Dark Moon (by David Gemmell)

(Originally posted on Sunday, 27 July 2014)

My rating: 8/10 (low re-reading value)

The first half of Dark Moon is awesome, but as the main plot develops it gets more and more disappointing. An idea of a man with two personalities (dominant in the first half of the novel) was wasted in the second half. An idea of a humanoid/animal race that disappeared from the world (described in retrospect) turned out to be practically pointless. An idea of another humanoid/animal race coming out of their eternal prison and feeding on humans (the main plot of the novel) ended up illogical and disappointing. AND there was yet another humanoid race (described also in retrospect) before anything else had happened. That was TOO much, at least for me.

There are some small similarities between Dark Moon and Echoes of The Great Song, but the main plots and the main settings are VERY different. Echoes suited my taste perfectly till the very end (in fact only the very beginning was a little slow), on the other hand Dark Moon was more and more disappointing in the second half of the novel (when it really mattered). My final rating of Dark Moon takes into account the perfect start, but I am not going to re-read it. Unlike Echoes of The Great Song that I can’t wait to re-read.

Comparing Dark Moon to yet another Gemmell standalone – Knights of Dark Renown (7/10) I must say that Dark Moon is a little better because the characters are more interesting. Even though Knights of Dark Renown has one of my favourite quotes ever (about the lack of fairness of life) the novel overall is not really memorable.

There were several great quotes in Dark Moon too:

    “I have often wondered what constitutes heroism,” he said. “Tarantio and Vint are sword-killers. Most of people would call them heroes. But does heroism come naturally to swordsmen?”
    Karis shook her head. “Heroes are people who face down their fears. It is that simple. A child afraid of the dark who one day blows out a candle; a woman terrified of the pain of childbirth who says, ‘It is time to become a mother.’ Heroism does not always live on the battlefield.”

     “Pin not your hopes on the goodwill of rulers, Niro. My father once told me – and I have seen it to be true – that nothing is as long-lived as a monarch’s hatred, nor as short-lived as his gratitude.”

     “There’s no shame in fear,” said the old man. “But understand this – the coward is ruled by fear, while the hero rides it like a wild stallion.”