Our world is collapsing, the planet choked with pollution and strangled by economic hardship. A government agency with dubious intent, known as the Ward, is collecting political dissenters and rebels, for the greater good. And a boy named Gordon Black is born amidst the chaos, his life somehow tied to a strange figure known as the Crowman, who is prophesied to restore balance to the Earth. It is the time of the Black Dawn and hope is fading from our world.
And in a time apart from our own, young Megan Maurice stumbles into the darkest part of the woods, straying further from her village than she should. It is there that she meets the Crowman himself, an encounter that forever changes the course of her life. She finds herself confronted with the mysteries of the Crowman, of our world and hers.
The Black Dawn duet, comprised of the books Black Feathers and the recently released The Book of the Crowman, were written by English horror author Joseph D’Lacey and published by Angry Robot. At a collective thousand-plus pages, D’Lacey wrote them as one continuous novel but opted to split it in half at the publisher’s behest.
The tale, divided between the Black Dawn and the Bright Day, is dark and moody, full of horror both human and supernatural. The Crowman is a dark, almost Messianic figure – but with the potential to be our damnation as easily as our savior. D’Lacey weaves myth and legend into the piece with deftness, using it to bring us deeper into his vision. It helps that his writing is compelling and engrossing, prose dripping with eloquence and brutality.
Environmentalism is massively important to the two tales, especially the subject of abandoned stewardship. We only brought about the Black Dawn through mankind’s desire to subjugate and control the Earth. Because of our carelessness and ill treatment of our Mother, she seeks to purify herself. The Black Feathered Path of both protagonists is heavily focused on restoring the balance of nature and man.
Both the stories of Gordon and Megan, while very broad in scope, maintain a very focused pace. And while the sense that the entirety of the world is in peril, the events center around London and its nearby environs. This serves to ground the story and to make the struggles of these two children that much more palpable.
The two children are also intertwined in a more direct narrative sense. Megan, as part of her journey, must learn the history of the Crowman and the Black Dawn, putting her as a direct observer to Gordon’s journey towards the Crowman and survival against the machinations of the Ward. Beyond making for a stellar read, it makes for an incredible framing device and opens up all sorts of metatextual conversations on the nature of story and its impact on our lives.
Joseph D’Lacey has produced a masterwork in the Black Dawn duet, one that deserves more attention. A tale of both the harrowing apocalypse and the hopeful future that follows, it reminds us of the need for both light and dark. It also serves as a reminder of our place on this beautiful planet, without becoming heavy-handed with its themes and messages.
Jennie Ivins