A 3rd person multi-POV fantasy story with complex, memorable characters, an apocalyptic setting, and Greco-Roman vibes, The Age of Darkness trilogy deserves more love with everything it delivers. Book two, As The Shadow Rises, expands the world and characters we grew to love in the first book, while also upping the stakes for the finale in book three. On top of that, it stands well on its own as a middle book with solid character development and plot twists.

That being said, if it’s been awhile since you read the first book, I would recommend re-reading or brushing up on it before reading the sequel. I was a little fuzzy on the connections between characters and the magic system/world, which made parts of this book a bit difficult to follow.

If you have read the first book and, like me, your favorite element was Jude, Anton, and their budding relationship, this sequel definitely will not disappoint you. Watching their romance blossom as they come to terms with their individual fears and insecurities made my heart melt and seriously was the reason this book left me with a 24-hour book hangover.

Pool also does some amazing character work with Ephyra, the morally gray killer desperate to protect her sister. While I unfortunately didn’t feel as much of a connection to her, or to Beru for that matter, I still appreciated the exploration of Ephyra’s anger and grief. Hassan’s storyline contained some good twists I didn’t see coming, but I found his character slightly unbearable and his chapters felt just as underwhelming as they did in the first book. If it weren’t for Jude and Anton, I most likely would’ve given this book fewer stars.

Honestly, I think this is due to the fact that we don’t get POVs from anyone else in Ephyra, Beru, or Hassan’s storylines, romantic or platonic, to give us perspective on their actions and personalities. We know how Jude feels about Anton, and we know how Anton feels about Jude, and seeing them come together in a beautiful catharsis made it all the more emotional. If you were hoping our ensemble cast would team up to work towards a similar goal in this sequel, you sadly might be disappointed. It plays out similarly to book one in that the characters don’t all collide until the end of the book.

The plot also included some unexpected twists involving side characters from book one. While I thought these twists were interesting additions, Pool introduced some of them so early in the book that they lost some of their shock value

Spoiler

(specifically, Hector and Illya)

. Given these characters’ memorable fates in book one, it was jarring to see them reversed right at the beginning of this book and made the ending of the first book feel a bit cheap. However, these characters did make book two more interesting given their nuanced relationships with our protagonists.

I found some of the dialogue and other elements in this book, such as descriptions of clothing, to be anachronistic enough to pull me out of the story. Like book one, there is still the confusing idea that this world seems to be a fantasy twist on antiquity, yet trains are a common form of transportation. Based on Pool’s writing style, you can definitely tell she learned her craft from a screenwriter as she states in her bio, as this book is mostly dialogue and blocks of action. Descriptions are sparse, and while this didn’t necessarily detract from the book, readers looking for more flowery prose might not appreciate her to-the-point style. I don't even think I could tell you with 100% certainty exactly what our main characters look like.

Lastly, the ending of this book had me on the edge of my seat turning the pages at rapid speed. I had initially planned to stop reading for the night, but once the climax began to unfold I stayed up til I’d finished the final page. I can’t wait to see where the story goes in book 3!

I am really really enjoying this series. The first book was a lot of setup, but this one really expands on all of that. And! The gang's (mostly) together now, I'm so excited for the last one.

This book felt very meandering but when it got to the point I really enjoyed it.

anton and jude's relationship development

This was my favorite book in the series! I felt it was the most action packed with the most plot development. I love how each character is complex and how they’re all connected in this book in particular

The Age of Darkness series is such a tragically slept on series. It's a multi-POV action-adventure series with romance, mystery, heists, morally grey characters, Queer/POC characters, and tons of cool Mediterranean world-building that draws from north Africa, the middle east, and Greeko Roman cultures. It's also significantly more mature than most YA books- and would feel like an adult SFF if it wasn't for it's Six of Crow style "everyone needs a romance" vibe *(which we will get to later)

Anyway, YEY for good sequels!

This was originally marked as a duology, but it looks like this will now be a 3 book series now, which is actually a pretty good thing, since As The Shadow Rises opened a lot more doors into the story. Nearing the end I found myself wondering how it could possibly wrap everything up in what felt like which a middling book.

As the Shadow Rises neatly wraps up There Will Come A Darkness's wild ending, while also being accessible enough that if say, it's been a year since you've read book one, you can still hop back in and be like "OH RIGHT, THAT HAPPENED. It does a great job reintroducing the characters and repurposing them to move to the next stage of their adventure.

As the Shadow Rises is much more heist and Indiana Jones inspired than the political drama/intrigue focused first installation of this series, but the tone shift is earned and welcome- this book is super fast-paced and maintains that momentum to the end. The world is super well built up, with lots of culture and world history bleeding through the dialogue naturally, and since the world is inspired by many cultures instead of being strictly eastern, western, African, etc, the world feels very complete, even with our characters limited worldview.

In terms of story progression for the characters, I am mixed here.

Epherya's plot was way more interesting. Like wow. Every moment with her on-screen was an absolute joy. Her treasure hunting arc made this book.

Beru gets way more love as well, and though her arc is smaller, it's meaningful and emotional.

Hassan was the other show stopper. I was a little iffy that he was going to have one of those weirdly tropy "prince meets members of the lower class and realizes he's been wrong all along" storyline, but it turns out the rebels that he connects with aren't that great either. His storyline is so complex and political, I only wish it was given more attention.

Anton and Jude though? No thanks.


This is one of those "everyone needs to get paired up" books. The good news? It's all slow burn, and some of the couples have bumps in the road ensuring they won't actually get together until the third book if at all. TONS of surprise enemies to lovers- and while Katy Rose Pool actually sets all of these couples up to interact in the first book, I was actually still pleasantly surprised with some of the pairing choices she made because they were decently bold. Most of the POV characters are paired up with non-POV characters and have super interesting storylines with them.

What this results in are VERY STRONG side characters. I have an issue with books that only focus on POV characters and can't create interesting worlds around them. I found myself just as interested in the side characters, especially the romantic ones, as I did the POVs.

These "side character romances" are also..just..REALLY fun.

You have

- Enemies to lovers Reylo style force bond zombie romance
- Enemies to lovers tomb raiding adventure where they don't trust each other but need to keep each other alive.

The main romance is between two of the POV characters (Anton and Jude) and I personally found it insanely draining/boring/made both characters less interesting. Their chapters were actually the low point of the book for me, which is a little disappointing because it is a M/M queer romance, but I think this could have been fixed at least a bit by removing one of their POVs, we didn't need both especially when their adventure was the slowest and least interesting)

Since a lot of their journey seemed to involve pining over each other or reflecting on their destinies, having both of them switching off only meant more time away from the action-packed stories of the other three characters. These chapters droned and won't have much value unless you are really, really invested in their relationship. It didn't help that these two had my least favorite POVs in the first book as well.

So that's where my 4 stars instead of 5 come in.

Anyway, read this series. It's fabulous and a much needed mature, well rounded, and graceful wildcard in the YA "genre".

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!*

This book took me a second to get into because it's been so long since I've read the first one, but the multiple POVs and the plot's adventurous intrigue made it pretty easy for me to become immersed in this world once again.

I really love the multiple POVs in this book. As in the first book, the characters were easily distinguishable and had their ups and downs. I liked seeing how everyone's paths would converge while reading their individual chapters. As much as I like the multiple POVs, I'll admit that most of the characters in this book seemed to lack the character development I felt in the first book. Jude and Anton's chapters have to be my favorites because they seemed to have this development and a very fast-paced storyline.

I really enjoyed the way the story developed. There were many twists in the plot and many questions left unanswered by the end. I'm definitely looking forward to the next book! I love the world this author has created and can't wait to see where our characters go from here.

Full review: https://picturethisliteraturecom.wordpress.com/2020/10/07/as-the-shadow-rises-the-age-of-darkness-2/