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    Dark Time
    Dark Time
    Dark Time
    Ebook386 pages5 hours

    Dark Time

    By Dakota Banks

    3/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Three hundred years ago, she sold her soul to a demon. Now she wants it back.

    For centuries, the woman calling herself Maliha Crayne has lived a second life—as an assassin for the malevolent creature who owns her soul. A haunted killer with the blood of countless victims on her hands, she has finally discovered a way to nullify the demonic pact that chains her: If she saves a life for every one she has taken, she will be free.

    But if she fails, her punishments will be unspeakable, unendurable . . . and neverending.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateJul 16, 2009
    ISBN9780061892691
    Dark Time
    Author

    Dakota Banks

    Growing up in a converted 1890s funeral home, complete with blood gutters in the basement floor, fueled Dakota Banks' interest in the paranormal. She's no ghost whisperer, but she keeps an open mind. She's fascinated with both archaeology and the paranormal, especially when the two intersect, as they do in Mortal Path. Dakota is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the International Thriller Writers. She lives in a St. Louis suburb with her husband, two sons adopted from Peru and Ethiopia, and a couple of cats who keep her writing on track.

    Read more from Dakota Banks

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    Reviews for Dark Time

    3/5

    75 ratings18 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I like the story and characters but parts are very far-fetched. It's a good read!
    • 2/5
      What started out as a fairly nifty idea was then ruined by cliché after cliché. As the book developed, so did the plot holes. I'm being generous giving it 2 stars because younger readers might enjoy it. There is a lot of action. Unfortunately, most of it seems to have been cribbed out of other bad action novels.

      I didn't mind the time jumps, which I noticed some others complained about. Because of how they are done (our heroine is supposed to be remembering as she meditates or sleep) they are far too serendipitous, but I could forgive that. Otherwise, the mechanics of the writing weren't bad. The dialog was pretty good.

      The plot just got worse & worse, though. By the 2/3 mark, I was gritting my teeth. About 3/4 of the way through the book, I just put it down. Hopefully the next book will be better for those who choose to subject themselves to it. I won't.

    • 2/5
      In 17th century Massachusetts, pregnant Susannah Leyhem is unjustly accused of witchcraft by a woman who covets her husband. She is convicted, gives birth to a stillborn daughter alone and despairing in prison, and is sentenced to burn at the stake.

      Just as the fire is lit under her feet, Susannah is transported to another realm where a monstrous demon offers immortality in return for her promise to be his slave and personal assassin. Susannah is filled with such deep anger and bitterness that she agrees, and her first task is to kill the scheming woman who labeled her as a witch.

      These opening scenes of DARK TIME are wrenching and draw the reader in; unfortunately, the author can't keep up the momentum. She skips over Susannah's centuries as a cold-hearted killer, picking up the narrative in the mid-twentieth century when Susannah begins to have a crisis of conscience about all the evil she has done in the name of her demon lord, Rubishu. The author presents several incidents that break the ice surrounding Susannah's heart, quickly arriving at the present when Susannah finally decides that she must break her contract with the demon.

      She makes a new deal: she will lose the supernatural abilities that went along with being an immortal assassin and resume her mortality, and she must attempt to save the lives of as many people as she has killed. If she succeeds, she will ascend to heaven; if she fails, she will face a lengthy torment at the hands of her demon lord.

      Because we meet Susannah as a naïve, 20-year old healer in the past and, in the present, as a devoted do-gooder, her years as an assassin never quite seem real. In DARK TIME, the primary remnants of those years are her "killing outfit" - a typical ninja suit, with martial art skills to match - and her astronomical wealth. Similarly, we learn that in the bad old days Susannah was quite the heartless seductress, always taking and discarding nameless lovers, but in the present Susannah is pretty sentimental about love. The hook that draws us in, the anger of a woman wronged, and the bulk of her experiences as an assassin seem very separate from the person we get to know in DARK TIME.

      There's a lot of Mary Sueing in THE MORTAL PATH - every man who sets eyes on Susannah is in love with her - and a plot involving the execution-style murder of two hackers; Susannah must find out who is responsible before more people die. While the Sumerian mythology in the novel is intriguing, the bad-girl-must-make-good story is nothing new, and DARK TIME simply doesn't stand out.
    • 3/5
      Dakota Banks' Dark Time has the flavor of an action thriller urban fantasy novel. There's quite a lot packed into the book as the author sets up the characters and their history and gets the story moving. Susannah is a healer during the 17th century. Accused of witchcraft, she is burned at the stake. An ancient Sumerian demon offers her a deal: immortality with conditions or death by fire. Susannah chooses life at the cost of being bound to the demon and required to do his evil biding. For three hundred years, Susannah kills for Rabishu. She is a master at her art with her supernatural strength and speed and well honed skills. Then, under the weight of the lives she's taken, Susannah rebels against her master, setting in motion a chain of events that could result in her freedom. She must balance the lives she has taken with lives she saves. The catch? She loses her immortality, aging with each life she saves. If she fails, she will forever be the demon's slave.Susannah becomes Maliha Crayne as she sets out on her new journey. She is tasked with finding the one responsible for the death of two coders. Her investigation opens a can of worms that threatens to destroy more than just the lives already taken. Aided by her trusted friends, Maliha goes on the hunt.This was quite an interesting novel. I liked it in many ways. The historical aspects and ties to Sumerian legends particularly intrigued me. And I really liked the way the author developed Susannah/Maliha's character. She had the typical earmarks of an urban fantasy heroine--tough and independent--but there is something else to her. As young looking, agile and into high tech as she may be, Maliha comes across as a much older soul. It's easy to believe she is 300+ years old. And I really liked that about her. I appreciated the author taking Maliha there. More importantly, I liked that she was a hot chocolate drinker.The author spends a lot of time setting up Maliha's background and overall goal to regain her freedom. Very little time is spent exploring the part of Maliha's life in which she establishes her new identity as a crime writer before jumping into her current investigation. The transition is very quick from past to present. I didn't mind so much since I found the background information the most interesting, including the flashbacks to Maliha's past, but it did leave me scratching my head initially. I will be curious to see what direction the author takes in future books of the series.Overall, I enjoyed Dark Time. The ending is a bit of a cliff hanger, and it was hard not to rush out and buy the next book in the series just so I could find out how . . . well, find out what happens next. I do plan to read more in the series, but I really need to get back to my book club selection for the time being.
    • 4/5
      This is the first novel in the Mortal Path series.The story starts of in the year 1692 where we meet Susannah. She is accused of witchcraft en sentenced to burn at the stake. While she is burning she calls for help which she finds in a demon named Rabishu he is giving her a choice....die in the flames or he'll grant her with eternal life but has to do his bidding. She becomes ageless and an assassin.We'll take a few leaps trough time and see Susannah in her new life as an ageless and assassin. After a few hundred years she wants out......wants her soul back. Rabishu offers her that chance. If she saves a life for every life she has taken she gets her soul back. But there is a catch she will become mortal again and with every life she saves she will age.She still heals faster than a 'normal mortal human' and she can still see aura's which gives her some advantages. She now fights to do some good in the world, begin to right what she has done wrong in the last three hundred years. She even gets a love interest named Jake Stackman, a DEA agent. The ending made me beg for more.....no seriously it's quite the open ending and you want to know what happens next! Is Jake really who he says he is? And off course what will come on Maliha’s path to her final goal....getting her soul back and be free......
    • 2/5
      I found this book incredibly weird and boring at the same time. The main characters name changed so many times I had trouble keeping track of her. Susannah is a herbal healer in the new world around the times of the witch trials. She is accused of being a witch while pregnant and put on trial where she is condemned to die by fire. She delivers her baby the day before her execution but without help the baby dies. They burn her and then a demon offers her the deal of a lifetime revenge and immortality on its not all it’s cracked up to be. Hundreds of years later she is unhappy with herself and must do something about it so she goes back on her deal and has to save a life for every one she has taken before she dies. Ok well not a bad story line I thought. However the book skips around from time period to time period introducing all of the characters as we go letting you know how she met them. Which was totally annoying every time I was getting into the story this would happened and I’d be about to pull my hair. Plus she seems to just sleep around willy nilly with whomever I’m not sure I liked that. I found it hard to get a grip on the story with the time flow though and ended up not enjoying it and the ending what ending!
    • 2/5
      Dark Time by Dakota Banks wasn't what I expected. I feel that the concept for the book had a lot of potential but sadly fell short. I finished the book in two days but out of boredom more than interest. The main character and her friends were flat. We learn about their backgrounds through flashbacks but that is about it. The flashbacks slow the book down and make what is coming next predictable. The only thing that surprised me was the end and because of that I'm willing to give the next book in the series a chance. Hopefully it will be better than the first.
    • 2/5
      I got through this, but just barely. It never really grabbed at me the way a good book should. There is some potential for this series, but I'm afraid "Dark Time" was a weak start.
    • 4/5
      I guest reviewed this book over at Enchanted by Books:In Dark Time, Dakota Banks gets down to the nitty-gritty. She holds nothing back in the details whether it’s a city Maliha is working in, out on an assassin’s mission or reliving Mahilia’s burning at the stake as an accused witch. This is not a novel that paints a pretty picture but one that is full of the very real complicated feelings of a woman trying to redeem herself for her past sins and working towards ensuring a bett...more I guest reviewed this book over at Enchanted by Books:In Dark Time, Dakota Banks gets down to the nitty-gritty. She holds nothing back in the details whether it’s a city Maliha is working in, out on an assassin’s mission or reliving Mahilia’s burning at the stake as an accused witch. This is not a novel that paints a pretty picture but one that is full of the very real complicated feelings of a woman trying to redeem herself for her past sins and working towards ensuring a better future for all of mankind – hopefully without the presence of the demons such as Rabishu and his brethren. While she is trying to redeem herself, she questions whether she will ever have some semblance of normalcy such as having a family. She wonders if this is something she should even allow herself to dream about, especially with DEA agent Jake Stackman.I liked the way the novel went back and forth between time periods in Maliha’s life. This helped give me a good understanding to how Maliha went from a cold-hearted assassin to the moment when her heart started to warm up again. The flashbacks helped solidify Maliha’s relationships with the secondary characters, made you feel closer to her and her friends while intensifying the feelings of disgust and dislike for the Rabishu and the other vile characters in the story. They also show how Maliha became the self-confident, strong woman she is in present day, who is self assured in her own skills to take care of herself and those around her.Dark Time was an intense dark read for me, which I enjoyed very much since it's my favorite kind of reading. It reads like a paranormal Mission Impossible assignment, at least that’s how I kept seeing things in my mind’s eye because of the detailed descriptions of the weaponry and gadgets used by Maliha and other characters throughout the story.The romance in this book takes a backseat to action, though it’s not without a few passionate moments. I liked that the villains are truly evil because this means no easy way out for the good guys and it thickens the plot. But be warned, this book ends with a cliffhanger. So if you’re looking for a fast paced read that is very dark in nature, that makes no apologies, has a kick-ass heroine and a solid storyline, then this book is for you. I’ll be on the lookout for Sacrifice, the second book in the Mortal Path series. Due to the cliffhanger, I HAVE TO KNOW what happens next!
    • 4/5
      In 1692, Susannah Layhem, who is a healer and purveyor of herbs and natural healing stands accused of witchcraft. Subsequently convicted and while awaiting her execution, she delivers her stillborn baby, alone and frightened in a filthy jail cell. She is burned at the stake, but as she dies, she is confronted by a demon named Rabishu. She is filled with anger and bitterness and accepts his offer of eternal life, in exchange for her obedience. Susannah becomes the “Black Ghost”, the personal assassin of Rabishu. Over the years, Susannah slowly regains her conscience and when Rabishu orders her to kill a baby, she discovers a way to nullify her pact with him. If she can save one life for every life she has taken over the centuries, she can become free. But if she should fail, unspeakable and never-ending punishments await her.Dark Time Mortal Path, a debut novel by Dakota Banks is an inventive and engaging novel. A bit gruesome in places, the idea behind the book is clever and original. This book is the first in a planned series and given the open ended idea of “saving a life for each one taken” and since we really aren’t privy to the number of lives the protagonist has taken, it might be quite a prolific series. The second book in the series, Sacrifice is coming out on August 31, and it will be added to the “teetering tower o’ to-be-read books”.
    • 4/5
      Imagine this: You are pregnant with your first child, homing with your husband and your fascination with herbal medicines. In the middle of the night, religious zealots drag you from your bed and throw you in a cold, rancid jail cell where you are beaten. Your husband stands by. The baby girl, who you would have named Constanta, is born in the squalor of the floor with your own hands. The zealots burn you at the stake as your husband passively watches along with the rest of the community, hurling epithets against the witch that you are supposed to be (accused by a disappointed suitor for your husband).And then . . . you are extracted from the fire by someone who offers you eternal life. In exchange, you must do his bidding as an assassin with superhuman powers. The dead Susannah becomes the Ageless Maliha. After some 300 years, she thirsts for the love of her child and more to life than being a killing machine. She rebels and begins finding the keys for undoing the demon and his cohorts. The demon offers a way out as a mortal human, which requires that Maliha balance her evil deeds with good. In her day job, Maliha is a popular fiction writer. Sound familiar?Dark Time: Mortal Path is a great adventure, taking the reader all over the world, back and forth across the millennia. Dakota Banks has crafted the beginning of a series of stories. When the pages stop turning, too soon for sure, I wanted to keep on turning to see how Maliha continues her quest for survival as a human, achievement of good, and whether her new romance has traction beyond passionate encounter. A fine read by an excellent writer with a fertile mind, and a great future.
    • 4/5
      Maliha Crayne was known as Suzanne when she first died during the "witchcraft" trial days. A demon offers her immortality if she just does his bidding. She takes the offer and spends centuries as the demon's assassin. Finding a conscience along the way and eager to find herself free of the demon, she makes a deal: if she can save a life for every one she has taken, she will be free. I found remnants of Lara Croft in Maliha. If you like kickass heroines, you will love Maliha.
    • 3/5
      read "Dark Time", Mortal Path book 1, very quickly. I found it very compelling and I definitely wanted answers to the questions that had sprung up as I read. Its very hard to write a good reveiw for this book because as I am contemplating it, I am not even sure if I liked or didnt' like the book. The story begins with the tale of a young pregnant young woman accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake. She has been accused by a woman who wants her husband. When she is pulled from the fire by a demon, she agrees to his deal: She gets to be immortal, and she gets to kill her accuser, but she also has to be the demon's executioner. Suddenly the book turns things around and she is Maliha Crayne. At some points, she is the assassin, killing for the demon, mostly innocent people. As the long years pass by she gets more and more empathetic towards her targets and she is ready to do whatever it takes to break the deal with the demon. The story tells the tale of how she accomplishes this and then she is in the fairly modern world and trying to save lifes to even out those she has taken, and thereby get her freedom to live out her days as a mortal in peace. If she can't even the death toll by the time she dies, then she becomes the demon's play thing forever. This story was intriguing, compelling, and unlike other books I have read. I alternately liked and hated the character. This book was so confusing though. It felt like the backstory alone should have been several installments of the series, leading Maliha to this point where she has to redeem herself and save lives. Instead we get three completely different tales all jam packed into the one 300 or so page novel. (Her human story as the accused witch, the years she spent as an assassin, and the period of time where she is trying to balance the deaths) There is no rhyme or reason on when we will randomly be thrown back into yet another period of time in her long life. Characters are introduced and even narrate their own chapters and we have no idea what they have to do with the story until much later. I guess to sumamrize my feelings, it was a unique, exciting, tale that flew off the pages and had me desperate to know what happened but it was mixed up in such a way that the entire time I was reading I also felt confused. I was constantly trying to reorganize mentally the tale in a way I could make some sense of what had happened and where the book was going. I am also unsure if I will buy the next book.
    • 3/5
      If you're looking to read something that will be added into the canon of Great Literature look elsewhere. If you're looking for entertaining mind candy, you're set.This book is mostly a thrill ride, telling the first part of the story of Maliha Crayne who has a secret. She was burned for a witch in 1692 & saved from the flames by a demon for whom she became an Ageless assassin. Tiring of this life after hundreds of years she strikes a deal with the demon - if she can save enough lives to balance the ones she has killed for him, she will be free.This book has a great premise & mostly lives up to it, although it at times feels a bit disjointed. I suspect that Ms. Banks is trying to introduce the characters & set the stage for the entirety of the series, but in this first one she would have benefited from a slightly slower pace. As it is the book is fun to read, but the pace feels a bit herky jerky & that detracts from the funner elements of the plot.Ms. Banks writes martial arts well & the fighting sequences of the book read almost like a video game plays - not any easy thing to do.This book won't change your life & it's not an Important Novel, but it's a fun & quick read that looks to be a promising beginning for a fun new series.
    • 3/5
      I fully admit I waffled in rating this book. I loved the concept behind the book and I really enjoyed Maliha’s character. Banks introduces a lot within this one book and the end leaves you hanging for more. On the other hand the writing was disjointed to me. Each chapter jumps back and forth between Maliha’s past and present along with a few pages here and there from the point of view of her enemies. This jumping around was disorienting. There are many things that are left unexplained that I’m not sure will be explained in later books or were just left unresolved. For instance, for every life Maliha saves it’s supposed to help balance out the killings she has committed yet when she has to kill innocent people does that not count against her? Or is it only killings she performed while directed by the evil creature? Then there is the romantic interest, Jake, who goes from suspecting Maliha of being involved in a drug heist, to jumping her and getting naked together with no real explanation of what caused the change in heart. Despite all this like I mentioned earlier the book does leave you hanging and wanting to find out what will happen next.
    • 3/5
      Dark Time, the first book of Mortal Path by Dakota Banks features a woman named Susannah who after a very traumatic event and death, is resurrected back to life and given immortality, super human abilities, and becomes an unstoppable killing machine by the demon Rabishu in exchange for doing his bidding on Earth. She changes her name to Maliha Crayne and after numerous errands ordered by Rabishu, she gets tired of killing aimlessly and decides to take her life in her own hands. Going against Rabishu, she makes another deal; if she saves a life for every one taken, she'll be free if not she'll be damned to long eternal torment by Rabishu. However with every life saved, she ages and her abilities are not as good as it used to be. The action bits were great. The beginning of the novel grabbed my attention right away and I was engrossed with it. I loved how she became this assassin but with a conscience. The plot is really good. Maliha is something comparable to Lara Croft mixed with Xena Warrior Princess. She seriously knows how to kick some serious booty. She could be a super hero you see on TV shows, complete with "normal" friends who each had a history with her in the past (hence why they're friends), a potential boyfriend, and a never ending arsenal of weapons. I liked this character a lot then again, I'm always for women characters who know how to pack a punch. The plot flows with several chapters in between that feature flashbacks of Maliha and how she came to befriend some of her friends in the past. I like them, as it explains a bit of the background story some may find it not necessary, but the little chapters give the story a little more form and depth. Which is great. The ending was a good cliffhanger, it's making me grind my teeth now that I have to wait for the next one to come out.There's a few problems with this book that I have. Maliha is gorgeous. Yes. I realize that. Do we have to be reminded of her gorgeous butt every other chapter? do we have to be reminded that every man she meets wants to jump into the sack with her? that gets really irritating and got in the way of the plot, I think. Another thing, she meets up with a nemesis who's "Ageless" like she is. Yet somehow this one managed to sneak into her ultra high security place and managed to fondle her body parts. She didn't feel that? after how many centuries of training? sure, she's lost some of her ability but is it that bad that she can't feel someone's hand down her underwear? that irked me. A LOT. Of course, you get the romance in this book but it's not that explicit and I managed to just skim through that (as I don't care for that stuff much).Overall, a good book packed with action, with a few details overlooked and a few irritations along the way. Nothing so major (or maybe not) to get in the way of enjoying the novel.
    • 3/5
      I will admit, and I probably have before, that I'm a sucker for an eye-catching cover. Even better is when the cover actually reflects somehow the contents of the book, which is happily the case with Dakota Banks' debut novel Dark Time. Dark Time is the first book in the new series Mortal Path; I would primarily describe it as urban fantasy, although there is a heavy dose of suspense thrown in for good measure with an almost James Bond-esque attitude (albeit with a female heroine). I was offered a copy to review and although I don't regularly read this type of action-packed urban fantasy, the basic premise and choice of mythology intrigued me enough to request the book.In 1692 Susannah Layhem was happily married and pregnant with her first child, but that is all destroyed when she is accused of being a witch and sentenced to be burned alive. As the flames begin to rise she is given a chance at life and revenge by the Sumerian demon Rabishu. If she agrees to do his bidding she will become a deadly assassin and one of the powerful Ageless. Three hundred years later, now going by the name of Maliha Crayne, she begins to question her decision and takes a closer look at her contract. If she can save as many lives as she has taken, her life will be her own again. If she fails, she will wholly belong to Rabishu and suffer his torments for eternity. And he's definitely not going to make it easy for her to succeed.For someone who's supposed to be concerned with saving lives, Maliha doesn't really seem to be bothered by the massive amounts of collateral damage she causes or the sheer number of people she kills. She doesn't really seem to be in much of a hurry to earn her life back from Rabishu, either. This makes little or no sense because the longer she waits, the less likely she is to succeed. For most of the book, she's off investigating a murder case and I have no idea why since I'm pretty sure she can't save those who are already dead. Granted, most of this comes together in a more or less satisfying way by the end, but most of the book was spent being confused about everyone's motivations or apparent lack thereof. It was great to see the use of Sumerian mythology which isn't terribly common, but it did seem rather odd in conjunction with the Salem witchcraft trials. There were other small things, problems, and inconsistencies; most of which could probably be explained away somehow with a bit of a stretch. But one thing that continues to bug me: out of all of the lovers Maliha has had and currently has, not a single one found it odd or happened to notice a mystically animated carving across a large portion of her torso?Overall, I think Dark Time frustrated me more than I really enjoyed it. There was so much going on that it felt like Banks was picking out bits and pieces of really cool stuff regardless of genre but wasn't quite able to pull it off and make the book cohesive. Elements and details often seemed dropped into the story more for the cool factor (and there are some really cool things going on) rather than really serving the plot. However, there is at least one thing that Banks does exceptionally well--her execution and description of fights and action sequences (of which there are plenty) are remarkably well done, engaging, easy to follow, and vivid. I probably won't be making a point to continue the series, but if I come across the next book, Sacrifice, at the library when I have some free time (unlikely though that is) I might give the series another shot; with a little more focus, Bank's could be a promising new author.Experiments in Reading
    • 3/5
      Dakota Banks’s unexceptional debut features a fair amount of action and displays some creativity but ultimately lacks any real substance.When 17th-century herbalist Susannah Layhem is wrongfully accused of witchcraft, she has little opportunity to defend herself before she is hastily and unjustly tried and condemned to death by burning. Luckily (or unluckily) for her, a demon named Rabishu senses her hatred for her accuser and responds to her desire for vengeance by rescuing her from the flames and offering her a deal. If she accepts, she will become immortal and must travel the world, carrying out the demon’s tasks. If she refuses, she will be returned to the fire and will die. She accepts.Three hundred years later, after killing countless innocents at Rabishu’s orders, Susannah reconsiders. Searching for a way to be released from her obligation, she encounters a handy loophole in the demonic contract: if she saves as many lives as she has taken, she will be free. The catch is that she has to give up her immortality, and if she dies before completing her mission, she will be subject to the demon’s torture for eternity. Susannah, changing her name to Maliha Crayne, embarks on her quest, finding people in danger and saving their lives.Though the premise is interesting, the story has a number of problems that detract from the book’s effectiveness. The heroine is impossibly and inexplicably wealthy, has meaningless and random sex with just about every man she runs into, is a martial-arts expert, and possesses supernatural powers, which she originally received as a gift from her demon master. Her quest is repeatedly derailed by sidetracks and thus fails to generate real interest; she spends the majority of the book investigating a case of massive corporate fraud rather than actually saving lives. The most interesting scenes are the ones where she finds herself in obscure places around the world, looking for fragments of an ancient tablet that will enable her to destroy Rabishu once and for all.The other characters are for the most part shallow and uninteresting; most of them are male, and most of them are either sleeping with Maliha or motivated by their desire to do so.Ultimately, Dark Time is a disappointing book. Though the idea is memorable, the characters are not. The narrative has moments of suspense, and the action scenes are fairly intense, but in the end that’s not enough to make up for the absence of a compelling moral or clear triumph of good over evil—both important components of dark fantasy. All in all, this is a book that even fans of this genre can probably live without.

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    Dark Time - Dakota Banks

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