11/11/2022

Dark Sigils-Was Die Magie Verlangt by Anna Benning

One thing is for sure, there is still a lot of room for improvement here in terms of plot and storyline. A lot reminded me of other novels in this genre. What excited me even more about it is the presentation. The colored body of the book, the mixture of gold and different shades of blue – great! In terms of content, I found it rather average. Unfortunately. Yes, the story is entertaining, to some extent, and it was fun to watch the main figure cope with everything and how she was dealing with the Mirrorlord and the Dark Sigils. But other than that?

Dark Sigils-Was Die Magie Verlangt*

by Anna Benning
Dark Sigils Trilogy #1
Publisher Fischer KJB on August 31, 2022
Genre Urban-Fantasy
Pages 489
Format Hardcover
Source Fischer KJB
Goodreads
✶✶✶½

Magic used to exist only in our dreams. She was a mysterious good force that works miracles. But magic is not like that. True magic is dark and alluring, a shimmering blue liquid more valuable than gold and more addictive than the most potent drug. It's been fifteen years since magic came into our world. Today it is everywhere, on every continent, in every country, and in every city. Killing people to possess them. People die because they do. And other people, like me, fight with her to survive. (personal translation by ©Vi at Inkvotary).

Story

Rayne´s life is a special kind of hell. She´s forced to do things she doesn´t want to do. Except for the fights at the heptagon dome. There, she feels at home. As if she belongs there. But outside life is one constant fight for survival. Rayne knows that she´ll only need one win to free herself and her best friend Lily. Her plan is simple. Fight, win, take the money and run. Sounds simple, but how fast are Rayne and Lily able to run?

Style

As good as this novel is to read, I particularly like the fast-reading pace, I don't like how constructed it all seems. How artificial. In the beginning, the scenes and dialogues are still provided with momentum and a pinch of panache, and the plot has a good structure. Sure, I often couldn't shake the feeling that I'd read it all somewhere else before, and at some point, the penny dropped. But frankly, that didn't bother me at first. But as the story progressed, it became more unstructured, slower, and more predictable. There's no question that the author did a good job of showing the differences between the two worlds in terms of the individual characters, but there's no clear arc of tension. Events jump here and there. This is where opponents come into play, who artificially create a connection to another plot point, which is more irritating than exciting when reading. Too bad, but there was somehow the worm in there...

Characters

In general, many of the characters presented here are too stiff, too controlled, and far too stereotypical for me. There is no merging with the plot. The main character, Rayne, has a such quick wit, precision, and power that she almost seems like an underdog and at first, she probably is. But then the tide turns, which the reader unfortunately only finds out towards the end of this volume.

Rayne only knows what it feels like to have been abandoned. It's what made her strong. She wants to get away to a better future and finally find out what it's like to be wanted, to be loved. And she wants answers to many questions. But what she finally begins to understand isn't necessarily what she expected, let alone hoped for. I really liked how she refuses to be forced into a mandatory corset. How she deals with the knowledge that pours into her. She's unconventional and so very different from the rest of the Dark Sigils.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, this novel is just average for me. I was missing that certain something. There's no question that it's going to be intense, but it's all far too predictable. The only surprise was the ending. Suddenly there was a pep in it and a dark premonition for the second volume. Now all that remains is to hope that the author can also implement these suggestions well.

Happy reading

*This book was kindly provided to me by Fischer KJB in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review. The book was, at the time this review was published, only available in the German language.

Deutsche Rezension

Stil

So gut sich dieser Roman auch liest, da gefällt mir besonders das zügige Lesetempo, so wenig gefällt mir, wie konstruiert das alles wirkt. Wie künstlich. Zu Anfang sind die Szenen und Dialoge noch mit Schwung und einer Prise Elan versehen und die Handlung hat eine gute Struktur. Sicher, ich konnte mich oft nicht des Gefühls erwehren, das alles schon mal woanders gelesen zu haben, und irgendwann fiel dann auch der Groschen. Aber das hat mich, offen gesagt, am Anfang nicht gestört. Je weiter die Handlung dann aber voranschritt, umso unstrukturierter, langsamer und vorhersehbarer wurde es. Keine Frage, die Autorin hat es gut verstanden, die Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Welten, was die einzelnen Figuren angeht, zu zeigen, aber es ist kein eindeutiger Spannungsbogen zu erkennen. Da springen die Ereignisse mal hierhin und mal dorthin. Da kommen Gegner ins Spiel, die auf künstliche Weise eine Verbindung zu einem weiteren Handlungspunkt herstellen, was beim Lesen aber eher irritiert als Spannung zu erzeugen. Schade, aber da war irgendwie der Wurm drin…

Charaktere

Allgemein gesehen sind mir viele der hier präsentierten Figuren zu steif, zu kontrolliert und viel zu stereotyp. Da gibt es kein Verschmelzen mit der Handlung. Die Hauptfigur Rayne hat eine Schlagfertigkeit, eine Präzision und Kraft, dass sie fast wie ein Underdog erscheint und anfangs wohl auch ist. Doch dann wendet sich das Blatt, was der Leser leider aber erst gegen Ende dieses Bandes erfährt.

Rayne kennt nur das Gefühl, wie es ist, verlassen worden zu sein. Es ist das, was sie stark gemacht hat. Sie will weg in eine bessere Zukunft und endlich erfahren, wie es ist, gewollt zu sein, geliebt zu werden. Und sie will Antworten auf viele Fragen. Doch was sie am Ende beginnt zu verstehen, ist nicht unbedingt das, was sie erwartet, geschweige denn sich erhofft hatte. Mir gefiel es sehr, wie sie sich weigert, sich in ein vorgeschriebenes Korsett zwängen zu lassen. Wie sie mit dem Wissen, das auf sie einströmt, umgeht. Sie ist unkonventionell und so ganz anders als der Rest der Dark Sigils.

Resultat

Leider ist dieser Roman für mich nur Durchschnitt. Da fehlte mir das gewisse Etwas. Keine Frage, es geht hoch her, doch alles viel zu vorhersehbar. Die einzige Überraschung, das Ende. Da war plötzlich Pep drin und eine dunkle Vorahnung für den zweiten Band. Jetzt bleibt nur noch zu hoffen, dass die Autorin diese Andeutungen auch gut umsetzen kann.

The first edition was published with sprayed pages.

Anna Benning

Anna Benning was born in 1988, the youngest of three children. While studying literature, she wrote book reviews for a magazine and also worked in a bookshop. She has been a publisher's editor since 2013. One day she took heart and put her own stories on paper. "Vortex" is her debut.

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