Dark is the Moon
core novel 1999 The Three Worlds Cycle
Record
| First published | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.00 (2,290 ratings, collected 2026-10-09) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780648186991 |
| Internal chronology | 3 |
Synopsis
Rulke, the Charon lord called the Great Betrayer, has escaped from the Nightland, the prison that held him for a thousand years, and he has brought a weapon no one has seen before: a vast iron construct driven by magic. As he gathers an army, the other ancient wizards of Santhenar scatter in search of spells forbidden since the Forbidding, the only means that might stop him. Llian, desperate to compose a new Great Tale, falls into Rulke's trap and becomes an unwitting spy against his friends, while Karan, the triune daughter of three human races, finds that her homeland has become the centre of a sorcerous vortex. In a haunted mountain citadel built by her mad ancestor, Rulke means to open the Way Between the Worlds, whatever horrors of the Void it lets through, and he cannot do it without Karan, whom the desperate allies now believe must die.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Three Worlds Cycle
- Series: The View from the Mirror core; position 3 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Ian Irvine
Notes
- From the series record (The View from the Mirror): Ian Irvine's first Three Worlds quartet: the chronicler Llian and the sensitive Karan, drawn into a three-thousand-year-old struggle between the immortals of the three human races trapped on Santhenar since the Way Between the Worlds was shattered, and the Mirror of Aachan that can reveal it.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The View from the Mirror: position 3 of 4: previous The Tower on the Rift (1998) · next The Way Between the Worlds (1999)
- Internal chronology, within The Three Worlds Cycle: position 9 of 15: previous The Fatal Gate (2017) · next Alchymist (2003)
Sources
- Ian Irvine (official site)
- Fantasy Literature (review)
- Ian Irvine (official site)
- Ian Irvine (Three Worlds timeline)
- Ian Irvine (official booklist)
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