Darkbeam Part I

True to Expectations

I’ve had the pleasure of reading Adrienne Wood’s original adventure in Pageia—the Dragonian Series. I decided to review an advance copy of Darkbeam Part 1, to satisfy my curiosity: Would the Rubicon’s perspective meaningfully expand my experience in the world of Pageia? Yes, I have always been skeptical of retelling the same story from another point of view. Now that I have finished the book, several points of reflection stand out.

The dedication of the Rubicon’s Story is: “To everyone who wanted more”. My very first experience within this book was a smile—Adrienne Woods certainly knows her audience. Even before I began reading, I mentally noted this new installment was nearly 450 pages, which appropriately parallels the original novel “Firebolt”.

Mrs. Woods is consistent in her writing. True to expectation, this first installment of the Rubicon’s story contains occasional mistakes in grammar, syntax, and punctuation that will be familiar to anyone who has read other works of hers. These occasional infractions are, in my opinion, outweighed by the compelling, vivid nature of her characters and the big-picture vision she brings to the architecture of her narrative.

I was reminded of, and as a reader am grateful for, Mrs. Wood’s capacity for restraint in her writing. I have always been drawn in by the magic of her relationship with her characters—and she parents her characters and her readers with equal force—never letting either’s desire for gratification run ahead of the plot. Though I initially wondered if an alternate point-of-view project might be an exercise in wish-fulfillment, I was glad to be left wanting more.

I am also very glad to know that Blake’s—the Rubicon’s—point of view travels through the timeline of the story with independence from the Dragonian Series’s original perspective. I, the reader, was convinced that Mr. Blake Leaf was an individual with his own life, interests, concerns, problems, limitations, friends, and priorities: it was reassuring that Elena and her experiences did not appear on every page. Indeed, they did not appear on most pages. In fact, Mrs. Woods made Blake’s individual struggles so clear to me, I better understand why, in the timeline of the series, he is (for reasons of personal growth) the last character to “get with the program” and board the main plot thread of Elena’s destiny.

Overall, I am satisfied that reading this novel expanded my experience in the world of Pageia. I enjoyed the opportunity to consider a familiar story from a new perspective.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.