A Dark Way To Glory

Outremer - US #3

by Chaz Brenchley

The Sharai tribes await the coming of the Ghost Walker-long promised deliverer of their people-unaware that he walks among them, and that their enemies have the ability to control him.

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction

280 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 2002

About the author

Chaz Brenchley has been making a living as a writer since he was eighteen. He is the author of nine thrillers, most recently Shelter, and two major fantasy series: The Books of Outremer, based on the world of the Crusades, and Selling Water by the River, set in an alternate Ottoman Istanbul. A winner of the British Fantasy Award, he has also published three books for children and more than 500 short stories in various genres. His time as Crimewriter-in-Residence at the St Peter's Riverside Sculpture Project in Sunderland resulted in the collection Blood Waters. He is a prizewinning ex-poet, and has been writer in residence at the University of Northumbria, as well as tutoring their MA in Creative Writing. His novel Dead of Light is currently in development with an independent film company; Shelter has been optioned by Granada TV. He was Northern Writer of the Year 2000, and lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with a quantum cat and a famous teddy bear.

Also known as author Daniel Fox.

Reviews

[K.J. Charles]

Book 3 of six, or 1.5 of three, depending how you look at it. I'm not a million per cent behind the decision to split what feels very like a trilogy into six, in that the .5 books don't feel entirely concluded, but they are long books and there's nothing wrong with serial publishing if you know that's what you're getting into. The story is compelling and the characters terrific in a bleak sort of way and I love the alt-Crusaders states setting, plus the Wizard's Tower covers are just beautiful: there's a publisher on top of the covers game.

[Jules Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the first half of the trilogy's middle volume, and it's travelogue time. This is the section where many trilogies sag, but Brenchley paints a vivid picture of desert travel and its hardships and occasional delights. There's also another display of how very different this series is from standard fantasy derived from Northern European mythology, with the world of the djinn beautifully evoked.[return][return]This volume gets the party from the Roc, where they met, to the place in the desert where they get to meet another major character, with some interesting diversions and scenery along the way. At the outset the party consists of Marron, Julianne and Elisande; Rudel and Redmond, the two Surayonese men; and Jemel, the young Sharai man introduced in volume 1 and briefly encountered in volume 2. The party have conflicting interests, not least because Marron and Elisande were involved in the death of Jemel's lover during the battle in the Roc, but they also have common interests and a common destination. That should be enough to keep the party together, but they aren't the only one with an interest in the supernatural burden Marron carries.[return][return]That burden, the almost-living weapon known as the Daughter, showed the first of its secrets at the end of the previous volume; in the trek across the desert we learn more of what it can do and what it does to its host, and a little of what it actually is. Marron isn't the person anyone would have chosen to carry it, but proves equal to the task.[return][return]And again there are hints of various romantic interests and entanglements, without it being at all obvious how these will eventually be resolved. This segment of the story concludes with another twist of one of the romantic plotlines initiated in the first volume, enticing the reader to read on.[return][return]This volume introduces more characters and adds new plot threads without concluding earlier ones, but it does expand on hints dropped in the earlier volumes, adding more depth to the world and the main characters. With the original book being split into two for the US edition, it should be seen as a segment in a long novel rather than a novel in its own right, and in that context offers enough to make for a satisfying read while still leaving the reader wanting to move on to the next volume.

[Viridian5 · Rating 1 out of 5]

After reading Tower of the King's Daughter and A Dark Way to Glory, I won't be following Chaz Brenchley's Books of Outremer series any further. I can't stand these people any longer. They're petty and ineffectual. Give them a choice of an easy and sensible way or a hard way that will lead to them undercutting or betraying someone they care for, and they'll take the second one almost every time. Their plans constantly fail, and I as a reader get annoyed listening to them worrying about the current plan when the odds are good it'll fail too and they'll be back where they started. Characters fall in love in ways I don't believe then spend a lot of book time thinking treacly thoughts about said loved one, who in almost every case has no idea of the attraction. Redmond seems cool but since he rarely complains despite having so much reason to the books don't spend much time on him.

A Dark Way to Glory annoyed me even more, in that it's like a long, boring, unpleasant road trip spent with people you dislike who keep whining and snapping at each other. Will the readers be able to bear the oh-so-exciting walking or camel-riding scenes? Will our leads be taken in by something the reader quickly sees coming? Of course, they will. This book felt like 25% interesting things happening and 75% describing how difficult and unpleasant desert travel is. I got the point.

Lastly, so many authors have taken the path of strongly basing fantasy environments on real world countries and historical situations recently, and it's come to annoy me and feel like they're cheating at world building.

[Liviu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still a page turner but a typical middle book in a trilogy going from here to there so to speak. I am reading book 4/6 and plan to read 5 and 6 also when I get them.