A copy of Arclight was sent to me by the kind people at Egmont. I was eagerly anticipating reading this just from looking at the cover which I think is one of the nicest covers I’ve seen released in 2013.
From starting the read I was originally plunged in to the plot and somewhat overwhelmed in the first few chapters just with the sheer amount of stuff that is happening within the story.
The book follows a main character called Marina. Her, and the other characters start to develop at a good pace, and reveal quite complex characters that all fit extremely well into the plot. We find that we start to take sides with characters in the story quite typically, which adds an extra amount of enjoyment to reading the book which is something that I particularly enjoyed about reading books such as Harry Potter.
Looking at the physical appearance of the book, it has an eye-catching cover that links directly into the book. Internally it has a similar look to The Maze Runner.
Some characters such as Tobin are very complex, and this almost incentivises me to read on through the book to both unearth the secrets of the society and the general plot, but also to learn more about the characters.
The author has created what I think is a very intricate society and setting for her book, with lots of very different things happening around. Basically, the book is set in the Arclight; a society of humans who are living surrounded by the grey and hence darkness around them. This human civilisation believes that they are the last one to exist on the Earth, with the hunting Fade approaching when the sun goes down and the grey darkens. The humans use the Arclight to create a permanent day around them and this helps to keep the Fade at bay. Unfortunately, when its night time and the Fade want to attack, they will with a brute force that sends the Arclight into colour-walls. These colours progress and are represented by the colours on the cover of the book. The lights in and around the Arclight will change colour depending on the severity of the attack. The book sees quite a lot of red and blue-walls which signify severe attacks. The Fade are mysterious creatures that have taken away countless friends and family members from people in the Arclight. The fade spread a contagion that can start to turn you into a fade and the only way to stop it is to burn the flesh that has the contagion to destroy it.
I think dividing this book into thirds is a good way of reviewing it. In the first third we see a change in Tobin, and are introduced to Marina and her friends, as well as the society that the book is set. In the second third we are introduced more to the Fade, and then there is a lot of action, twists and adventure in the final third. I found this part of the book the most difficult to read because it just moved so quickly! I really enjoyed it but found myself having to read back a few lines to find out what was actually happening. This leads me on to my next points – the passage of time carried considerable throughout the book, and I was often confused as to who was speaking (particularly in the final third). Characters would join in conversations and there were a few when there were just too many people talking for it to be confusing unless you were actually there, or watching it as a film. I think it would make a good film, on the condition that the author had a serious involvement into the whole production process, to maintain the fantastic level of imagination I saw in the book.
Despite these two points, I thoroughly enjoyed Arclight and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. If I was to give advice to the author, I would advise her not to make the series too long – there are so many out there that we need to see books that are stand-alone, twins and then triplets at the maximum because I know that personally, I have so many series on the go that it’s starting to get ridiculous now! I would also say to her that she needs to maintain her imagination as this made the book great and a read that I genuinely enjoyed!
I look forward to seeing what comes next from her!
