Christine Feehan
Book 5: Dark Series
ISBN-10: 0-8439-6196-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-8439-6196-6
Julian
Savage has always been a loner. He has
always pushed the bounds of acceptable behavior, for humans and Carpathian’s
alike. He has always looked up to the
most powerful of their people – Mikhail, Gregori, Gabriel, Lucien, and several
other Ancients from his youth. It was
this envy, this hero worship of males with great power that cost him a good
part of his life, his youth, his every dream and hope for a future. Blood-bonded to a vampire, in his youth he is
forced to do many horrible things – including setting traps that nearly kill
his twin brother (Aidan – Dark Gold). Knowing that he could be used to spy on the
Prince or the other Hunters, Julian withdraws from Carpathian society. Over the centuries he has occasional, random
meeting with others of his kind, but for the most part he spends the endless
years wandering the Earth hunting the undead, studying, and doing other various
tasks (i.e. guarding Savannah during her years doing magic shows – Dark Magic). When Gregori asks him to warn a woman who is
on the “societies” hit list, Julian accepts the task with the knowledge that
after he has given the warning, he will seek the dawn.
And then he
enters a crowded bar and hears music of pure golden and silver notes and his
entire world is changed. In those first
hours (and the previous days) he assumes Desari is human, despite her magical
voice, the band’s (the Dark Troubadors) pet leopards and her strangely alert
bodyguard. To save her, he gives her his
blood before even sharing his name, and acting on instinct alone ties her to
him with the ritual binding words.
But Desari,
and all the other members of the Dark Troubadors, are in fact Carpathians. They had escaped Europe during the Turk wars
after all of their parents were killed; six children ranging in age from 6
months (Desari) to 6 years (Darius), and they made it to Africa before they
settled down and struggled to survive.
For hundreds of years Darius has led them, guided them, and protected
them, but in all the years that they have travelled and entertained people,
they have never encountered any other Carpathians. Due to their youth when they escaped Europe
and their lack of contact with their own people, the Troubadors know close to
nothing of traditional Carpathian life – the hierarchy, common mental pathways,
lifemates and why males become
vampires. They have always existed as
though they were the only ones of their kind that survived. It causes some friction between Desari and
Julian (neither knowing what the other expects initially) and between Julian
and the men of the Troubadors. It’s
actually an intriguing perspective because we’ve never had a female lead with
family protectors, and so we’ve never had the chance to see the ‘in-law’ dynamics
of Carpathian courtship. A lot of the
time it’s actually quite amusing.
One thing
that has stood out in this book, each time that I’ve read it, is the
description Julian gives Desari of the life of an (unmated) Carpathian male.
“You are the only reason I am still
living… I was empty without you. And
that kind of emptiness eats away at you, consumes you until your soul is dark
and ugly and all that matters is sating your hunger. But nothing fills the void. Nothing.
Year after year you endure the emptiness until life itself is a curse
hardly to be borne. And all the while
the darkness, the beast in you whispers, an insidious whisper, promising power
from the kill, promises that wear away your belief in God, in all the things
that are right and ture and good. The
monster inside you, so black and hungry for life, grows and grows until it has
consumed everything you ever were. That
is the curse borne by Carpathian males…”
I think this
passage is an amazing insight into Feehan’s unmated male Carpathians, into what
makes them who they are, what they are and why some of them choose to give up
their souls and become vampire. In all
the previous books, in all the books, we get varied and good explanations of
what lifemates are and what they are to each other. It’s refreshing to get a different view of it
all. And Julian’s words? Well, they drive the point home and they make
you feel them. (Don’t they?)
Dark
Challenge is just one more example of Christine Feehan’s brilliance, of her way
with words and her genius of the paranormal.
Stay tuned for the next review in this series when we talk more about
the Dark Troubadors.
PRINCESS Z particularly enjoys novels of myth, legend, gods & goddesses and novels that include horses. (Can you tell that she is my daughter???) That does not mean that if your novel falls within another genre or subclass that she won't read and/or review it. Ups, Downs, Ins and Outs will NOT at this time be contracting for these specific genre reviews. Princess Z is only 11 years old and is only just starting her "career" of reviewing books. I will be editing and helping her out but still... 
