What do you think?
Rate this book
Darkness Visible
In an alternate version of London in 1895, a few talented people can travel instantly between locations through Thresholds - tears in the fabric of reality. Lord Henry Lewis is a Warden, working to close dangerous Thresholds to prevent the sickness that flows from the darkness outside reality. William Marsh loses his family to the sickness when several undirected Thresholds are opened in his home. Marsh has the born talent to open Thresholds, and Lord Lewis's superiors order him to train the young man. Their relationship is strained, but they slowly come to rely on each other. The number of rogue Thresholds is increasing and times are dangerous. Lewis and Marsh discover that a cult, disillusioned by the scientific advances of the age, is opening the rogue Thresholds to destroy mankind. As London falls into darkness, they must race against time to stop the end of the world.
376 pages, Paperback
First published May 6, 2011
3 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 12, 2015
Darkness Visible is a Victorian Fantasy novel set in 1895, in a world which is identical to our own history except for one key fact: there are people, known as venturers, who can travel instantly between locations by tearing holes (Thresholds) in the fabric of reality. However, Thresholds are not entirely safe, and a bad one will cause unreality to leak in from beyond the world, with potentially fatal consequences.
Full review in my blog :)
Full review in my blog :)
December 29, 2012
Soft-sci fi Victoriana escapist fun, potentially slashy - this should have been right up my street. Unfortunately this story just fell a little flat for me. I can see it would be an enjoyable adventure for many, it just didn’t tick my boxes. A bit of a shaky premise: a significant minority of people have the ability to manipulate reality and create portals to anywhere they can visualise – a practice known as “venturing”. Sometimes these portals are used for crime but otherwise life and society functions pretty much OK. I just found this too unbelievable – imagine a world where locks are meaningless – people would be turning up in government buildings disrupting stuff, prisons would be useless, no country would have any control over it’s borders. Perhaps I’m just an awful pessimist about human nature but I reckon the ability to venture would plunge society into chaos. Also, in the story most non-venturers are content to largely ignore this phenomenon and the knowledge of the true nature of reality. Surely the philosophical, cosmic and practical implications of venturing would demand much more widespread investigation. This weird dissonance and the casual acceptance of venturing kinda killed my ability to immerse myself in the story.
As did some of the dialogue and the characters reactions;The Marsh siblings barely pause to grieve their family and adjust to their change in circumstances (yes, the reason for some of this becomes clear later but still, it stopped me believing the characterisation at the time). I know it’s supposed to be a fast-paced soft-sci-fi adventure but I felt a lot of believability was sacrificed to keep up the pace. That said, the characterisation of the main charas was good, I felt Marsh and Lewis must have been really well realised in the authors mind, as were the locations and atmosphere of this alternate reality Victorian London. Took me a couple of evenings to get through, so I obviously cared enough to keep reading and I loved how the story panned out. I’d recommend it if you want well-realised characters facing well-paced adversity in a decent realisation of Victorian England. Just be ready to go with the flow and not be a world-building pedant like me.
As did some of the dialogue and the characters reactions;The Marsh siblings barely pause to grieve their family and adjust to their change in circumstances (yes, the reason for some of this becomes clear later but still, it stopped me believing the characterisation at the time). I know it’s supposed to be a fast-paced soft-sci-fi adventure but I felt a lot of believability was sacrificed to keep up the pace. That said, the characterisation of the main charas was good, I felt Marsh and Lewis must have been really well realised in the authors mind, as were the locations and atmosphere of this alternate reality Victorian London. Took me a couple of evenings to get through, so I obviously cared enough to keep reading and I loved how the story panned out. I’d recommend it if you want well-realised characters facing well-paced adversity in a decent realisation of Victorian England. Just be ready to go with the flow and not be a world-building pedant like me.
May 19, 2012
This book was suggested to me by someone from io9. As I have yet to get a recommendation from any of the people or articles there, I decided to pick it up. I was not disappointed. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, it has a very distinctive voice in its narration.
November 1, 2013
I had a ball reading Darkness Visible. It's not a perfect book, but it sure is fun and the characters do indeed grow on you, especially Marsh. A science fiction(ish) book set in Victorian London that isn't steampunk... quite an impressive feat. I would definitely recommend it.
July 4, 2014
Great story could not put it down
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews