3.75/5

I remember when I was younger, there was a book I read about princesses whose powers were stored in the form of jewels and each princess ruled a particular territory or domain. The Sapphire princess had a sapphire jewel and ruled the lakes (I think), the Ruby princess had a ruby necklace and was characteristically rebellious in nature…

The Dark Jewels Trilogy is the mature version of such a tale. With its ample description of gore and bloodshed, a long-awaited blossoming romance and scrumptious settings, this book reads very much like lore.

The story starts out relatively simple, with an unassuming, innocent young girl being caught up in a complex web of intrigue and deception, and as the story unfolds, more and more of how the world works and the twisted, disturbing thinking that underlies every move is revealed. Because of the lengthy lives of the characters, each move or action is like the placing of a chess piece; everything is calculated to have an effect somewhere along the distant lines of the future, and manipulation is the main tool used against rivals (and friends).

Although I didn’t like how the story started out with another one of those ‘The Great Hero/Heroine Shall Lift Us from Our Misery’ prophecies, it didn’t threaten to overdose the story with a repeated occurrence of precognition. In fact, the character who served as the ‘messenger’ of this world-changing news is an interesting, likeable character that grows on you after a while. Sure, she’s slightly insane, but who isn’t? It’s difficult to get mad (pun unintended) at an old woman that is left with the shattered, chaotic remains of her profession and life, and is but a powerless bystander in the events that are to follow.

What was most captivating about this story and one of the main reasons that I will be willing to read the second and third installments is the society that the author describes. It is executed well enough that after reading it, I found myself hating the puppet-masters and wondering about what life would have been like if the women of this world had been the dominant gender instead of men. Are both sides prone to subduing the other sex? All throughout history, females have been portrayed to be gentle, considerate and kind maintainers of the family. In Bishop’s world, it is the complete reverse. Men are forced to bow down before women and cruelty and torture run amok in the various households of the Jeweled witches–they are slaves, playthings or consorts. Bishop completely murders the illusion that women are harmless and forgiving. In fact, a majority of the women in this story have been sharpened to be relentless in their search for power, hungry for dominance and deep in their lust.

This fact is highly contrasted by the character who will be either the redemption or destruction of the Blood (the term used to describe the people of this other realm). Janaelle, the heroine, is soft, gentle, naive and innocent in this world where survival depends on using any means possible to stay on top. On the flipside, Janaelle, too, sometimes reveals her darker side, where her passion and instinctive nature to do good may worrisomely cause her to execute good intentions in not the best means. Always straddling the edge between her naivety and the requiem of innate wisdom that is Witch within her, it is no wonder that those on her side constantly fear for her sanity.

However, it would’ve been interesting to see a Janaelle that grew up in the current Blood culture and watch her change to become the willing apprentice of her benefactor and High Lord of Hell, Saetan (her almost-surrogate father), based on the fact that she had been exposed and brainwashed to the particular way of thinking that the society instills among its children, rather than have her sheltered by him so early on in the book. The struggles to understand differences in opinion and perceive differences in point of view would be much more emphasized in this way.

Personally, while I find that her struggles at home with her true family are actually quite awful, it’s harder to feel her growth in character from naivety to awareness. And it’ll be interesting for the reader to grow from hating a character to tolerating her as the reader’s own knowledge expands. But I think it was Bishop’s intent to keep this contrast constant throughout the story, which provided an occupation for the High Lord of Hell (with a past). As Janaelle grows, plans for her future are constructed by both those that support her and those that wish her ill.

You have to feel the most pity for Daemon, Janaelle’s preordained lover, though. Even though I don’t like his character insomuch the fact that he was pretty much born as the epitome of perfection, a wait of seven hundred years is quite a long time and you have to give him credit for his consistency. It’s unbelievable that he didn’t feel attraction for any other women (a lot of them probably being of great beauty and at least a handful of acceptable intelligence), but his willingness to sacrifice anything (as do two other men revolving around Janaelle’s life) for the future Queen of the Realm can be touching.

The cast list is kept relatively small, with key players in the story being people of considerable power (in both magick and influence)—naturally, as they have to be able to execute a political maneuver large enough to shake the realm. Since this is just the first book, it is difficult to say how side characters will flit into and out of the plotline, though some of them do show promise.

If you love your fantasies gritty and edgy and don’t mind skittering the surfaces of the mildly forbidden, then this is a book you might want to consider picking up. It’s definitely not for those who will cringe at the mention of blood or the perverse torture methods of maintaining control throughout the story and even less so for younger audiences. Keep in mind, though, that you’re going to have to stretch realism a bit at certain points in the novel, as it is, after all, fantastical.

2.25 / 5

With the amount of ‘good’ reviews this book was getting, I was expecting a much more eventful plot than I got.  I had at first hesitated in getting this book simply because I didn’t like spin-offs of Alice in Wonderland as much anymore as there were just too many of them.  Still, after an unsuccessful hunt through Dymocks for something readable, I found myself picking this book up and reading through the summary on the book jacket.

It didn’t say much on the back, but okay, I’ve heard this book mentioned a couple of times somewhere before.  I hoped it wouldn’t be too bad–it claimed to be a darker, grittier version than the original, which is fine.  I didn’t have large qualms with twisted fairytales.  Perhaps this author would present a refreshing perspective on this tale.

I was wrong.

Let me give you the plot: parents murdered, princess escapes into our world, the son of Queen Victoria tries to marry her (what?), she comes back, grabs a ‘magical’ sceptre and tries to vanquish her mortal enemy – her aunt, the evil Redd.  Sorry if I spoiled the read for any of you.

Predictable?  Quite.

The fact is, everything was much too easy.  Way too easy.  And way too standard. The villain is Alyss (apparently the real version of her name) Heart’s aunt Redd, an exiled former heir to the throne of Wonderland.  She is the scheming madwoman, spurned from her delusion of being the true heir to the Queendom (because Wonderland is ruled by Queens) and seeks to reclaim the throne for herself.  First thing she does, as with any psychologically unstable villain, is to scream something so totally cliché, you might’ve decapitated yourself with your own sword to save her the trouble:“Off with their heads!  Off with their stinking, boring heads!” she screams.Seriously. In many places, Redd is so awful an antagonist that she seems to be merely a child throwing a decades-long temper tantrum from not getting her way.  Whenever plans go astray, this evil mistress (oops, “Her Imperial Viciousness”) uses ‘Black Imagination’–imagination powers being akin to telepathy and telekinesis–to rattle the drawers and bring various ornamental objects crashing to the ground.  The forces in this book are so black and white, you can pick them apart blindfolded.  It’s good against bad, right against wrong.  There are simply no nuances in between, despite the author’s attempt to make “Alice in Wonderland” more ‘truthful’ and ‘realistic’.  

This new Queen, after much rampage and the usurping of the throne, rules with complete brute force, surviving as ruler merely because she possesses imagination powers to be rivaled with (although there are a few nice touches here and there with the totalitarian society being described), yet is completely K.O.-ed by Alyss’s return.  Alyss, being the main protagonist of the story, is also gifted with imagination powers beyond the norm.  However, upon entering our world, loses them.  When she does finally return to Wonderland after a thirteen-year hiatus, her powers flare up in no time.  All she has to do is believe, meditate and concentrate, something her predecessors required years of tutelage under the wing of the reputable albino scholar, Bibwit Harte (an anagram for ‘White Rabbit’, or vice versa, depending on the way you look at it), to develop.

Another thing that I found annoying was the first scene involving the main pairing of the novel: Princess Alyss and her childhood best friend, Dodge Anders.  Since the story starts off with Alyss being seven and Dodge being ten, one wouldn’t expect a long-lasting, heart-wrenching love to have already been in the midst of flourishing between them.  But in fact, the characters act older than their years.  Alyss and Dodge dance after the young to-be guardsman offers her a birthday present.  As they waltz alone together in a room, Alyss asks Dodge to be her king.  A little soon for that, no?  But that isn’t what bothered me the most.  What nagged me was the fact that Dodge was already a hormonal teenager way before his time:

‘He’d never touched the Princess before – not like this.  She smelled of sweet earth and powder.  It was a clean, delicate smell.  Did all girls smell like this or only princesses?”  And then later, “‘You know I’d protect you, Alyss.’  He felt warm all over and a little dizzy…He could feel her breath on his cheek.  He was the luckiest boy in the Queendom…He didn’t want to let her go, but he did…”

What the hell?

I liked the fact that the romance in the latter half of the novel was drawn out so it was an undertone to the plot, but isn’t this a little early for unrequited love?  I don’t make a habit of shipping seven-and-ten year old pairings.

The only characters worth watching were Hatter Madigan (aka Mad Hatter)–but what the hell was with the random brood of a ‘lost lover’ never before mentioned in the plot?–and Jack of Diamonds, who actually knows how to twist the whole situation to his advantage.  While the rest of the cast weren’t complete disasters, they weren’t particularly memorable either.

I also didn’t quite understand the direction that this book was taking.  The writing style is completely at odds with the later half of the novel, featuring a twenty-year old Alyss and older companions, but coupled with a less mature narration.  The characters are older, sure, and the matters slightly more adult (too gory to be a kid’s book, too superficial to be an adult’s), but not deep enough to entrance older audiences into this fantastical realm.  If you expect to find out more about the culture of this world and the politics behind the houses Diamond, Club, Spades, and ultimately, the Hearts, you will be sourly disappointed.  There is no attempt to even stir up the reader’s imagination (ironically) on how Wonderland came to be.  As a matter of fact, Wonderland sounds like your average fantasyland, complete with evil jabberwockies that breathe fire and a formidable assassin ‘The Cat’ that is repeatedly killed off by his mistress, the Queen Redd, because of misbehavior.

As for the book’s main selling point: the Looking Glass Maze that tests the future (rightful) ruler of the kingdom?  A complete joke. Stuff we’ve all heard before.  No difficulties for Alyss there.

The Looking Glass Wars is supposed to be a trilogy, but doubt resonates in my mind as to whether this series will truly make it.  Hopefully, the author’s stance will have matured enough by the time the second and third books are published to rescue this retelling.  I wouldn’t bet on it though.