Dark Blade~ Steve Feasey

Dark Blade by Steve Feasey is an exciting fantasy adventure story, that follows Lann on his quest to defeat monsters from the void with the help of a legendary blade, the Dreadblade.

I am a big fan of stories where the gods from myth and legend wreak havoc on a teenager’s life by giving them a quest (probably from a childhood of reading Rick Riordan). Dark Blade has that but instead of gods we’re familiar with, Feasey has created a mythology and people that are so real, seem so familiar that I was googling the names of the gods and the name of the people to see if it was a real civilisation. It is not, but there is some part of me that thinks I failed to search properly because the Volken people and their gods seem so entrenched in history.

Lann, the protagonist and hero, is exactly what you expect from this type of novel, He grew up on a cattle farm and has no formal training, but has a good heart and good instincts. Lann meets a witch who teaches him the history he needs to know to understand the quest he is undertaking. The witch, Fleya, is powerful and wise. Then Lann and Fleya meet a warrior princess, whose skills with a variety of weapons, shows how untrained Lann actually is. I expect that Astrid will be Lann’s love interest further into the series. It’s nothing new or exciting but I do love this trope.

Very early on in the novel, Lann is blinded. After follows two and a half chapters in which his blindness is explored wonderfully and how gardening helps to rehabilitate him and make him feel useful. I really enjoyed these chapters and hoped that maybe Feasey would break the mould and have a blind hero on a dangerous quest. Alas, no, when Lann receives the Dreadblade from the visiting god, his sight is restored. I know it would be very improbable to succeed in a treacherous quest without your sight, but I was still hoping. The fact that the Dreadblade does a lot of the fighting for Lann would have been a brilliant way to combat not being able to see, but that just be me.

My only problem with the formulaic plot was that a couple parts seem like they are just side quests or the book equivalent of randomly spawning monsters. It doesn’t detract from the story it just seems to slow down the real quest, but it was not unexpected.

A large number of chapters in this book have headers which tell you where the chapter is taking place. I liked this quite a bit, however as I am lucky enough to be reading a proof copy (although the book is available in bookshops now!), it didn’t include the map of the world, so these headings did not mean as much to me as they could’ve done (I love a good fantasy map!)

I really enjoyed this book and have given it a rating of four stars. This is definitely a series in which I will eagerly be awaiting the sequel due next year. Although I was reading a proof copy, this book has already come out and is available to buy wherever you buy your books. If you love the Percy Jackson novels, I highly recommend this.

C

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