Review: well done
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 18, 2011
There is so much to like about DARK VOW. The writing is simple and direct, short sentences, raw emotions, perfectly suited to a fantasy world on the cusp of industrialization. The book is divided into ten parts, each named after one of the ten Lords, all of them simple archetypes - the Smith, the Miner, the Hunter - who are just present enough to make anything seem possible.The heroine, Jaines, is a gifted Smith. Trades are strictly controlled, open only to men, so Jaines works as an apprentice to her husband Lance. One day, while Lance is away on business, an Arcane (magic-wielding) Bounty Hunter commissions Jaines to make a special gun. Jaines would rather keep her distance from anything Arcane, but the Bounty Hunter offers a lot of gold.She makes the gun. The Bounty Hunter pays her. And the next day, he comes back to kill her husband with it.At Lance's funeral, Jaines vows to find and kill the Bounty Hunter - an impossible task, since the only way to kill a trained Bounty Hunter is by hanging. But with no work and no family, vengeance is the only thing keeping Jaines going. Her pursuit leads her to Obsidian, who helps her along the way.Here's the problem: Jaines was happily married to Lance for eight years. She meets Obsidian less than a month after her husband's funeral. Within a few weeks, they're in love. The romance is shoehorned into this excellent fantasy story at an unnatural pace and as much as I wanted to buy it, I just couldn't.Jaines and Obsidian have chemistry, and I really enjoyed watching them get to know one another, but they don't meet until almost halfway through the novel. If Shona Husk had been able to stretch out their romance over a couple of books in a series, or maybe just a much longer book, it would have worked. But they go from strangers to committed couple at a ridiculous pace, despite the fact that up until Jaines meets Obsidian she's overflowing with deep grief.There are a couple of interesting twists at the end that I thought would have made great turning points from which to embark on another leg of the story. So it's not just the romance which is rushed; I wanted to know more about what happened AFTER Jaines finally finds the Bounty Hunter, how she copes with the discoveries she makes about herself and how she and Obsidian situate themselves in the world, given their changing circumstances.These are serious problems, but I enjoyed reading DARK VOW anyhow. It's like stroking your hand down the sleeve of a cashmere sweater; you can feel the quality, and the bones of this book are so good. I can't wait to see what else Shona Husk writes.