The Sacrifice of Darkness

Characters and art are well done the science less so.

3.5!

I think there???s a collection of love stories at the core of this one. Love of parents for children, of people for purpose, of human for light. I liked the way Hiram and Mara???s ???before???s were interwoven with Joshua and Claire???s ???After???, how they both had a distinctive colour scheme and feeling to them - also in line with the event that separates their before and after, that is? the disappearance of the sun.

I did feel like I missed some depth to the characters, particularly to Claire. Besides her loyalty and sense of justice, I feel like we know very little about her, and I wanted to know more. In addition I found the focus on women bearing children, and how prevalent and automatic that felt as a logical course of action a bit much, especially since it felt like that notion really just existed without the women in question having much of a different purpose besides supporting the men they love. I think that in combination with a world that felt at times pleasantly ungraspable and at times confusingly distant left me feeling a little unsatisfied with the story in the end.

And of course I have to point out the artwork, which is absolutely gorgeous. I love the style, the fluidity of it, the colours, the sense it gave you of the space this story exists within, which is both similar and very different from our world. It really enhanced how connected I felt to the story.

A very pretty, contained work of art.

I received a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.