The Damned
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Average rating3
15
Ratings2
Average rating3
"1914. In the French city of Arras, a Father is brutally murdered. The Catholic Inquisition--still powerful, but now working in the shadows--sends its most determined and unhinged of Inquisitors, Poldek Tacit to investigate: his mission to protect the Church from those who would seek to undermine it, no matter what the cost. As the Inquisitor strives in vain to establish the truth behind the murder and to uncover the motives of other Vatican servants seeking to undermine him, a beautiful and spirited woman, Sandrine, warns British soldier Henry Frost of a mutual foe even more terrible lurking beneath the killing fields, an enemy that answers to no human force and wreaks its havoc by the light of the moon. Faced with impossible odds and his own demons, Tacit must battle the forces of evil, and a church determined at all costs to achieve its aims, to reach the heart of a dark conspiracy that seeks to engulf the world, plunging it ever deeper into conflict"--
Series
2 primary books3 released booksThe Darkest Hand Trilogy is a 3-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2015 with contributions by Tarn Richardson.
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This is a spoiler-free review
Read on In The Sheets
I'll admit going into this book that I was a bit skeptical it could live up to everything it claimed to be, “horror meets fantasy meets historical fiction”. That's never easy to pull off. In reality, it far exceeded every one of my expectations. Throughout the course of the book you can really feel the passion that went into it and tell that it's more than just an awesome book about werewolves, it meant something to the person writing it. Though it's also definitely an awesome book about werewolves!
At first glance, the main character, Poldek Tacit seems like your stereotypical male protagonist. An emotionless brute, hardened over decades of witnessing unspeakable things and atrocities. I'll admit I rolled my eyes a bit at first, but quickly took it back.
Through a series of flashbacks, you really get to know Tacit and how he came to be the way he is. Tarn pulls back each rough layer over the course of the book and reveals a character that has far more substance than I've come to expect from similar works. At times it felt more like it spoke to humanity and what makes people who they are, rather than just a look into who Tacit is and has become.
What does it mean to be human? Are we really that different than the wolves? I often felt myself questioning not only this but also who the real heroes and monsters of the book were.
I want to draw comparisons between The Damned and other novels I've read to give you an idea of what to expect, but that's far more difficult to do than I anticipated. Angels and Demons comes to mind, but only in the sense of Religion and historical accuracy. There's a bit of a Van Helsing vibe, but no vampires. The Damned really is it's own unique thing and unlike any other books I've read.
The plot is thick, fast paced, unique, historically accurate and creative. There's a tonne of setup to what I expect will be an amazing trilogy. On more than one occasion I had to set the book down and think, as it reignited a lot of my historical curiosities. I'd find myself online at 2am reading about the history of the Vatican, the great war and inquisitors, which is not entirely unlike me, but something I haven't done in some time.
In all honesty, I could sit here and talk about the first book in The Darkest Hand trilogy for several more paragraphs, but you should really just go and read it. More than once I was surprised by an unexpected plot development. Also, Sandrine is a bad ass. I really hope to see more of her in the next couple of books. She's a strong female character with a hell of a lot of potential. #TeamSandrine
