Dark Heir came out, because I was under the impression it was a duology—uhh, spoilers, I was wrong! But that's fine, because both of the books are immensely enjoyable anyway and even though I'm furious (/j) with Pacat for leaving me on a cliffhanger, I still had a really good time getting there.
As I expected I might, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding in this series. It's set in a sort of alternate Georgian London, but a Georgian London underpinned by this secret world of magic that once existed but has since faded into obscurity such that the citizens of the current world don't even know it ever existed. We follow Will, an orphan on the run from his mother's killers, as he uncovers his strange connection to this old world of magic and gods and finds himself unwillingly embroiled in a plot to revive the Dark King, a being of unimaginable power who once sought to overthrow the entire world.
(Note: C.S. Pacat is genderqueer and uses both she/her and he/him pronouns, so I will be using both throughout this review and the one for Dark Heir.)
One thing I like about C.S. Pacat's writing is that she knows how to introduce a character relationship and then to build upon it across a whole series. This was true in the Captive Prince series and is also true in the Dark Rise series so far—not only talking about the romantic relationships but also the platonic ones, such as the relationship between Will and Violet or among the Stewards that they become close with. That said, he's also a master of slow-burn romantic tension, so it was no surprise to me when James St. Claire was introduced only for the relationship to immediately be complicated and messy and not actually even particularly romantic at the start.
Another thing I enjoy about Pacat's writing that is definitely present in this series is the way that none of the entities at play are really necessarily good or evil. There's quite a lot of moral grayness, organizations that are ostensibly "good" but which have bad practices or organizations that are ostensibly "bad" but which are actually more in pursuit of goodness. The Stewards are complicated, it seems like the Dark King's cohort is complicated... everything is complicated. Fantastic, give me fifteen.
All in all I really enjoyed this book as the opener to a new C.S. Pacat world and I will be eagerly awaiting the third book when it hopefully??? releases in 2026???
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