So there’s a lot of work that has gone into building this world, and it works very well, with everything coming together to give us a vast landscape to explore. Next is Nora, who escapes abusive parents to become a fierce warrior full of hatred toward the opposing akar race. I’m coming to this book a bit late, and I have been following the hype for this book for a couple of weeks now.

I took my leave from my official duties, passing them to my lieutenant as I wandered most of my day in deep thought.The author does a good job of giving you all the information you need to enjoy the scenes as you get to them and learn naturally about the places, people and lore as the novel progresses. Eleventh Cycle is a book that has received a lot of attention and hype, and it was a highly anticipated book for me, especially with the fact that it was described as being a love letter to Beserk and Dark Souls – I am more familiar with the former than the latter, but one of my favourite reads in the last couple of years was another Dark Souls inspired book, and I was excited to see how Ardalan had combined those elements and what individual flavour it had brought to it. This was a book that I really wanted to love, but as you will see from the length (and I apologise…I think this is my longest review to date) that didn’t happen.

As I progressed through Eleventh Cycle, each of the four protagonists took turns being my favorite character.

This book is not for the faint of heart, but readers looking for truly unsettling dark fantasy will find so much to eat up here. Today I am sharing my review for Eleventh Cycle by Kian Ardalan, the first book in the Mistland series. From the very beginning of the prologue, Ardalan pushes us through the wardrobe and into this world, and immediately closes the door to the real world behind us. Ardalan has undeniably done something very special here and the entire reading world should stand up and take notice.

Ardalan is the first book in his Mistland series, and one of the more difficult books I’ve read when it comes to putting together my thoughts for a review. What could have been simply a plot device, Ardalan turned into a fully fleshed out and surprisingly likable character.Most importantly, everything is to spotlight how bright and mighty a tiny spark of hope is in the cage of overwhelming darkness. The grand house, the eyes, the pillar upon which we stand as I am known to be your son first and general second. A character will often suffer an awful outcome, as if it were as commonplace as falling down the stairs, only because some indescribable entity deemed it to arise from a law in that world – for reasons we cannot understand. While reading I could only imagine a slightly shorter version of this book (the 600 page version instead of the 800 page version), and how the book might have been better for it.