To Guard Against the Dark

Czerneda is an incredibly skilled wordsmith. The plot of this one didn't really grab me, but her writing ability still shone throughout.

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Sira Morgan is dead and unhappy in her ‘afterlife'. Her Chosen, Jason Morgan is living (and slowly dying) in squalor without her. But the M'hir, the mysterious between region that allowed Sira her astounding powers, is falling apart. The only solution is for her to somehow come back.

Review
I'm sorry to say it, but despite Czerneda's best efforts, the Clan/Trade Pact series doesn't really go out with a bang. In fact, part of the problem is that she tries to fit so much loose-end tying into the story, and it ends up in a pretty substantial muddle. Some of these things were clearly not intended from the beginning, and while she's tried to shoehorn them in, it doesn't really work.

The story very intentionally takes us back to the beginning – the planet Auord, Jason Morgan, and Sira di Sarc (despite her being technically dead) – and that's an instinct I'm entirely for. What works against it all is that Czerneda solved so many mysteries in the previous two books, leaving the feeling in this one that we've seen it all before – it's an epilogue we didn't really need.

Czerneda takes pains to give all the key characters a good sendoff – from Lydis Bowman to the Drapsk to Huido to Plexis itself – and that part I generally liked. It's the tension and plot points that frankly don't really fit together well – from a key role for Rugherans to Assemblers to the dregs of the Clan. Much of it felt quite forced, and there was so much going on mid-book, without much overarching structure, that it was hard to follow. There's also a significant red herring that I had hopes for, but that Czerneda sacrifices in the name of romance.

All in all, it's a disappointing but very well-intended effort, and in some ways it does bring the series back to its romantic, character-based beginning and key characters. But I found it less interesting than its predecessors, and probably unnecessary. Even if it did let Huido participate, which I suspect was part of the point.