Eleventh Cycle

I like my grimdark as black as night and this is wonderfully treacly dark in its grimdarkness. Eleventh Cycle has certainly been generating quite a lot of buzz for an indie, and I can say it is 100% warranted. This is a doorstopper of a book running around 800 pages, but there is no filler here. The world building is truly epic, the world of Minethrea given a depth that is up there with the very best in the genre. Murkiness is the buzz word here, everything is presented in a wonderful greyness. The land is literally wreathed in mists. The Elder Beings are some poorly defined and unknowably alien thing. The lives of the commoners are definitely falling into that ‘nasty, brutish and short' category. There is an obvious depth of mythos here that is just brilliant.

What cuts through this is the excellent characterizations of the 4 main POV characters. Each of them is given heart, motive and agency. From Dalilla the farm girl turned witch, Chroma the Akar trying to find his place in society coming from an oppressed race, Nora the warrior taking on the patriarchy and Erefiel the half human half zerub caught between worlds all the characters here have compelling stories, with them all intersecting in the most satisfying of ways.

Married to everything here is an excellent prose. Very readable, yet with a nice poetry to it places. It all lends itself to the epic nature of the scope of the story.

The themes are all also well done. These range from abusive families, disability, alienation and the duality of human emotions. That these dark themes do not drag the whole story down in to the murk is a testament to Ardalan's storytelling nous. Injecting the correct amount of pathos that these things all become relatable.

This is grimdark, morally grey, violent and graphic. But it is also full of heart and pathos. I am extremely excited to see where this story goes!

I had the pleasure of joining the Escapist Book Co book tour for this, and I was hooked up with an ebook for the event from the author. Due to time constraints, I decided to grab a copy of the audio anyway, and the two narrators did a great job. 
This is book one of the dark epic fantasy series ‘Mistland' and it's a chonky one. The author definitely smacks you right in the middle of a very diverse and deep world. Minethria is suffering from darkness and rot. The Elders remain silent, the eleventh seed may be too late, but there are mortals at play here as well. Will it be enough? 
Firstly, I loved how much is going on here. There are so many things mentioned that don't play out in this novel that it seems like the author really knows the trajectory they're on with this series. And with that, I'm impressed, because that's a fine line to dance on where it could easily be too much. It's not. There's some great diversity in this novel, with new and intriguing races, as well as a good balance of both strong female and male characters. 
Secondly, there is some phenomenal characterization here. The characters are dynamic and ever changing. They each have their own arcs and developing to go through, and it was fantastic to get to read through their journeys. I will say for the male and female narrators, they each brought a slew of different accents and voices to the table, and that definitely helped to sell the characters as well. So, although I absolutely would like one of these for my shelf now, the audio was an invaluable way to experience the storyline. 
I will say I was not a fan of the spice/smut, nor the like genuine chapter of phallic descriptions, but not everything is for everyone. 
Great action, fantastic descriptions, and a lot of fantasy fun (and pain). Personally a 4/5* for me. I look forward to seeing where this series can go. 

I am so conflicted about this book.
On one hand, we have an amazing concept and a super interesting world which has me completely hooked. Seriously, the author has fascinating imagination and has crafted a world so curious and extraordinary, as well as brutal and intriguing - I was stunned and very impressed.
On the other hand - we have really badly developed characters and terrible writing.
I can honestly say that I have never in my life read a book which had so many errors, nonsensical sentences and instances of outright wrong use of the language.
Here are some spoiler-free examples:
- Using words that have no way of developing and existing in this fantasy world. Such as - blip, spartan, gothic, baroque, medieval etc.
- Using multiple instances of the same word in a single sentence (‘...in his moment of truth there was no hesitation in his final moment.”, or “Stepping inside I noticed how stale the air inside was.”, or “With the help of another Watcher, Watcher Glenn was helped down.”)
- Characters referring to other characters by their name, before they know said name (Erefiel refers to Chroma by his name, 6 sentences before he learns it.)
- Misspelled words (cowl instead of scowl etc.)
- Outright nonsense. For example, the author describes what is essentially tentacles as “forked candles of gilded proportions”. What does “gilded proportions” even mean? How can proportions be gilded?? Or “Thoughts that no matter how vehemently I stirred refused to settle to the bottom of my pot.” How are things supposed to settle with stirring???
- Mixing different types of tenses (“All heads were bowed accordingly and, in silence, their prayers were made. My presence is a mere medium to unload their zeal onto. All I felt...”
- Using words and phrases incorrectly - The sentence “They took a wide birth from the strolling Ievarus.” should actually be “They gave the strolling Ievarus a wide berth.”
The author also used “duress” when he meant “durability”. And “I obliged his answer.” should've been I obliged him with an answer.

And this is just a tiny part of the MANY mistakes I managed to spot. And I'm not even a native English speaker. I don't know what kind of editing this book went through, but boy, did it need SO MUCH MORE!

I am still not sure whether I even want to continue with the series, despite being so fascinated by this world. I suppose I will give a chance to book two (whenever that comes out) and if the editing issues are still not fixed, I will not bother finishing it.