Despite their extraordinary circumstances (and even the fact that Chroma is not human), their plights were relatable and personable. Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

There is something compelling about the image, and the colours really pop – especially in the physical copy; although after reading the book, it was an interesting figure to choose considering the focus of this first book, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it is a fantastic cover. The characters are very different from each other but this made me feel like they indeed belong to the same story. The hesitations, the thoughts that he couldn’t give voice too, the delicate balance points where he could have gone either way; and how we got to see how his bonds with people like Erefiel, and the lessons he had learned growing up had shaped him and his actions. 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.

Another element in this book that kept me completely glued to the story was the growing conflict between those who claimed to be the rightful "civilized" inhabitants of the continent and the Akar, who are viewed as feral creatures continually in need of being brought to heel and tamed. A great Soulsborne (this includes Sekiro and Elden Ring) inspired fantasy novels, surprisingly and also understandably, are not as common as you might think.

Today I am sharing my review for Eleventh Cycle by Kian Ardalan, the first book in the Mistland series. 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. In general, it is a beautifully put together book, that leans very much into the imagery of the world.

Now my favourite element of Eleventh Cycle was without a doubt the worldbuilding, and this was very much a case of being dropped into the ocean. There’s the usual gore that you might expect from a dark fantasy novel, but there’s also some pretty harrowing dismemberment and some body horror as well, so this book is definitely not for the faint of heart. The grand house, the eyes, the pillar upon which we stand as I am known to be your son first and general second. When difficult realities are not included in art, sometimes it’s because they make for hard reading/viewing.

In comparison the part after the Seed joined the world properly, felt like the accelerator had been pressed flat to the ground and everything happened almost too quickly, perhaps just in comparison to that first part. At least for the most part, there were some threads like the Forgotten that seemed to have a lot of potential at the beginning of the book, but then seemed to be lost in the rest of what was happening – now maybe it will have more focus in later books, but it felt as though it was being shown as something that was going to have more of an impact and it was a little disappointing to see that thread vanish. And despite all that is expected, the Seed is just a child, incapable of understanding human emotions and making sense of this chaotic violent world. The death was harsh, and I can absolutely see the impact that it would have on anyone witnessing, let alone someone with that level of closeness – but aside from a few brief moments, we didn’t see that closeness.A lot of the language felt extraneous such as "privately keep to myself" or "atop of the" where the same thing could have been communicated more smoothly with fewer words. Dalila was the character that at the beginning of the book that I had expected to be my favourite, and there was something, captivating or maybe compelling is a better word for her story.

I probably over-hyped the book in my own mind a bit too much, which definitely colored my perception of it. There are MANY things to love in these games (a single review won’t be enough to cover the details of it). Ardalan builds deep connections to these characters, which get reinforced by the use of a first-person voice for each one of them, creating a more close connection to them, and giving more impact to what will happen to them. This is the one and only time that Ardalan kind of toes the line in terms of content; it was not long enough to turn me away from the book, but I am interested to see what the larger perception is.

Here we got to see a bit more reflection, not necessarily as personal as you might want when connecting with character, but this was a blank slate learning who they were and what their place in their world, and Ardalan really captured that. You might initially feel a little confused or overwhelmed with the character names, places, lore etc, and I think that’s kind of the point!