Review of “A Bargain with Darkness” by Peter Eliott

Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

A Bargain with Darkness by Peter Eliott welcomes readers back to dark, gripping, and frightening city of Sullward, better known as Hell's Labyrinth, a storm-torn and crime-ridden city full of violence, corruption, and—above all—bidding. Mercenaries—”shadow bidders”—dedicate their skills and often-unscrupulous services to the highest bidders. This includes kidnappings, theft, assassinations, beat-downs, torture, and outright murders.

One of the best and most reputable shadow bidders is Vazeer the Lash, the protagonist of the series, who has just survived both a grand conspiracy by the villainous Raving Blade to get him to assassinate the lord of lords and a freak storm called a Swell Driver (similar to a hurricane)—two events the plunge the already-turbulent city into utter chaos.

In the aftermath of these events, Vazeer finds himself alone in Hell's Labyrinth without his former comrades, namely Nascinthe (his love), Flerra Tellian (his brood sister), and Hellgrinder (his muscle). Already ravished with guilt and regrets over these losses and the consequences of his career as a mercenary, Vazeer discovers that the events of the previous book have left a huge power vacuum and a frantic race for absolute control of the city. Furthermore, he is pressed by a mixture of both dream-like visions and the cold, hard reality to broker a peace deal—the titular bargain with darkness—with the Raving Blade, Count Ulan Gueritus, himself, a man responsible for the loss of his comrades and a lot of the suffering in the city.

He meets many new friends, comrades, and allies along the way like Sebastien, Jisselle, Selene, Cad, and Miles.

Selene comes to serve as a bit of a surrogate to Flerra Tellian, his brood sister, with whom Vazeer often compares her.

We are also introduced to an important character in Terza Falconbrow, Vazeer's former lover with whom he'd parted long ago. Terza effectively acts in a role similar to Nascinthe in the previous book.

Furthermore, a face from the past triumphantly and tragically reappears in this book: Coljin Hellgrinder, the soon-to-be Count Ujendus, a man who—perhaps rightfully—blames Vazeer for abandoning him to certain death. Hellgrinder is now faced with the same choice that Vazeer is: to join the clearly-evil, sadistic, corrupt, murderous, power-hungry, and ruthless Raving Blade as a Baron and gain some sense of immunity/security in the coming war for power, or recognize Count Ulan Gueritus for who he really is: a manipulative and calculating monster who will betray and discard you as soon as he sees no use for you (or becomes mildly annoyed with you). The fate of Baron Adanein, who is brutally tortured and killed, serves as an example to Vazeer of what fate might await him if he displeases the Raving Blade, a man he should hate and despise more than any.

However, in this dark world of scarcity and insecurity, Vazeer understands that denying the Raving Blade would mean the end of his career, livelihood, and likely his life.

The long-awaited encounter between the two is one of the tensest scenes we've ever read! It also leads directly to one of the greatest action scenes we've ever read, pitting Vazeer against an immensely formidable opponent against whom his old tricks don't work.

We wanted to briefly mention that the Raving Blade and Coljin Hellgrinder are given a bit more depth this time around. The Raving Blade, while clearly evil, is also someone—like Vazeer himself—who wants to move on to bigger, better, brighter things in his life. Despite his power and influence, he is still someone who has had to live underground and out of sight for most of his existence. He wants to step out into the light and become almost like a true politician, like a mayor, governor, or king. He wants to be legitimate, in a sense, similar to how Vazeer wants to live a more normal, less-secretive life.

Coljin Hellgrinder, one of our favorites from the last book, is also rather sympathetic despite his imposing and antagonistic role in the book. Hellgrinder is a victim just like Vazeer. The two are products of a dark and violent society. They did what they had to in order to survive. There's a part of the reader that still hopes Hellgrinder survives and is able to find some semblance of redemption.

Vazeer is definitely a more complex and interesting character in this book. For one, you can really tell that he is full of regrets. His thoughts about Flerra Tellian in particular are sorrowful and mournful while also reflective. He still remembers her in better times. There is one moment when he is trying to tell the story of what happened, and he resists talking about Flerra Tellian for fear of breaking down in tears. This also shows that Vazeer has emotional depth, caring, and compassion. He's not a murderous monster like the Raving Blade and other criminals are.

There's a scene in which he gets into a scuffle and one of the hoodlums lands face-down in the puddle. Vazeer has enough of a conscience to lift his head out of the puddle so as to not let him drown to death.
He also still maintains his love for art and architecture, still yapping about them in nauseam, which is true to his original character. In fact, one of his huge objections to the Raving Blade is—of all things—the count's desire to own his most prized painting. This is somewhat humorous and bizarre, but it showcases how fixated Vazeer is one his treasures. Hey, if someone tried to take your shiny Charizard card away from you, you'd want to knock their block off too!

Now, it is kinda odd to most normal people to read him react this way about an otherwiseminiscule issue, especially given the amount of evil that the Raving Blade is responsible for. However, it is what it is. Vazeer has always been like that. He was obsessed with his harbinger artifact in the previous book for goodness sake.

It also needs to be said that Vazeer is very sarcastic and good with words. He also uses his words to talk himself out of bad situations or to delay a bad outcome.

One thing that is really exceptional in this book is the world-building. Yes, Sullward is a big, huge, important city, but it is also a city within a land that's rich with history and culture! There are so many discussions about things like the roles of women in this society, the history of the ancient queen who made a lasting impact on the land, the Priestesses of Azmoul, horticulture, nightshade, and even the division between different sections of the land and different peoples like the Tergonians, Tundrians, Derjians, and North Derjians.

Everything seems so deep and lived in. That's GREAT world-building!

If this book has any weaknesses, despite the somewhat-illogical decisions Vazeer and others make, it's that the pacing can get really slow and bogged-down. The middle of this book is truly a deep valley full of a lot of chit-chat and meandering. Thankfully, the ending of this book is climactic, fulfilling, and great.

Check it out on Amazon!