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A review by bookish_benny
Eleventh Cycle by Kian N. Ardalan
3.0
This is a tricky review to write because the initial reviews have been extremely good and I don't want to rain down on author's new release and the hype that has been surrounding it. However, the book didn't resonate with me on a 5* level. Just to recap quickly, for a 5* rating I'd buy the book in hardback, 4* in paperback and 3* on Kindle. By this guide, which is available in my profile, I enjoyed Eleventh Cycle and would buy it on Kindle, which I actually did and I also bought the book on Audible.
The narration on Audible is good from the two narrators and if you are looking to listen to this book I think you would definitely enjoy their performances as they cover the two male and two female characters between them. They put in voice changes and emotions so I am happy I picked it up which enabled me to listen while driving 5 hours for work this week.
I really like the cover. I wasn't as sure before but knowing who is on the cover, with the potential for future covers to be in a similar fashion, potentially with a different colour configuration, I would say that this will be a series that would look good on many a collector's shelf.
Eleventh Cycle is an ambitious creation and the first in a new series by author Kian N. Ardalan. It is influenced by various media including the Dark Souls game so if you've played that, you'll know the kind of world that Kian is building here. From the offset the book begins to create a really interesting world full of lore and information that sets the story off on a very high level for a reader. This story focuses on the fact that every 1,000 years a new Seed is born to chase back the Har, a fog like entity that is encroaching on the land and killing people. Each time a new Seed is born, an extra month is added to the year to give mortals more life.
As the story progresses, it follows four characters using a first person point of view for each. Dalila, Erefiel, Chroma and Nora grace the pages as we see each of their individual stories and how they cross paths with one another. This is very much a character driven story that has a heavy lean on the grimdark elements of storytelling.
Without providing spoilers, this book covers some of the most darkest elements I've read before and I will touch on this further into my review but it is important that you are aware of this before you choose to read it.
As I said the story is an ambitious one but I think that Kian did an excellent job with the world building. It really resonates with that of Dark Souls or even a Skyrim game because it just feels huge and not because there are mountains, or deserts or a cold tundra; it resonates because the lore, the background, the myths and stories really make you feel like this is an ancient and old world you are being invited into to explore. I particularly liked the whole idea behind the Seeds being born and what impact they have. I thought this was a truly unique idea that really deserves the praise it gets.
As a character driven story this book starts off really well. The characters are brought into the fold carefully by explaining their backstory through conversations and actions which help us to understand who they are and what they want. I really enjoyed the beginning of the characters and couldn't put the book down. From my discord group I felt that this was a unanimous feeling. I think their individual stories are individual and provide you with the ability to have a favourite character since the chapters are broken down into character chapters so you'll inevitably have that one who's chapter you are excited to get to.
Kian's prose is a weird one to analyse as a reader. Some parts of it showed moments of brilliance and other times they seem to have been written by another person. At times it kind of pulled you out of the story slightly as you re-read something to check you read it right but other times you'd read something and be like wow, that is great writing. With time I am sure Kian's prose will only develop further into the better stuff. An example is one of the female characters talking and she says "used my free hand to massage my big breasts". It just pulled me out because it didn't sound right.
Speaking of the sex, there are at least 3 instances of sexual activity (including a very graphic rape scene) that are within the pages. I would say that the rape scene, while graphic, is the one I can justify the most since it really does have character development/story development but the other two instances I find hard to justify. I didn't think the level of detail put into these was necessary, especially one which involved vagina to mouth oral sex including swallowing. I'm not prudish, I enjoy sex like other people but the detail was maybe too much and made me wonder if I was reading a grimdark story or a fantasy version of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Following on from things that could have been trimmed from the story, I felt that at 873 pages (Kindle edition) this was too long of a page count for this story and parts could have been trimmed down or cut out. I think that as the pages turned the story began to dwindle in momentum until the last chapters and so what started as this amazing page turner slowly fizzled into a "I need to finish this" story.
There was one part of the story that really pulled me out of it though and that is a part with one of the characters. Essentially without providing spoilers, there was a change in a character that made this kind of feel like a sci-fi story and I feel that there is a better way that this character change could have been done within the story which would have kept it (more) within the realms of fantasy.
Eleventh Cycle is a good story. I read all 873 pages of it and even purchased the Kindle and Audible editions of the book audiobook. I've enjoyed reading and talking about it on my discord with other people. However, I didn't love it because of the reasons mentioned above. Reviews like this are always hard to write. It's easy for me to gush like a school girl over a 5* book but it's harder to write a review where you want to be honest with other readers and provide an honest review knowing that the author may read it. I can see the Mistland series being a big success but for me it does not fall into the high reviews early feedback is suggesting.
The narration on Audible is good from the two narrators and if you are looking to listen to this book I think you would definitely enjoy their performances as they cover the two male and two female characters between them. They put in voice changes and emotions so I am happy I picked it up which enabled me to listen while driving 5 hours for work this week.
I really like the cover. I wasn't as sure before but knowing who is on the cover, with the potential for future covers to be in a similar fashion, potentially with a different colour configuration, I would say that this will be a series that would look good on many a collector's shelf.
Eleventh Cycle is an ambitious creation and the first in a new series by author Kian N. Ardalan. It is influenced by various media including the Dark Souls game so if you've played that, you'll know the kind of world that Kian is building here. From the offset the book begins to create a really interesting world full of lore and information that sets the story off on a very high level for a reader. This story focuses on the fact that every 1,000 years a new Seed is born to chase back the Har, a fog like entity that is encroaching on the land and killing people. Each time a new Seed is born, an extra month is added to the year to give mortals more life.
As the story progresses, it follows four characters using a first person point of view for each. Dalila, Erefiel, Chroma and Nora grace the pages as we see each of their individual stories and how they cross paths with one another. This is very much a character driven story that has a heavy lean on the grimdark elements of storytelling.
Without providing spoilers, this book covers some of the most darkest elements I've read before and I will touch on this further into my review but it is important that you are aware of this before you choose to read it.
As I said the story is an ambitious one but I think that Kian did an excellent job with the world building. It really resonates with that of Dark Souls or even a Skyrim game because it just feels huge and not because there are mountains, or deserts or a cold tundra; it resonates because the lore, the background, the myths and stories really make you feel like this is an ancient and old world you are being invited into to explore. I particularly liked the whole idea behind the Seeds being born and what impact they have. I thought this was a truly unique idea that really deserves the praise it gets.
As a character driven story this book starts off really well. The characters are brought into the fold carefully by explaining their backstory through conversations and actions which help us to understand who they are and what they want. I really enjoyed the beginning of the characters and couldn't put the book down. From my discord group I felt that this was a unanimous feeling. I think their individual stories are individual and provide you with the ability to have a favourite character since the chapters are broken down into character chapters so you'll inevitably have that one who's chapter you are excited to get to.
Kian's prose is a weird one to analyse as a reader. Some parts of it showed moments of brilliance and other times they seem to have been written by another person. At times it kind of pulled you out of the story slightly as you re-read something to check you read it right but other times you'd read something and be like wow, that is great writing. With time I am sure Kian's prose will only develop further into the better stuff. An example is one of the female characters talking and she says "used my free hand to massage my big breasts". It just pulled me out because it didn't sound right.
Speaking of the sex, there are at least 3 instances of sexual activity (including a very graphic rape scene) that are within the pages. I would say that the rape scene, while graphic, is the one I can justify the most since it really does have character development/story development but the other two instances I find hard to justify. I didn't think the level of detail put into these was necessary, especially one which involved vagina to mouth oral sex including swallowing. I'm not prudish, I enjoy sex like other people but the detail was maybe too much and made me wonder if I was reading a grimdark story or a fantasy version of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Following on from things that could have been trimmed from the story, I felt that at 873 pages (Kindle edition) this was too long of a page count for this story and parts could have been trimmed down or cut out. I think that as the pages turned the story began to dwindle in momentum until the last chapters and so what started as this amazing page turner slowly fizzled into a "I need to finish this" story.
There was one part of the story that really pulled me out of it though and that is a part with one of the characters. Essentially without providing spoilers, there was a change in a character that made this kind of feel like a sci-fi story and I feel that there is a better way that this character change could have been done within the story which would have kept it (more) within the realms of fantasy.
Eleventh Cycle is a good story. I read all 873 pages of it and even purchased the Kindle and Audible editions of the book audiobook. I've enjoyed reading and talking about it on my discord with other people. However, I didn't love it because of the reasons mentioned above. Reviews like this are always hard to write. It's easy for me to gush like a school girl over a 5* book but it's harder to write a review where you want to be honest with other readers and provide an honest review knowing that the author may read it. I can see the Mistland series being a big success but for me it does not fall into the high reviews early feedback is suggesting.