Series: The Black Jewels, #1
Publisher: Roc
Publish Date: May 1st, 1998
Source: Purchased
Goodreads

Rating: 4/5 – The beginning to my all time favorite series!

Synopsis: The Dark Kingdom is preparing itself for the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy–the arrival of a new Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But this new ruler is young, and very susceptible to influence and corruption; whoever controls her controls the Darkness. And now, three sworn enemies begin a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, and the destiny of an entire world is at stake.
-Goodreads

Thoughts: I don’t read a lot of dark fantasy. In fact, I don’t read a lot of dark anything. So you can imagine my surprise when I read this book, which is decisively pretty dark for quite a bit of the book, and it immediately jumped to the top of my favorites list. I was just so blown away by the world Anne Bishop created and the people she put in it. It caught me off guard and drew me right in. While I can acknowledge some of the flaws that other people have pointed out to me, even understand where they’re coming from, personally, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Anne Bishop’s beautifully crafted world, The Three Realms, is unbelievably corrupted. Most of it’s people are tainted, selfish and cruel. Those who aren’t tend to lead horribly deprived lives, subjugated to the whims of some truly horrible people. But at the beginning of the book, it is prophesied that a Queen (this is more than just a position of power in these books) will come with the potential to put things right. Thankfully, the series isn’t told from the perspective of that girl, because then it would be Mary-Sue tastic and not terribly original, but instead from the people who love her, need her and are trying to keep her safe.

The Three Realms is a world and culture unlike anything I’ve read in any other fantasy book, which is saying something. On that alone, I’d recommend this book. I’ll admit, the characters may not be super original, but they’re still highly compelling and for me have a stronger draw than most of the fantasy heros that are found in book after book nowadays. The central character Jaenelle is admittedly over powered, but she’s got a few issues of her own as well as a pretty horrible family to deal with. Her powers aren’t really anyone’s focus though, so it doesn’t become annoying, thankfully.

While I wouldn’t say this book is mostly dark, there are some very disturbing scenarios and themes. No questions, the characters have some pretty serious things they all have to over come and for the most part it, what they’ve been through comes across in almost everything they do. Traumatic events have real consequences, and nothing is glossed over here.

This is the first of three, and probably the second best of the group, but in my books all three books of this trilogy deserve 5 out of 5. I have read these books more times than I can count and will hopefully read them all again at least ten more times. There are also a handful of sequels, which aren’t quite as good, but once you fall in love with these books, you’ll take every morsel you can get. This book will be available as part of the Anne Bishop giveaway at the end of this week.

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