Review of “A Darker Demise” by M.C. Ryder

Score: 92/100 (9.2 out of 10)

A Darker Demise might be the best all-around installment in M.C. Ryder's “The Dark” series! While Infinity Tales gave us the perspective of Leo (the vampire cat) and All I See Are Dark Clouds gave us the perspective of Camille, this book gives us the much-anticipated perspectives of some of the more mysterious, intriguing, and compelling characters in the series including Immilla, a character we mostly knew only from the mythos and lore of the series. It also lets us spend more time with some of the characters who were prematurely (in our opinion) sidelined earlier in the series including Marc and Nadine, the original super couple and protagonists of the first book.

Also, if you missed some of the protagonists from the previous books like Vince, Melia, Camille, and Leo, you get to read more about them too. This book is especially a treat for all the Vince fans out there who may have felt he got shafted and neutered earlier in the series after arguably being its coolest character.

Anyway, this book starts off with dynamite, fireworks, and nuclear explosions as we finally get to read more about Immilla, the legendary witch who pledged herself to dark magic before becoming the first witch to break the rules between light & dark some time around the 17th century (around the time of the Thirty Years War). Let's just put it this way, Immilla is a REALLY BIG DEAL as far the lore goes. She is pretty much what Big Boss is to the Metal Gear/Metal Gear Solid series.

In simple terms, Immilla is the daughter of Max/Maximilian, the villainous mage/sorcerer who was siphoning the magic of witches during times of vicious and barbaric persecution. She became the lover of the first vampire, Vladimir, one of the main villains of the first book. She is the sister of Serena, one of the historically significant white witches in the series. She is also the mother of both Nadia/Nadine and Vince, who are basically the Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia of the series.

So, ultimately, she's related to two of the main antagonists of the series and two of its main protagonists.

She also participated in the backstory that turned Vladimir into an immortal monster and sparked the centuries-long blood feud between the werewolves and vampires.

In a dozen or so “Entries” (chapters that read like journal entries or letters), we get to learn more about Immilla and her experiences with her colorful, magical, and powerful family, particularly her somewhat-romantic relationship with Vladimir. We say “somewhat-romantic” because—while it starts off kinda romantic and cute—Vladimir starts to show his true colors, becoming rather savage and abusive to Immilla. As if having Stockholm syndrome, possibly due to her experiences with her dad, she keeps coming back to Vladimir and trying to help him despite his abuse.

Interestingly, this section also allows us to learn more about Immilla's lesser-known sister, Serena, who chose the opposite end of the magical spectrum (light).

It also needs to be noted that this isn't just the most interesting part of the book, but it's also the best written. This series has had HUGE ups and downs in terms of writing, particularly when it comes to spelling, grammar, and wrong word usage. These first 13 chapters are some of the best written sections in the series.

Unfortunately, the writing quality does start to ebb and flow in later sections, almost as if the author only beta-read or proofread the first quarter. For example, we noticed a lot more wrong-word usage later in the book. For example, we get:

“She has such beautiful and memorizing hazel eyes” instead of “She has such beautiful and mesmerizing hazel eyes”

“You vigorously pump your legs as fast as humanely possible” instead of “You vigorously pump your legs as fast as humanly possible”

These passages really gave us a good laugh.

The other complaint we have about this book is that, while it reveals a bit more about events and characters, it once again rehashes and retraces steps that were previously taken. It almost reminded us of seasons 4, 5, and 6 of Lost in which the series seemed stuck in a rut with no way of moving forward.

It wouldn't be half bad if we didn't already have a rehash of events in Infinity Tales. Even if you made the argument that Infinity Tales is a later installment, our argument would still stand: these are essentially the exact same stories told by different people with different perspectives. It would be great once or maybe even twice, but we're like 4 or 5 books into the series and we're still rehashing and retracing stuff that we should already know or be familiar with.

Anyway, this book does have redeeming aspects. Again, we finally get to read about Immilla, a character we were tantalized with in the past. We also get to rejoin characters we really loved in previous books like Nadine, Marc, and Vincent.

Check it out on Amazon!