Darkborn (Darkborn Trilogy, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jun 20, 2010 Kerstin rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2010

Darkborn is set in a victorian world where a curse from a powerful mage hundreds of years ago has divided its people into the Darkborn, Lightborn and Shadowborn.
The Darkborn can only live in darkness, are born blind and use Sonn (a form of sonar) to scan their surroundings. They despise magic - the few practitioners are shunned by society - but are very interested in technology and scientific inventions. The Lightborn can only live in constant light and are powerful magic users. They both have Darkborn is set in a victorian world where a curse from a powerful mage hundreds of years ago has divided its people into the Darkborn, Lightborn and Shadowborn.
The Darkborn can only live in darkness, are born blind and use Sonn (a form of sonar) to scan their surroundings. They despise magic - the few practitioners are shunned by society - but are very interested in technology and scientific inventions. The Lightborn can only live in constant light and are powerful magic users. They both have their own political structure and live side by side without ever meeting each other. The Shadowborn live outside the borderlands and are feared 'monsters'.

The novel starts with Balthasar, a physician and one of three people whose point of view is used to tell the story. The others are Balthasars wife Telmaine and Ishmael, a mage and 'Shadowhunter'.
Balthasar is getting a visit from his brothers former fiancée, Tercelle, who is heavily pregnant. She tells him that the father was able to visit her in daylight which is unheard of and asks him for his help in finding people to take on the child as she doesn't want her current fiancée, who was out of town for a few months, to find out about the pregnancy. Balthasar helps deliver twins and realizes something strange about the boys: They are able to see. He saves the children from Tercelles attempt to kill them but that is only the beginning of a long chain of problems and dangers waiting for him and his wife and eventually their entire society...

The novel had great potential: an interesting world, beautiful writing, characters that weren't just black and white but had their own issues and secrets.
Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to it. We weren't allowed to really delve into this world; we hardly found out anything about the Lightborn and their living arrangements and the problems between the two societies were just touched on. The characters never really came to life for me and I found myself not caring much about any of them. And last but not least there were big sections in the book that were just plain boring. It was only over the last eighty pages or so that the action started.
That said, it wasn't a bad book but could have been so much better. I will eventually pick up the second instalment and hope to enjoy it a little more.

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