Review: Chosen Of The Dark Realm by David Cornford

Blurb:

Her eyes were drawn to a narrow, single-column, stone lectern and the book it held.

She looked at the dark lines on the pages. Blood. She studied the lines. The fabric of this realm was parted. Something was bound into the book but has now been released.

It has been over a thousand years since the seals between this reality and the dark realm of Kur were broken and the wraith-like gallus invaded the continent of Dannum.

When the former priest of An, Adaru, escapes from the tower where the restored seals lay that prevent the gallus from crossing realms, war consumes the land with Adaru's machinations. A kingdom falls, ancient powers awaken and the power of Kur is unleashed again.

The guardian Nanaya and her companions barely stopped the gallus last time, but the Darisam civilisation was annihilated those 1000 years ago, and the land reduced to a poisoned desert, but for one ancient tower. Nanaya is forced to confront the terrors of her past, terrors that took everyone she ever cared for. Nanaya, now advisor to the present king of Southcastle. fears the past will repeat itself.

Elsewhere, Baraka, a desperate treasure hunter from the arid Fringe States that border the vast desert of The Territory, discovers secrets that irrevocably change him; and Samuel, a young man working on his family's farm in the western kingdom of Royaume d'Occident, realises his dreams of adventure, but in doing so loses his innocence.

Kur corrupts the land as Adaru moves closer to realising his terrible ambition of breaking the seals again and Nanaya, now the last guardian in Dannum, knows she is not strong enough to stand against him alone.

CHOSEN OF THE DARK REALM is new epic fantasy with a touch of darkness and flintlock. If you enjoy the works of Peter V Brett, Brandon Sanderson, Raymond E Feist, Ryan Cahill or Joe Abercrombie, this is for you.

David Cornford has been writing ever since David Gemmell invited him into his home, made him a cup of tea and tried to explain that Rocky was the best movie ever made.

Review:

"Chosen of the Dark Realm" by David Cornford was a surprise, I gotta say. I didn't expect it to be so deep, so well-researched, and also so dark. It's a pretty gruesome novel. And I didn't expect this because of the bright, neon, flashy colors of the cover. It's a nice artwork, but I think it steers your attention in the wrong direction. This is epic fantasy with dark tones. The author doesn't hold any punches, so it's a pretty engaging story with nice pacing, absolutely well-written and engaging, with really interesting characters.

Here's a bit about the world: there was an ancient war many, many years ago, and the enemies from the dark realm were sealed away. Now, those sigils sealing those dark realms and entities away are slowly beginning to break. You see in the story how this happens, and entities from those dark realms begin to seep into our realm, into a setting that feels kind of medieval, kind of Middle Eastern. You see how they work, how malevolent and cunning they are. I think that's one of the most interesting things – the way those entities actually manipulate characters within the story. Some of them realize they've been manipulated, while others... well, we see them from the outside, from the point of view of others, acting strangely. It's really creepy, kind of scary, but also really interesting.

The Guardian's Unease

We see this woman, she's kind of a guardian. She's the first one to understand that something really wrong is going on, pretty quickly at the beginning of the story. And she has this strange relationship with the king, strange because her abilities and her status are quickly questioned. What she has to do to save the kingdom, and her influence, are frowned upon by a small subsection of the influential people in the kingdom. She knows something is going on; she pretty quickly says, "Let me know what is going on there. I have to know, Your Majesty, whatever you know, if you have news about what's happening there, I need to know." It's interesting to see how she develops as a character and how she sees this malevolent wave of action growing. She's one of those characters that knows something really, really bad is going on, and no one gives her the proper attention. It's annoying in the right way because you ask yourself, "Why aren't they listening to her?" This guardian, Nanaya, as we later learn, carries the weight of a past where the seals between realities were broken, unleashing wraith-like beings called gallus.

The Unwilling Participant and the Treasure Hunter

Then you have other characters, like a young guy, who sees something really bad happening and gets involved against his will. And then we have a treasure hunter. He's after a job, especially at the beginning of the novel, where he really needs it because he's in a pretty dire situation. Then he gets the job, goes on his mission, and something really horrible happens pretty soon. We also have Baraka, a desperate treasure hunter from the arid Fringe States, bordering a vast desert, who discovers secrets that will irrevocably change him.

Crafting the Narrative

Yeah, the characters are really well done, the dialogues are really good. This is one of those novels that doesn't hold your hand. You have to put the pieces together and understand what is actually going on organically, by reading and going with the flow. I like how the author refrains from over-explaining everything in a plain way. I usually like a good chunk of exposition in my novels, especially when there are heavy dialogues explaining the world effectively. You know, the more books you read, the easier it is for a strong reader to understand when the author needs to give you information and is doing it in a not-so-elegant way. But I don't think we have that here. We actually have dialogues that were needed, written in a compelling way to further character development and plot points, and we had a really small amount of exposition. So, even if it's not exactly my style, because I like flowery writing and "purple prose" and a lot of description and internal dialogue, and we didn't have much of that here, it works.

Pacing and Tone

This is around 500 pages, and I never felt like I was missing something, that I needed more exposition, or that the dialogues were clunky. They work; they generally work. The pacing is good, the action is really visceral, really, really strong action. If you like dark fantasy, this will be right up your alley. It was almost too much for me, because of the kind of reader that I am. I'm really picky about how fighting and violence are used in novels. This is a personal thing, and it's really easy for me to think that authors are overdoing it, that they're going overboard and using action and fighting as a cheap trick for shock value. I don't like that. I've DNFed many novels because I thought they were unnecessarily bloody. That's why I don't generally read grimdark; it's often there just for shock value. I don't think that kind of approach is really justified or serves the story in any meaningful way. But we don't have that here. It is dark, and it is difficult, though. So, depending on what kind of reader you are, this could be a huge plus or a bit of a downturn. Just keep that in mind.

Final Thoughts on a Continuing Story

On its own, this works as a story, as a first volume, but it's pretty evident to me that there must be more. The story is continuing; the characters we have here will have more to do, more to explain, more to live and to endure. The overall menace and evil lurking and seeking a way into the world will have much more development in the rest of the story, which has a pretty big scope. So yes, it was really interesting, pretty unexpected, and you should absolutely check it out.