Simon Clark - Darker

[nightreader]

Darker - Simon Clark (NEL 2002)

‘Darker’ is mostly a chase story. It begins with a stranger in a flash BMW making a proposition to sixteen year old Rosemary Snow: “Do you want power?”

Rosemary is whisked off into the Yorkshire countryside and told to wait in a field for the power to come to her. She waits but ultimately rejects what is approaching. It is massive and invisible and crushes flat anything in its path. Rosemary watches as trees are flattened and a farmhouse destroyed. She runs. The BMW man drives off and assumes she’s been crushed but Rosemary survives and wakes up in hospital, battered and her face stitched back on by a surgeon. In her agony she swears to get revenge on the man who nearly got her killed.

The man in the car is called Michael, he describes the invisible titan simply as the Beast. He had control of it once and it brought him immense power and riches but he’s lost that control and is desperate to get it back. He will do anything to control the Beast once more, before it kills him. It tracks him relentlessly and he has to keep on the move or he too will be crushed.

Michael infiltrates an unsuspecting family, eventually manipulating them into his drama. He tells them that merely by being with him they are ‘infected’ and the Beast will track them as it tracks him. They see for themselves the destruction the immense entity can do. The Young family, including four year old Amy, take to the road with Michael, the Beast in constant pursuit.

It emerges that whoever controls the Beast pays for the privilege with their lives, rapidly aging and suffering agonies. Michael reveals that Alexander the Great controlled the Beast and the secret of his success was written in an ancient manuscript which Michael’s team of academics are close to decoding. He neglects to tell the Young family that Alexander controlled the Beast by proxy, using a string of young girls to channel the power, and that is why Michael wants Amy.

So this is mostly a chase story, the characters desperate to stay ahead of the invisible Beast. Personally I found it a bit long, at 410 pages that’s a lot of driving around. Having said that it was nice to have it set in Yorkshire (my home turf) and there’s a great sequence where York Minster is smashed to bits by the Beast – reminiscent of the St. Paul’s sequence in ‘The Medusa Touch’. It strongly reminded me of a Dean Koontz type novel, which isn’t necessarily a criticism as I’ve enjoyed a lot of his earlier work. The characters are strong, the villain Michael is charismatic but without any conscience – he’d happily sacrifice a four year old girl to control the Beast again. The family caught up in all this are believable, and even the little girl Amy manages not to be annoying. The story of Rosemary Snow, her hatred for Michael and her struggles to catch up with him and avenge herself are also well done.

Overall I liked the book even if it felt a little bit too long but still definitely worth a look if you come across it.

[dem bones]

I don't have any of his books but I can remember thoroughly enjoying Nailed By The Heart and Vampyrrhic when I borrowed them from the library. As far as I can recall Vampyrrhic sees an unlikely bunch of strangers - including a goth girl and violent skinhead Jack Black - battling against ancient forces. Hopefully somebody can elaborate?