The Invisible Order: Rise of the Darklings review
Thanks to authors like Neil Gaiman, JK Rowling and Rick Riordan, there’s no longer any shame in being an adult who enjoys reading youth fantasy fiction. Sometimes you just have to get away from stylistically trying, thematically dense texts and simplify things a bit – return to the escapist fun, and imaginative potential, of reading.
South African based author Paul Crilley offers just that in Rise of the Darklings, the first instalment in his new juvenile fantasy trilogy – The Invisible Order. Set in Victorian London, Rise of the Darklings centres on 12 year old Emily Snow, who has had to grow up very quickly after the disappearance of her parents. Emily treads the streets of London from before dawn, selling watercress to support herself and her 9 year old brother, William. One morning though, Emily stumbles across something she never expected: a back alley battle between piskies. Suddenly our heroine is drawn into a war between fey clans, as well as the centuries’ old secret struggle between the fey and mankind for control of our realm of existence.
Rise of the Darklings unfolds at breakneck speed, covering just 3 days in Emily’s life. Joined by teenage thief and confidante, Spring-heeled Jack, as well as cantankerous piskie Corrigan, Emily must solve a riddle that leads to a powerful treasure wanted by all sides in the war. In the process Emily explores various secret fey enclaves in London – not dissimilar a lot of them to the troll market in Hellboy II: The Golden Army – and finds herself struggling to trust various scheming adults, including the fey Queen; her male equivalent, the Dagda; as well as operatives for the Invisible Order, a human group established by Christopher Wren to fight the fey.
Rise of the Darklings is a surprisingly, well, dark tale (these are NOT nice fairies!) that mixes fantasy, folklore and historical fact. If it can be described as anything the book feels like a mix of Neil Gaiman, JK Rowling, Philip Pullman, Dan Brown, Charles Dickens and, given a completely unexpected twist at the end, even a tiny little bit of Michael Crichton.
Of course, no author wants to simply sit in the shadow of others, and suffer constant comparisons to high profile writers. Every author wants to have their own distinct literary identity. In Crilley’s case he’s distinguished from the big names above by his superior writing style, which is simple but nonetheless vivid and emotive. Consider the following 2 extracts from Rise of the Darklings:
Frankly, I would love to see The Invisible Order given a graphic novel treatment.
It also doesn’t hurt Rise of the Darklings that Emily Snow is such a great lead character – a strong willed, courageous and resourceful young woman, who still harbours a secret vulnerability; a susceptibility to temptation that makes her likeably identifiable.
In fact, it’s worth mentioning at this point that one of the best things about the novel is its characterisations on the whole. The magical supporting cast is perhaps a tad overstuffed for my liking, but it’s impossible not to smirk along with grouchy Corrigan for example. I also now have a special place in my heart for the sinister waterside duo of Black Annis and Jenny Greenteeth, who Crilley has plucked from the more obscure fringes of British folklore (I didn’t know about them at least) and placed front and centre on his pages.
Very freaky Jenny Greenteeth art found on the Net.
Finally, if I have any serious complaint about Rise of the Darklings it’s that readers have a very long wait for sequel The Fire King, which will only release in August next year. This is especially frustrating since the first of The Invisible Order series ends on one mother of a cliffhanger. Without revealing anything, it will be interesting to see how Crilley handles, as well as describes, Emily and her friends in their vastly changed, unfamiliar surroundings.
The Invisible Order: Rise of the Darklings has been nominated for a 2010 Cybil Award in the Fantasy/Science Fiction category. You can read the first 3 chapters of the book here and buy it in hardcover, paperback, e-book and audio format from all major online book sellers, in South Africa and abroad.
South African based author Paul Crilley offers just that in Rise of the Darklings, the first instalment in his new juvenile fantasy trilogy – The Invisible Order. Set in Victorian London, Rise of the Darklings centres on 12 year old Emily Snow, who has had to grow up very quickly after the disappearance of her parents. Emily treads the streets of London from before dawn, selling watercress to support herself and her 9 year old brother, William. One morning though, Emily stumbles across something she never expected: a back alley battle between piskies. Suddenly our heroine is drawn into a war between fey clans, as well as the centuries’ old secret struggle between the fey and mankind for control of our realm of existence.
Rise of the Darklings unfolds at breakneck speed, covering just 3 days in Emily’s life. Joined by teenage thief and confidante, Spring-heeled Jack, as well as cantankerous piskie Corrigan, Emily must solve a riddle that leads to a powerful treasure wanted by all sides in the war. In the process Emily explores various secret fey enclaves in London – not dissimilar a lot of them to the troll market in Hellboy II: The Golden Army – and finds herself struggling to trust various scheming adults, including the fey Queen; her male equivalent, the Dagda; as well as operatives for the Invisible Order, a human group established by Christopher Wren to fight the fey.
Rise of the Darklings is a surprisingly, well, dark tale (these are NOT nice fairies!) that mixes fantasy, folklore and historical fact. If it can be described as anything the book feels like a mix of Neil Gaiman, JK Rowling, Philip Pullman, Dan Brown, Charles Dickens and, given a completely unexpected twist at the end, even a tiny little bit of Michael Crichton.
Of course, no author wants to simply sit in the shadow of others, and suffer constant comparisons to high profile writers. Every author wants to have their own distinct literary identity. In Crilley’s case he’s distinguished from the big names above by his superior writing style, which is simple but nonetheless vivid and emotive. Consider the following 2 extracts from Rise of the Darklings:
He reached out for Emily, and for a brief moment she thought he was reaching for the satchel. Before she could stop herself, her hand clamped over the pocket where she’d hidden it. Ravenhill smiled, and it was one of the scariest smiles Emily had ever seen. It split his face open like a wound.
“Miss Snow,” he said, and Emily could hear the tremor in his voice, the barely suppressed excitement. “Are you concealing something from us?”
……………
The fog was even thicker now. It enfolded Emily in a claustrophobic embrace, tendrils of dampness brushing against her face like the chill fingers of the dead. Her world was reduced to an eerie, muffled circle of pale yellow-gray.
Frankly, I would love to see The Invisible Order given a graphic novel treatment.
It also doesn’t hurt Rise of the Darklings that Emily Snow is such a great lead character – a strong willed, courageous and resourceful young woman, who still harbours a secret vulnerability; a susceptibility to temptation that makes her likeably identifiable.
In fact, it’s worth mentioning at this point that one of the best things about the novel is its characterisations on the whole. The magical supporting cast is perhaps a tad overstuffed for my liking, but it’s impossible not to smirk along with grouchy Corrigan for example. I also now have a special place in my heart for the sinister waterside duo of Black Annis and Jenny Greenteeth, who Crilley has plucked from the more obscure fringes of British folklore (I didn’t know about them at least) and placed front and centre on his pages.
Very freaky Jenny Greenteeth art found on the Net.Finally, if I have any serious complaint about Rise of the Darklings it’s that readers have a very long wait for sequel The Fire King, which will only release in August next year. This is especially frustrating since the first of The Invisible Order series ends on one mother of a cliffhanger. Without revealing anything, it will be interesting to see how Crilley handles, as well as describes, Emily and her friends in their vastly changed, unfamiliar surroundings.
The Invisible Order: Rise of the Darklings has been nominated for a 2010 Cybil Award in the Fantasy/Science Fiction category. You can read the first 3 chapters of the book here and buy it in hardcover, paperback, e-book and audio format from all major online book sellers, in South Africa and abroad.
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