The Dark Moon

by Julia Gray

Rich and exciting, powerful and engrossing, DARK MOON marks the arrival of a thrilling new series in fantasy adventure. The birth of the Emperor's son had been prophesied many years before. The child... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1857239938
• ISBN13: 9781857239935
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Orbit
• Length: 536 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 4.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Pleasantly surprising.

This is the first book in The Guardian Cycle pentalogy (before The Jasper Forest, The Crystal Desert, The Red Glacier and Alyssa's Ring).In Makhaya, on the Floating Islands, Empress Adina is about to give birth to her first heir. As prophecied in the Tindaya Code, a child born under a special lunar conjuction, the alignment of the Red, White, Amber and Dark Moons, is to become the Guardian, the hero that will save the world from a terrible disaster supposed to happen on the next alignment, seventy-five years later. But children born under this conjunction are usually crippled, and when the infant is finally extracted from his mother's womb, what a relief it is to see that he is in perfect health. However the Empress's joy doesn't last long, as she realizes her labour is not over yet, and gives birth to a second, badly misshapen child with strange glittering eyes. Believing this twin is an ill omen, and the incarnation of evil, she orders him to be taken away, his existence kept secret forever.Fourteen years later, the crippled boy Terrel is living in a madhouse in Havenmoon with his friends Alyssa, a girl who can see into other people's dreams, and Elam, a young boy who's been arrested for stealing potatoes when the moon conjunction was not right for harvesting. Indeed, the whole Floating Island society is dictated by the Seers, astrologers who set up rules and taboos, according to the positions, waxings and wanings of the four moons. Their task is also to calculate the timing of the numerous earthquakes caused by the moons.One day though, a strange, unexplained earth tremor occurs, opening a breach in the wall of Havenmoon's abandoned necropolis. Terrel and his friends go and explore the forbidden cemetary, where they find an old observatory and a library. Soon after this event, Terrel recieves his first visit in fourteen years. It is Shahan, a Seer of Makhaya, who tells him about the Prophecy of the Guardian, in which he believes Terrel might have a role to play. The boy also learns that due to the last earthquake, the Dark Moon has apparently left its orbit and that as a result, the next alignment should occur sooner than expected.As another consequence, soldiers are now arresting everyone who's breaking a taboo under the new conjunction, as well as everyone who would have if the moons hadn't moved, and soon Havenmoon is crammed with prisoners. One day, soldiers try to rape Alyssa, but she defends herself with strange invisible forces. Believing she's a witch, they lock her up in a dungeon cell. When the old necropolis is about to be filled with prisoners, Terrel wants to save the books he found there. He and Elam manage to get out of the madhouse after cerfew, and on their way back, Terrel wants to check on his friend Alyssa. But Elam is caught, and Terrel has no choice but to escape if he wants to survive. In a dream that night, Terrel promises Alyssa that he'll come back to save her.Looking for food and shelter in the countryside is not eas

The Dark Moon

Very good. Very interesting plot and excalent characters. I did wont Terrel to win his freedom and get some respect. I Read the hole book though with out stopping, and that does not happen to offen . A very good read.

One of the most original books i've read

I bought this book just for fun, but when i started reading, i immediately loved it! I've always been a fantasy lover, and Julia Gray has created a very original plot. Hopefully, the second book will be coming out soon.