Author: Yamila Abraham
Artist: M.A. Sambre
Publisher: Yaoi Press
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: May 2008

Synopsis: “The macabre tale of deviant royalty and shattered innocence continues. Prince Davon must flee his home with his new slave Aon when his jealous brother Lor tries to take Aeon from him. Davon’s second home, the Kingdom of Ralstorm, holds even more illicit secrets: a taboo affair, dangerously affectionate relatives… and a mad scientist who thinks he can cure Davon’s impotence with electricity.”

Webs continue to be woven here in volume two of Dark Prince. With Aeon safely by his side, Davon goes to the home of his loving uncle to seek safety from his brother, Lor, after finding him trying to steal away Aeon. Meanwhile Lor finally knows all that is going on thanks to a talkative and lusty demon God who wishes to use the power hidden inside of Aeon to overthrow Pharah, the God who holds control over Davon. Unfortunately for Davon, tales of his murderous ways have reached this home away from home and his uncle, the King, wishes to see to it that Aeon is not the next boy to lose his life.

There is so much going on this story it’s hard to keep it straight sometimes. Or atleast with the way the writing is structured and the scene switches paced, it feels like a lot more is going on than there actually is. My biggest difficulty getting through this book was keeping all the names straight. While I know the characters well enough that a moment’s thought will remind me who they are, reading a paragraph of ‘he-said-they-said-he-said-I-said’ with half a dozen characters did get a little confusing at times.

Don’t get me wrong though; despite these faults, I enjoyed reading this second volume. The story itself and the characters continue to intrigue me and things are boiling to a point where I have no idea how it could end. There was some back-story fill in which was of course disturbing, but none the less informative. It’s no surprise now why the characters turned out the way they did. I’m a little saddened that I find Aeon a bit annoying as a character in this book, despite me thinking he’s a pretty cute little guy. I think it’s because he’s now just being tugged along on a string so I hope to see him take a little more initiative with his life in the third volume.

M.A. Sambre continues to do good work with their artwork here. I keep being impressed with all the little detail work, especially on pulled out shots when many artists opt to take advantage of the view to lessen the details. A scene that irked me a bit was during a short story on the end where we got to see Davon use his powers. I laughed despite knowing it was a serious scene and I think it couldn’t been executed a little better, perhaps more with the leading up to and pacing of the actual event than the art alone.

Overall, I continue to enjoy this dark series. Dark Prince is certainly unique as far as yaois go and it’s great having such a interesting story weaving around the boys’ love (which is certainly far from the usual fare in its own right). With the final volume just around the corner, I look forward to seeing what becomes of these woeful characters.

Review written June 26, 2008 by Lissa Pattillo
Book provided by Yaoi Press for review purposes

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About the Author: Lissa Pattillo

Lissa Pattillo is the owner and editor of Kuriousity.ca. Residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia she takes great joy in collecting all manners of manga genres, regretting that there's never enough time in the day to review or share them all. Along with reviews, Lissa is responsible for all the news postings to the website and works full time as a web and graphic designer.