A New Darkness

I was so frustrated with The Last Apprentice series I had no intentions of reading the sequel series but when it showed up my libraries home page I figured I would give A New Darkness a try. Since I am beyond furious by the ending I suppose that means I enjoyed the story.

With the death of John Gregory Tomas Ward has taken it upon himself to become the Chippendale Spook even though he only received five years of training instead of the customary seven. The folks in the country are not so sure about Tom though and many claim he is too young. Struggling with the grief of having lost his Master and friend Tom goes about his work doing his best to keep the Country safe from the dark until his daily routine is interrupted by a young girl named Jenny who insists he train her to be a Spook.

While it is nice to see a female get a chance to be a Spook Jenny is not what I like in a character and comes off as annoying. While she is stubborn she does not put that stubbornness into helping her become a Spook. Instead she whines about the practical work, argues about what Tom is trying to teach her, and is disrespectful of Tom most of the time.

The writing was smooth, descriptive, and elegant. I rarely notice mistakes in Mr. Delaney's work and I highly appreciate that. My biggest issue is the ending, I hated it so I guess that means I was also highly connected with the characters and loved it. Since I am eager to know what actually happened the release of The Dark Army cannot come soon enough.