portion of the earth's inhabitants, ending society as we known it. We follow Gordon from birth to this point of collapse in relatively quick jumps through a series of visions and dreams of the protagonist of the post-apocalyptic strand. But from the moment that Gordon's world collapses, which is a little before the actual apocalypse, we follow him without great leaps of time between his sequences. Gordon develops from a young and sheltered boy to a young man who has to confront the harsh reality of the world around him. D'Lacey manages to take away Gordon's innocence without taking away his gentleness. At times he was perhaps a little too Zen in his reactions, but in the context of his story this makes sense and as such isn't a problem. We leave him as he comes into his own and sets off on his quest renewed and even hopeful. D'Lacey takes both Gordon and the reader to the depths of despair and existential angst, but leaves them on the road to a new beginning, even if we're not quite sure what that beginning will look like.

The post-apocalyptic strand shows us what Gordon's world has come to generations later. In this future, where humanity has returned to the land and worships Mother Earth and the Great Spirit, we follow Megan, a young girl on the cusp of womanhood, who encounters the legendary Crowman in the forest. This encounter signals an ability that is rare – to communicate with the Crowman – and as a result she is apprenticed to Mr Keeper, her village's lore keeper We follow her visions and through them witness Gordon's tale and see how the cult develops. During her apprenticeship and the quests involved, Megan discovers her strength and her purpose. Her world is low-tech and society has returned to older ways, become more isolated. The description of the surrounding countryside, especially the abandoned city, is chilling and one wonders how many of these abandoned places are dotted around the planet. It did make me wonder about the complete change in society in such a seemingly short time, as there are still rusting cars in the city, which given that the story is set in Great Britain, seems to rule out that more than twenty-five to fifty years have gone by. Then again the cataclysmic forces that Mother Earth unleashed upon the world may have caused British weather to change as well, which might account for the cars not being completely rusted away.

Of course Gordon and Megan don't exist in a vacuum; they are surrounded by supporting characters. Gordon encounters more different people that play a larger role in the narrative, Megan's story and life is far more isolated than Gordon's is, mostly due to the decrease in population and the fact that society has gone back to a simpler way of living and motorised transport has disappeared. In both strands there are other points of view we follow. But the ones that stand out were Knowles' short sequences and the chapters from the point of view of the two Ward agents, who are singularly unpleasant chaps. Why these three resonated so much with me is largely due to the Ward's eerie reflection of such organisations as the Stasi and particularly the SS. For someone raised on WWII narratives the spectre of the return of such a party on a world-wide scale is frightening and the fact that nobody in Gordon's timeline was aware enough or powerful enough to stop it was disquieting. D'Lacey succeeds in extrapolating current political trends – more and more nationalistic parties, the growing influence of large corporations – and blends them into a horrifying reality that actually makes you cheer Mother Earth for getting rid of them.

D'Lacey's writing is really good, with his prose at times shifting to the poetic. The intertwined strands of the two timelines told in the differing perspectives of past (Gordon) and present (Megan) make for an easily followed narrative. There are elements of horror to Black Feathers, both in the way the apocalypse is portrayed and the way humanity treats each other. D'Lacey seemingly has a clear message about how we treat our planet and each other and the long term consequences of this treatment. But while it's never absent, this ecological warning never comes across as preachy.

In Black Feathers D'Lacey has created a compelling narrative and an amazing adventure. I was swept away both Gordon's and Megan's story and I found myself pondering them and their world between the times I could sit down to continue their story. I really enjoyed the book and I'm looking forward to returning to their stories and discovering how they link up in the concluding volume of this duology.

This book was provided for review by the publisher. ...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Wendy rated it really liked it

Shelves: series, fantasy, society-culture, supernatural, post-apocalyptic, dark-fantasy

The birth of Gordon Black signifies the end of the world. Year after year following his birth, the world slides into more and more poverty and destruction. People call it the Black Dawn and the Crowman becomes its symbol. Whether the Crowman is a harbinger of the final end or the saviour of the world, no one is certain, but when the Ward goes after a teenaged Gordon, they are certain that the Crowman must be stopped by any means and that Gordon, tasked by his family to find the Crowman, must be The birth of Gordon Black signifies the end of the world. Year after year following his birth, the world slides into more and more poverty and destruction. People call it the Black Dawn and the Crowman becomes its symbol. Whether the Crowman is a harbinger of the final end or the saviour of the world, no one is certain, but when the Ward goes after a teenaged Gordon, they are certain that the Crowman must be stopped by any means and that Gordon, tasked by his family to find the Crowman, must be captured. Meanwhile, in the post-apocalyptic future where life has reverted back to a time before technology with remnants of the old world buried, a young girl named Megan is summoned to take her place as the first ever female Keeper. Her task? To write the Crowman’s story.

This book is a cautionary tale (that occasionally gets a bit too preachy in its warnings against our reliance on technology and modern comforts and convenience, etc) and is told in a very unique way with very interesting characters. Gordon’s journey is intriguing, and I liked the way Megan’s role is worked in, with her seeing the events of the past in order to record the dark and painful tale of the Crowman.

The Crowman himself is a fascinating character. Is he a creature of good? Is he evil? Throughout the book, we get glimpses of his development and his influences on the world, but we’re never quite sure of his purpose and how he will decide the world’s fate. Is the world’s fate a decision for him to make? Or is the Crowman simply just doing his part in an incomprehensible cycle?

I was not overly fond of the Ward. The Ward represents the ruling party who wish to maintain control throughout the chaos and the Crowman is a threat to their hold on everything. They are Big Bad Corporations, The Man, Big Brother and every other example of oppressive regimes that we’ve seen in the past. Personally, I would have enjoyed their part more if they weren’t represented in such a heavy handed manner. In a time of chaos, it is understandable that there are those who try to control and take advantage. But those trying to maintain order and fairness, such as not allowing people to hoard food while others starve, is not necessarily evil. I would have liked it if the purpose of the Ward was as ambiguous as that of the Crowman.

Overall, I enjoyed Black Feathers. It was very good, but there’s a “but” floating around in my head somewhere that I’ve yet to put my finger on... Whatever that may be, for better or for worse, the book has stayed on my mind since finishing it, and I definitely approve of a book that keeps me thinking long after I’ve finished reading the last page.

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Jan 24, 2013 Julie-anne rated it it was amazing

Gordon is born in October 2000, strange things happen and his parents seem to treat him different from his two sisters. As he hits teenage years, the world is crumbling - people are starving, the weather is destroying the earth, people have lost respect for the earth and take all she gives for granted. Many years in the future (you never find out how many), a girl sees the Crowman which means she has been marked as a Keeper - the Keepers tell the story of Gordon Black, a child linked to the Crow ...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Tiara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: horror, arcs-and-galleys

This is an advance reader copy that I snagged from Netgalley. I think the book will be released sometime in March/April 2013. From this point on, there will be spoilers.

Gordon Black's birth signals the beginning of the end for the world. As each year passes, the world falls further into economic and environmental upheaval. Tired of the abuses committed against her Mother Earth rebels and begins to purge her lands of the people who harm her, leaving only those who give back as much as they take. This is an advance reader copy that I snagged from Netgalley. I think the book will be released sometime in March/April 2013. From this point on, there will be spoilers.

Gordon Black's birth signals the beginning of the end for the world. As each year passes, the world falls further into economic and environmental upheaval. Tired of the abuses committed against her Mother Earth rebels and begins to purge her lands of the people who harm her, leaving only those who give back as much as they take. In 2014, a few months before his 14th birthday, Gordon begins a journey to find the Crowman who he hopes can set everything right.

Megan Maurice is a young girl who lives quite some time after the collapse of everything. People are living in simpler times, reminiscent of life before technology and materialism had a firm grip on humanity. Megan is on the cusp of womanhood when she's called to become a keeper, someone who keeps the story of the Crowman alive. She is the first and only female keeper, and her teacher, a man known only as Mr. Keeper, says that she will either bring them total salvation or total destruction. He can't be completely sure of her part yet, though he knows everything will change for better or worse because of her.

No adventure is without its foes, and the foes in this story are called The Ward. They’re a group of people who believe that the earth is only there to be exploited by man, despite all the environmental warnings taking place. Their goal is to unite all the nations under one rule. In the chaos and calamity, they introduce strict laws (such as making migrant workers return to their own countries) which are lauded by the people whose fear makes them blind to what The Ward is truly trying to achieve. However, The Ward knows about Gordon, and their main goal is to stop him from meeting the Crowman, an event that will prevent them from reaching their full power.

This book entwined two stories from different points in time, the past and the future, but neither story could be told without the other.

This story was almost like reading a legend, a story passed down from generation to generation by a griot charged to help save humanity. It's a story that gives its readers a cautionary tale replete with warnings of mythical proportions, an apologue to keep close to our hearts. It pulls you in like a familiar. You can easily forget that this isn't some oral tradition that's been written down but the fictional work of a talented writer as you learn about a certain part of the past from Gordon and Megan.

Despite this, I still wanted to know where all the knowledge has gone after the collapse. Megan is aware that the earth is round. However, she'd never seen a car or electrical lights before visiting the time of Gordon's birth. Perhaps, not having the knowledge of technology might slow humanity reliving the days of the Black Dawn, which is blamed on technology and greed, but what about ancient history? I guess knowing our history could lead to people making the same discoveries and following the same doomed path as before.

And maybe they do know a bit about these things, but that's not what is important for this story. Telling the Crowman's story is what's important. And his part in this thing is the only knowledge the readers and the book's characters need. The knowledge to understand how this happened, and the knowledge of how they can prevent this from happening again. I don't know. I guess it just feels as if it's a great disservice that they'll never know who made certain discoveries--such as who discovered the earth was round.

However, you can't miss what you've never had. And I do appreciate when an author's writing makes me think about minutiae such as that. It means I'm involved. It means I care about the story and the people in it. It's not a question that needs to be answered by any means. This is just the history lover in me mourning this loss for them when they're none the wiser.

This book seems to try to capture some of that magic that makes Stephen King's novels compelling. For some reason, while reading this, my mind would drift to the Dark Tower series. That is not meant to be an insult to this book or the author. King manages to take ordinary things and people and weave extraordinary stories from them, making even the most mundane things important. He always manages to write his characters in a way that makes them seem like people you encounter everyday while exploring the good and bad in them, and these are things that I felt D'Lacey was grasping for in his own writing.

However, instead of using gore-ridden visuals to capture the reader’s attention, more of the violence is implied, leaving the reader to use their imagination. Yes, there are some very graphic descriptions in this book, but most of them are not. In fact, this whole novel relies more on dark allusion and prophetic imagery than anything else. Left with your own imagination to fill in the blank, the story can take on new meanings, meanings that may be slightly different from reader to reader.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed this book. It wasn’t without its faults, but most of it was more in the grammatical/editing vein, which is not unusual of ARCs anyway. The ending made my heart drop and almost frantic for more. I’m ready for book two, and book one hasn’t even been released yet. This is a story I will be thinking about for a very long time. ...more

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Jan 10, 2016 Kara Babcock rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-read, ebook, young-adult, fantasy, urban-fantasy, post-apocalyptic

This is an odd book. I'm pretty sure it’s good, but I’m not sure I liked it. It took me far longer to read Black Feathers than I usually take to read any book. Part of that was because I spent more time focused on other things over the past few weeks. Most of it, I think was avoidance. Joseph D’Lacey’s writing is good; don’t get me wrong. But I was never in a hurry to return to this world.

Black Feathers is an amalgam of older-style dystopian YA of The Giver’s generation and new-style dystopian Y ...more

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Aug 01, 2013 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: apocalyptastic

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Potential! Actualized! This is a pretty swell book. It tells two stories concurrently; that of Gordon, born into current-ish day England where everything is going to hell, and that of Megan, a young girl living in the peaceful future.

Gordon Black’s world is short on fuel, food, and hope. A controlling government entity called the Ward smothers dissent, rounding up people who disagree with their ominous worldview & shuffling them off to foreboding substations from which no one returns. The Blacks Potential! Actualized! This is a pretty swell book. It tells two stories concurrently; that of Gordon, born into current-ish day England where everything is going to hell, and that of Megan, a young girl living in the peaceful future.

Gordon Black’s world is short on fuel, food, and hope. A controlling government entity called the Ward smothers dissent, rounding up people who disagree with their ominous worldview & shuffling them off to foreboding substations from which no one returns. The Blacks are just trying to live off their own land, hoping to ride out calamity with their family unit intact. A mythical Crowman is forecast to show up & either help everyone out or destroy them all, and since crows have been hanging out with, dropping feathers on, and otherwise just being a presence in Gordon’s life since his birth, he’s probably related to all that (if you ask me, he is the Crowman, but we’ll see).

Gordon’s family, particularly his father, was the best part of his whole bit. Really, is there any lady name that’s cooler than Jude Black? I certainly hope she shows up again someday. There’s some wonderful tense stuff when the Ward starts focusing their evil efforts on the Blacks. I confess that I lost a bit of momentum once they were gone because I prefer to read about catastrophes as they're happening more than I do their aftermath (apparently, the whole collapse of society thing isn't as big of a deal for me as meanies messing with Louis & Sophie is) & also because frankly, Gordon is kind of annoying, but it all worked out in the end.

Megan’s bits are the best. In her world, the trappings of modern life have been left in the ruins & the land takes care of her simple people as long as they keep it happy. She may be the next “Keeper,” a healer/shaman/mystic who is chosen by the Crowman to retell his story & help the people keep their connection to the land. I quite like the concept of Earth basically shaking her finger at mankind – shape up or ship out, y’all. Earth Amu can get along without you if you don’t get it together. It’s also a nice touch that Megan’s being chosen by the Crowman to retell his tale is really a tidy roundabout way for D’Lacey to tell us his story. I found the tense changes between Gordon & Megan’s parts jarring & Gordon isn’t the greatest character I’ve ever read, but I’m still all about the second book when it’s published.
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Feb 05, 2013 Alisha-Dear Constant Reader rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc, netgalley, dystopian, sort-of-amazing, horror, fantasy

"When the final days come, it was said that Satan walked the Earth in the guise of a crow. Those who feared him called him Scarecrow or sometimes Black Jack. I know him as the Crowman."

Black Feathers is a modern fable in which Gordon Black's birth, signals an end to our modern way of life.

photo Crow_Man_by_chichu_chan_zps0377a09b.jpg

The Crow Man by ~chichu-chan

Black Feathers begins at the end. In an attempt to save herself, the earth is in upheaval, ridding herself of a great swathe of humanity, "like a dog shaking off fleas." There ar ...more

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Feb 24, 2013 Nick Cato rated it really liked it

This first installment of D'Lacey's Duology is part eco-terror, part dark fantasy, and parts pre and post apocalyptic horror.

The tale takes place in two times; one is the Black Dawn (close to our current time), where we follow the travels of fourteen year-old Gordon as the planet is in ecological collapse and his family have been taken by a growing, sinister new government. The second is in the future (known as the Bright Day), which deals with a young girl named Megan dealing with the aftermath ...more

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Oct 20, 2017 Miriam Smith (A Mother’s Musings) added it

Shelves: kept-book, signed, giveaways

Won in the Goodreads Giveaways

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Mar 25, 2020 Joe Piccoli rated it really liked it

Shelves: ha-challenge-2020

4 Stars. Audio. Holy shit did he write this book two weeks ago? This book is a good example of what could happen to our world when the Earth has had enough of our bullshit, continually poisoning her and giving nothing back. She will shed the cancer of humanity from her skin and keep on spinning.

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Apr 04, 2013 Kate Sherrod rated it really liked it

Shelves: angry-robot

If you've ever wondered what the result would be like if Neil Gaiman wrote a post-apocalyptic fable that attempted to rehabilitate the character of Damien Thorn, look no further than Black Feathers.

Gordon Black, one of the two protagonists of Black Feathers, is not precisely Damien, but the circumstances of and mysteries surrounding his birth are just as ominous and prophecy-burdened as that famous son-of-the-devil, and one would spend a lot of the story wondering if he couldn't really be just a If you've ever wondered what the result would be like if Neil Gaiman wrote a post-apocalyptic fable that attempted to rehabilitate the character of Damien Thorn, look no further than Black Feathers.

Gordon Black, one of the two protagonists of Black Feathers, is not precisely Damien, but the circumstances of and mysteries surrounding his birth are just as ominous and prophecy-burdened as that famous son-of-the-devil, and one would spend a lot of the story wondering if he couldn't really be just as evil* -- were it not for the other narrative, concerning the other protagonist, one Megan Maurice, a child living generations later than Damien, who grew up in the pastoral/agricultural paradise of the "Bright Day" following the "Black Dawn" that ended Damien's (and our) mechanized, industrialized, computerized world. From Megan's perspective, Gordon is a more of a messiah than an antichrist, a psychopomp set to guide her to revelations about an archetypal figure known as the Crowman, in whose power lies the salvation of the Bright Day world.

The novel alternates between Gordon's story of escape and pursuit as his world comes to an end, and Megan's pursuit of Gordon's story through a series of shamanistic escapades, because keeping Gordon's story alive in the minds of her people is vital to the continued well-being of Megan's community and the land it stewards, land only recently recovered from the Sheep Look Up devastations of pollution, overfarming, etc. visited on it by Gordon's people (i.e. us). The mystery of why this is so is kept artfully from us, so we wind up very much empathizing with both children, neither of whom has a clear idea of what is expected of them, both of whom are motivated by a sincere earnestness, a desire to do right by the people who love them. As clueless as they, we trip along with them, carried by some very graceful prose and imagery, and the wonderful ambiguity of the Crowman they both seek. Is the Crowman, cast by tradition as an evil, Satanic figure in black, good or evil? Or is he simply the amoral avatar of the earth itself, memorably depicted early on as "shaking off" humanity like a bad case of fleas as Gordon's world comes to its miserable end? There is an edge of brutality to him/it, as well there should be -- nature red in tooth and claw and all that. He is as compelling a figure as the archetypal Green Man which inspired him, and I want more of him, and of his prophet/harbinger/servant/avatar Gordon.

Alas, while Gordon is a vivid and sympathetic character, whose plight (trying to keep one step ahead of the totalitarian Ward -- government, police and military rolled into one New World Order nightmare -- who have "collected" his family and are using them as bait to lure him into their clutches) and coming of age are gripping and deeply felt, Megan is much, much less so. Megan is basically a Lemmiwinks, pushed through her plot line by the urging and instruction of others, proceeding from peril to peril in pursuit of her destiny as someone who has to tell someone else's story. I couldn't even hate her, like I so often hate weak/helpless females in fantasy stories, because there is nothing of her to hate. Her adventures are wonderfully (and sometimes shockingly) described, but then, so were those of a certain gerbil. One hopes she'll develop more in the sequel.

For sequel there shall be. By novel's end, it becomes obvious that these nearly 400 pages have all basically been prologue. And preaching. Lots of preaching in this novel. But it's all in the service of good solid stuff that apparently can't be repeated enough -- give back as much as you take, respect the land and its gifts that make your life possible, treat people as you would be treated -- and the preaching is never really overdone at any one point, and, as I hope I've conveyed by now, really beautifully, even lyrically done. Black Feathers has the feel of myth; it feels old and familiar and well-known even as it also feels fresh and inventive and original. Neat trick, that.

*Megan's story is hardly our only hint that Gordon's specialness is a good thing, of course. The fact that he is being hunted down by the totalitarian Ward people tells us so, as well, but I've chased enough literary red herrings in my day that I no longer feel comfortable accepting obvious villains at face value anymore, generally speaking. Of course, the fact that the two Ward Sheriff's who first come after Gordon are dead spits for Croup and Vandemar lend weight to the idea that the reader is supposed to perceive them as totes evil, which really just tells me that I way overthought my reading, here. ...more

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Nov 28, 2012 usagi ☆ミ rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013, for-review, reviewed, arc-galley, magical-reality, urban-fantasy, ebook, mystery, net-galley, what-is-this-i-dont-even

This is a REALLY interesting one, guys, and definitely another feather in Angry Robot's hat when it comes to original content. After finishing "Black Feathers", this first book in the new "Black Dawn" series, I'm definitely hungry for book two, and I want it now. No, seriously, now. If you're looking for something fresh when it comes to fantasy (in this case, dystopia marrying the apocalypse and urban fantasy), this is definitely a book you simply must try out.

The only major issue I had with thi This is a REALLY interesting one, guys, and definitely another feather in Angry Robot's hat when it comes to original content. After finishing "Black Feathers", this first book in the new "Black Dawn" series, I'm definitely hungry for book two, and I want it now. No, seriously, now. If you're looking for something fresh when it comes to fantasy (in this case, dystopia marrying the apocalypse and urban fantasy), this is definitely a book you simply must try out.

The only major issue I had with this book was pacing. I absolutely loved the idea of the near-future and the far future alternating in telling the Crowman/Black Jack's story, but for most of this book, the pacing is more than a bit uneven between them - and it isn't until D'Lacey starts putting both POVs in one chapter (around halfway through, I think?) that I feel like D'Lacey really starts hitting his stride in terms of the rhythms of the storytelling within this story.

However, the sheer creativity (and some of the scenes that made me raise an eyebrow - two words: mud ejaculation) of this book really wins out over its main weakness. Yes, we've seen oncoming dystopian societies and apocalypses, and we've seen the societies that come after them, but we've never seen them narrated as they're both happening at the same time/in real time. It's a really ambitious way of looking at a narrative, regardless of whose POV it is, and it's difficult to execute. The fact that D'Lacey was able to do it in a coherent way at all has me tipping my hat in his direction, because by the end, he definitely had things well in hand.

I do feel like Gordon's character got a little more thorough character building in compared to Megan's, but we do have another book coming, and that's something for D'Lacey to work on. Generally, the characters of the Black Dawn are more developed than those of the Bright Day - but I think that's partially because the Black Dawn era is pretty much more or less our current time period right now, so there's more to work with. The Bright Day feels like a big teaser of what's to come after the Black Dawn, and I feel like that's how D'Lacey's playing it here in book one as a way for those of the Bright Day/the Black Feathered Path to look back toward the past, to untangle how the Black Dawn happened just like we as the audience are. Really, it's a brilliant way to do things, but this also means you have roughly half the book and its characters more than a bit underdeveloped. I think out of all of the Bright Day characters, Mister Keeper is the most developed, and while we watch Megan really start to hit her own stride as the next Keeper, I don't quite feel it's equal to that of Gordon, who's also doing the same thing in the Black Dawn era. Hopefully, since things more or less evened out at the end of this volume, things will be better balanced in the next.

The worldbuilding is interesting because it's double-worldbuilding. Actually, it might even be triple/quadruple worldbuilding (if we include Gordon and Megan's internal worldbuilding in that count), and it's done really well on both ends. Again, we only get kind of a tantalizing glimpse of the Bright Day era, but we get a pretty clear picture of how Megan is developing as Keeper's apprentice internally. The Black Dawn and Gordon, however, are both very clear (almost startlingly so) and I had no issues really relating to both of those worlds. It's the Bright Day era as a plot device and as a world, that needed the most development, though for now, it's good enough to serve as a stark comparison to how the world is falling apart in the Black Dawn era.

Finally, we have social commentary. Yes, I do feel like D'Lacey did get a bit preachy when it came to the environmental apocalypse thing, but it wasn't so much that it lessened my enjoyment of the book. It was simply there, and as it's a big plot element, I can see why he was able to slip in a little thought or two about why the environment (and getting along with it) is important. Not optimal in terms of preachiness, but not over the top, either.

Final verdict? This is definitely one of the most creative urban fantasy books I've read within the last five years, even with its flaws, and I really can't wait for book two, whenever it does decide to come out. "Black Feathers" is out now in both North America and the UK from Angry Robot, so definitely be sure to check it out when you get the chance!

(posted to goodreads, shelfari, and birthofanewwitch.wordpress.com) ...more

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Dec 18, 2012 Abhinav rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013-read

You can find the full review over at my blog:

https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...

Shadowhawk reviews the first in a new post-apocalyptic fantasy series from Angry Robot Books.

“Spectacular is the word I’d use to describe the novel. Nothing else can capture the reading experience.” ~The Founding Fields

Post-apocalyptic fiction isn’t really my thing, and for a simple reason: it’s just never really interested me all that much. However, reading D’Lacey’s latest has turned around me thinking for a b You can find the full review over at my blog:

https://shadowhawksshade.wordpress.co...

Shadowhawk reviews the first in a new post-apocalyptic fantasy series from Angry Robot Books.

“Spectacular is the word I’d use to describe the novel. Nothing else can capture the reading experience.” ~The Founding Fields

Post-apocalyptic fiction isn’t really my thing, and for a simple reason: it’s just never really interested me all that much. However, reading D’Lacey’s latest has turned around me thinking for a bit. Black Feathers is a novel that is set in two very different times. The first is the post-apocalyptic world where we follow Megan Maurice in fulfilling her destiny as a keeper of knowledge from the lost times.. The second is the pre-apocalyptic world as we see the birth of Gordon Black and through him see how the world, specifically England, falls into anarchy and tyranny (with lots of shades of V for Vendetta mixed in). The approach used by D’Lacey eases the reader into his world, and his narrative, although the novel hits the ground running from the get go.

As with all Angry Robot books I’ve enjoyed since I started reading their publications last year, the stand-out element of D’Lacey’s novel is his characterisation. He has captured the feelings, the attitudes and behaviours of his two protagonists really well and he has given them an almost equal page-time. That is doubly great since neither character feels neglected at the expense of the other.

Whether we see Gordon Black as a young kid, or as a teenager, his character always rings true. When Gordon’s world is irrevocably shattered by the actions of the new British police force, the Ward, that’s when he really comes into his own. His story arc is one where he has to learn to grow up while still young, still inexperienced in how the world functions. It would have been a challenging enough circumstance had the world been as we know it. But it’s not. The old government, the old social mores, the old relationships, they are all gone, and all that remains is the basic family unit, struggling to survive in an increasingly hostile world. Gordon’s oddness, both in terms of his personality and the events surrounding his life, are what drive his story arc. There are lots of hints throughout the novel that he is someone special, someone unique, and that ultimately he is going to leave his mark on the world. What made this aspect of his arc compelling was that D’Lacey teases out all this information, often providing snapshots of Gordon’s life through his diary entries. It all added immensely to the dark fantasy atmosphere he was creating from the get go, and contributed to a wonderful reading experience.

With Megan, it was like reading a low fantasy novel with young adult characters, very much like the early parts of Peter V. Brett’s The Painted Man, a novel I’ve recently read and which bears similarities to D’Lacey’s own novel. Megan’s arc is all about hidden mysteries and discovering a lost past, which fits the tone of the novel rather well, and complements Gordon’s own arc. The two stories are parallels of each other and it’s fun to see how the two intertwine and come to a conclusion later on, right towards the end. The magic in this section of the novel is very low-key and subtle, almost innate and elemental in nature, which made for a nice change of pace from the magical realism aspect of Gordon’s own story arc. The dichotomy between the two serves to enhance and enrich both stories, further adding to the immersive experience of the novel.

Of course, the two stories are also connected by the Crowman, a distant and mysterious individual about whom people are conflicted: is he good or is he bad? Is he a saviour or is he Satan himself? Throughout the book, D’Lacey toys with these conflicting questions and rather than laying it on thick, he plays up the mystery of the character. It was a little frustrating at first since I wanted to know everything about him, but by the end, I liked the approach used by D’Lacey. The Crowman is the connecting horror element for both Gordon and Megan’s arcs, and whenever he gets involved in a scene, the tension really ramps up. The horror aspect of the character comes into its own in the sense that there is never any certainty about what he is, who he is, or what he wants. I really enjoyed that he was made out to be a possible lurking menace in the human psyche, someone who could perhaps be classified as Lawful Evil in a way! ...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Victoria Eaves rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: every adult

First up, I have to say that I was not in a right state of mind to read the story. We are moving in 8 weeks (to a different country), so I am very anxious and it is hard for me to really concentrate on anything. I did had some difficulties following the prose, and had to reread some parts (English is not my first language). But never less it grabbed me and it was beautiful written. It wasn't so much about the action but really more about the development about two young people faced with an extra First up, I have to say that I was not in a right state of mind to read the story. We are moving in 8 weeks (to a different country), so I am very anxious and it is hard for me to really concentrate on anything. I did had some difficulties following the prose, and had to reread some parts (English is not my first language). But never less it grabbed me and it was beautiful written. It wasn't so much about the action but really more about the development about two young people faced with an extraordinary faith.

The story is told in two POV and different areas. It did get confusing at the beginning of the chapter to know which POV I was following, but after I got into the flow of the book I had no problem picking it up.

The story is told by Gordon and Meghan.

Gordon's birth sets of the Eco-pocalypse! He is as the one who will safe or destroy us all. He has to find the Crowman to ensure the survival of humankind. The Crowman is also referred to as Black Jack. I believe if he is referred to as the Crowman he represents the good in us, where Black Jack stands for the evil. But honestly the whole Crowman thing left me with a lot of questions. So I wont really go into that.

Meghan is born generations after Gordon. It is her fate to recapture his story and retell it to the world so history wont repeat itself.

Both undertake a breathtaking journey to fulfill their destiny. Where Gordon is faced with the Ward, who is determined to kill him, and the discoveries of his powers, Meghan's struggle is more based on her insecurities and fears. The way they develop through out the book is wonderful, and I found myself connecting with both of them, to the point I was filling physical ill for them.

That is another thing, the world setup was so realistic, and no far stretch from how our society would react if faced with environmental disasters on an epic scale. You know, when I read the Hunger Games, the idea that society would send children to fight to the death and think this would be entertainment, was something I just can not see happening. But everything in Black Feathers is so realistic that it did give me a sense of how it would be.

The Ending leaves you with enough unanswered questions to ensure you will read Book 2 "The Book of the Crowman" which has no release date as of yet!!!

Highly recommend this book!

sparkofallure.com ...more

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Jan 23, 2014 Josh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, kindle, review_books, fantasy, post-apocalyptic, read_2014

Urban fantasy and legend meet the post apocalyptic in BLACK FEATHERS created from the wickedly dark imagination of author Joseph D’Lacey. This new world takes all that it’s been given; decimating the populace and crumbling the society that has so scarred its land for as long as time can remember. Now, rivers overflow, volcanoes spill hot lava, the very crust of Earth splits and soil is borne anew. BLACK FEATHERS leads to a cleansing of the planet where savours are few and survivalists are the go ...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Deniz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, love

better late than never i guess....

4.5 Stars

Beautiful dark fantasy!

The story is told from two POV and set in two different times. While at times it was rather slow, I enjoyed the way the entire novel was paced, it has a slow steady flow to it. I loved how the two MC, living in different times, experiencing completely different things, still were connected by the same thread and how things slowly unfolded.

The two MCs, Megan and Gordon, are both adolescents who are embarking on a journey of change ...more

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Jun 03, 2013 Liz Barnsley rated it it was amazing

So we come to Black Feathers by the wonderfully funny (on Twitter!) Joseph D'Lacey a book I've been dying to get around to and finally did! Stephen King, my favourite author, reckons Joseph D'Lacey rocks. Having completed this novel I have to say I'm in utter agreement. He sure does.

This is a fable of sorts. A dark fairy tale. Telling two stories, interlinked but in different times, it follows two young people on their journey towards a prophetic future. Megan has an encounter that will change h ...more

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Jul 14, 2013 Charlie rated it really liked it

I honestly bought this book as a joke. Reading the back, it sounded like some over the top trying-to-be-edgy horror novel, and the author's photo in the back didn't convince me otherwise.

So imagine my surprise when this book turned out to be something completely different. Parallel coming of age stories, adventure, fantasy...

What really struck me was how real the two main characters felt. As someone who used to be an avid reader of YA fiction, I feel that this is the first time I've read a teen ...more

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Feb 07, 2013 Joe Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, horror

Gordon Black and Megan Maurice are from two different times and each has their own story to tell. What connects them is the Crowman, who also goes by the names Blackjack and Scarecrow. Gordon lives in the beginnings of post-apocalyptic England. Climate change, dwindling resources and Man’s general abuse of the environment have caused the fabric of society to start to collapse. Megan lives generations later when people live a simpler existence. What they have in common is that they’re both too yo ...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Victoria Hooper rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, horror, magic, dystopia-post-apoc

Black Feathers is the first in a dark fantasy trilogy from horror writer Joseph D’Lacey. It has a very interesting setting, being split between two time periods, neither of which is very common in fantasy, and the combination of the two seemed quite unusual to me. There’s a modern-day pre-apocalyptic Britain. Whereas post-apocalypse is a well-trodden sub-genre, the actual build up and early days of the end times is much less common, perhaps featuring more in the thriller genre than fantasy. This ...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Tammy rated it really liked it

In a word: a dangerous and violent quest, a world on the brink of collapse, and a boy and girl who might be able to save it.

I have to admit I almost stopped reading this book a quarter of the way through, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Black Feathers isn’t the easiest book to read, but like many other books that I’ve initially struggled with in the beginning, by the end I was so wrapped up in the characters’ stories that I’m now salivating to read Volume Two. The publisher calls this “fantasy, In a word: a dangerous and violent quest, a world on the brink of collapse, and a boy and girl who might be able to save it.

I have to admit I almost stopped reading this book a quarter of the way through, but I’m so glad I stuck with it. Black Feathers isn’t the easiest book to read, but like many other books that I’ve initially struggled with in the beginning, by the end I was so wrapped up in the characters’ stories that I’m now salivating to read Volume Two. The publisher calls this “fantasy,” which it most definitely is, but I have to call it “horror” as well. I’ve been reading horror for years and it’s getting hard to scare me these days, but there were scenes in Black Feathers that truly made me shudder. D’Lacey is one of those authors who can slowly draw out a story until the reader is practically screaming from the tension. Fair warning: most of the mysteries are not solved by the end of this book, and the author raises more questions than he answers. But if you’d like to see a master of storytelling in action, you need to read Black Feathers.

The story mostly alternates between two characters: Megan is a young girl who is chosen to become the next “Keeper,” an individual whose job is to observe and record the story of a certain boy whose existence is critical to the survival of humanity. Gordon is that boy, but he lives in a different time than Megan, so she must enter “the weave” in order to cross space and time to watch Gordon’s story unfold. Most of the book takes place when Gordon turns fourteen and is forced to flee his family and home after a group called The Ward take his mother, father and two sisters away. He manages to hide, but not without having several run-ins with two horribly nasty members of the Ward named Pike and Skelton. After receiving secret letters from his parents, delivered to him by a mole who is part of a resistance group called The Green Men, Gordon decides to follow their advice and look for the mythical Crowman, a creature who may or may not be evil and could hold the fate of humanity in his hands.

As Gordon sets out on his journey, Megan has her own quest to complete. At about the same age as Gordon, she sees the frightening Crowman in the forest near her home, and is later told that he has marked her as the next Keeper. With her parents’ permission, a mysterious old man known only as Mr. Keeper takes Megan to his home and begins to train her in the duties of being a Keeper. Megan’s part of the story is full of magic, mystery, pain and danger, as she must sacrifice her childhood in order to fulfill her calling. As the story evolves, Megan and Gordon seem to be coming closer and closer together, and it appears as though the two will eventually meet. But D’Lacey has plans for these two, and they might not be what you expect.

I was completely swept up in Gordon’s story and enjoyed it more than I did Megan’s. I think the reason I liked his story better was that his world felt more grounded and believable and was easier to relate to. As he is running away from the Ward and trying to stay hidden, he comes upon various groups of people. My favorite were a father and daughter named John and Brooke who are also on the run and hiding in the forest. Gordon only spends a short time in their camp, but he forges a tight bond with both of them, and I wanted their storyline to go on longer than it did. Gordon’s journey is fraught with violence and danger, and he escapes one perilous encounter after another, leaving a trail of misery behind him.

Megan’s story, on the other hand, is told in cryptic language and has a dream-like quality throughout. It was often hard to tell what was real and what was a dream, as Megan sometimes leaves her body to travel “the black feather path,” as Mr. Keeper calls her journey. She learns many things from Mr. Keeper, but the most important, and the true theme of D’Lacey’s story, is that she must learn to live in harmony with the land. He seems to want us to come away from this book understanding that if humankind can’t learn to live in peace with nature, our very civilization will crumble. It’s a theme that’s been done before, but never quite in this way. Both Megan and Gordon must fight to survive in the wild during their journeys, and the author even throws in an earthquake to make his point: watch yourselves, humans, or mother nature can take everything away from you.

The entire book is written in D’Lacey’s gorgeous and fluid prose. Combine that with graphic violence, the mysterious Crowman who is still not explained by the end of the book, and the unanswered question of the relationship between Gordon and Megan, and you have a story that is irresistibly addicting. For patient readers who appreciate the difficult craft of good writing and storytelling, Black Feathers is a must read.

Many thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy.

This review originally appeared on Books, Bones & Buffy. ...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Michele rated it liked it · review of another edition

The book starts with a prologue, which to be frank, I didn't quite see the point of. While it begins to build the mythology, having now finished the book I don't think it adds anything that isn't further explored or clarified within the story. I then found the next few chapters confusing and disorientating. I understood that there were two narratives, one that follows Gordon Black from birth and another which follows Megan Maurice. Gordon's narrative takes place during our time frame in, whereas The book starts with a prologue, which to be frank, I didn't quite see the point of. While it begins to build the mythology, having now finished the book I don't think it adds anything that isn't further explored or clarified within the story. I then found the next few chapters confusing and disorientating. I understood that there were two narratives, one that follows Gordon Black from birth and another which follows Megan Maurice. Gordon's narrative takes place during our time frame in, whereas I wasn't sure at first when Megan's story was happening.

The story really starts to take off when Mr Keeper comes to visit Megan's parents and explains that Megan has been chosen by the Crowman to be a keeper. Up until this point the two stories seem unconnected and disparate, but as the reader accompanies Megan in her training we begin to realise that in actual fact the stories are intricately linked. At this point Gordon's story also begins to take off as he is faced with trial after trial as he is is driven by the desperate goal of saving his family.

Once I understood how linked the stories were it was interesting to see other connections and contrasts. For instance the pace of Megan's story is quite calm and peaceful, whereas Gordon's is filled with tension. Gordon's narrative is in the past tense (a clue I missed at the beginning), whereas Megan's is present, it's happening as we read. It is a strength of the writing that I didn't actually notice this difference at first. I say this because writing bad present tense is easier than you think.

I found the pace of the book quite slow, but in a good way. When I think about what actually happened there isn't an awful lot, but what did happen was this gradual build up of knowledge of the Crowman mythology. I liked the fact that this entity was not black or white. When I think of traditional descriptions of evil and good, it's all rather clear-cut, whereas in reality it's never like that. Part of the Crowman mythology is a great respect for the land. In a way it's almost quite fervent, but what makes it so believable is that in journeying with Gordon we live through his change and his growing understanding of how we should respect the land. His moment of realisation is quite revealing in that he choses to use certain words, which he had been feeling, but in a way was too embarrassed to use before.

The two characters development was also interesting. We start with Gordon from birth, but the reader really gets to know him when the trouble with the Ward begins. We felt his fear and powerlessness as he begins to go on the run. Gordon is never described as a gung-ho and off on a quest. He is troubled and never knows if he is doing the right thing. He is weak and strong in equal measure, he fights for his life and is vengeful. But most of all we see him developing.

Megan's character was a little more shaky. She started off quite babyish and then matured very quickly. Given the immense task she has been given, I guess this is realistic, but that was probably part of the confusion I felt with the first quarter of the book. After she has entered the weave for the first time and begins to understand her task, her character develops a little more clearly.

Two other recurring characters are Pike and Skelton who are members of the Ward trying to capture Gordon. I wasn't too sure about these two, at first they were just the baddies, but as we spend more time with Skelton became a little stereotypical, which is a shame, as the mythology of the book is anything but and plays on being multifaceted. I'm not sure about Pike yet, or even what he is. I suppose this idea of the ward is also a recurring character and one that I wasn't always a hundred percent comfortable with. Perhaps it's because they are being seen and described by a fourteen year old boy, but their ideology seemed a little simplistic to me and I wondered how they could have gained so much power.

Generally, the review is a bit mixed. There were things I didn't like, but on the whole I really liked a lot more. I found this book made me think more than scared me. There are scenes of horror within the book, but part of what makes it horrific is that is all things described could happen. There were a few bits that had my eyebrows arching (in Chapter 65) and raised a lot of questions (such as the concept of the Ward), but on the whole I really liked the world-building and myth making. I was completely sucked into Megan's world and Gordon's story enough to want to know what happens in the next book. The ending left us on a cliff and I'm not sure where the book is going to go, but I kind of like that. I liked the writing and the descriptions were beautiful (even when describing horror). This book is not an easy read, there are things that challenge your way of thinking without being preachy. ...more

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