Nina of the Dark

Nina of the Dark #1

by Ken Catran

Against the forces of evil and night, who will stand true? Slave-born, fated to seek a terrible truth from lost centuries, her only allies are a thief, a giant and an ancient prophecy.A sweeping epic fantasy adventure from a master of the genre, Nina of the dark tells the story of a slave girl in a medieval world where humans battle for existence in fortified towns scattered through a fertile lowlands, dominated by the grim mountains of Backbone. Beyond backbone is a land of demons, flying dragons, witchers, ogres and goblins. Born to fulfill the prophecy of a young woman with hair the colour of sunlight on snow, Nina the foundling is suspected of witchcraft when she starts to experience sharp pain in her thumbs, and has to flee for her life. A classical fantasy adventure for YA readers, Nina of the dark marks a new beginning for Ken Catran, back once again in the HarperCollins list.

Genres: Fantasy

303 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Ken Catran is a children's novelist and television screenwriter from New Zealand. He is the author of many teen novels, including Taken at the Flood, Voyage with Jason, Doomfire on Venus, Space Wolf, Talking to Blue and its sequel Blue Murder. He is perhaps best known for his Deepwater trilogy series

Reviews

[Holly Dunwall · Rating 1 out of 5]

We all have our favourite authors from when we were in high school, so I figured, I just finished the 3rd ACOTAR book, let's try out a nostalgia read! I LOVED this book in high school.
And I'm so sad to say that I couldn't bare to read much of this. The world is cool and the magic is really interesting - the "thumb-hurting" prophetic powers Nina has? So much potential! t's by a Kiwi author so I gotta take in my homeland's content - but hoo boy my girl Nina isnt doing it for 25 year old me 😅🥺
"I've changed. I'm hardened now, and I'm no longer the person I once was" girl it is CHAPTER THREE, I DONT EVEN KNOW YOUR PERSONALITY 💀

[Rebecca]

I can’t help but feel Nina of the Dark should have been titled Reader in the Dark just because that’s how I felt while reading this book. Basically reading through it I had no idea what was going to happen next or how anything was going to go. The few times I did get an idea about what was going I was later found to be wrong as Ken Catran tended to tell you a little bit of information at one point and then later on add to it so you were absolutely wrong.
My favourite character in the book was Alen, but he wasn’t there for very long which was quite unfortunate. But I hope he is in the next book a little bit more.
The ending took me well by surprise. Basically I thought I had figured out the rough time period the book was set in and the gist of what was going on; then the book kind of did a 270° turn on me. I say 270 because it turned right around and added an extra angle so that I was stunned.
Overall, it was a so so book for me. I think I went into it with too high expectations and it fell short of those expectations. I didn’t mind it but it wasn’t the best book I’d ever read. Nina of the Dark is an interesting fantasy story and while I didn’t get into it as much as I had hoped I’m still going to read the next book.

[Billie Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nina is a thumb-hurter. Her abilities include a throbbing thumb and being a ‘hearer of voices’ who is supposed to lead people. Other than this there is no information given about her powers in the story and readers have no idea about what causes her thumb to hurt. Nina of the Dark must leave her village to take a journey to the Dark Mountains to The Place of Dark. Ironic, seeing as this story leaves readers in the dark themselves, unsure of whether their assumptions about what’s happening are correct or not.

Another weak point of the book is its pace. Nina of the Dark begins fast paced and action packed but then quickly slows down to a crawl. The detailed descriptions of the scenery and creatures in the world are something I enjoyed, but this is overshadowed by the negative points of the book and also slows the progression of the book down further.

The slow pace paired with the lack of knowledge about anything that happens makes this a very confusing and boring book that I struggled to get through. The book had an idea which could have been interesting and exciting if it were executed better and had a faster pace with information on Nina’s abilities right from the start.

[Keziah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think the only reason this book didn't end up on my abandonded list was because it was so short. The initial concept sounded interesting, but the writing and the story development were just so frustrating that I really had to push myself to finish the book.

[Temereani · Rating 1 out of 5]

I first started to read this book because the blurb was interesting and looked like a book I may like. I was very wrong, as it made me lose interest fairly quickly and made me lose interest in the book.

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't terrible it just wasn't thrilling. Nice twist but it wasn't that convincing.