The Dark Ascension Series: The Wishless Ones by Hafsah Faizal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars rounded up**
The Wishless Ones is the 3rd-offering in Disney’s Dark Ascension Series. If you are unfamiliar with this series, they can be read in any order, as they are each an independent story following a different cast of characters.
Much like the Twisted Tales series, this follows characters we all know and love. It just shines a light on different aspects of their lives that we may not know about.
As the title of this series alludes to, these are Villain Origin stories; a concept I absolutely adore.
This story in particular follows one of the greatest villains of all time, Jafar, Grand Vizier of Agrabah. This man would do anything for power, but I was definitely curious as to what pushed him to such extremes.
This starts when Jafar is around 10-years old. We’re also introduced to his little brother, Rohan, and his parents.
We then progress to a time when the boys are in their late teens. It was really interesting seeing Jafar in this family context. As a brother, he was protective and loving, but it’s true as the boys aged, they did grow apart due to miscommunications and misunderstandings.
Nevertheless, they were still very much a bonded pair, so when a fire takes everything from them, Jafar is forced to bring his brother along with him as he journeys to the House of Wisdom in the faraway kingdom of Maghriz.
Jafar has always dreamed of studying alchemy, and there’s no better place to do it than the House of Wisdom. When he discovers he’s been accepted, he’s elated. Although it didn’t go as smoothly as he would have wished, regardless he makes the long journey to his new life with Rohan in tow.
Maghriz holds more danger and intrigue than they could have banked on though. The Sultana ends up roping them into a grand deception and the rest spirals from there.
As far as this type of Disney series goes, I think this was a very well-crafted story. There’s no doubt that Hafsah Faizal is a talented writer and I definitely appreciated the quality of storytelling she brought to the page.
Honestly, I think I was expecting something a bit more drastic to be the cause of Jafar going full-blown villain. This seemed a little tame in regards to the cause. I mean, I get why he was angry, but such an extreme shift in his personality? I’m not quite sure I was sold on that.
My other minor grudge with this story would be Jafar’s little brother, Rohan.
I was here for Jafar, but we do get a 50/50-narrative split between Jafar and Rohan. Even though he is only 2-years younger than Jafar, his behavior would lead you to believe he was 10-years younger.
He was a whiner and started to get on my last nerve. IMO, he was holding Jafar back from the start and I don’t blame Jafar for going as far off the edge as he did, putting up with that guy all the time.
With this being said, everything else was entertaining and well-constructed. I feel like Faizal nailed the setting and I absolutely love that she chose to include Iago in such a prominent manner.
The relationship between Jafar and Iago was definitely one of my favorite aspects of this story. I could just picture the both of them, and loved it. That was really fun. Iago is so funny, and through this, I felt like I got to understand him as a character even more.
I also enjoyed the palace intrigue and the entire plot involving the Sultana. I wasn’t sure what to expect in that regard and I did enjoy the direction it took.
I’ve dappled in a lot of these different Disney series over the years and I’ve got to say, the quality of this one is quite high. I think for fans of Villain Origin stories, fans of Aladdin, or specifically fans of Jafar, this is a must. I would recommend it as excellent supplemental material.
If you aren’t any of those Readers listed above, you could probably skip this one, as I feel it is most suited to true fans of the above-listed things.
Thank you to the publisher, Disney Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m glad I picked this up. It was a good fit for my Winter mood!