Review: The Darkest Night Manga Vol 1& 2 by Gena Showalter & Earithen

Title : The Darkest Night, Volume 1 & 2
Author : Gena Showalter
Illustrator :Earithen
Adaptation from : The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter
Languange : English
Publisher :Harlequin K.K/SB Creative Corp
Length :  180 pages
Published: June 2013
Format : E-book
Target : Young Adult (15 y.o above)
Genre : Paranormal romance, manga
Series : Lords of the Underworld

Buy : Kobo vol 1 ; Kobo Vol 2

Sinopsis :

VOLUME 1: 

Those crimson eyes look like they want nothing more than to turn this whole world to ash.... But I would die happy if he killed me right now. Ashlyn has a strange power: she hears the voices of the past that linger in this world. Since she was a child, she's lived a noisy and lonesome life. But when she hears the rumors of angels living in an ancient castle in Budapest, she can't help but venture into their forest. There, she sees a muscular man covered in fresh blood, a man who advances on her with murder in his eyes. But instead of fear, she feels a complete and total silence descend upon her. And an indescribable sense of security...

 

VOLUME 2:

They were once the beautiful immortal warriors created by the hands of gods. But now, "love" is for them the greatest "sin," their punishment for breaking a great taboo. Before he realizes it, Maddox has fallen deeply in love with Ashlyn. However, his fellow warriors suspect that Ashlyn is a trap sent by their enemies and doubt her motives, watching her every action carefully. With the allegations that have surfaced against Ashlyn, it's looking truer than ever that love between an immortal warrior and a normal human is doomed from the start. But Maddox can neither trust her completely, nor let her get away. What will he do?

 Review

Note: This review is copied from my Goodreads review with some editing. If you find any mistake in grammar and structure, please kindly email me at : sawamura_foxman AT yahoo DOT com , so I can correct it. Thanks! :) .

I read Lords of The Underworld (LOTU) back at 2010 when first began my paranormal romance reading spree. Together with Immortals After Dark by Kresley Cole, Lords of the Underworld is a series that start my love for anything paranormal and romance. Back then, I'm not read Dark Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon yet, and I'm quite fascinated with the way Gena infused Greek myth, especially about Pandora box to her work. And so begin my love for LOTU. That's 4-5 years ago and now I'm still hesitant to read the new installment of LOTU. The last LOTU book I read was Paris's (The Darkest Seduction) and when I want to read Kane's and Torin's, I hear that Gena's writing change. I also see that it's like she doesn't know how to end her longest series yet. But, eh, enough about my babbling, let's talk about the manga adaption.

I recognized the manga adaption of LOTU 2 years ago. I told my friend that LOTU become a manga and we squeal like a little girl. We saw Earithen sketch of LOTU character and it's make us laughing because it's ridiculous! But we also happy because finally we can see them in flesh (even just in manga). Alas, our happines dimmed a bit because neither of us can read Japanese languange (aka kanji) so I kinda forget the manga adaption. Then, few days ago when I stumble upon Harlequin Comic list on Goodreads, that when I discovered this manga! I search on net and then Kobo and so happy that the English version already published. Finally, I can read this!! :D Quite wary at first, because I think the illustrator will do shitty work when translated the book to manga, and I know that Gena's books are hawt, hawt, hawt, I wonder if the hotness will be tone down in the manga.

 

It is :/.

 

Anyhoo, because I don't want to waste my money, I began my search on Kobo for any LOTU manga and found that each volume, from The Darkest Night until the recent adaption, The Darkest Passion have a 50 pages preview. Cool! So, I download the 50 pages preview that Kobo provide. Since each manga have different illustrator, after reading the preview I decided to buy (yes, buy!) manga adaption by Earithen (The Darkest Night, The Darkest Prison, The Darkest Passion) and Yoko Iwazaki (The Darkest Kiss) because the artwork is beautiful and their adaption is true to the book.
 

The manga adaption of The Darkest Night have 2 volume. This volume tell a story about how Ashlynn met Maddox, discovered his curse and end when Maddox accused her as being Hunter, the enemy of the Lords. The story quite faithful to the book and Earithen drawing is fabulous. I often see that many readers cast Idris Elba as Maddox, but for the love of me, I can't remember that Maddox have Elba's appearance. In my mind, he's a Caucasian and that's what Earithen's take too. His brute and savage demeanor also written well. Other Lords like Lucien, Paris, Reyes, Aeron and Torin also draw well. But Lucien's outfit is what make me laugh the most, because he look like Prince of Darkness! His outfit is too regal, too noble and didn't fit him. But his scars was draw. As for the Greece Lords, they are not in this volume but in the next, so I will describe them there.


 Now we go to for volume 2 :D

The story pick up what left in vol 1 with Maddox accused Ashlynn for being Hunter and therefore put her in the locked room. This is when reader will get to know about Danika, Reyes's ladylove in The Darkest Pleasure (in case you had read the book. If not, whoops). The story then continue when the Budapest Lords meet Greece Lords and I'm surprise to see Sabin. Because, he has a dreadlock. Yep, dreadlock. Never remember that Sabin have dreadlock before, lol! Maybe to match Lucien's long hair? My mind is fuzzy, but this version of Sabin is not that bad. Make him look manly and menacing afterall. The other Greece Lords sadly have a average drawing. Maybe, yeah, draw so many characters and make them different is difficult.

The story stay true with in the book. Like when Ashlynn become sick after drinking ambrosia, then when she and Maddox finally have sex, and whoa, whoa, if you think it will be hot, you will be DISAPPOINTED. Like me, lol! Nah, it's still hot, but not too graphic. I don't know, maybe because this one was targeted for readers that 15 y.o and above. Earithen herself admitted in the end of the manga that she think the book also hot :P. But she manage to write the sexual tension well and in the end she did a good job to tone down the sex scene. The ending is also the same. My complaint maybe because Ashlynn look like a doll and little girl despite her 24 y.o, while Maddox and his comrades look like adult.

So, fans of LOTU? BIG FANS OF LOTU? You must read this adaption, yo! Anyhoo,  better if you read the book first, because it's true that the book is the best version of them all.Even the illustrator try to be true to the spirit of the book, some part of course didn't make it into the manga. Can't read Kanji or Hiragana? Don't worry, I read the English version, meaning, you can read this one too :). The price of the e-book also kinda reasonable for a manga. Ok, 5,39 dollar for each volume maybe a little bit too much especially because this manga just available in ebook version. My advice is to search any Kobo coupon codes so you will get 20-30% discount! I bought it with each volume circa 2-3 dollars. So for 2 volume just 6 dollars. Of course I purchased this when rupiah is around 12000-13000, lol :P.  But, yeah, don't called yourself fans of LOTU if you not read this graphic novel version of your favorite series! :)

Still hesitate to buy? :P Try to download the 50 pages preview and you can decide if you want to read the rest or not. I know you want to! ;D

 Story & Sensuality Rate

My rating for  The Darkes Night vol 1 & 2  is

And the sensuality rate is

Not-too-graphic sex scenes which make me a little bit disappointed :P.