My Goodreads review: Dark Earth

[ankh_hpl]

Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


(Disclaimer: I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)

Set in the post-Roman days of Dark Age Britain, this story of two very gifted (and, of course, persecuted) sisters walks a fine line between historical fiction and historical fantasy. I spent a long time trying to decide whether magic was or was not real in this narrative, but finally realized that it didn't matter. Magic is real to the people living at this time, in this place -- which has a number of consequences, some of them horrifying.

The area in and around ruined Londinium in 500 AD is a setting I haven't seen used before, which drew me in immediately. I did have trouble at the beginning getting all the people & past events straightened out, because this is the sort of book that drops you in the deep end from Ch. 1. Many clues and background events don't become relevant until much later, which works better for some readers than for others. I was happy to be carried along for the ride, checking the odd tribal names & such which popped up (Wikipedia on Kindle is helpful).

The plot itself is strongly feminist / female-centered, with a whiff of YA. I occasionally felt that it got slightly New Age-y, but YMMA. Isla & Blue, the sisters, are both well-developed characters, though I enjoyed Isla more for her unusual training as a smith -- first as assistant to her father, a Great Smith, then as a cherished but hunted member of a women's community in the ruins of proto-London. Her younger sister Blue is an herbalist, healer, & possible seer -- closer to fantasy stereotypes. A few of the men in the sisters' lives are decent people, but most are drawn in extremely broad villainous strokes.

The final chapters include a rather dissonant paraphrase of Shakespeare (Macbeth, naturally) and a rapid series of shifts forward in time. The author is trying to make a point, & she makes it well, but I wasn't quite prepared for the abruptness.

This has the feel of historical fantasy rather than straight fiction, and might appeal most to readers of Marion Zimmer Bradley and her successors. Solid summer reading for Anglophile fantasy fans.




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