Critique: Dark Fire (Chris D’Lacey)

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

There were plenty of positives in this book: the author’s upped his game from the last two instalments.

All dragons’ names start with a ‘G’ because ‘To have the sign of Godith on your breath is a mark of respect.

In the previous book, Henry gave Alexa cardboard cut-out fairies. For Henry’s funeral, Alexa wears one. So sweet.

Henry’s solicitors are from ‘Hamilton, Portley and Smythe’. Lucy assumes the one in front of her is Portley because he’s fat. Funny.

We finally learn the anatomy that kept the Pennykettles away from hospitals! It’s a really interesting idea and it would be a shame to spoil it.

Lucy’s friend Melanie comes to visit and Bonnington morphs. ‘And Melanie Cartwright turned into a faint.’ That had me giggling.

The descriptions of white fire becoming strands of flesh for the unicorn were beautiful. Top-notch writing.

 

There are multiple inconsistencies between this book and the previous ones. One or two I could have overlooked but there were just too many here.

As the shaman Taliriktug is dying, he sneers penicillin. Yet the last time we saw him, he revelled in western things. Why the sudden change?

Arthur says dragontongue is akin to Gaelix. In previous books it’s described as the sacred language of the Inuit shamans. Inuit shamanic language and Gaelic are nothing alike.

It says that Gruffen remembers Glade. But Gruffen was newly made when David first arrived at Wayward Crescent so Melanie must have been given Glade after David arrived. Yet it says that most of the dragons had never seen a mood dragon before: if the new Gruffen has then all the others certainly have as well! This is especially considering Liz made no new special dragons after Gadzooks and probably 99% of all dragons in the house were made by Liz.

The author writes ‘Ms Ghee’ but in previous books he uses ‘Mizz’ instead of ‘Ms’. Why the sudden change?

Gawaine’s urine washes over the sybil Ms Ghee which dissolves her clothes and flesh yet for some reason not her bones. Also, she’s a sybil so she’s either a descendent of Gwilanna or another Premen. As Ms Ghee is with Bella, a descendent of Guinevere, it’s safe to assume Ms Ghee is, too. Thus surely she should be protected from being hurt by Gawaine like Lucy and Bella?

Gwilanna says the descendants of Guinevere were born through a quickened egg, never a natural birth. Yet we know Gwendolen was born from an egg and we know Gwendolen had natural descendants via birth. Gwilanna knows this because she was surprised Zanna, a natural born, had powers.

 

A lot of moments made you and just think, ‘What?’

Arthur thinks writing with the dragon claw created David. Indeed, Arthur and Liz were meant to have a child long ago: David. The thing is, in this scenario David would be younger than Lucy, which he isn’t.

Rupert wags ‘a finger in promise’. I don’t understand what’s going on there.

The semi-darklings are scaring the pottery dragons to turn their firetears into dark fire. But if it was this easy, why has the Ix not done it before?

David goes to Africa and everyone keeps on saying ‘man’ like a Californian surfer dude.

David tells Mutu, ‘I didn’t tell you what I would do with the dragon.’ Um, he didn’t ask so this was pointless.

David renames Ix:risor as Comm: Ix or Cluster. Having all these synonyms is rather pointless. From here-on-out, ‘Cluster’ is the preferred term.

Lucy says, ‘You’d better carry me, Farrell, if I turn an ankle.’ Makes Tam roar laugh and says lucy as witty… but why? Farrell can mean man of courage/hero but really this seems too tenuous.

David speaks Gwillan’s name in dragontongue. Wouldn’t it just be the same?

Joseph Henry’s auma is inside Gwillan. They ask how Gwillan is, even though Gwillan is dead. Joseph Henry also says he’s happy to be addressed as ‘Gwillan’. This all adds unnecessary confusion. Stick to one name and preferably the name of the one who’s actually still alive: Joseph Henry.

Gawaine kills Hannah but why?

Gawaine needs the unicorn to free her from under the ground. But why? It makes no sense and isn’t explained.

Gawaine’s fire doesn’t burn Lucy or her stuff. Lucy being protected I understand but why her stuff?

The semi-darkling drinks Lucy’s tear and this somehow turns it into a darkling with the ability of very quick parthogenesis. How did the author figure this one out?

The dark fire from Joseph Henry kills Gwilanna (why?) then somehow uses Alexa’s unicorn figuring as a portal to the real unicorn (how?)

How could one tiny dark fire tear invert the entirety of the Fire Eternal? Then Gadzooks somehow catches it with his pencil. There’s been no reason given why this should be possible.

 

There were an unfortunate amount of grammar and punctuation mistakes.

When Z runs a new age shop, quotation marks are around ‘new age’. Why?

Writes ‘darkling’. In previous books, it always starts with a capital. Is this a lack of consistency or a correction?

Zanna says ‘You still haven’t told me what you want?’ This is a statement, not a question, so the question mark is pointless.

We have Zanna’s speech and prose ending with David saying (about Sophie), ‘She’s dead.’ Should be separate.

‘Sweeping a path through the enquiring dragons, most of whom had never seen a mood dragon before (though Gruffen remembered her from years ago) David put Glade on the work bench…’ It should’ve been comma after bracket to enclose a clause.

‘She slammed her foot down hard on the gas.’ Um, it’s set in the UK and written by someone British. Why on Earth did the editors let ‘gas’ appear in this context?

 

Another mistake was made in regards to Bonnington’s morphing abilities. It says he likes to transform into many species like a ‘black panther’. All panthers are black: that’s what makes them panthers. Further, ‘panther’ isn’t a species but is the black morph of any species in the genus Panthera.

The story ends in a dramatic way. Well, the synopsis is dramatic: how it turned out in the book was lack lustre. The dragon queen Gawaine was meant to draw the Ix into her and then enter the Fire Eternal to destroy the Ix. Instead the unicorn Teramelle sealed her underground. When Gawaine’s awakened, she goes through with it. However, the dark fire (that had been inside Joseph Henry, Liz’s foetus) enters Teramelle who also enters the Fire Eternal. This inverts the Fire Eternal and thousands of Ix come pouring out.

 

So whilst the good bits were the author upping his game, the mistakes were the editors lowering theirs. It’s such a shame because these books have so much potential. In this book there were less things going on so the plot flowed more smoothly than in the past.