Taylor, Laini: Dreamdark: Blackbringer

by Laini Taylor

Book Overview

When the ancient evil of the Blackbringer rises to unmake the world, only one determined faerie stands in its way. However, Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, is not like other faeries.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 0545243912
• ISBN13: 9780545243919
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
• Length: 437 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

What Happens To the Book Cover.

Received the book. No book cover. Dispointed. Book that have been declared as Very Good should be so. At least at it simple best. If no cover it should be declared as '' Good' only. Started to reading and could not put it down. Very good story telling by the author.

A Wondrous Tale

Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer - how do I love thee? Let me count the ways... I love thee because thou art wonderfully imagined and skillfully wrought. I love thee because the characters living within your pages are well developed and fully realized. I genuinely liked them. Better yet, I admired them and found them to be marvelous role models. I love thee because those characters speak with just enough dialect to enhance their non-humanness. I love thee because thou hast made the heroes journey fresh with a light and deft touch and because those heroes aren't forever angsting over their destiny. Instead they're getting the job done - and were doing so long before they knew they had destinies. I love thee because your faery world is neither overly dark and nasty nor gooily sweet and light. It has its own shades of gray and I care, not only about its survival, but about its history. I love thee because people of all ages can find joy and magic in reading you. In short, Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, my love for thee is truly taller than tiptoes and most definitely higher than a stack of raccoons. Blackbringer has found a forever home on my favorite-books-of-all-time shelf. I happily and highly recommend it to readers of all ages.

Amazing Debut Novel About Fierce Fairies Saving the World (Cutesy Fairies Need Not Apply)

"Hurry home, love, through the dream-dark glade/ where moontime beasts lurk in darkling shade/never linger, love, where the shadows grow/the Blackbringer hunts where the light fears to go." Once upon a time, the Djinn wove the Tapestry of the world, creating forests and animals, mountains and fairies. Thousands of years ago a Devil War was waged when the horrific devils were created by snags in the Tapestry. The brave and beautiful fairy Bellatrix was the great heroine of this war and in the end she and her fellow warriors were able to trap all the devils in unopenable bottles. But then Bellatrix disappeared and the years passed, and something that not even the Djinn had forseen arose: mannies (humans). And mannies, with their insatiable curiosity began opening the bottles, expecting genies but instead releasing devils. Magpie Windwitch is the only fairy who seems to be hunting these devils, forcing them back into bottles. Most of the other fairies have forgotten the old ways, content to live in the safety of their villages. But then a bottle is opened that should never have been unsealed, one containing the awful shadow creature of legend known as the Blackbringer. The Blackbringer is more powerful than even the mighty Djinn and indiscriminately devours everything in its path, pulling devils and fairies alike into the darkness. Magpie, along with her comical crow companions, sets off to find the Djinn King, the only one powerful enough to stop the Blackbringer--but no one has seen him for centuries. I began this book not expecting much: the tall, edgy faerie of Holly Black's Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale are one thing, but Tinkerbell-sized creatures are another. Tiny little winged fairies seemed as tough and adventurous as dragonflies to me. Consider me a convert. Little Magpie Windwitch may be tiny, but she sure has spunk. Talon Rathersting, a fairy who joins Magpie on her quest after the Blackbringer kills his father and brothers, is another non-stereotypical fairy. He is a prince of a warrior clan who has been hindered all his life with stubby wings. However, he does have a talent for knitting, and can create "skins" which he can wear to transform himself into a bird and finally have the chance to fly. Blackbringer is sprinkled with other such well-developed characters and Magpie's crows in particular provide a good dose of humor. One of the most striking things about this book is Taylor's beautiful writing. She creates passages that are best described as lyrical and gives Magpie a unique voice by having her use a lot of fairy slang, like the word "skiving." It is even more impressive that this is her first book--it doesn't have any of the rough edges one would expect from a first time author. Don't let the fear that a book about fairies will be too cutesy hold you back. This is a spectacular debut novel and absolutely engrossing. Highly recommended.

Magpie Windwitch and her crew kick some Djinn butt!

In the interest of full disclosure, let me start out by saying that I know the author of this book, so I expected to like it. I did have reservations going in, however, being that the only fantasy books I own have the words Harry and Potter in them. I am a Jane Austen, , occasional chick lit, sometimes heavy english literature kind of girl. That said, she had me at Hello. Or in this case 'So much depended on this tiny faerie whom dreams had at last made real'. As another reviewer said below, this book IS extraordinary. I was sucked into Dreamdark from the beginning and could do nothing except finish reading it. Magical is a good way to describe this book, both in content and execution. The world of Dreamdark that Laini has created is as rich and full as the language she uses to describe it. The story is a lavishly woven tapestry of color, characters, mythology, history, dreams and magic. The sense of brotherhood and of purpose of some, and the lack of it in others is what makes this story one worth finishing as quickly as possible, simply to find out what Magpie and her crows do and how she handles it. This book was magical and I highley recommend it to anyone of any age who is looking for an adventurous ride thorugh a new land with a hero of the age.

Don't let the title fool you

I picked up this book for my daughter upon the recommendation of a friend (who in full disclosure, is married to the brother of the author's best friend). Figured I would look over a chapter or two to see if she could read it...and then hand it to her. Wrong. Once I got started, I was hooked. This book may be written for adolescent girls, but this 40 year old man couldn't put it down. Which leads me to the title. As the father of an eight year old girl, I am well acquainted with cloying world of faeries. I wasn't ready to be impressed. As for this book...fuhgeddaboutit. Taylor's faeries are anything but sickly sweet. Instead, she's conjured up tough, resourceful critters who hunt devils and attack vultures 10 times their size. And the heroine, Magpie Windwitch, is the baddest of the bunch. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say that the plot is wildly inventive, the characters are fascinating, and the dialogue is fabulous (The charactes speak in a sort of a punked-out pseudo-Gaelic). Simply wonderful. Oh yeah. One final bonus. My kids aren't quite old enough to read the book themselves. Which means that I get to read it aloud to them all over again.

Go get this book!

I had been awaiting the day that Blackbringer came out for months (like perhaps a star wars geek waits for the opening night, except I didn't camp out, or wear a costume when I picked it up) because I wanted so badly to read it again! I was lucky enough to get to read one of the last drafts of Blackbringer (in two days, on vacation at the beach, I didn't see to much of the beach those days!) and I couldn't wait to read it again, but this time, without the danger of losing the pages! Its fantastic. I don't know what else to say that hasn't already been said by the other reviewers. I was sad to close the book every time I had to put it down. And-like all my favorites-I was regretting reading it so fast when I was done with it, because I wasn't ready to leave that world! Laini created such a beautiful forest (Dreamdark) that I could picture it in my mind, and I wanted to be there in Poppy's garden and workroom, and I wanted to have dinner in the Rathersting castle surrounded by fierce, tattooed fairy warriors! So all in all, go get this book, read it, then make all your friends read it, none of you will regret it!