The Duskwalker Series continues with the second installment in Morningside Fall. Jay Posey brings us back to the post apocalyptic world where monsters aren’t quite what they seem. Despite the pitfalls of Three, Posey shifted the focus to the intriguing perspective of a young boy. With this new outlook, life is brought to the Duskwalker Series.
The lone gunman Three is gone.
Wren is the new governor of the devastated settlement of Morningside, but there is turmoil in the city. When his life is put in danger, Wren is forced to flee Morningside until he and his retinue can determine who can be trusted.
They arrive at a border outpost to find it has been infested with Weir in greater numbers than anyone has ever seen. These lost, dangerous creatures are harbouring a terrible secret – one that will have consequences not just for Wren and his comrades, but for the future of what remains of the world.
New threats need new heroes…
I had quite a few grievances with Three, but Posey managed to intrigue me enough to make me read Morningside Fall. Posey made the stellar choice to take the point of view of Wren, a confused but gifted boy. His clarity is quite refreshing and Posey brings an effortless childlike outlook to his writing. One highlight of the book is when Wren equates the eerie nature of the town to waiting in a clinic.
Despite Posey’s new outlook, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed in Posey’s storyline and overall execution. The plot didn’t seem to have purpose nor did it move much, leaving me wondering why I should care what was happening. This was compounded by Posey’s lack of physical descriptions. It was as if nothing was visualized and that ultimately created a world which seemed hollow. Action scenes are brought to a halt with the lack of visual cues and bad spacial awareness. It’s hard to tell what is going on at any given time. For instance, whole conversations take place between characters without the reader knowing where they are in relation to each other. This may seem minor but when a battle commences it makes everything a blur.
If one were to ignore those two main grievances of mine, there were a host of other little things that made for a poor read. The first was that there were few reminders of what happened in the first book. While this isn’t too frustrating, the sheer amount of background information that was missing was quite noticeable. One of the features which makes this series unique is that monsters evolve into creatures that have both human mentality and monster strength. This feature was barely alluded to in the majority of Morningside Fall. It left me wondering why Posey was burying the unique factors of his series and making it seem like just another vague post apocalyptic novel.
The other minor complaints are everything from an overabundance of nondescript characters to switching perspective too often. Even the overall pace is off, bringing the reader an intriguing end, a subpar middle which is not only slow but lacking detail and an end, which though predictable, is the highlight of Morningside Fall. The shame of this pacing is that I think many readers won’t see the story to its peak.
With a frustratingly awkward plotline and lack of clarity, Morningside Fall failed to ever draw me in. Though the child’s perspective was a neat idea, I just couldn’t like this story. I can forgive a story not being entertaining but this was simply boring in many parts. Ultimately, I didn’t enjoy the time I spent reading Morningside Fall and I was left thinking that Posey’s changes were too little and too late.
