Dark Moon, Shallow Sea

By: Jamie Steinberg

Dark Moon, Shallow Sea is convoluted. Raef is a young man who worshipped the goddess of the moon, Phoebe. When she is killed it brings about the end to the tides and the rise of the dead as they have no path to the underworld. Displeased by these events Raef seeks revenge, which leads him down a path that is neither interesting nor intriguing to the reader. In a book that could and should have easily been broken into a series, Raef’s adventures leave the reader underwhelmed and uninvested.

Raef is lost. With loss of the moon goodness Phoebe, he exists as a child of the night living off scraps and surviving as a thief. He has always loyally worshipped Phoebe, but when she is murdered by the knights of the sun god Hyperion, he and those who followed her are deemed to be heretics. Additionally, without Phoebe the souls of the dead are no longer carried to the underworld. This means they are left to linger on in the world where they feast on the blood of the living. Looking to make a major score, Raef sneaks into the Temple of Hyperion and opens a box which contains a young man that leaves him curious and sends him on a path that opens his eyes and his heart.

Intertwined in Raef’s tale is Seth, who is a knight of the sun. He is unlike the others of his order in that the fire of Hyperion brings him pain. In his eyes, the pain is a deserved penance for the mystery that exists about his origins. Seth has been tasked with guarding a very special box, but when it is opened and absconded with, he is given a mission of recovery at all costs. What he discovers along his way opens his eyes to where it all began for him and who he truly wants to be.

Confused? It’s all very messy. Add a love triangle to the mix and it doesn’t make things any more investable. Yes, readers will initially find a fascination with Raef, but it is quickly diminished when page after page finds him in yet another messy situation with no light at the end of the tunnel (no pun intended). It’s hard to root for a protagonist when you are overwhelmed by various storylines that intertwine in a way that is hard to follow. Author David R. Slayton seems to throw a lot at the reader. There is so much going on in this tale that it would have been best chopped into several books in a series. I found myself thinking there were a number of perfect places to put a pin in things and pick up in another book.

While Dark Moon, Shallow Sea makes you root for Raef and his mission to bring order to a dark world, it doesn’t make for a meaningful tale that has the reader turning page after page to find out his or Seth’s fate. The love story included only muddles things further. Should you pick up this fantasy read, just know you are diving into a novel that will require an open mind and a lot of patience.