Non-Review -- The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop

Note: This is something of a non-review, because I did not finish the entire trilogy. However, seeing how I got over 700 pages into the tome, I believe I've read enough to make my judgements not sound completely unfounded.

I've never felt so conflicted about a book, or series of book, before. The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop is an anomaly on my reading list. If I don't like a book, I will stop reading it, but I have a confession to make. I've stopped and restarted this trilogy twice. I don't understand these books at all, and I continued to read them in the hope

I have the trilogy collected in an omnibus edition and here's a quick summary:

Seven hundred years ago, a Black Widow witch saw an ancient prophecy come to life in her web of dreams and visions.

Now the Dark Realm readies itself for the arrival of its Queen, the Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But the Queen is still young, still open to influence—and corruption.

Whoever controls the Queen controls the Darkness. Three men—sworn enemies—know this. And they know the power that hides behind the blue eyes of an innocent young girl. And so begins a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal, where the weapons are hate and love—and the prize could be terrible beyond imagining…

In the introduction to this edition the author notes that this trilogy came about because she wondered what it would be like if instead of a traditional fantasy setting with Light and men being the dominant forces, Darkness was revered along with women. As a reader who loves hearing about stories that try to subvert traditional fantasy tropes, I was intrigued.

Instead of finding a thought-provoking tome, I found myself reading a confused, meandering trilogy that feels more like a young girl's dreams than a subverted fantasy setting. 

Women are considered more powerful than men in this series, but the main character Janelle is, to borrow a videogame term, "overpowered." She is Witch a being at the root of a seven hundred year old prophecy, a being with tremendous magical powers. Or maybe a better term to describe her is "Mary Sue."


And here is where my first problem with the series appears. The magic system in this series is ridiculous. Janelle can pretty much do anything she wants. There are very few limits to her power or the magic system in general. There doesn't seem to be any internal rules or logic to it. Not only is Janelle a well of limitless power, but she also befriends unicorns and other mythical creatures. It's like a ten year old girl dreamed about being a queen and included all of her favorite animals as part of her court.


But at the same time, there are still "serious" issues that the characters spend all of their time talking, worrying, and scheming about. Have you ever read or watched something where you kept saying, "Wait if they just did this one simple thing the story/movie would be over?" That's how I felt the entire time. Janelle just needs to use her magic to kill the obviously evil Queens and everything would end up fine. Except that never happens, or at least it didn't by the time I stopped reading.

The other part of this trilogy is supposed to be a romance between Janelle and the most powerful male. Of course he is stunningly beautiful and powerful. But the series starts when Janelle is twelve and the man -- Daemon -- is well over one thousand years old. Creepy? A little bit, but thankfully there is no underage sex. However the plot drags on for hundreds of pages. It isn't until the third book that Janelle and Daemon are reunited and she's old enough to engage in consensual sex.

So why did I keep reading? The series was obviously lacking substance and that entertainment factor that's gotten me through other books before. It became almost like an endurance test. I just wanted to finish to be able to say I did it. But even that wasn't enough to get me through. I stopped, unable to wade through the morass of terms like Red-jeweled Warlord Prince, High Priestess of Hell, and dozens of locations that all had Realm in their name.

Last closing thought: this book needs a map. I don't know if the Shadow Realm, Dark Realm, and Hell are on different planes of existence or just in different parts of the world. There is little to no description of setting. Everything is dialogue between the Warlords and Queens and Princes and other characters with long titles. Even just writing this non-review is causing me to shake my head in bewilderment.