Darkfall

A weird and original fantasy novel, very much of the late 1990s and early 2000s period. This novel seems a very genuine and earnest attempt to blend slipstream postmodernism with epic fantasy, with a stunningly original portal fantasy mirror world, a bunch of islands each with their own sept of magic, and two girls from Earth who end up lost in this parallel world.

As modern as the premise might seem, it felt dated and not very well done. The prose is from an era where urgency and snap was far less important, and it luxuriates in purple without being particularly well crafted or aesthetically pleasing. For a book that has little pace, it's not very character-driven: it's got some semblance of a plot, but the main point of the book is really the worldbuilding and misty aesthetic of the whole thing, not really any sort of genre storyline. It's a patient story that could probably afford to be less patient - we spend possibly the first 60% of the book in exposition for both characters, and the travel and minimal conflict really only begin in the last quarter of the book. The interludes and epigraphs that color the narrative were confusing and unnecessary, and seemed to me an attempt to be somewhat literary (again, for the time, very cool!).

There are some very cool ideas in this book that just don't pop off the page very well because of the vibey mess that the narration creates. I might be interested in reading the second book to see if these clarify themselves with a little bit more plot setup, but it will be on a short leash.

Rating: 5.5/10.