Review: Mark of the Profane (Dark Legacy Book 2) by Kyle Belote
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
When I start a series and love the first book, it’s not uncommon for me to feel somewhat nervous going into the second. This is because I really want to like the sequel.
Mark of the Profane was unfortunately disappointing for me. While I am still interested in Julie’s journey and what comes next with Ermaeyth, I came away from this volume wondering how I would put my feelings into words.
Before I jump into any attempt at that, though, let’s discuss what the story is about.
Summary
In this installment, Ralloc is struggling in the war against Xilor as he draws closer. As the Krey move out and try to stop his troops, their leader Xenomene finds herself contending with her own personal struggles on top of the conflict.
Meanwhile, Julie is still looking for ways to stop Xilor on her own. However, as she continues her quest, she begins to think about the people she has left behind. As she continues to journey on, she finds herself contending with guilt after making a choice that leads to unexpected consequences.
With Xilor drawing closer to Ralloc, will the Krey be able to hold Xilor off with Xenomene contending with more than just the war? And, at the same time, will Julie be able to find the answers she has been searching for?
Thoughts
I’m conflicted about some things. I have a lot of questions, and I am still trying to piece together quite a bit of this. One of the biggest reasons my feelings about this story are so lukewarm is because it spends too much time on Xenomene’s character arc, leaving me struggling to follow the rest of the story. Normally, I wouldn’t mind getting an in-depth look at one character’s personal journey, but the issue is that it was so heavily focused on that the war with Xilor isn’t even brought to the forefront until very late in the story. I’ll discuss this character in more detail in a bit.
The heavy focus on this arc causes another issue as well. There is a new character introduced in this story, but I feel like the story didn’t give me time to get to know him. We know his name, where he is coming from, and his goal in journeying to Ralloc. However, the narrative doesn’t even hint at the role he’ll play in the bigger picture, leaving me wondering what he’ll do if he achieves his main objective. Other than that, his role in the story is minimal and I wanted to see more from him.
I have some other things I want to talk about but, before I do, let’s discuss some of the other characters a bit more.
Characters
Xenomene
I have mixed feelings about Xenomene. On one hand, her journey in trying to figure out how to be accepted as a woman and a leader of the Krey is awesome to see! Her friends rallying behind her after they learn of what she’s been through is great as well, showing that she has respect and love from the members of the group she is closest with. I love that she is not afraid to stand up for herself and demands respect in return for the respect she gives her troops.
However, there were brief instances in the story where her reactions to certain characters didn’t make sense to me because it is established that she doesn’t know them well. While I have suspicions regarding where these feelings come from, I wish the story had stated the reasons for them and either hinted at what would come next or try and address them, especially after the other part of her personal arc is wrapped up.
Despite how much I liked a lot of her characteristics, I am questioning certain ways she feels and acts because I never saw any reason for those feelings.
Now that I’ve discussed Xenomene, let’s revisit Julie’s character.
Julie
So, last time I mentioned that Julie’s journey got darker as it went on. That continues in this volume, showing her as she continues to grow and experience new things in her quest to topple Xilor from power. And I like where this growth leads quite a bit. While Julie is still very flawed, seeing her face the entire situation and realize that there are still people she cares about despite all she’s been through is great to see.
That said, there are things about her journey that I am confused about. Mainly, I wonder how she found out more about her own background. From what I remember, there is no specific moment where she learns anything and when her sections began to reference what she has learned from time to time, I found myself wondering if I had missed when she had learned it. This plays into a larger concern I have with the story’s structure. I’ll discuss this issue more in that section, but in the moment, seeing the narrative disclose that Julie is aware of this information confused me.
Overall, I found it more difficult this time around to connect with the characters despite some of the positive aspects I noted about them.
Now that I’ve discussed that, let’s talk about the structure.
Structure
I think the structure is the main issue I am struggling with some of the character arcs. Much like last time, each chapter follows a different character and situation. However, the narrative largely focuses on one character arc most of the time in the first half of the story. This ended up shoving the events I wanted to hear about just as much (if not more) into the background. I wish there had been more of a balance between all these character arcs, because then I think some of them would have been easier to follow.
I also want to mention how certain pieces of information are divulged in the story. Like the issue I mentioned with Julie’s arc, there are other surprises that the narrative has. However, these reveals are not built up to. There are even certain scenarios that set up questions for the narrative to answer, but those answers are never hinted at or given before the story is over. As I said earlier, I do have a lot of questions about certain aspects of the narrative.
The structure didn’t feel as cohesive this time and overall, that led to instances where I had trouble following the story.
Writing
So, before I go into the prose, I want to look at the pacing. Because of what I outlined in the structure section, it was difficult to get attached to some of the character arcs, which in turn affected how the story flowed. The speed of the narrative felt meandering in a lot of places and, even when it did pick up, it often slowed down again shortly afterward. I think this is because of how many different arcs the story covers, but it doesn’t have an arc that works as the center of the story, which leads to that meandering pace.
It took me some time to pin down why the writing didn’t work as well for me this time, but I think I understand why now and will try to articulate it as best I can. The prose, while it does reflect the necessary mood and tone for each situation, felt flat and dry in certain instances. I think this is because of the pacing. With the pacing moving at a slower rate than I expected (especially in the first half of the story), important events didn’t feel as urgent.
Unfortunately, the writing didn’t impact me as heavily this time around because of all I’ve outlined.
Now that I’ve discussed all this, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
I feel conflicted. The setup for the world and the story is awesome and I see a lot of interesting aspects to it that I wanted to know more about. Unfortunately, though, the structure and pacing of this installment make it move at a much slower speed which affected how I viewed the story. While I still see many interesting things about this world, this installment didn’t work as well for me and for that reason I will be giving it two stars.
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