Tim Probert, Lightfall (The Dark Times #3), HarperCollins Publishers, May 2024, 256 pp., RRP $19.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780063080904
This is the third instalment in what is proving to be a very popular series amongst upper primary and lower secondary school. Sitting firmly in the fantasy genre, this series features two mani characters Bea and Cad. They come from vastly different backgrounds and inhabit a world readers will have to learn all about, but their friendship has been solidified in previous books, giving them a firm base to continue fighting the struggles in front of them.
As we enter the third book, their world has been thrust into darkness, they have fire to light the area directly around them, but with not astronomical light above to mark day from night, we can see that they definitely live in ‘dark times’. Bea and Cad are living in a small group of semi-nomadic people with familiar characters from earlier in the series: Kipp, the rat thief; Snore and Boisenberry, the shrewd and opportunistic merchants and Alf, the Pig Wizard who is Bea’s increasingly forgetful grandfather.
Needing to travel to the Citadel of Knowledge, Bea, Cad and their close-knit crew, leave their group – cue stunning journey montage – in search of answers. Struggling against as The Mire, they are able to get some answers but by the end of the book we realise there is a lot more to this story, and a fourth book must be in the works.
I adore the images and colours of the Bea and Cad’s world; Tim Probert continues to draw amazing creatures, landscapes and action sequences. This really is a visually appealing series that would suit keen fantasy readers or graphic novel enthusiasts alike.
Reviewed by Cherie Bell
