Chains of Darkness, Chains of Light [Paperback]

As another reviewer has noted this is a very difficulty series to read...lots of loss and death and very little hope for the victory of the hero. However, if you slog through the depressing interludes there is a fairly interesting love story. Seen as a whole, the series details the path of this star-crossed romance (for it is very much a Romeo and Juliet make-over) as well as the struggle our heroine endures as she seeks the will of her god.

In this struggle between good and evil (and believe me, the author presents the extremes of both) there is little doubt in the reader's mind who the victorious party should be. The heroine is the embodiment of good trying to triumph over darkness, and her god is all that is loving and generous. The antithesis of the light, the "darkheart", is nothing but suffering, torture, blood sacrifice, and slavery. Yet after 4 books of presenting this dichotomy Ms Sagara wraps it all up in some cosmic "two-sides of the same coin" jargon. In the end she brings the light and dark gods together to form a gray-god and the reader is supposed to be satisfied. All the suffering and all the death of the faithful, good people is suddenly made right by this divine fusion.... I don't think so! The new god that the end of the book reveals is equal parts good and evil...where is the triumph in that? He is nothing more than a glorified, middling man.... and that is nothing but a disappointment. It might have worked if Ms Sagara had not spent 4 long books extolling the virtues of the Light and condemning the wickedness of the Dark. But as it is, the reader can only feel cheated and thwarted.

Lastly, the author tries to make up for this appalling lack of closure by uniting the doomed lovers. She strips them of all the hindrances to their love (in essence, their loyalty to and power from the Light and the Dark), and as common humans they can have the love formally denied them. As an ending it lacks conviction...what people who had experienced the MORE of divine patronage and power that these two had would be content with a lesser existence? I am not convinced that any love would be balm enough to make it right.

In fairness, I liked the books up until the very end. But I get the feeling that Ms Sagara had come as far as she could without beating the horse to death, and she reached an impasse. It is my opinion that there was no logical or graceful way for her to wrap her story up and she chose the easiest route possible. Otherwise there is no explanation for the lengthy efforts she went to to convince us of the indelible goodness of the light and the absolute perfidy of the dark, if she intended all along to unite them into one grey, disappointing god.

Imagine God "sundered" in two, one side dark, one side light. Man is caught in the middle. That is the basis of the Sundered series, and in the first three books you are invited to watch as the "good" side loses the war with only a small contingency of good remaining. The only tiny ray of hope left is that the chief villain, Stefanos, has a spark of love for Erin (Sara), the only remaining warrior of the light. Both are chained to their separate sides of the conflict, neither can give in to their feelings without destroying their followers, betraying their "God" and losing the war. This is their final battle, and the outcome is not easy.

Be warned, this is a difficult series to read. Very dark, very emotional, a good vs evil epic saga where the good guys rarely win. Evil is always stronger, simply because they have no rules. Virtue being its own reward will generally get you killed. Ironically, a clear winner will be a loss for both, pure evil can't sustain itself without an enemy, without the darkness, light becomes superfluous.

This is not a standalone book, the preceding three books need to be read to understand the depth of the conclusion. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, horrific torture scenes, mild sex, and you may have to put the books down several times or risk serious depression.

Absolutely PERFECT! The entire series is awesome. For those who complain about the ending, they're crazy. The ending is perfectly romantic and fitting. I initially bought the first book figuring if I'd like it I'd buy all the others...well, after finishing it the first thing I did was order the other ones. They did not disappoint. Wonderful wonderful books that I will reread many times in the future.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 10 reviews  4.5 out of 5 stars