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Darkland #1
Darkland
In the far-distant future Vali Hallsdottir, assassin of an organisation known as the Skald, is sent on a mission to the world of Nhem. Her assignment is to eliminate the destructive patriarchal regime of the Hierolath. But shortly after her arrival, Vali finds herself betrayed by her mission partner, who is not the man he seems. Frey, once Vali's lover, has undergone a genetic transformation to disguise himself and has his own agenda for travelling to Nhem. After Vali's escape from the clutches of the Hierolath's militia she goes in search of Frey in order to discover the reasons for his betrayal. Her journey takes Vali to Darkland, where sinister forces known as the vitki wreak havoc...Praise for Liz Williams and her novel BANNER OF'A vivid adventure . . . that lingers long after the last page is turned' K. J. Bishop'A gothic feast for the imagination that places Liz Williams in the first rank of visionary science fiction writers' Charles Stross'Liz Williams is this generation's answer to Margaret Atwood and Sheri Tepper' Chris Moriarty
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
2 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Liz Williams
147 books268 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 26, 2011
Not particularly engaging, but a passable (meaning that I read it to the finish, it passed some time, and I wont be picking it up again).
Not really enough depth to warrant investigating the sequels...
Not really enough depth to warrant investigating the sequels...
January 31, 2020
TW: Rape, self-harm, murder, abuse
October 13, 2008
Darkland is the second in a loose series about scattered humanity among the stars and psychic powers that starts with Ghost Sister and follows with a direct sequel Bloodmind which is my next sf read.
Another gothic sf adventure like Winterstrike that takes a while to get into because of its strangeness - though this Universe is closer to a feminist Vancean one so easier to figure out - but once you are in the flow you do not want to put the book down
Vali is a skillful operative with powerful psychic powers - seith - for the Skald, the intelligence arm of the matriarchy of The Reach on the planet of Muspell.
After an abused childhood, Vali got involved with Frey a renegade male vitki - the more powerful analogue of seith on Darkland the other continent of Muspell, which involves darker stuff than the seith and is practiced mostly by men - When Frey sends Vali to her death - or at least she thinks so - the Skald saves her at the cost of horrible scars both physical and psychological while Frey disappears.
Years later, Vali goes on a covert mission to assassinate the leader of an oppressive patriarchy on another planet and her male "owner" - on that planet women are bred to have low intelligence and are considered property - which is an obscure operative from an allied intelligence outfit betrays her also, or again she believes it so.
But that obscure operative had been killed months earlier and of course now he was actually Frey in disguise.
From here Vali will do whatever she needs to track Frey and eliminate him - quest that takes her to strange and dark places including Darkland and a weird planet Mondhille with very strange humans on it.
Highly recommended and I am really looking forward to the sequel Bloodmind as well as the earlier unrelated novel Ghost Sister.
Another gothic sf adventure like Winterstrike that takes a while to get into because of its strangeness - though this Universe is closer to a feminist Vancean one so easier to figure out - but once you are in the flow you do not want to put the book down
Vali is a skillful operative with powerful psychic powers - seith - for the Skald, the intelligence arm of the matriarchy of The Reach on the planet of Muspell.
After an abused childhood, Vali got involved with Frey a renegade male vitki - the more powerful analogue of seith on Darkland the other continent of Muspell, which involves darker stuff than the seith and is practiced mostly by men - When Frey sends Vali to her death - or at least she thinks so - the Skald saves her at the cost of horrible scars both physical and psychological while Frey disappears.
Years later, Vali goes on a covert mission to assassinate the leader of an oppressive patriarchy on another planet and her male "owner" - on that planet women are bred to have low intelligence and are considered property - which is an obscure operative from an allied intelligence outfit betrays her also, or again she believes it so.
But that obscure operative had been killed months earlier and of course now he was actually Frey in disguise.
From here Vali will do whatever she needs to track Frey and eliminate him - quest that takes her to strange and dark places including Darkland and a weird planet Mondhille with very strange humans on it.
Highly recommended and I am really looking forward to the sequel Bloodmind as well as the earlier unrelated novel Ghost Sister.
October 29, 2007
This was an interesting SF novel - I enjoyed the fact that the main character was both a woman and an assassin. Without trying to give away plot details, there is an assassination which is acheived through the rape of the main character, and I found the way she dealt with that interesting (although I'm sure some would find the scene highly disturbing, and should consider that before picking up the book).
The novel is written in two perspectives, on different worlds in alternating chapters - occasionally I found the changes in perspective happening a little too often, but for the most part they were fine. Darkland was an interesting and original story (with a nice but not too frustrating set-up at the end for a sequel), and the worlds Williams creates are also quite fascinating. I'd probably pick up the sequel out of curiousity, but I wasn't entirely enthralled.
The novel is written in two perspectives, on different worlds in alternating chapters - occasionally I found the changes in perspective happening a little too often, but for the most part they were fine. Darkland was an interesting and original story (with a nice but not too frustrating set-up at the end for a sequel), and the worlds Williams creates are also quite fascinating. I'd probably pick up the sequel out of curiousity, but I wasn't entirely enthralled.
February 27, 2008
Darkland is set on Muspell, a colony world inhabited by descendants of Icelanders and other Norsemen who fled the greenhousing of Earth several thousand years earlier. The lands in Muspell's Northern Hemisphere are predominantly (although not exclusively) matriarchal. They have established a somewhat Taoist society, in which checks and balances prevent excessive domination by any single faction. By contrast, Darkland, in the planet's southern hemisphere, has been settled by eugenicists intent on creating a society of über-men, where women are at best second-class, and at worst fit only for breeding.
Read the rest of the Strange Horizons review here
Copy for sale here
Read the rest of the Strange Horizons review here
Copy for sale here
August 13, 2008
This is science fiction, but it feels a lot more like fantasy in places. It also feels reminiscent of feminist utopia/dystopias, in a good way.
May 23, 2011
If Sheri Tepper was less didactic and more into science fantasy, she'd be Liz Williams.
March 12, 2015
A very average book. Writing is passable but not particularly engaging and the characters are rather boring. The setting itself has some promise but it is never really realized.
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May 1, 2017Edition: New edition
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews