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Title | The Darkangel
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Author | Meredith Ann Pierce
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Cover Art | Kinuko Craft
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Publisher | Tor - 1984
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First Printing | 1982
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Title | A Gathering of Gargoyles
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Author | Meredith Ann Pierce
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Cover Art | Kinuko Craft
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Publisher | Tor - 1985
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First Printing | 1984
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Title | The Pearl of the Soul of the World
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Author | Meredith Ann Pierce
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Cover Art | Ryan McVay
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Publisher | Little, Brown and Company - 2008
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First Printing | 1990
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Category | Fantasy
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Warnings | None
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Main Characters | Aeriel, Irrylath, Erin
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Main Elements | Vampire/Angels, Sorceress, Dwarves
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Website | ---
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 The Darkangel
Aeriel is kidnapped by the darkangel, a black-winged vampyre of astounding beauty and youth. In his castle keep, she serves his 13 wives, wraiths whose souls he stole. She must kill him before his next marriage and comes into full power, but is captivated by his magnificent beauty and inner spark of goodness. Will she choose to save humanity or his soul?
A Gathering of Gargoyles
The first portion of the riddle of Ravenna is solved, and Aeriel has broken the evil spell cast upon the darkangel Irrylath and made him mortal again. Weaving the darkangel's black feathers into a throw and spreading it to the winds, they have flown across the Sea-of-Dust into the safety of Isternes.
But Aeriel cannot rest. The evil White Witch still holds a grasp on Irrylath - and her other dark sons continue to scourge the land of Avaric.
Now the second part of Ravenna's riddle is given to Aeriel. Driven by an unknown force into unseen dangers, Aeriel embarks on a dangerous journey across the dust-deep sea - back to Avaric - to once more face the blood-hungry darkangels...and the powerful evil of the dreaded White Witch.
The Pearl of the Soul of the World
Aeriel has rescued the winged vampyre Irrylath, gathered a loyal band of allies, and awakened the guardian protectors of the world. Now, armed with a magical pearl imbued with all the sorcery and wisdom of the ancient goddess Ravenna, Aeriel must finally come face-to-face with the evil White Witch. Aided by the former darkangel and their army of good, can Aeriel unlock the power of the pearl and awaken her true destiny?
The moment I saw the cover of my edition I loved the book. The pale white eyed vampire with great black wings snatching Aeriel away was so beautiful and haunting. Over the years I tracked down the other two books, and then this year, with my reading theme of gods/angels/demons it was the perfect time to step into another world.
Or should I say travel to another world? It was a great surprise to me to discover that this trilogy takes place on our very own Moon. At some point in time we create a colony there, and teraform it, at least to the extent of creating creatures that can survive the low gravity, atmosphere and temperatures. Humans still had to live in domed cities, at least they did until they all returned to Earth leaving the Moon's inhabitants to evolve on their own.
But I wouldn't call this science fiction, while the creatures there were "created" by the colonists, there does seem to be actual magic at play, certainly no attempt to explain things through technology. Which is good, because this was a book of magic indeed, a dream come to life.
The first book was everything I hoped it would be. The Darkangel is beautiful and evil and strangely innocent, collecting the souls of thirteen brides. Aeriel is taken to be a handmaiden, and to weave a bridal gown for the fourteenth and final bride, a gown woven out of emotion for there is no wool or flax here. It was eerie, from the wraith-like wives who without souls could not remember their names, and the guardian gargoyles in a dark castle tower. A dark fairy tale set in the distant future a world away. As I was reading I was thinking that people that liked The Riddle-Master of Hed would probably like this. It was written in the 80's and there is something about the fantasy that was written in that time that is different from our modern stuff. The world building may make a little less sense, but something about the way it is written, it feels more real, like you were reading a record of something that actually happened. Or a tale spun by a bard. Sometimes it can feel kind of stuffy compared to the more easily flowing modern texts. More Lord of the Rings than Harry Potter and that may make it feel dated. But in that dated feel is something special too.
The second book has Aeriel travelling the world trying to solve the riddle of the second part of the prophecy. We find out more about this world, how there is little water but you can sail seas of sand as if it were an ocean. The people come in many shades of colours, including mauve and blue. And as usual, a prophecy only makes sense in retrospect. At this point I'm channeling vibes of Baron Munchausen (the movie), what with the trippy scenes where he visits the moon and wild locations and adventures.
The third book I started losing a bit of interest somehow. I don't like the trick of "give the protagonist amnesia and start the book with no idea what's going on". The scene with Ravenna was less than I hoped it would be. And finally while the climax was impressive, the ending caught me off guard. I was diappointed true love didn't win the day, but then, maybe this was a more realistic ending? That even after you save the world, you can't just reap the rewards but you need to keep going since it's never really finished. But I found myself hating Ravenna, finding she was manipulative and potentially evil in her own right so I wasn't feeling good about Aeriel's future even if I understood the importance of the task before her. Plus I kind of felt sorry for Irrylath too, though he often came off as a bit of a wuss where Aeriel had to do everything for him and probably didn't deserve her, but I was going to give him some credit...the White Witch apparently sexually abused him of all things, so one could picture him needing a bit of time to come to terms (especially as she still had a hold on him).
Not enjoying the last book too much aside, I loved this trilogy and it lived up to the etherial look of the covers of the first two books.
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