Product Description

Rich and exciting, powerful and engrossing, DARK MOON marks the arrival of a thrilling new series in fantasy adventure. The birth of the Emperor's son had been prophesied many years before. The child would be the Guardian, savour of his people. What had not been foreseen was the fact that there would be two imperial children born that night. Jax, the firstborn, is raised in the Imperial Palace and groomed for his role as the future leader of The Floating Islands. Terrell, second born and hideously disfigured, is banished to Havenmoon, where he will spend his life unaware of his birthright. Both have hidden talents, but is either the true Guardian? When the Islands begin to spin out of control, in danger of colliding with the mainland, the prophecy begins to unfold ...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #477039 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Empire of the Floating Islands, in Julia Gray's The Dark Moon, is a realm dominated by astrology and other means of prophetic divination, to the extent that people are confined as insane for picking potatoes at an unpropitious time. Its ruling class are as likely to fall foul of half-understood dogmas as unfortunate peasants; when the Empress gives birth to twins, of whom one is supposed to be the Guardian who will defend the land in its hour of greatest peril, and the other to embody all the evil the Guardian has rejected from his soul, scholars jump to conclusions as to which is which, confining the rainbow-eyed Terrel to a madhouse where he comes to naive maturity. Meanwhile, his malignant beautiful brother Jax comes to maturity as heir to the Empire, and knowing in his deepest heart what power he serves. This is the stuff of fairy-tale in its crude contrast of misunderstood good and rampant evil, but there is much charm here nonetheless; Jax is entertaining in his absolute evil glee and Terrel finds some attractive and interesting allies as he wanders around trying to escape his heritage.--Roz Kaveney

Review
The Empire of the Floating Islands, in Julia Gray's The Dark Moon, is a realm dominated by astrology and other means of prophetic divination, to the extent that people are confined as insane for picking potatoes at an unpropitious time. Its ruling class are as likely to fall foul of half-understood dogmas as unfortunate peasants; when the Empress gives birth to twins, of whom one is supposed to be the Guardian who will defend the land in its hour of greatest peril, and the other to embody all the evil the Guardian has rejected from his soul, scholars jump to conclusions as to which is which, confining the rainbow-eyed Terrel to a madhouse where he comes to naive maturity. Meanwhile, his malignant beautiful brother Jax comes to maturity as heir to the Empire, and knowing in his deepest heart what power he serves. This is the stuff of fairy-tale in its crude contrast of misunderstood good and rampant evil, but there is much charm here nonetheless; Jax is entertaining in his absolute evil glee and Terrel finds some attractive and interesting allies as he wanders around trying to escape his heritage.--Roz Kaveney, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW 'Julia Gray is fast gaining a reputation as one of the best new fantasy writers on the block' - SFX

Maggie Furey
'A spellbinding new storyteller'

Customer Reviews

Excellent fantasy adventure.
I think the top review here is rather unfair. This has been one of the most exciting fantasy series I have read. I'm currently just beginning the third of the series. The series is so compelling that I have not taken a break and read anything else since picking up this, the first book, two weeks ago.
I don't find the characterisation bad at all. The characters are in depth, not over-described. This allows for a great feeling of being at one with the protagonist's feelings.
I recommend it, I liked the style of writing and the plot. A must for fantasy fans.

**Brilliant**
Although this book was not quite as good as its prequel, Ice Mange it was still a fantasic book. This book makes you feel so many different emotions, One minuet your feeling angry with a character and then another character comes on the scene who makes you feel happy and exited. I rate this book to anyone that loves a beautifully writen fantasy.

Unremarkable
While _The Dark Moon_ has a promising premise - an empire of floating islands, ruled by traditions associated with the alignments of four moons, on the verge of apocalypse and featuring at least one major character of questionable sanity - the novel soon squanders its appeal with poor writing, inconsistent plotting, and tired fantasy cliche. There's a prophecy, a saviour, some ill-defined magic, and a long-lost prince. It is entertaining in places, but too many pages are wasted in superfluous and slightly dull escapades, and unnecessary character introspection which rather forgets the show-not-tell maxim.

The writing is occasionally clumsy, overindulging in adverbs (particularly to describe manners of speech when the dialogue itself ought to convey the point). Small but irritating illogicalities abound: we are told in one chapter that inmates of the madhouse are tattooed to mark them if they try to escape - and then, a few chapters and not a great deal of journeying later, that the people in the village Terrel reaches don't recognise the symbol. Alyssa is an interesting character, but Terrel is not (and few of the people he encounters stand out as more than stock figures); the villains are little more than cartoons.

On the plus side, there are certain brave attempts to break the pseudo-medieval mode, with discussions of scientific technique and advances in knowledge (although several of the conversations putting this across verge smack of inelegant info-dumping). Given a little more development and colour, the setting could prove to be an intriguing one.

Overall, this feels like too little material stretched to fill 500-odd pages, in which excess words fail to compensate for poor characterisation and an ill-thought-through world. A shame.