Eleventh Cycle (1) (Mistland)

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There's one aspect that I found especially interesting that I would like to talk about before passing to the characters, and it is how well the fragmented narration is integrated into the full story. While this doesn't seem like a pleasant thing to read, it's so refreshingly different, adds immense suspense, and makes the successes/redemptions of the characters all the more glorious.

With respect to the worldbuilding, Kian Ardalan's world of Minethria is truly a place of mystery and wonder.I was lucky enough to be able to both read and listen to Eleventh Cycle as an early review copy, and the audio was fantastic. The length of the book betrays it just a little bit, as the middle of the book starts to drag while Ardalan moves all of the characters into position. The Seed sets out looking to learn about emotions, and seeking people to be the embodiment of different feelings, champions of a select handful of emotions. The wonderous creatures we see and read about are truly a thing of wonder, even perhaps surpassing Malazan in terms of scope and detail.

The Blacksmith was suspended in air, their lower half replaced by a spherical solid boulder, hooked chains spread from its corners and were mounted into the stone dome.Then there is also the giant Elder Blacksmith bound to his eternal forge charged with forging weapons for the gods. Ardalan successfully transported the essential elements that made the Dark Souls trilogy irresistibly engrossing and rewarding into a novel format. And whether you have played Dark Souls or not, as long that you are a fan of character-driven grimdark fantasy, Eleventh Cycle is a must-read. My mind is still trying to connect the dots and secrets in the epigraphs and narrative, and I don't think I will succeed at it until I do another read-through, which I will definitely do in the future.

Give me all the poetic writing, the descriptions that can be more ethereal than anything else, that is trying to touch on something that isn’t necessarily intended to be contained by words. And I have to say I think some of my favourite overall character work in Eleventh Cycle was how Ardalan dealt with Nora, from her hatred of Akar – that fear of the other, to the fact that so much of her strength and determination and hope stemmed from fear.It’s a commitment and an experience to read, and not always a pleasant one, but no, overall, I believe that Ardalan achieved what he set out to create in Eleventh Cycle. It’s a tale about relatable characters struggling to find a place in a downright Lovecraftian world, and clashing with institutions that were built by the elder gods themselves. We knew why they were feared – and again there is that weight of the past playing out in the future, and how they were dealt with and viewed, and what it cost them to live a life that was deemed acceptable by those holding their chains.