Bursting Box Publishing

After the satisfying ending of Kel Kade’s King’s Dark Tidings: Dragons and Demons (#5), I had my predictions, but was very curious where this next book would take us.

For an introduction, here’s a quick synopsis of my thoughts on the previous books in Kel Kade’s King’s Dark Tidings series:

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Considering that, just because I love the first book doesn’t mean this book gets an automatic 5 stars. So, let’s break it down.

This review is SPOILER FREE, but…

I’m assuming you’ve read the previous books in the King’s Dark Tidings series.
This is an ongoing series, and I highly suggest you read the previous books before jumping into Knight of Shadows, because a LOT has happened up to this point.

Supposing you’ve read the previous books…

For a refresher, Dragons and Demons (#5) ended with only a couple of problems, but they were kind of major:

1. Emperor Rezkin is declared dead (I warned you–spoilers of previous books)
2. Frisha’s locked up and replaced with a golem spy

As I expected, this story begins 6 months after the ending of book 5 as Rezkin’s empire scrambles to stay strong without him. Tieran refuses to take his place as Rezkin’s heir because doing so would admit his death. Rumors of him being alive are all that’s keeping assassins from killing the Queen of Lon Leresh (because they don’t want Rezkin to become king), and Cael’s treaties through Rezkin are all that keep other kingdoms from warring with each other.

With all this on the line and the rumors of his survival causing doubts, Battle Mage Wesson, Eihelvanan Azeria, and a few others visit the tomb only to find a raven carving in the empty grave.

The party is split again as Wesson goes to Ashai, seeking mages who haven’t sworn allegiance to King Caydean, and Azeria follows the rumors to seek the infamous Raven.

Don’t worry, that’s all within the first five chapters. I’m keeping this spoiler free.

Other focuses of the story make the book feel like two parts as the first half deals with Frisha’s predicament, then the second half deals with Yserria in Lon Leresh as King Caydean comes to know of her soul stone and wants to replicate it to make slaves for his demon army.

As days (sometimes weeks) pass with a single sentence, the timeline was a little tricky to follow, and I found myself bookmarking the maps for quick reference as the characters travelled.

Humor?

One reason I loved the earlier books in this series was because of Rezkin’s humorous misunderstanding of social norms and behaviors. After spending enough time with his friends and learning to accept emotions from book 5, that form of comedy has pretty much disappeared. Unlike other books in this series, Knight of Shadows didn’t make me laugh out loud. My favorite comical moment was Rezkin struggling like a normal person to catch his unruly pet.

“Is that a dragon!?” …
Rezkin reached for Seena, but she scurried away from his grasping hands. “Yes,” he said, “this is Seena. She is my companion.” He reached for her again and just missed catching her. “She is usually better behaved, but she has been cooped up in the satchel for too long.”

– King’s Dark Tidings: Knight of Shadows, by Kel Kade

Cleanliness vs. Vulgarity

Knight of Shadows continues the series content of violence with a dash of gore. We get a fight scene in every chapter, including many covert assassinations, street fights, and debates with death on the line. Continuing on the theme from the previous book, Rezkin battles against several demons with the amateur aid of his toddler dragon (which is equally cute and fearsome).

As with book 4, it seems that simply being in the kingdom ruled by women means there’s an uptick in the romance. Similar to the river scene in book 1, there’s a nude scene of “rescue during a bath” with some ogling.
There are no sex scenes, but Rezkin and Azeria continue to share sensual dreams (one involving nudity, but no descriptions of body parts).
There is one brief same-sex kiss as Rezkin is disguised as a woman and struggles not to knife the man.

Concerning crude language, I only spotted two instances of swears (bl**dy h*lls, and h*ll), both spoken by Malcius.

Final Score

Knight of Shadows introduces and nicely resolves some new plots, and I enjoyed the growth of some characters and the long-term plot.
However, I missed the humor of culture shocks and predicted the surprise twist about a certain character in the final chapter.
****4.2 stars****

To Be Continued…

This book is a strong build up toward an intense battle yet to come. I really hope Mr. Kade finishes the King Caydean arc with the next book.