This book first came to my attention as a very young teen, and I was instantly enthralled. The elements of time travel, metaphysics and romance captured my attention. It was my first taste of fantasy that was 'easy-to-swallow'. In fact, I begged my best friends boyfriend to let me borrow the additional books in the series and I was captivated all over again.As an adult, reading it all over again the book is quite flawed in the typical ways - one dimensional characters, unrealistic (yes, I know it's fantasy, but even the realistic parts were unrealistic!). It almost reads like a movie script, which I believe was the intent of Traci Harding when she wrote it. The main character, Tory, is so perfect she makes me feel a bit unwell. She's amazingly beautiful (OK, I can handle that), is an expert in tae-kwan-do, brilliant at Brythanic history, and seems to just...accept that she's been transported to the dark ages. All of that I could probably manage, expect that she can be a total b*tch when she wants to be. And wears jeans and steel-capped boots underneath her beautiful medieval gowns. I can't handle that at all! Don't ask me to tell you why, I don't know.That aside, I will still rate this as one of my all-time-faves. Simply because it made me interested in a whole realm of different subjects. It is a very, very, very easy to read book and the premise and plot is different. I just wish there was more development of the characters, and they weren't to cut-and-paste. It just...didn't feel deep enough. I've read some amazing YA books that are written in a manner more suited for publishing. I'd recommend this book to start-out teenagers, and children who are advanced readers. Maybe even adults who are developing a desire to get into reading fiction.Off topic, but I think the other reasons why I was quite obsessed with this book was because Tory was Australian, and she was 27. Which lead me to think 'There's hope for me yet!'. And, I suppose to some extent, there still is!Ultimately, this book made me imagine and dream. It's exciting, fast-paced, and funny.
The No. 1 problem I had with this novel:What people think Old English is: Thou art indeed a fine lad, prithee yonder! Wherefore arest mine pantalones?What it actually is: Syððan ǽrest wearð feasceaft funden, hé þæs frófre gebád, wéox under wolcnum weorðmyndum þáh, oð þæt him ǽghwylc ymbsittendra ofer hron-ráde hýran scolde, gomban gyldan. Þæt wæs gód cyning! pros:* fast paced (there was always something happening in each paragraph)* ancient Wales, need I say more?* hot guys - all incredibly fit* fascinating idea and story-line* unicorns* easy to read cons:* using a broken-fake-ye-olde English when characters are supposedly speaking Old Welsh* minor grammatical errors (maybe not errors per se, but a weird choice of words/syntax/punctuation)* unicorns?!?!* when Harding clarified terms, she'd put them in brackets afterwards (like this) instead of using a glossary at the end, and I felt this broke up the flow of the writing (you see?).* the use of 'here here!' instead of 'hear hear!'* [not sure if I can really call this a 'con' because in a way, it's just a part of the author's tale] the 'New Age' positive energies and horoscope stuff* how everyone just got paired off into these perfect couplings (I guess it sort of makes sense if they're one of those reincarnated ones)* it felt a bit unrealistic when a character would do something a bit shitbloke and then Tory would tell them off - then suddenly they'd see the error of their ways, apologise and promise to be more open-minded/loving/respectful/not shit. Like, is she a god or something? oh wait.
What do You think about The Dark Age (1996)?
When I was in high school, this was one of my favourite books. I'd always been interested in Celtic history and a friend recommended it. At the time I loved it, it had Celtic themes, a strong female character and even though there was time travel (in a somewhat unbelievable circumstance), it was reasonably well done.I had always looked back on it fondly, then I decided to re-read it. While I still enjoyed it, I found a multitude of flaws that had by passed my 14 year old self. Many of the characters were two dimensional, the writing was full of cliches and the archaic language was not well executed. It's a historical fantasy, so some of the (highly) unlikely scenarios I can forgive, but sometimes the writing became so ridiculous I couldn't really take it seriously- and the author's fascination with New Age ideas seemed to verge on attempt at conversion/meditation class at some points.If you're looking for a fast paced and fun adventure and aren't that concerned with believability, then definitely give it a try, but otherwise it's probably far too farfetched. The main character, Tory, while strong and independent, is comepletely unbelievable- a girl from Australia, with a knowledge of obscure Celtic languages (the author does try to explain this by making her father a wealthy professor), a black belt in martial arts, a well trained musician, who even though she is a tomboy is remarkably beautiful and feminine travelling back in time to Dark Ages Wales, where she knew everyone from a past life. Taken with a healthy does of scepticism, its a fun read for a couple of hours, but beyond that, perhaps this was one book best left to my memories of it.
—Lucy
I had seen Traci Harding's books around for some time, and since I enjoy fantasy fiction, a story set in ancient Britain sounded like good company for our family trip to the UK. Indeed, since my family enjoyed the tv series Merlin, I thought they might also enjoy it. Since I was not doing the driving, I read a few chapters as we travelled and was quickly relieved of my initial expectations. Despite being a female protagonist, Tory did not gain any sympathy from my daughters or wife, despite their interest in the general concept behind the storyline. Nor did the attempt to provide a feeling of age by use of thees and thines work (after the initial conversations we had the gist.....). The pace moved quickly, but perhaps too quickly - there are times when the characters afterthoughts are used to backfill missing parts of conversations the author seems to have forgotten. The rise to superhero takes place with barely a struggle, but it takes 200 pages before she realizes that she might have to be careful about what she says in this new time, despite having been a student of the period of history at university.I could go on. I was glad that the story piqued a deeper interest in the history of ancient Wales. But everything felt contrived, poorly planned and lacking any philosophical basis worth considering. Too much good fantasy elsewhere to bother with this one unfortunately.
—Angus Mcfarlane
Okay... So I bought this book at a 50% off sale, and so I figured that I didn't have much to lose. Let's just say I was glad I didn't buy it at full price. I mean... to be fair, the story started off with a lot of potential and I really liked it... but when Tori was teleported into the Dark Ages, it began to drive me nuts. I didn't read the book properly... I did a mini translation in my mind when I read it. I'm sorry, but the dialect used when she visited the past drove me nuts!!!!!! There are
—Juliette
