The Dark Moon: The Guardian Cycle Book One Reviews

This is the first book in The Guardian Cycle pentalogy (before The Jasper Forest, The Crystal Desert, The Red Glacier and Alyssa's Ring).

In Makhaya, on the Floating Islands, Empress Adina is about to give birth to her first heir. As prophecied in the Tindaya Code, a child born under a special lunar conjuction, the alignment of the Red, White, Amber and Dark Moons, is to become the Guardian, the hero that will save the world from a terrible disaster supposed to happen on the next alignment, seventy-five years later. But children born under this conjunction are usually crippled, and when the infant is finally extracted from his mother's womb, what a relief it is to see that he is in perfect health. However the Empress's joy doesn't last long, as she realizes her labour is not over yet, and gives birth to a second, badly misshapen child with strange glittering eyes. Believing this twin is an ill omen, and the incarnation of evil, she orders him to be taken away, his existence kept secret forever.

Fourteen years later, the crippled boy Terrel is living in a madhouse in Havenmoon with his friends Alyssa, a girl who can see into other people's dreams, and Elam, a young boy who's been arrested for stealing potatoes when the moon conjunction was not right for harvesting. Indeed, the whole Floating Island society is dictated by the Seers, astrologers who set up rules and taboos, according to the positions, waxings and wanings of the four moons. Their task is also to calculate the timing of the numerous earthquakes caused by the moons.

One day though, a strange, unexplained earth tremor occurs, opening a breach in the wall of Havenmoon's abandoned necropolis. Terrel and his friends go and explore the forbidden cemetary, where they find an old observatory and a library. Soon after this event, Terrel recieves his first visit in fourteen years. It is Shahan, a Seer of Makhaya, who tells him about the Prophecy of the Guardian, in which he believes Terrel might have a role to play. The boy also learns that due to the last earthquake, the Dark Moon has apparently left its orbit and that as a result, the next alignment should occur sooner than expected.

As another consequence, soldiers are now arresting everyone who's breaking a taboo under the new conjunction, as well as everyone who would have if the moons hadn't moved, and soon Havenmoon is crammed with prisoners. One day, soldiers try to rape Alyssa, but she defends herself with strange invisible forces. Believing she's a witch, they lock her up in a dungeon cell. When the old necropolis is about to be filled with prisoners, Terrel wants to save the books he found there. He and Elam manage to get out of the madhouse after cerfew, and on their way back, Terrel wants to check on his friend Alyssa. But Elam is caught, and Terrel has no choice but to escape if he wants to survive. In a dream that night, Terrel promises Alyssa that he'll come back to save her.

Looking for food and shelter in the countryside is not easy, the more so as Terrel often scares people off with his crippled right arm and leg and strange eyes. But realizing that he can feel earthquakes before they actually happen, he uses this strange ability to help a farmer save his herd. Finally accepted as farm hand, he then works another miracle and helps a cow and her calf in a difficult delivery. However, people start to become suspicious. Could he be the Enchanter from the legends? And when one night, Terrel is caught talking to an owl, he knows he can no longer stay on the farm.

The owl's mind was in fact controlled by Alyssa. Having the intuition that Terrel has a great part to play for the future of the Floating Islands, and having heard of rumours of a monster killing miners in Betancuria, she urges him to go there.

As you can guess by the length of this introduction, many unexpected twists and turns happen in The Dark Moon. In this first volume, we follow Terrel as he makes his way to the mines, meeting a pedlar who teaches him how to disguise his eyes using the "glamour", then travelling with a troupe of actors, all the while accompanied by Alyssa in the form of various animals, learning about what he's supposed to do once he gets there. And meanwhile in Makhaya, the Seers are calculating the new positions of the moons, as Prince Jax and his mother Adina's thirst for power is growing.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I was expecting more straightforward Sword & Sorcery fantasy, but it's actually pretty well written and full of interesting and likeable characters. The story hooks you right from the first page on, and until the last one. I noticed I have a tendency to love Orphan Boy & Prophecy plots, and once again, I thoroughly enjoyed this one.