Shadows of the Dark Crystal

I was really excited to find three of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance books (I was hoping it was a trilogy, but there's a fourth book I'll have to track down at some point). I participated in The Dark Crystal Author Quest, which was the contest they had to find someone to write this story, and was very excited to see what the end result was. Plus I love the world of the Dark Crystal, and was excited to spend more time there. :)

Shadows of the Dark Crystal is the story of Naia, a Gelfling from the Swamp of Sog. When her twin brother is accused of high treason and vanishes, she sets out to find him and learn the truth. 

I wasn't sure what to think of Naia at the beginning of the story. She was clearly competent - she's in training to become the next Maudra of her clan. But she's also a bit headstrong and treated like a child by many of the other characters (possibly because her wings haven't bloomed yet? I'm not sure). But I really liked her as the story continued. 

I also really liked Kylan. He is a song teller, and not at all what you would expect from the warrior Spriton clan. But he is resourceful and kind, and his skills are a good contrast to Naia's.

When I wrote my story submission, I envisioned this era of the Skeksis much differently from how they are portrayed in Shadows of the Dark Crystal. So one of my complaints about the book stems from that - the Skeksis are portrayed so similarly to how they appear in the movie, that it's hard to imagine the Gelfling believing the Skeksis were ever good. They're like cartoon villains, which I found rather unfortunate - they didn't even try to really pretend that they weren't when directly accused of their crimes (and did very little to hide it - the castle was basically empty of others by the time Naia makes her way there).

My other big complaint is the number of names and characters the book throws at you in the first chapter. You only really need to know a couple of them, but it was hard to keep track of who is who; I had fo start a character list to keep everyone straight at the beginning.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed Shadows of the Dark Crystal. It was fun to see different aspects of Thra and how they're all connected. It was also fun to see how different all the Gelfling clans are that Naia encountered. I'm excited to start book 2, Song of the Dark Crystal, to see what happens to Naia and Kylan next!