Review: “Dark Legion,” Rob Cornell

Pros: Interesting storyline and characters
Cons: Damn that one stereotype; too many supernaturals
Rating: 3 out of 5

Rob Cornell’s Dark Legion: An Urban Fantasy Thriller (The Lockman Chronicles Book 2) isn’t as good as the previous book, Darker Things, but it isn’t bad. Craig Lockman, his old girlfriend Kate, and their daughter Jessie are now living in the middle of the woods, away from all of the supernaturals that might still want to harm them. Then Craig’s old colleague and lover, Teresa, shows up, looking for help against some vampires who took her sister. Craig doesn’t want to leave Jessie and Kate, but when Teresa is kidnapped he decides he has no choice. He sets off for New Orleans, leaving Jessie and Kate behind.

I’m not sure why everyone in these books thinks they need to manipulate Craig into everything rather than level with him. It would be nice if they’d at least try leveling with him now and then.

I wish Teresa had just been an old and close friend and colleague rather than a former lover. We’re back to that rivals stereotype where women must jealously compete over a man’s affections. On the plus side, when it really comes down to it Teresa doesn’t ultimately screw Kate over, so it could have been worse. Hopefully in future volumes there are women who don’t have a thing for Craig. Kate still could have been angry at Craig for leaving her without the jealousy over Teresa, and Craig still could have cared enough about Teresa to go after her even if they hadn’t been lovers. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of chemistry between Craig and Kate.

There are definitely too many supernaturals in this installment. One of the things that made the first book unusual among urban fantasies was the idea that most humans are still completely unaware of the presence of supernaturals, and there aren’t that many of them in our world. There are so many in this volume that it’s impossible to believe they’re in any way unnoticed. This made the book feel much less unusual or unique.

Trigger warning for some rape mentions (vampires are definitely awful creatures).

I’m still interested in this ongoing prophecy plot involving Jessie and Craig; we get to see a bit more of that here, but it certainly isn’t resolved in any way. Also, Jessie is left with some interesting things going on, so it’ll be good to see where that goes. Hopefully the next book will get back to what made the first book so strong. This one does have a really good raid on a hotel full of vampires, so it has that going for it!