Edwards, Tyler. Shadows of the Dark Realm. 2023.

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Summary

By five may your journey thrive. By five may you return alive.

The idyllic kingdom of Parisia sat nestled securely in the Great Emerald Mountains. For generations Parisia had known nothing but peace and prosperity. When the elder dragon Darka Mors, steals the Darkstone, the entire realm is threatened. Without the Darkstone, the magic sealing away the Shadow King would fail. His return would bring death and destruction to the world of men.

Desperate, the king of Parisia calls on an unlikely hero, the Disgraced Knight Vale Lox to lead a group of Seekers on the most important quest in a thousand years. To save the realm and everyone they have ever known from the rising shadows of darkness, these misfits must survive hostile lands, enemy armies, unspeakable monsters, and each other in order to retrieve the stone from the dragon’s lair before it’s too late.

Dungeons & Dragons meets the Witcher in this stand-alone tale filled with non-stop action and banter. If you love classic fantasy quests with a modern twist, don’t miss this epic adventure.

Purchase Shadows of the Dark Realm on Amazon – https://amzn.to/482UsdW

My YA Review

My first thought I had when starting this book was – I love how this author lays out his fantasy world. I had absolutely no question about the world or the characters in the story. Tyler Edwards did a wonderful job in his Prologue – probably the best I have seen recently in the fantasy books I have read. Shadows of the Dark Realm is an epic fantasy – a hero, a quest, good vs. evil, mythical creatures (including dragons), magic, and more. 

A group of five people are put together and sent on a quest. They did not know each other prior to the quest so there is a lot of issue with trust (and trustworthiness). Readers won’t even be sure of who is trustworthy until individual stories unfold – readers learn what they need to know when they need to know it. The group of five adds members as they proceed on the quest and face the challenges in their way. It turns out that some members misrepresented themselves in joining the group. Others know part of a person’s story but not the whole story. There are many opportunities for distrust, yet they band together and overcome their distrust to achieve their goal. I enjoyed the plot of the story – it was a “can’t put it down” book, even though it is almost 800 pages long. The story ends with a bit of a promise of future stories about at least some of the characters. 

One of the things that concerns me about Shadows of the Dark Realm is the amount of “cursing” in the book. While the words are not recognizable as swear words in the English language (they are actually words made up by the author), the way the words are used it is obvious that the speaker is cursing. Because I am not a “curser” I really don’t see the need for this language, especially not as often as Edwards uses this type of language. For that reason I cannot freely recommend this book.

I do recommend that K-12 Christian School librarians read the book for themselves and make their own decision on Shadows of the Dark Realm.

I received a complimentary copy of Shadows of the Dark Realm. This is my honest review.

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