There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool

The Age of Darkness approaches.
Five lives stand in its way.
Who will stop it... or unleash it?

For generations, the Seven Prophets guided humanity. Using their visions of the future, they ended wars and united nations―until the day, one hundred years ago, when the Prophets disappeared.

All they left behind was one final, secret prophecy, foretelling an Age of Darkness and the birth of a new Prophet who could be the world’s salvation . . . or the cause of its destruction. As chaos takes hold, five souls are set on a collision course:

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.

One of them―or all of them―could break the world. Will they be savior or destroyer? Perfect for fans of Throne of Glass, Children of Blood and Bone, and An Ember in the Ashes.

Review:

There Will Come a Darkness by Katy Rose Pool is so well written. The magic system is unique. I really enjoyed how Pool put everything together. I would like to start with the magic because I think it helps put everything together. First off there are people in this world that have special abilities. People that have these abilities are considered to be graced.

The Four Bodily Graces:

- The Grace of Heart - Enhances strength, agility, speed, and senses (Elite Fighters)
- The Grace of Blood - Gives and takes energy to heal or harm (Healers)
- The Grace of Mind - Creates objects imbued with unique properties (Alchemists and Artificers)
- The Grace of Sight - Senses and located living beings (Scryers)

This world that we dive into seems to be a very religious one. The world believes in prophets that guide people. There is a Hierophant that is convinced that Graces are unnatural and that anyone that has a grace should be removed from positions of power. The problem with this is most of the world’s rulers are people that come from families who have been graced. The people that follow the Hierophant that are trying to remove the graces from power are called the Witnesses. These Witness groups attack kingdoms to overthrow the rulers. The goal is to kill the graced. Basically the Witnesses are groups of zeolites. This is the background of what is going on in this world.

The Characters with a point of view:

- Ephyra (The Pale Hand): The Grace of Blood

Ephyra is devoted to her younger sister Beru. All Ephyra is trying to accomplish is to heal her sister. Even if that means causing harm to others. Ephyra is able to steal a person’s Esha (spirit) and put it into her sister to make her live longer. When she does this, it leaves a pale hand on their skin, which is how Ephyra got the nickname The Pale Hand.

- Jude (Captain of The Order of the Last Light)

Jude is definitely an interesting characters to me. He struggles between his duty as captain and trying to be a good friend to his childhood best friend. Once of the biggest things I see in Jude’s character is he doesn’t think he is enough. His first priority is to protect the last prophet.

- Hassan (The Prince)

Hassan is the Prince of Herat. When there was an attack on his kingdom he escaped to go live with his aunt. All he really wants is to return home and save his kingdom from the Witnesses.

- Anton: The Grace of Sight

Anton was bullied by his older brother who was born without grace. Anton believes that is his brother is chasing him down to kill him so Anton stays on the move. He is constantly moving cities and not staying anywhere for long. Since Anton was bullied so bad by his brother, that he refuses to use his grace even if it allows him to sense the esha’s around him.

- Beru

Beru is Ephyra’s little sister. She was brought back to life after falling extremely ill by Ephyra’s grace. In order for Beru to stay alive, Ephyra has to continue to give Beru other people’s Esha. Basically this resurrects Beru every time. Beru’s only concern is her sister. She is afraid that Ephyra is going to lose herself to the darkness.

The Story:

Having five different characters tell this story was a lot. There were a few times that I felt completely lost. We get to know each of the major five characters quite well. We learn that there is a last prophet and a prophecy. This prophecy states there will come a darkness and the last prophet will lead the people to peace. There are five key players (our characters anyone?) that will bring about this darkness.

I really felt that book one was like the prologue for this whole series. Not a whole lot happened in the book but we were given so much information. I am actually slightly hoping that this will be more than a three book series because I feel like there is too many things that need to happen for there to only be two more books. Now don’t get me wrong, I thought this book was great. I just think that it set us up for the series vs actually being the first book in the series.

This cast of characters is great. I am looking forward to getting to know them better with the next book. I would really like to see a plot driven by action and not just telling us who the key players are. I definitely think this will be a series to watch.

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