Hello everyone!
Hey, let a girl live. I LOVE me some Christmas!
But I also love picking up new and exciting stories, too.
Tonight's choice is one of them, although it still has some ways to go before it can be perfectly polished and on par with the greats like Tolkien and Jordan.
Nevertheless, it's good. It drew me in and made me want to figure out where the heck it was going, and how it was going to end, and definitely gave me some twists along the way as I read it.
I was also pleasantly surprised to be approached by the author who so graciously sent me an ARC of his book in the first place. Doesn't matter for how long I've been doing this, it still humbles me immensely when people reach out like that. I'm here for it!
And so without further ado: Shadows of the Dark Realm, by Tyler Edwards.
Considering this is a one-of-a-kind for the time being, there will be no links at the bottom of this page the way there usually are. But we may see a sequel in the future, so who knows?
Onwards!
Shadows of the Dark Realm will quite possibly remind you of one of three things: The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire, or Wheel of Time. It honestly depends what you've been reading and what you feel like engaging with, if you ask me.
The gist of the story, however, is this: a long time ago, three realms were rather inter-connected, but chaos ensued and so magical barriers were lifted between them all, particularly the Shadow Realm because, well, there's this dark lord ...
You know how it goes.
Parisia was the kingdom that rose out of the mists of that time, holding within its borders a magical object of vast power that made the kingdom bountiful and prosperous and wonderful, no matter which way you looked at it (not that it helped with all the regular, day-to-day dark stuff that happens even if you're living in the Elysium fields ...).
Then the magical stone gets stolen. By a dragon.
And the king kinda sorta panics.
Ordering an all-important quest, he summons a legendary, disgraced knight, Vale, out of his exile to ensure that one specific team of Seekers will survive and bring the stone back to where it rightfully belongs. Alongside Vale, we have a mage, a witch, Azaela, a random noble who ends up never making it past the city walls, and a girl named Celeste who turns out to be a noble herself later on, but at least SHE's sort of useful.
As for the noble who never makes it out of the city, he's replaced by thief-assassin Caelan, who has his own motives for going on this quest.
Our unlikely group of misfits have trouble bonding at first as they travel to the huge wall surrounding Parisia, especially as they all have hidden motives of their own, but at the very least they DO end up outside, regardless of the fact that someone - something - has been killing Seekers since they started the quest.
Vale's honour-bound to fulfill it, though, so off they trot, picking up other adventurers along the way, namely Sera and Rivik, along with their warrior clan, whose village happens to get ravaged by an elder dragon and they need to avenge it, as well as Spiro, a dragon knight, who just so happens to be in the business of hunting dragons.
Unfortunately for them though, forces are at work against them, and they end up separated while trying to NOT die at the hands of a death dragon, then caught by this guy named Kade who you really don't know if he's good or bad, but he's questioning them all about their deepest wishes, which he then sees are aligned with what he needs when he looks into the soul of Celeste - and so he decides to tag along with them, because he needs her.
Oh yes, he also needs the magical stone too, but as the stone can't be used without a royal of Parisia's ruling family, of which she just so happens to be the member of, well, you see the conundrum, right.
Once again, however, things take a turn for the worst around the halfway mark of the book when Azaela is taken by a very, VERY powerful being who kills Vale while he's at it, and not when they're all together either, because the group split up. So this is shocking news, but remember how I said that the group couldn't fit together right at the start?
Part of the problem were Caelan and Vale, as Caelan wanted the knight dead for the crime of massacring his home village. Turns out though, Vale wasn't killing the villagers - Vale was there on negotiations when his entire legion went nuts, and so he ended up killing his friends and the closest thing he had to family to stop it, which earned his disgrace and exile.
AND which is also later proven to have been a little ploy by the king himself, you know, the guy Vale hero-worships?
Anyway, Caelan has his own burden to bear with some terrorist acts of his own past, no matter that his buddy Ash (also part of the crew at this point) tries to make him feel better about it. This all culminates in the necessary separation to get work done though, and lo and behold but Caelan swears to avenge Vale's death when he hears about it.
Only, Vale's not quite as dead as everyone thinks (and see me sigh a HUGE sigh of relief!).
See, he was cursed a while ago, and that curse, which inconveniently kills anyone he gets close to, also conveniently won't let HIM die either, so he just pops back to life, much to my delight.
He also spearheads the rescue mission to get Azaela back, during which they travel to the Spirit Realm, save a phoenix egg, and learn that the legendary Red Empress, a ruler that was deposed by the current royals of Parisia way back when, is working to attain a foothold in the world again by possessing Azaela and basically erasing her from existence so she takes over her body, something the witch had been specifically chosen and prepared for her entire life.
Luckily, our people are pretty tough, and Azaela doesn't like being toyed with, so they all finally make it back out, then go to acquire the magical items they'll need if they want to steal that stone from the dragon a la Hobbit style.
It should also be noted that, at this point, another subplot is introduced for Caelan's group, wherein they meet Owen, a guy who ran when slavers took his son and is now trying to get him back; and much to Celeste's disgust, they all try to help him, while she's there harping about saving Parisia, yada yada yada.
Turns out, she's got a mean streak a mile wide and unless it's good for Parisia, she doesn't want it. She ends up killing Owen so they can "keep trying to save the world, not one stupid boy", something that everyone is disgusted by later on, but nothing can be done, so they just go do their respective jobs, with no respect left for the royal they're supposedly eventually going to be serving.
The last part of the mission deals with them actually sneaking into the dragon's lair, or roost, and stealing the stone, then ending up learning that, hey, the dragon wasn't going to use it himself, but gift it to the Red Empress, which brings the two plots neatly into one ... until the dragon dies, of course, the stone is used for wishes that Celeste totally bitches about, and they all go separate ways, with our supporting cast back to their own haunts, and our Seekers back home after burying the mage that had been their leader all along.
Where Vale kills the king for what he did, and then our unlikely heroes sneak out of Parisia again, where they're now wanted by Queen Celeste for the murder of her uncle (oh yeah, old boy was blackmailed into naming her his heir, and of COURSE her shining personality makes this much easier to swallow ... not). Azaela goes to figure out who she is now, with the vast power of the Red Empress at her disposal, and Vale gets stuck with Caelan as they head off into the unknown.
Poor guy. LOL.
The book has a solid frame upon which the story is set, but some things are a little bit wobbly and - this is purely my own opinion - could do with some adjustments. Let's talk shop!
Plot: reasonably straightforward, priceless magical object gets stolen, a group of misfits assembles by order of the king to go get it, and proverbial chaos ensues. We've all seen the trope before and, honestly, it's done well here, with one or two twists that you won't really see coming and will add to overall enjoyment and entertainment. There are minor kinks where it feels more like loose ends to tighten during edits but, nothing massive.
Main characters: we have a handful and each of them surprises you along the way. Equally, each has some form of character progression, whether in good or bad way. There's the obligatory knight or Aragorn-figure, the thief/handyman, the spoiled royal, the wise magician, and the witch; each brings something to the story.
My personal favourite is Vale and, I'll admit, I wanted to mewl at the halfway point LOL. But he's the type of character I'm drawn to and, to boot, he's stuck with Caelan the thief! They deserve their own short story collection of their misadventures 🤣.
Side characters: neatly fleshed out and you'll miss them when ways are parted. Rivik, Sera ans Kade are my most memorable, and I honestly feel they could hold their own in a story about them.
Romance: actually does not exist other than between two side characters. It's intriguing! But not detrimental to the flow of the story.
Magic: this is where it gets tricky. There's a lot of stuff to take in within a very short span of pages, and a lot isn't always explained but, it never goes into incomprehensible or weird. So, good enough.
Worldbuilding: thought went into this, along with actual words of the language these people speak. It feels like a blend of LOTR and GoT, but also kind of WoT if you know what I mean. I feel we only scratched the surface.
Overall: it's a bit of a slower start but picks up once the Seekers leave for their quest. The pacing is a little off at times, slowing when not needed or speeding through where it could be slower. Additionally, there's quite a lot of modern talk in this, like OK, yeah, and so on, which is confusing for the reader as this is clearly meant to be a medieval fantasy-based thing.
I'll admit that there are parts where it felt like this was written more for a school-type thing rather than an epic story. But I never once wanted to give up, interested just enough to keep on going. So I'd say this is absolutely worth the shot, and hopefully we get to see more of our motley crew after THAT ending!
What ending, you ask? The one you'll just have to read to find out.
It IS worth reading. And I'm sure, if there's a second book, it'll be even more engrossing than the first.
Plot: reasonably straightforward, priceless magical object gets stolen, a group of misfits assembles by order of the king to go get it, and proverbial chaos ensues. We've all seen the trope before and, honestly, it's done well here, with one or two twists that you won't really see coming and will add to overall enjoyment and entertainment. There are minor kinks where it feels more like loose ends to tighten during edits but, nothing massive.
Main characters: we have a handful and each of them surprises you along the way. Equally, each has some form of character progression, whether in good or bad way. There's the obligatory knight or Aragorn-figure, the thief/handyman, the spoiled royal, the wise magician, and the witch; each brings something to the story.
My personal favourite is Vale and, I'll admit, I wanted to mewl at the halfway point LOL. But he's the type of character I'm drawn to and, to boot, he's stuck with Caelan the thief! They deserve their own short story collection of their misadventures 🤣.
Side characters: neatly fleshed out and you'll miss them when ways are parted. Rivik, Sera ans Kade are my most memorable, and I honestly feel they could hold their own in a story about them.
Romance: actually does not exist other than between two side characters. It's intriguing! But not detrimental to the flow of the story.
Magic: this is where it gets tricky. There's a lot of stuff to take in within a very short span of pages, and a lot isn't always explained but, it never goes into incomprehensible or weird. So, good enough.
Worldbuilding: thought went into this, along with actual words of the language these people speak. It feels like a blend of LOTR and GoT, but also kind of WoT if you know what I mean. I feel we only scratched the surface.
Overall: it's a bit of a slower start but picks up once the Seekers leave for their quest. The pacing is a little off at times, slowing when not needed or speeding through where it could be slower. Additionally, there's quite a lot of modern talk in this, like OK, yeah, and so on, which is confusing for the reader as this is clearly meant to be a medieval fantasy-based thing.
I'll admit that there are parts where it felt like this was written more for a school-type thing rather than an epic story. But I never once wanted to give up, interested just enough to keep on going. So I'd say this is absolutely worth the shot, and hopefully we get to see more of our motley crew after THAT ending!
What ending, you ask? The one you'll just have to read to find out.
It IS worth reading. And I'm sure, if there's a second book, it'll be even more engrossing than the first.
xx
*image not mine
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