There Will Come A Darkness: Prophecy Chaos

Hey Bookworm friends, I haven’t had any hot off-the-press reviews for you in a while but I’m remedying that today! I recently finished a buddy read of There Will Come a Darkness and have very mixed feelings, which I’ll break down below.

About There Will Come A Darkness

Synopsis

A prince exiled from his kingdom.
A ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand.
A once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart.
A reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone.
And a dying girl on the verge of giving up.

A prophecy foretells the approaching Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet. Each of these individuals holds the potential to save or destroy the world...

My Review

Let’s start with the negatives so I can end on a happy note 😛. I’m typically a fan of multiple POVs but I didn’t think they were utilized wisely in this case. The book follows one POV for each of its 5 main characters but the main issue is that they change often and at odd times, which only serves to take the wind out of the narrative’s sails. The small bits of tension that managed to be built up in each short chapter were immediately deflated at the start of the next one. As a result, I’m not particularly emotionally attached to any of the MCs and I wish the author had kept up the momentum during several impactful moments. Additionally, some of the characters’ plotlines intersect early on in the book and, for me, it’s almost like various POVs are pointless in those instances.

“Those who cannot own their choices will always be mastered by fate.”

This story is marketed as Greco-Roman inspired but I didn’t feel that in the atmosphere. Sure, the map included is of the Mediterranean Sea and some place names, like ‘Pallas Athos’ are Greek. And fine, there is a lighthouse…but those nods feel like stickers placed overtop a generic world. The plot could have happened in any fantasy world and it wouldn’t have made a difference. In a 400+ page fantasy book, it’s not unreasonable to expect a fully realized setting so I was disappointed.

Sometimes the dialogue felt cringy and clunky in the way that characters would talk about things they both already know for the benefit of the reader, for some exposition. Luckily it didn’t do it a lot but it did it enough for me to notice and be slightly annoyed by it.

“The deceiver ensnares the world with lies,
To death’s pale hand the wicked fall,
That which sleeps in the dust shall rise,
And in their wake will come a darkness.”

For me, a couple of things saved this book. The first is the delivery of the premise. Not knowing if any one character’s actions would eventually doom or save the world was so fun! I enjoyed partially distrusting everyone because even benevolent-seeming actions could potentially have disastrous consequences. I thought the author played around with the interpretations of the prophecy in a satisfying manner. The second, and biggest, strength of this book is the plot. The betrayals and surprises caught me off guard, and the action in the latter half of the book was extremely exciting! If it weren’t for the plot I would have rated this book much lower.

Final Thoughts On There Will Come A Darkness & Rating

I’m still debating on whether I want to continue the series but I did have fun overall! There’s also a side character who appears to be orchestrating things behind the scenes, and I want to uncover their role in all of this prophecy chaos. 🕵️‍♀️ A friend told me that you grow to connect with the characters more throughout the rest of the trilogy and that the audiobooks are fantastic. So I might decide to finish the adventure via audio.

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