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Summary: Finally back in print!
Review: I 1st was introduced to this book as a 3-n-1 entitled “The Dark Angel Trilogy” when I was in Jr. High School close to 15 years ago. I had read it twice (all 3) before the friend that let me borrow her book moved out of state. It has taken me YEARS to finally fined a copy of all three (they no longer publish it as one book). I’ve always been fascinated with vampires and Meredith Ann Pierce’s description of vampires is entirely unique. For a YA series these books had a lot of character depth in exciting yet heart-wrenching tale of one peasant’s journey into saving her mistress, herself, her captor, & not to mention the world. Most everyone else will give you details of the book. I’ll simply tell you that this series had such an effect on me that I wept when I finally had copies of all three books after 15+ years of searching …
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Summary: I'm 25 and LOVED this story!
Review: I didn't realize at first when I bought this book it was a young adult book! Why do all the young adults get some of the best stories these days? Anyway, this has to be my favorite book so far. I'm a Harry Potter fan and love this book as much as I love HP. I'm reading into the 2nd book now and have the third and can't put it down! I even got my best friend a copy to read. The Dark Angel's lure is also felt with readers. Along with the Dark Angel, all of the characters are enduring and quick to get to your heart. You feel for Pierce's characters and even feel all the emotions Aeriel is feeling. The ending was my favorite part, the Wraiths/13 Brides are truely funny and how the characters change and grow in this book just amazes me. I LOVE IT! I haven't read a good fantasy novel like this in a long time, the good ones are hard to find and I just simply ate it up. You will not be able to put it down, trust me!
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Summary: surely one of my favorite books of all times
Review: I found this title when I saw a list of Magic Carpet Books on the back of a novel. I started reading The Darkangel because the summary sounded interesting. Sure enough, the book had a very early narrative-hook (and more as the story went on), and I just had to read it through in one day. Meredith Ann Pierce superbly accounts a story about a young slave, Aeriel, looking to find revenge for her beautiful mistress, Eoduin, who was captured and taken as a bride by the darkangel. Instead, she finds adventure, mystery, and a dash of romance along the way. There's just enough twists to make the plot interesting and intricate, but not too complicated. Anyone who likes romantic fantasies will fall in love with The Darkangel.
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Summary: Young Adult
Review: I re-read this trilogy (The Darkangel, A Gathering of Gargoyles, and The Pearl of the Soul of the World) every so often and even though I know exactly what's going to happen, every time I find myself enchanted all over again. However, Meredith Ann Pierce doesn't explain everything to the nth degree. Instead, you have to listen to her language and figure things out for yourself. This trilogy isn't for your run-of-the-mill fantasy reader who looks only for a thinly disguised re-hash of Tolkien. It's startling and original, fey and luminous, absolutely enchanting.As for the negative reviews: (1) those of you who find these books "boring" must have no ear for language or no sense of the numinous, or your ideal fantasy is something of the "sword and sorcery" genre; (2) a whole lot of you don't seem to get that this trilogy takes place in the *way far* future ON THE MOON!!! That's what the "daymonth" and "earthlight" things are about. Re-read it if you don't believe me -- particularly the parts about the ancients "who had first fallen from the sky in fire to quicken this, a then-dead world, the moon of Oceanus, into life.." then returned whence they came, back to Oceanus (the Earth). "Oceanus hung, a swirl of blue and white, almost directly ahead of her..." Doesn't that put you in mind of that famous photograph (I think it's called "Earthrise") taken of the Earth by one of the astronauts?
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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.
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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.)
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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.
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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
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Summary: READ THIS SERIES! It's absolutely MAGICAL.
Review: Not only is this books series captivating and realistic, it has everything that makes up a classic; a great plot, a great villain--and a MAGINIFICENT heroine. You get caught up in the reading and you're really sorry when it ends...I hope that Meredith Ann Pierce plans to write another book for all our sakes, and that the story doesn't stop here...the ending in "The Pearl of the Soul of the World" really gets to you, and you'll need a box of kleenex. You'll laugh, cry, and never forget this marvelous masterpiece in young adult fantasy/science fiction. This is my all-time favorite book series, and if you read it and it doesn't become your favorite, I guarantee you'll still have memories from it when your ninety. "The Darkangel Trilogy" will bring out the many sides of you as it catches you and suspends you in it's lyrical telling.
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Summary: Great....but utterly AWFUL!
Review: The book starts off slow and ends abruptly. The plot inches along slowly, but the language and the characters enticing you to read more...until finally you're at the end...and that's it. The end is short and sloppy. After I read this book I was very angry that a book could be left in such a place...so many loose ends. How was that done again? - She did WHAT? Very sloppy...but the story its self demands to be read. If you can stand your own anger at the ending...the book is decent enough.
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