Book Review: ‘Scorched Earth’ by Danielle L. Jensen
The Celendor Empire has already conquered the East. Now it has its sights set on the West. There are those that are willing to fight, but when even the gods are struggling to win, what hope do mere mortals have at success? Find out if love and justice can prevail in Scorched Earth, the thrilling conclusion to Danielle L. Jensen’s Dark Shores series.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by Tor Teen for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of Scorched Earth contains some spoilers!]
Scorched Earth is the conclusion of a truly epic story
There is a lot going on in Scorched Earth. It is the fifth book in Jensen’s Dark Shores series (including the prequel, Tarnished Empire), and in order to wrap up all the different story lines, it’s a hefty read. The main characters of Lydia, Killian, Malahi, Agrippa, Marcus, and Teriana (and that’s just the good guys) have many things to do if they’re going to come out on top. Lydia has to learn to control her corruption, and Malahi has to find a way to combat the blight. Killian and Agrippa must support them in their quests. Teriana must free her people. And Marcus must decide who he really wants to protect. None of their paths are easy.
The six “good” gods take a rather hands-off approach towards events, but the seventh god does not. He is on the side of evil and chaos, and has no problem getting right down in the dirt with the humans to sway events. This makes things even harder for our heroes, but if it was easy, they wouldn’t be heroes, right? As events wrap up in Scorched Earth, the stakes have never been higher. That means that the costs have never been steeper. Not everyone is going to get a happily ever after. Some of the characters we’ve come to love might not even make it to the finish line. In the fight for an entire world, there will be casualties, and Jensen doesn’t feel the need to make all of them faceless. But if our heroes are truly heroes, then justice just might be achieved in the end.
The Dark Shores series is a very long epoch
Most modern fantasy series are trilogies. We humans have a real affinity for the number three (seriously, we do; there have been studies on it and everything). It’s a very stable number; it divides a story into beginning, middle, and end, and we like that in a story. But Danielle Jensen decided to go with four (and a half) installments for her Dark Shores series, of which Scorched Earth is the final part. I’m guessing that with as many characters as she has and the huge empire she created, she just couldn’t cram it all into three books. As it is, Scorched Earth is well over 700 pages long and probably could have been broken into two books. There is just so much going on and so many characters to follow that it gets a little overwhelming at times.
I understand why; Jensen’s story is trying to follow a colossal empire (Celendor is based on the Roman Empire, and we all know how huge that was) facing off against an entire continent with multiple kingdoms. That is a lot of players, and even trying to boil it down to just three main stories leaves you with six main characters to follow and tons of supporting characters. Again, it was a little overwhelming attempting to keep up with all the different things that were happening. By the end of the book, I was ready for it all to be over.
It’s not that the story was bad or I didn’t like the characters; I was just burned out from the whole thing. The earlier installments were much shorter, in the three to four-hundred-page range that most books fall into. This kept the stories from feeling like they were too much or, on the other end, like they were dragging. I think Jensen just wanted to wrap her Dark Shores series up with Scorched Earth, but there was so much still going on that it took longer than she anticipated, making for an oversized book. It should have been split into two, in my opinion, and that would have improved the whole feel of it.
Scorched Earth is the end for fans, not an onramp for beginners
Let’s be honest, most series should be read from the beginning. It’s kind of the point of a series, right? But there are some series that can be jumped into midway and still be enjoyed. Dark Shores is not one of those series. There is so much going on in Jensen’s world that you will be beyond lost if you don’t read the first three (well, four, including the prequel) books.
My rating for this book: 7/10
If you like sweeping historical fantasy romances, then this is a great series, and making sure you read the first few books will only give you that much more to enjoy. So fans who have already read the rest of the Dark Shores series, pick up Scorched Earth today; it’s available now. Those who missed the first few books but want to take a sexy dive into a Romanesque adventure, start at book one, titled Dark Shores, and work your way up to Scorched Earth; you’ll enjoy yourself.
Also check out: Book Review: Royal Gambit by Daniel O’Malley
