Rating: 
Summary: My favorite book ever!
Review: I read the entire trilogy when I was fourteen. I fell completely in love with it then, and now at 21 I love it even more. The Darkangel is probably one of the most fascinating vampires ever created--he is arrogant, evil, and utterly beautiful. But he too has a very human side to him, so one can certainly understand Aeriel's predicament when she falls for him, and why she is so desperate to save him. The style of writing is almost poetic, and so powerful that you forget you're reading about a futuristic moon colony. The sequels are truly moving, with one of the saddest endings I have ever read. Anyone who enjoys vampire fiction must read this book!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful fantasy
Review: I read this book a few years ago, and I liked it as well as an eleven or twelve year old can be expected to like it. But I checked it out at the library again, when I was for the second time attracted to its cover. I loved it! It's absolutely brilliant writing, spun just like a beautiful tapestry. It is not a typical vampire book at all--it's very much a fantasy, verging on sci-fi.Ariel is a servant girl. When her mistress, Eoduin I think her name was, is kidnapped by the infamous Darkangel (vampire) to be his bride, and nobody will do anything about it, she knows she has to. She gets captured by the Darkangel, and he makes her the handmaiden of his thirteen wives. His wives, once beautiful women, are now shrieking wraiths, and at first Ariel is hesitant to go near them. Soon she gets to know them, spinning them clothes out of charity and love, and gently coaxing their memories to return. But then they ask her to kill their husband, and she knows she must, but how? She goes on a journey to retrieve the only weapon on earth that can destroy him, and when she returns she has every intention of killing him. But she finds that she's fallen in love with him, for the good that she knows is buried in his heart somewhere. Will she kill him for all the misery he's caused, or will she try and save him? This book was wonderfully written and highly imaginative and I recommend it highly to anyone who is looking for fantasy, drama, a small touch of romance, or just a beautifully written book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Fantasy!
Review: I read this book when I was younger and I just fell in love with the story. This books has a bit of everything: love, fantasy, evil, good, adventure. It is a great read for anyone!
Rating:
Summary: A childhood favorite
Review: I read this when I was twelve and fell in love with it. I love the characters, especially Ariel. She's so flawed in the beginning: an insecure, frightened slave. In the end, she has grown into a strong, beautiful woman, and she's no longer enchanted by the vampire who once held her captive. Yet she sacrafices a part of herself in order to help him become human again. The _Darkangel_ is a beautifully written story for young adults, though it's not as fast-paced or as funny as Harry Potter. (It's still pretty good, though.)
Rating:
Summary: Darkangel
Review: I think that this book is okay but I haven't finished it. It isn't that that exciting but a nice book to read. I thought by the cover and the title it would be better.
Rating: 
Summary: It was ok, but I was a little disappointed.
Review: I was anxious to read this book because it sounded so interesting! Unfortunately, it wasn't at all what I expected. I expected great detail, especially about the darkangel himself, but never got any. The darkangel made few appearances, and the detial wasn't the best. Even the writing seemed a little awkward at times...truthfully, I think that many of the sentences weren't even written correctly. However, even when I got through half of the book and nothing extremely interesting had happened, I still allowed myself to hope, because for some reason the writing drew me in, as did the plot. This plot had so much potential, but the writer really fell short. I was really dismayed at the lack of interaction between the main character and the darkangel!
Overall, it wasn't that bad of a book, it just didn't meet my expectations: I just wish the story had been told a bit better. This book would maybe be better to check out at the library, instead of spending money on it. Right now, I am reading the second one, which I hope will turn out better.
Rating: 
Summary: A True Disappointment
Review: I, too, was sucked into reading this trilogy because of the many glowing reviews of this book. I was expecting something spectacular, especially since I absolutely loved "The Woman Who Loved Reindeer." While the premise was alluring--vampires of the soul, gothic romance, dark velvet landscape--the execution of the novel was truly disappointing. Aeriel is an unconvincing and petulant heroine; she does nothing for herself (everything seems to fall conveniently into her lap) and worse, she stubbornly refuses to realize things that are right in front of her very nose ("No, I can't be his sister, that's just impossible!"). I agree with those who say the book is boring; it is boring because the plot is dull and predictable, and the prose does little to hide this fact. Even books with no plot try to make up for it with dazzling prose; Pierce's compound nouns like "earthlight" and "daymonth" only irritate the reader. In essence, nothing at all happens in the first novel, little more happens in the second, and the third is just disappointing. The huge battle scene at the end takes all of maybe five pages, and the climactic confrontation with the evil Witch another two, and the resolution of the novel is wholly unsatisfying. You come out of this book feeling more starved than you began. And for those who ask, Pierce's "daymonth" system means that the time it takes for the sun to travel from east to west is about two weeks (a fortnight) in our time. Two weeks of light and two weeks of darkness makes a month, but the earth has only made one revolution. Thus the daymonth. A confusing and unnecessary complication, I know.
Rating:
Summary: Imagination Challenger
Review: If you like books that challenge your mind, you will love this book. Meredith Ann Pierce is an excellent writer and really gets you involved in the book. If you like fantasy you will love this book. Pick it up today and get lost in a different world.
Rating: 
Summary: Why did I buy this?
Review: It SOUNDED promising, but this book is one of the most boring things I've ever read. There is no emotion, the plot is frustratingly simple, and it's hard to deciede who's stupider- Ariel (a bland, unlikable character we are supposed to believe suddenly becomes a "strong"-but equally boring and stupid-woman in less than ten pages), or the author.
Rating:
Summary: "Darkangel" - An Enchanting Dark Fantasy
Review: Meredith Ann Pierce's "The Darkangel" is the first book in a stylized epic trilogy set in a world that is so dry and thin-aired it can barely support its population - although it manages to do so through magic and machinery. The world has been cursed by the White Witch and her seven unnatural sons, the darkangel vampyres.
Aeriel is a slave, a foreigner in Avarra, the country of her mistress, Eoduin. A marriage is to take place in their village and, as customary, Aeriel and Eoduin are out gathering nectar-flowers for the wedding. Without warning, Darkangel, the dark-winged vampyre, sweeps down upon them and carries off the lovely Eoduin to be his 13th bride. The young slave is blamed by Eoduin's parents for the kidnapping. Now, alone, bereft, without her lady, who has also been her beloved companion since infancy, Aeriel seeks to be taken by the same Darkangel in order to find and avenge her mistress. Returning to the scene of the kidnapping, she sees the face of the Darkangel for the first time when he comes to take her to care for his thirteen wraithlike wives, including Eoduin. Aeriel is awed. "Then he opened his wings, and Aeriel found she could not move for wonder. Before her stood the most beautiful youth she had seen. His skin was pale and white as lightning, with a radiance that faintly lit the air. His eyes were clear and colorless as ice. His hair was long and silver, and about his throat he wore a chain: on fourteen of the links hung little vials of lead."
Darkangel flies Aeriel to his gargoyle guarded castle. Her task is to weave clothes for the thirteen wraiths. Although once beautiful young women, as each becomes the Darkangel's bride, she, overnight, turns into a withered creature with no blood, no heart, and no soul. All their souls hang around their husband's neck in vials of lead, to be given to the Water Witch, a lorelei, after he collects just one more. In only twelve months, the last bride will be taken and he will become the true seventh vampyre son.
Aeriel's dilemma is whether to destroy her vampyre master for his evil deeds or to save him for the sake of his beauty. She has seen a spark of greatness through the ugliness of his spirit. The miserable wraiths and Talb, a dwarf-like man who lives underground, convince Aeriel to kill him. They have been victims for a long and terrible time. So, she sets off on a dangerous quest, (aren't they all?), to find what is necessary to rid the world of the monster.
Filled with faery legends and lore, this is both a fascinating myth-like tale and a dark romance. The icarus vampire shines here as dark goth hero. He himself has been cursed by the Water Witch to live with a heart of lead. "Darkangel" is an enchanting novel geared for ages 12 and up, but so elegantly written that most adults who like fantasy should enjoy it immensely. I did.
JANA
|
