Alex Sheikman

I thought this was a pretty awesome addendum to the Dark Crystal universe.

First off, if you loved Dark Crystal's aesthetic, you will probably be rubbing your hands up and down this book all the time, especially the cover, which is textured in a way you'll want to cradle on nights beside the fire.

The "creation" part of the creation myths is a little murky, no worse than many actual traditions where cornerstones of the world were ... always there, or manifested without further explanation.

The later myths is where the payoff happens. New characters that (in this book) seem like world-building asides, similar to the tapestry of unrelated myths in other cosmologies. The tale of the first conjunction and arrival of the Urskeks fleshes out things quite satisfactory. A significant new character, Aughra's son, promises to be a very important character (and since he's not part of the mythos until now, he'll probably do something profound that makes him worth forgetting? Very promising...… (mehr)

This book takes what was seeded in the first book and weaves it into the Cracking of the Crystal.

It serves as a nice mirrored tale to the movie, the movie plot in reverse with negative themes. This is really pleasnt much of the time but is conversely aggravating as the story sometimes drops into over-constrained fan-service at times (Kira's quip about wings in the movie was a sledgehammer of wit to a young me, but here it seems a weak callout to the audience. There's even a dreamfasting sequence that goes exactly where you'd expect it to.)

This being said, the dynamic of Aughra's role in the world and the nature of the Urskeks has become complex. The crystal's cracking (and the urskek's fall from grace is tragic in a compelling and frustrating way, if not necessarily a morally reductive one.) The potential of the Podling race is shown here, having had but a brief set of cameos in the movie. Once again, the beauty (and menace) of the world and its flora/fauna fluidity is demonstrated effectively. I'm really curious where the story of Aughra's son is going to lead, and evaluations of his character become even murkier.

I've heard the third and final volume got cancelled, which is a tragedy because I really want to know how this story will end up.… (mehr)