THE DARK

Another helping of time-travel fantasy, heavy on the melodrama, in a sequel to The Named (2002). The Goddess of Chaos, irate that the Guardians of Time defeated her lover Marduke, abducts Arkarian, the ageless wizard of the Guard, and imprisons him in a dark dimension of unending torture. Although the Immortal leader of the Guard expressly forbids any rescue attempt, three of the Named—the impetuous Ethan, his former Apprentice Isabel, and Isabel’s brother Matt—dare to go after their mentor. Their ventures through medieval France, ancient Rome, and finally the nightmarish underworld, would be laughably anachronistic and badly sketched were they not so clearly secondary to the heart-wringings of teenage angst. Will Isabel and Arkarian ever acknowledge that they are soulmates, or will his eternal youth and her former crush on Ethan get in the way? Will Ethan and Matt ever reconcile their friendship, torn apart over the traitor they both loved? And who could be Arkarian’s father? Pure soap-opera fluff with only the lightest sprinkling of the fantastic; but fans will eat it up with a spoon. (Fantasy. YA)