Book Review: The Diamond of Darkhold

The Diamond of Darkhold
The Fourth Book of Ember
by Jeanne DuPrau

It's been a tough winter in the village of Sparks. A caved-in roof damaged much of their already short food supply, and there had been an unusual number of illnesses and accidents. Lina and Doon are still adjusting to life on the outside: the hardships and the dangers which are very different from those faced in the underground city of  Ember. They want to do something to help the village, so when an old book purchased from a roamer seems to allude to something important hidden in Ember, Lina and Doon plan an expedition to return to Ember and search for it. But plans go awry, and what they find in Ember is far different from what they expected.

The Diamond of Darkhold is an enjoyable book, as all the books of Ember have been. It's great to see Lina and Doon back together again, solving problems. There's plenty of excitement and suspense and adventure. And I really liked that what they found in Ember was different than what they - and the reader - expected. Fans of the Ember series will definitely want to read it.

However, I have to say that I don't think it's quite as good as the first three books. One of the things that made the first three books so powerful was the social context that frames the story. In the City of Ember, it was Ember itself, that great underground city, and the effects that the breakdown of the city had on the closed society. In the People of Sparks, it was the conflict created by the merging of the two groups, and the stress caused by the strain on resources of a vastly increased population. In the Prophet of Yonwood, it was the dystopian theocracy created in the name of the Prophet. But in The Diamond of Darkhold, there doesn't seem to be a larger social issue at the heart of the story. Sure, there are shortages in Sparks, but that doesn't seem to be the overarching social theme like we had in the other books.

Another way to look at it is that in each book, there is a city which is as much a character as any person in the story: Ember, Sparks, and Yonwood. In The Diamond of Darkhold, there is still Sparks, but it doesn't get developed as a "character" any more than it already was in the second book. There's also Darkhold, but it's a small society, and only plays a role in part of the book.

Another gripe I had was the way that children were portrayed in this book. In all the books, but especially the first one, there is a subtheme of empowerment of children. In the City of Ember, Lina and Doon find that most of the adults in the book either don't take them seriously, or actively try to stop them. So they take matters into their own hands to save their society. I think  this is a theme that resonates with a lot of children because they often feel the same powerlessness in their own lives.

In The Diamond of Darkhold, Lina and Doon, of course, are still doing important things, but all the other children are either belittled or disempowered. Near the end of the book, a child's treasures are taken away from him without permission when they suddenly become important to the society. When he complains, he's told "you'll be proud to know they're going to be used for something important." I had been expecting that the child would suddenly be the owner of something valuable and important, and to see them taken away from him without compensation (and by Doon, who, while still a child, is older than the other child) grated on my nerves. Also, while Lina and Doon are off trying to find the hidden "treasure," some of the other children go on a quest that ultimately ends up accomplishing little except getting the children lost and sending them back to Sparks for adult help, which ultimately makes the whole thing seem silly and pointless.

I know that I've said a lot of negative things, and it seems like I didn't like this book, but I really did like it. I think it's just that I expected so much of this book, that I felt a little let down when it didn't live up to my expectations. I do recommend it, though, especially to anyone who has read and like the other books. If you haven't read the other books, they're wonderful books and should be at the top of your TBR. Here are my reviews of the others:

The City of Ember

The People of Sparks

The Prophet of Yonwood

Also take note that the City of Ember movie was released today. I haven't seen it yet, but it looks good from the pictures and trailers, and I'm looking forward to seeing it. I'm hopeful that, for once, Hollywood may have managed to capture the true spirit of a beloved children's book.

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Book Review: The Keeper's Shadow

The Keeper's Shadow
The Longlight Legacy, book 3
by Dennis Foon

In this exciting and powerful conclusion to The Longlight Legacy, time is running out as Darius, Master of the City, begins to accelerate his plans towards an unknown purpose. People are dying, victims of a new technology that seems to rip out their very life force. And Darius appears to be building a new Dreamfield construction that just may make his power unstoppable.

Roan has found the mountaintop sanctuary of the Apsara, a secret group of warrior women descended from one of the four original rebel armies. There, he attempts to forge an alliance between the Apsara, the Brother - the religious sect responsible for the destruction of Roan's village - and other diverse groups both inside and outside the city, to fight the growing power of Darius. But Roan knows that half the battle will be fought in the Dreamfield, so Roan and Lumpy set off on a quest to find the abandoned Foresight Academy, a school founded by the Dirt Eaters, in hopes of finding a map of the Dreamfield in the library there.

Meanwhile, Stowe has escaped the City, but is alone and in bad shape, possessed by a Dirt Eater bent on using or destroying her. Willum and Mabatan find her, but exorcising the Dirt Eater possessing her could kill her or damage her psyche. While Willum tries to save Stowe, Mabatan works to help Alandra, Roan's Dirt Eater friend, as she suffers Dirt withdrawal.

As the various groups converge on the camp of the Brother for a conference of war, Roan tries to find a way to bring the disparate, and sometimes contentious, groups together. Because only by uniting their diverse abilities do they have a prayer of defeating Darius.

The Keeper's Shadow is not only a worthy conclusion, it's probably the best book of the series. Foon masterfully brings together all the elements that he set in motion in the previous books. Roan really comes of age in this book as he struggles to learn how to be a leader, a role he is reluctantly thrust into. All the other characters are wonderful - deep and complex and often more than what they appear to be. Lumpy really comes into his own, showing a keen intelligence and insight coupled with an empathy that gives him a unique ability to bring people together.

While religious and mystical themes play a role in all the books, they really come to the fore in The Keeper's Shadow. The book probes deeply into questions of faith and belief, as Roan struggles to figure out how to lead a religion he doesn't personally believe in, and other characters are shown to have a surprising faith even in the face of personal knowledge. (I can't say more than that without giving away some plot points). Questions are raised, such as, if a religion or a prophecy is "made up," does that mean that it can't also be true? And, of course, the Dreamfield itself, that mystical "other world" of the psyche, plays a key role, as Roan encounters the living, the dead, and even a god there.

Read my reviews of book 1, The Dirt Eaters, and book 2, Freewalker. You can also read my interview with author Dennis Foon here.

Book Review: freewalker

freewalker
by Dennis Foon
The Longlight Legacy, book 2

In The Dirt Eaters, Roan and his sister Stowe were the only survivors of Longlight, a town living by principles of peace and hidden away from a world devastated by war and toxic waste, until it was destroyed by raiders and its inhabitants massacred. Roan escaped, but he was unable to save Stowe, who was captured and taken away to the city.

Now Roan is living in Newlight, a sanctuary where he is attempting to start a new life, along with friends he met in his travels: Lumpy, a Mor-Tick survivor, and Alandra, a healer. The three of them are caring for fourteen children that they rescued from being sent to the city to be used by the Masters of the City. Like Roan and Stowe, the fourteen children have special abilities, which Alandra has cautiously begun to explore. Alandra has been taking the children to the Dreamfield, a dimension of the spirit that can be reached by eating Dirt, a substance mined from an asteroid impact site which conveys special mental powers to those who eat it. Then disaster strikes, as all fourteen children simultaneously fall into a coma. When Alandra is unable to awake them, Roan and Lumpy set off to try to find a way to save the children.

Meanwhile, Stowe has been deified in the city as "Our Stowe," an idol created by the Masters to control the population through worship. Stowe is no longer the frightened child she was when she was brought to the city; her training and her experiences have made her wise beyond her years. She plays her roles well - loving adopted daughter to Darius, the Eldest, as well as the idol Our Stowe, but she knows that she is being used and manipulated by Darius. Stowe's growing powers are formidable, but she is as yet no match for the Masters and Darius, so she meekly bides her time until she can find a way to escape.

It's impossible to try to describe these books in a few paragraphs, and my description above barely scratches the surface of this rich, complex book. As I was reading this book, it struck me that it reminds me in some ways of one of my all-time favorite books, Frank Herbert's Dune. Beyond the obvious similarity between The Longlight Legacy's Dirt and Dune's melange, both addictive substances with mind-enhancing abilities, there's a complex web of politics and shifting allegiances and secret orders and spies and traitors and mysticism here that evokes a sense of Dune without being derivative.

In spite of these similarities, The Longlight Legacy is a highly original series. Foon has done an amazing job of creating a richly detailed world populated by a variety of cultures and characters. In this second book of the series, we finally get to know Stowe, and she's quite a compelling character - in some ways she's still a young girl, and a girl wounded by her experiences, in other ways, she's as wily and manipulative as the Masters who trained her. Stowe is also addicted to Dirt, an addiction that sometimes drives her to extremes.

Then there's Roan, who is wrestling with both the demons of the past and prophecies of the future. Roan must confront his own demons of guilt and loss before he can help the children. Along the way, his preconceptions, and those of the reader, are shattered time and again, as people turn out to be different than Roan has come to believe.

The story is intense and holds your interest, although I did find Stowe's story to be the more compelling of the two in this book. This is definitely a series that I'm going to want to go back and read again.

There are some horrifying things in the book, such as organ harvesting from children to keep the Masters alive, so this isn't a book for sensitive readers. Although there is a summary of the first book at the beginning of this one, I highly recommend reading The Dirt Eaters first because of the complexity of the series.

Book Review: The Dirt Eaters

The Dirt Eaters
The Longlight Legacy, book 1
by Dennis Foon

For seventy-five years after the Abomination, the people of Longlight lived in peace, separate from the world, until a brutal attack by raiders wiped out the entire village. Fifteen-year-old Roan has lost everything and everyone: his parents killed, his sister taken by the raiders. When a huge man named Saint discovers him in the desolate village, Saint takes Roan in and offers him sanctuary. Saint is the leader and prophet of of the Friend, a religious sect that lives a monk-like existence. With the Friend, Roan does things to survive that he never thought he would do. He has to eat meat, although he was raised to believe that eating the flesh of animals is wrong. He must learn to fight, although he was raised in a village which rejected fighting. But worst of all is his burning desire for revenge, which goes against his people's belief in peace.

Roan moves towards initiation into the Friend, but not without reservations. He has never completely trusted Saint, and the more he learns, the more he begins to suspect Saint. He's also troubled by his own continuing anger and desire for revenge, and the ease with which he learns the fighting arts. Then there are the visions he keeps having - visions of a rat, a mountain lion, and a goat woman - strange beings who call themselves Dirt Eaters. The search for answers will drive Roan into the post-apocalyptic wasteland known as the Devastation. The things and the people he encounters there will challenge him to the utmost.

The Dirt Eaters is an amazing book. This fascinating blend of post-apocalyptic science fiction with some fantasy elements manages to be both thought-provoking and exciting. The characters are, for the most part, rich, complex, imperfect human beings; there are no black-and-white caricatures here. One of the themes of the story is the difficulty of knowing what is right. Some characters believe that what they are doing is right, but on balance their actions bring evil to the world. And even those characters experience love and loss and other human emotions. Other characters have to do horrible things in order to work towards saving what people they can, knowing that if they try to save everyone, they'll end up saving no one.

The story is written in present tense, which gives it a gripping sense of immediacy. It certainly holds your attention and keeps you turning pages until the very end. The Dirt Eaters is one of the best books that I've read this year, and I would consider nominating it for the Cybils, except that it was published in 2003, and so isn't eligible.

The two other books in The Longlight Legacy are Freewalker and The Keeper's Shadow. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.