How far would you go to save a friend's life?
This the overall question, or theme if you will, throughout Dark Lament. The title alone draws you in with that very same premise that speaks of grief and loss.
For Vas, our main character, he is faced with this very same dilemma. Not once, but several times throughout the story. It is an internal war that he wages when he is faced with the ability to alter fate and defy Heaven's will. But all things come with a cost. And it is this balance that Vas struggles to find as he also wrestles with his faith.
Dark Lament was one of the first serial novels I stumbled across on Kindle Vella. It was the first dark fantasy that I began to read on the platform. And it still stands in my top five of favorite fantasy serial novels after a year of reading on Vella.
The story grabbed me in the very first episode where we are faced with an undead assault in a farmhouse. In the next chapter, we are then introduced to Vas who is a novice healer for the Light of Heaven. Despite his skill with sword play, his mission is to heal as his mentors do. After a tragic accident nearly takes the life of his friend and mentor, Vas rebels against the Will of Heaven and accepts aid from an unlikely source.
This aid comes at a heavy cost and the repercussions echo throughout the story. As Vas wrestles with his guilt, he is tasked with reading forbidden texts that discuss two prominent crusades: Green and Black. This is where the story splits and we are introduced to the accounts of the past by a new narrator, Daeved.
What I liked best about this book was the relationship Vas had with the people around him. He is a fully fleshed character and you could easily relate with his struggles. The time jumps were very easy to follow and didn’t detract from the overall storyline. I am very curious to see where this story goes in the next book.
Dark Lament is currently available to read on Amazon's Kindle Vella platform and soon will be available to purchase in traditional book format.
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