The Spooks: The Dark Army, I seriously don't know where to begin or what to write as I am totally hyped after having read it. So I will write a NON-SPOILER section, however if you have decided to read this review... THERE WILL BE SPOILERS [WARNING]! And I insist that anyone who has not read the book yet leave, and read the book!
Anyway, in terms of staying in the style of previous books, this particular book had a real edge of darkness, so much however, that I even felt my stomach twist! The Dark Army, for me is (in term of how dark it was) up there with The Spook's: Revenge even though I thought that TDA (The Dark Army) is superior. When it comes down to the actual style of the narrative however, it follows the same first person style, which is probably the reason why I feel so connected to the books as I feel that whilst I'm reading TDA as well as the previous books, I am Tom, and what happens to him happens to me! However, in this book just like the last book, A New Darkness, the narrative was split into two, which at first, when reading the last book, I felt like it was dragging the pace down because all I wanted to do was step back into Tom's shoes and go, although in the end of the last book (potential hint of SPOILER ahead) and in this book, I realised that finally after 13 books in which we knew that no real harm could come to Tom because it was all written from his memory at the end of each book, now, I fear for Tom, for once I am uncertain of his wellbeing and with the dark tone this book has, I feel that any character could easily drop of the plot at any moment.
This Book was full of emotion and heart pounding action, and I think that if I were to put it in my list, it would be joint first with, The Spooks Battle and The Spooks Mistake. The action scenes were a lot more detailed in this book compared to the last one and the gore was well fitted in the story. Had Joseph Delaney not shown as mush gore and violence, and even some very strong scenes of abuse and torture, we as readers would not really understand how threatening the new enemy is. This is definitely a MUST READ for any fan of the series, or if you happen to like Horror/Fantasy/adventure books, then please go back to the beginning and read your way to this one. I have honestly never loved any book as much as this one, I feel so connected to it, so much that I live in it when I read it, I feel the heart ache and the happiness that Tom feels because in the end, when I read the book, I pretty much am Tom.
*Just an additional note: there is a chapter that says that Jenny is narrating, obviously it was a error that was missed, the chapter is called; The Space Between Worlds, so look out for that one.
So I warned in the beginning that there would be SPOILERS, so this is it... If you haven't read the book yet, then be warned, not only will you be spoiling an amazing experience, but I will personally send my Bogart over to 'tell you off'... you've been warned!
Seriously though, this is the section for people who have read the book and want to see how I, a fellow reader, felt about certain parts in this book.
First, Tom comes back to life, something that I though was quite obvious as the cover and the sample that Joseph Delaney had given us at halloween. But the way it happened, we find out the Tom shouldn't have died in the first place but the combined power of a witch and mage stopped Tom in his stance unable to manoeuvre away from the Shaiksa Assasin's blade, after striking its head off.
Tom was A puppet control by none other than Lukrasta and his companion and current lover, Alice Dean. They had killed him and rectified him in front of all the solders during his burial in order to make all of the principalities of Polyznia unite, when Grimalkin told Tom that Lukrasta and Alice caused his terrible pain, I felt mine and Tom's past feelings for Alice surge inside me but they were quickly overturned with jealousy and anger due to Alice's betrayal in book 13, The Spooks Revenge. I felt the rivalry between Tom and Lukrasta spark once more.
Tom, for the long part of this book, was a puppet to Grimalkin, Prince Stanislav, Lukrasta and Alice.
Grimalkin forced Tom to head to one of the Kulads by sending his apprentice, Jenny, with Prince Kaylars probe force who went ahead, so that she could gain knowledge on how to beat the Kobalos. This was the point where i was beginning to lose my cool with Grimalkin. They made it to the Kulad and found Jenny, however, they were ambushed inside the Kulad by the second most powerful of the Triumvirate Mages, Lunklewth, who easily defeated Grimalkin with a stroke of his magic, and defeating a tired and weak Tom, who had still not recovered from his death and resurrection.
Tom was sentenced to a slow agonising death from one of the Shaiksa Assassins, one that was eager to avenge his fallen assassin brother. The assassin cut Tom over and over, until someone saved him, IT WAS ALICE, she killed the assassin and gave Tom the Starblade, so Tom beat the mage back until Lunklewth vanished, Alice vanished also.
I have written all that so I can get to the bits that really made this book as good as it is.
Alice comes back to Tom, they talk and although Tom is still bitter over the betrayal, he learns that Lukrasta is dead by the hands of the Kobalos, at first I was kind of annoyed as i'd hoped that Tom would kill him, but then i thought that Tom would not kill an ally, no matter how much he hates them. Alice had now become and earth witch, which was something that I thought was very interesting, she had now sworn allegiance to Pan, the God of Life. So now I see that Alice isn't all bad. She even explains how she was forced to get with Lukrasta, which made me feel hope for Tom and Alice finally being together, which they do and we finally see that scene where they have a romantic moment which isn't a one second kiss followed by her running off. I think that Joseph Delaney had dealt with the relationship between Tom and Alice very well, and finally they are together, which is extremely over due!
Tom's fight with Lenklewth was awesome too, and this is where I really started to fear for Alice again, although Tom epically defeats the Kobalos Mage, Alice almost dies due to the poison of the Varteki.
Alice almost dies three times in this book... THREE TIMES! And its reminded me of what Tibb said in The Spooks Battle, 'she will love you, she will betray you, then she will die for you', or something along those lines, and Im really starting to worry for Alice now.
There are more points that I am not going to come into as much detail but here we go, starting with one of the most shocking moments EVER in the Spooks Books! GRIMALKIN'S DEATH!!! she sacrificed her life so that Golgoth would not kill Alice! I felt like I'd just been punched in the stomach when this happened! It was a quick death perhaps too quick.. but anyway, I know that this isn't the last we see of Grimalkin.
Meg, John Gregory's 'partner' had come back as a feral and aided Tom fight Golgoth which I though was pretty cool.
Anyway, If I write more I'm gunna miss the deadline of one of my college essays that i need to hand in, but I thought i had to sacrifice some time to write this review.
So, my last feelings of this book, are that it is very much got an 'Empire Strikes Back', where nothing has improved, everything is in fact worse and the end is near for our heroes. The ending is very much bittersweet as Tom and Alice are now together and Jenny is improving in becoming a Spook, and may I add that having Jenny in this book is really cool as she often has similar feelings as Tom's old master, John Gregory, plus she is becoming an interesting character who often casts doubt on a lot of issues. John Gregory gets a lot of mentions in this book too, which I really like. And finally Tom is now that true hunter that his Mam had foretold, and with Alice at his side, maybe they can kick Talkus' but and everything will turn out great, although something that I had realised throughout the books is that Tom's story so far, is ultimately one of tragedy, so I hope that in the end he will get the life he deserves with Alice by his side and training Young Jenny to become a great spook, but only time will tell, and hopefully, whenever we do get a climax, it will be epic and tie up all loose ends unlike The Spooks Revenge which really set up this series. Although hopefully there will be room for more stories in the future, after the Kobalos threat.
5 out of 5 stars for me, I loved it.