Twilight’s Dawn by Anne Bishop – review

Twilight’s Dawn is a collection of four novellas set in the Black Jewels universe, and I’m going to go ahead and classify it as a must-read for anyone who’s stuck with the entire series. I don’t know if it will actually be the last Black Jewels book she writes, but it brings a closure to pretty much all the loose ends I can remember being left dangling. I would say, as well, that this is not the book to start into this world with (unlike her other novella collection, Dreams Made Flesh, which was my introduction and obviously one that hooked me but good). It is not that the writing isn’t up to par or anything like that; simply, the stories are not designed to introduce new readers to the backstory or characteristics already established about the people involved. They simply open the gates and run, and assume that you the reader know enough to keep up. For someone who has read the series, this was much appreciated—but as a reviewer I feel the need to make that caveat.

The first story, “Winsol Gifts,” takes place “after the events in Tangled Webs” and focuses on Ranier’s depression after being nearly crippled and the tension in the SaDiablo family regarding how the holidays should be apportioned between public duty and family, and which family. The story is kind of painful, because of the dramatic tension that we the reader can feel but Ranier cannot. We want him, so badly, to snap out of his depression and stay away from the poisonous whispers of his family, to find new dreams now that his old are gone, but it takes him coming to the brink of ruin before he sees the light. The side plot about the family was less compelling for me, but it had a sweet resolution for fans of the SaDiablo family.

The second story, “Shades of Honor,” is the final outcome to the Falonar thread that had been left unexplored between Shalador’s Lady and The Shadow Queen. It’s a story of Eyrian politicking and grandstanding, and Lucivar’s coming of age as the Warlord Prince of Ebon Rih. It was a position he has until this point been somewhat uncomfortable with, but Falonar’s desire to stage a coup forces him to face what he really wants for himself and his family. It was probably my favorite story of the piece, but much of that is probably just that Lucivar has long been my favorite character in the series, and he gets a rare post-purge moment of ass-whooping at the end that’s just glorious.

“Family” is the bittersweet conclusion to Lady Sylvia and Saetan’s long friendship/romance. It continues the theme from Tangled Webs that not all the evil was removed from the world with the purge of Dorothea’s influence—simply those in her mold.  I didn’t have strong feelings about this story either way…it’s bittersweet, as I said.

“The High Lord’s Daughter” is the final story in the collection and, perhaps, the final point in time that this series will encompass. It answers the question of what happens when Jaenelle dies, and how the family copes, as well as making sure everyone left at loose ends in previous stories is settled. I have very mixed feelings about this story, and the direction Bishop took it in. As with the Lady Sylvia story, it is bittersweet, and perhaps more sweet than anything. But it was…well, it wasn’t an unqualified happiness, either—more of a making the best of things kind of happiness.

I don’t want to talk too much in specifics, because the point of the story is discovering it for yourself, but I can address my main problems, I think, without giving the game away. I basically have two issues with this story. First, is that I find Daemon’s fate cruel. He loses the love of his life after what is, to a man of his longevity, no more than a year of marriage, and though he eventually does find someone else he can love, it is very much not the same. Which is sad to me, and sad for the woman—I do not find it romantic to be someone’s second choice, knowing that no matter how much he loves me now it will never, ever, even after a very long lifetime, equal what he felt for someone else. Perhaps that was the point of Jaenelle, for him, that their love had to be that great in order for him to get over what had been done to him early in his life and to ever find anything normal afterward…but it’s sad to me that normal is all he gets after having had something more.  This might simply be my propensity for High Romance in my fiction; this felt very much like and ending fans will be split on, with some finding to be wonderful and some, like me, finding sad.

The other problem I have is that the ending undermines the series’ sort of feministic core of female power and control. Daemon is basically the King of Kaeleer, even if he doesn’t have the title, because he is the arbiter of territory disputes and the strongest-jeweled witch left alive. Second strongest is his brother, who is a territory ruler. What happened to women having the stronger power and being the rulers? And Surreal? She fulfills her secret daydream of having a kid and retiring from the ol’ assassination circuit like a good little hausfrau. Really? That was the thing she needed to make her happy? Look, I’m not necessarily judging that dispensation of her character as a life-path or anything, but it seemed incongruous with what women in this society had been built up to be, what she had been built up to be. Taken with the fact that the strongest jewels and rulers in the kingdom are now both men, it creates a shockingly traditional—in terms of our traditions, not the ones established in this world previously—way to end the series.

But just because I am closely attuned to the dissonance between what has been said of this land and what is being shown as its future doesn’t mean I don’t think this was a good placement of power–in fact it is the only distribution of power, barring another Jaenelle.  I suppose it’s possible we can assume an incarnation of her eventually comes along, or at least another Black-Jeweled Queen, who would retake some of that control for the female…that the men are in essence serving as regents as other men were before, but that is merely projection.  Still, since the only strong female character from previous stories left standing was Surreal, who was not a Queen, there was no other way to send the Shadow Kingdom out in responsible hands without creating a new character, so I don’t mind that Bishop chose to dispense power this way for the sake of the land…it just seems antithetical to the point that was hammered in for several thousand pages.

I want to close out by reiterating that I really did enjoy this collection, quibbles notwithstanding.  Again, if you’re a fan of the series with questions left unanswered, this book has them, and it’s definitely worth taking the time to read for yourself and make your own judgments about.