Author: Robin LaFevers
Genre: Historical Fiction
"Dark Triumph" by Robin LaFevers is a fictional novel with recurring themes of love and power, but mainly death. The story begins in the first book of the series, "Grave Mercy", in which a young woman in 15th century Brittany is rescued from a cruel marriage arrangement by the convent of St. Mortain, God of Death. There, fourteen year old Ismae is trained as an assassin until the age of seventeen, when she is sent out on her first mission by the abbess of St. Mortain. She is directed to find out who has been betraying her duchess, Anne, by accompanying Duval, one of the duchess' advisors, into court. There she learns of the troubles that Brittany is facing, such as Lord D'Albret, who is close to forcing the duchess into an unwanted marriage, and the French, who are closing in on their country's borders. During her adventures, Ismae finds love and two new friends; Sybella and Annith. "Dark Triumph" is told from Sybella's point of view as she goes through similar struggles as Ismae.
Sybella's story starts with her living in D'Albrets' castle in Nantes. After the first few chapters, we begin to see that Sybella kept many secrets from her friends at the convent of St. Mortain. For starters, she is the daughter of D'Albret, although she hates him with greater passion then anyone else. In fact, she is only in his castle because the abbess of St. Mortain sent Sybella on an undercover mission to spy on her father and wait for a sign from St. Mortain that she must murder D'Albret. However, such an opportunity doesn't present itself for several weeks, and the abbess gives Sybella another mission: to rescue the Beast of Waroch, Brittany's best and most heroic night, from D'Albret's dungeon. Sybella is furious, as she only came to her father's castle because the abbess practically promised that she would have a chance to kill D'Albret. Still, she forms a plan to set the knight free and send him off to Rennes, where the duchess needs him most. However, Sybella's plans go awry and she is forced to accompany the Beast back to Rennes herself, as he has been tortured and gravely injured by D'Albret. When the pair arrive in Rennes, Sybella struggles with conflicting emotions about the Beast of Waroch, and finally decides to open her past to him, something she has never done before. Once she has settled into court, Sybella helps the duchess by providing her with extensive knowledge of D'Albret and aids in an attack on his castle.
I greatly enjoyed this book because of it's parallels with European history, one of my favorite subjects. The author provided her views on feminine oppression during the 15th century. There were many times when LaFevers showed how differently women were treated during that age, and many of the examples were sickeningly accurate. However, she gave the main character (who is a woman) a way to use her feminine side to her advantage, making it easy for Sybella to flirt her way into the enemies' bedrooms, assassinating them once the door had closed. Additionally, LaFevers gives the reader a look at Brittany's medieval war tactics against the French. I was slightly disappointed that the author never gave any insight as to what was happening on the French side of the war, but I can see how that would have been very difficult to incorporate. Still, LaFevers did a fantastic job of tying female empowerment into her novel, an issue that many women still struggle with in different parts of the world. I think that because this issue barely exists in our community today we tend to forget that it is still a huge problem in less fortunate countries. "Dark Triumph" reintroduced the topic to many young readers' minds, and I think that this book will serve as a reminder that there are many less fortunate people out there enduring similar lives as the characters in this book.
Overall, I was very impressed by "Dark Triumph", the second book in Robin LaFevers' "His Fair Assassin" trilogy. She tied together themes of love, power, and death with a fantastic story from 15th century Brittany. I found this book intriguing because it was historical fiction (my favorite genre) and because it addressed the issue of female oppression during that time. I would recommend this book to young adults interested in European history and fiction.
Alexis McBride
Genre: Historical Fiction
"Dark Triumph" by Robin LaFevers is a fictional novel with recurring themes of love and power, but mainly death. The story begins in the first book of the series, "Grave Mercy", in which a young woman in 15th century Brittany is rescued from a cruel marriage arrangement by the convent of St. Mortain, God of Death. There, fourteen year old Ismae is trained as an assassin until the age of seventeen, when she is sent out on her first mission by the abbess of St. Mortain. She is directed to find out who has been betraying her duchess, Anne, by accompanying Duval, one of the duchess' advisors, into court. There she learns of the troubles that Brittany is facing, such as Lord D'Albret, who is close to forcing the duchess into an unwanted marriage, and the French, who are closing in on their country's borders. During her adventures, Ismae finds love and two new friends; Sybella and Annith. "Dark Triumph" is told from Sybella's point of view as she goes through similar struggles as Ismae.
Sybella's story starts with her living in D'Albrets' castle in Nantes. After the first few chapters, we begin to see that Sybella kept many secrets from her friends at the convent of St. Mortain. For starters, she is the daughter of D'Albret, although she hates him with greater passion then anyone else. In fact, she is only in his castle because the abbess of St. Mortain sent Sybella on an undercover mission to spy on her father and wait for a sign from St. Mortain that she must murder D'Albret. However, such an opportunity doesn't present itself for several weeks, and the abbess gives Sybella another mission: to rescue the Beast of Waroch, Brittany's best and most heroic night, from D'Albret's dungeon. Sybella is furious, as she only came to her father's castle because the abbess practically promised that she would have a chance to kill D'Albret. Still, she forms a plan to set the knight free and send him off to Rennes, where the duchess needs him most. However, Sybella's plans go awry and she is forced to accompany the Beast back to Rennes herself, as he has been tortured and gravely injured by D'Albret. When the pair arrive in Rennes, Sybella struggles with conflicting emotions about the Beast of Waroch, and finally decides to open her past to him, something she has never done before. Once she has settled into court, Sybella helps the duchess by providing her with extensive knowledge of D'Albret and aids in an attack on his castle.
I greatly enjoyed this book because of it's parallels with European history, one of my favorite subjects. The author provided her views on feminine oppression during the 15th century. There were many times when LaFevers showed how differently women were treated during that age, and many of the examples were sickeningly accurate. However, she gave the main character (who is a woman) a way to use her feminine side to her advantage, making it easy for Sybella to flirt her way into the enemies' bedrooms, assassinating them once the door had closed. Additionally, LaFevers gives the reader a look at Brittany's medieval war tactics against the French. I was slightly disappointed that the author never gave any insight as to what was happening on the French side of the war, but I can see how that would have been very difficult to incorporate. Still, LaFevers did a fantastic job of tying female empowerment into her novel, an issue that many women still struggle with in different parts of the world. I think that because this issue barely exists in our community today we tend to forget that it is still a huge problem in less fortunate countries. "Dark Triumph" reintroduced the topic to many young readers' minds, and I think that this book will serve as a reminder that there are many less fortunate people out there enduring similar lives as the characters in this book.
Overall, I was very impressed by "Dark Triumph", the second book in Robin LaFevers' "His Fair Assassin" trilogy. She tied together themes of love, power, and death with a fantastic story from 15th century Brittany. I found this book intriguing because it was historical fiction (my favorite genre) and because it addressed the issue of female oppression during that time. I would recommend this book to young adults interested in European history and fiction.
Alexis McBride