Eleventh Cycle (1) (Mistland)

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Finally, we are introduced to the high-ranking captain Erefiel, who is caught between worlds as a half-human and half-Zerub, a race that blends human and animal anatomies. At the same time, Eleventh Cycle managed to capture many of them, including one of the main essences of the recurring themes of Dark Souls games: perseverance in the face of injustice and a bleeding world. The content warnings included in the foreword should also be noted, because while some of them were not as intense as I might have expected, others were, and this book will not be for everyone. Sometimes words were completely missing, other times extra words were left in and completely ruined the sentence.

The novel takes place in the mist-encircled land of Minethria as the prophesied Eleventh Seed is born. Our story brings us to Minethria, a land encircled by the mists, where the prophecy predicts the Eleventh Seed will be born. And along the way you will be treated to some outstanding worldbuilding, egotistical gods, magical creatures born of nightmares, and some of the very best writing out there. It resulted in a book that feels as if a first draft was placed into Google Translate, translated to another language and then back into English.Some of the characters really needed the time to develop (Nora in her character development and Delila in the sheer amount of worldbuilding that had to occur around her), while others like Chroma and Erefial were just along for the ride. The characters are very different from each other but this made me feel like they indeed belong to the same story. 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. There are races that are at war just because they have always been at war and across all these, there are several different and distinct types of magic on display. Ardalan is the first book in his Mistland series, and one of the more difficult books I’ve read when it comes to putting together my thoughts for a review.

The world-building and lore is spun from an imagination that seems boundless and infinite; detailed, meticulous and all-encompassing, in a word, epic. If there's another aspect that is at the same level with worldbuilding, is how in contraposition with the darkness of the world, we are given characters we get to connect with them. It’s a long book and yet I devoured it, so keen was I to find out what happened next to my favourite characters.As well as being a masterpiece of worldbuilding, this was very much a character driven story as we followed through five main POVs – four of which were done in the first person, and one in the third person. The characters are so well written that you really feel like you are going through these horrible events with them, and it feels so hopeless. Balancing hopeful tones with despairing ones and allowing the reader to enjoy some light in an otherwise dark and eldritch world is managed with poise, such that when I turned the final page, I didn’t depart from Eleventh Cycle depressed about what had happened, but rather in awe at the mind-bending world I got to inhabit, and the incredible tale that unfolded within this book’s seven-hundred or so pages. The all-powerful Elder King in Mount Moirnar oversees the world of Minethria with their Elder Beings. I'll let Ardalan's description of the Elder Blacksmith speaks for itself regarding the vivid quality of his prose.