And to answer a special someone out there’s immediate question: Yes, I liked it.But I didn’t think it was great.

I picked up the The Drawing of the Dark solely because of Terje’s high opinion of it. I was expecting a Gaimanesque book with clever dialog, good characters and an elaborate plot. All though why I expected an elaborate plot seems more an effect of my taking Terje’s comparison with Scott Lynch to a greater length than what can be described as implicit. I found almost everything I was looking for, but I finished the book feeling that the one thing that didn’t lay hidden beneath the white pages was the very thing it lacked…

Brian Duffy is an Irishman who’s been fighting in wars too long as a mercenary and a soldier. He’s current whereabouts is the fair city of Venice, where he has done his best to get thoroughly acquainted with various dubious liquids. Returning from a night filled with the red colors of his favorite friend, Duffy finds himself the target of an unexpected, all though poorly executed attempt on his life. When he has dealt wit the danger, an old man calls down to him and asks if he could maybe if he wanted to please travel to Vienna and work as a bouncer in his inn. Which inn, asks Duffy, and the old man gives him a most unexpected answer: The Herzwesten Inn, which is world renowned for its tasty beer. Duffy is offered an unreasonable high amount of money to take the job, and thus, naturally does.

But everything isn’t quite what it seems. Duffy suddenly finds himself the center of unnatural events and soon will even the drawing of the dark begin…

Set in the early 14th century, this is a book that is based upon a real historic event, but flavored with folk lore come alive, real vikings and ancient myths. Powers has a very straightforward way of writing, which enables him to pack a vast amount of action into a short book (328 pages). I was never bored when reading it, and that simple fact means that Powers has managed to write a good book. However, when I read American Gods by Neil Gaiman (the closest comparison to tDotD I can think of), it wasn’t primarily the mythic quality of it that I prized so high. It was the characters, the mood and the plot.

The Drawing of the Dark has all those things – but they’re not as good as in Gaiman’s masterpiece. Especially the fact that I was able to guess where the book was going made the experience greatly inferior to me. I also felt that American Gods contained more depth than this story.

I grade this book a very weak 7,5/10 and I’ll recommend it to fans of aforementioned authors and also those of you who have a weak heart for Steven Erikson. My above ramblings may seem a little weird, but they are there to justify my opinion that this is merely a good book and not a masterpiece by any means.

I’d recommend it though.

Heartily 😉