Bursting Box Publishing

Unlike books 1, 2, and 5 in this series (which I loved and automatically knew they would get 5 stars in my books), I’ve needed to analyze and consider my thoughts on Ritual of Ruin: King’s Dark Tidings (book #7) by Kel Kade.

This is book 7 of the series, and a LOT has happened up to this point. I’ll keep this SPOILER FREE of Ritual of Ruin, but the previous 6 books are free game.

If you enjoy action fantasy with a LOT of dark humor and low-spice romance, please start with Free the Darkness: King’s Dark Tidings (book 1) or Mage of No Renown (book 0)

So, supposing you’ve read Free the Darkness (book 1), Reign of Madness (book 2), Legends of Ahn (book 3), Kingdoms and Chaos (book 4), Dragons and Demons (book 5), and Knight of Shadows (book 6) let’s get into Ritual of Ruin (book 7)!

Despite everything that happened in Knight of Shadows (book 6), we pick up in book 7 with similar issues but with a much better understanding of them. Rezkin’s still considered dead by everyone (except Wesson, the new royalty in Lon Leresh, and now Azeria), King Caydean’s still running large and rampant, and Rezkin’s still avoiding the eihelvanan while attempting to raise a toddler dragon.

Tensions have been building nicely toward an epic battle against Crazy King Caydean, but we already had one of those (with Rezkin dying at the end), so let’s amp it up with the knowledge that Caydean’s possessed by a demon prince. And since the eihelvanan (elves) are refusing to help fight, Rezkin turns to other sources of help…

Dwarves and Fighting Robots!

I would almost call this a spoiler, but we learn about them in the first five chapters, and we see a fighting machine on the cover.

Of course, they’re called “darwaven,” but apparently that’s the elvish name for them, which the dwarves hate. (Of course, the dwarves hate the elves.)
I’ll admit, that was a fun bit as I wondered if Mr. Kade got some smack for the “eihelvanan” name and let the dwarves poke fun of himself.

With book 6, I complained a little that the story had lost most of its humor. We gained some of it back in this book as various situations create unexpected and fun reactions from the characters. I’d give specifics, but–spoilers!

Meanwhile, Wesson…

is continuing his espionage in the capital, trying to uncover the crazy king’s plots and figure out if there’s a way to free the mages from their oaths to serve Caydean.

There were three chapters from a particular character’s perspective that I honestly didn’t care for. I’m personally (strongly) annoyed by dramatic irony (when the audience knows something the main characters don’t), especially when it comes to the antagonists. These three chapters in the middle of the book showed too much of the villain’s plans and dived extra deep into the lore that was later explored in Rezkin’s perspective. I could have skipped most of it and still been satisfied.

Cleanliness vs. Vulgarity

Most of the swearing was done by a particular dwarf (4 usages of “d*mn” by Haggish and “bl**dy h*lls” by another dwarf). Otherwise, the book was approachable on that aspect.

Keeping on the theme of fantasy action with the previous books, Ritual of Ruin has plenty of fun fight scenes, but much fewer than previous books. Instead, with demons running amok (I could say a-muck) and Wesson experimenting with magic, there’s an uptick of gore in this book. There are several instances of gruesome demonic details and deaths.

Also, this book took a turn in sexuality. Unlike the previous six books, Ritual of Ruin is NOT closed-door. Meaning the reader gets a front row seat to a passionate s*x scene. 🫣 Private body parts aren’t mentioned (it would probably still make a PG-13 movie), but I was disappointed and wanted to skip it.

Final Score

In the end, I consider it an interesting continuation of the story, but my biggest factor of rating a book is how well I think it was written. Just because this is indie published doesn’t mean I lower my standards (I didn’t for the other books in this series).
Because of the chapters and scenes I would have preferred to skip (and could have skipped without much confusion), my final rating is ****3.8 Stars.***

To Be Continued! Some major pieces are resolved, but there will definitely be a book 8.

My predictions (with SPOILERS):

Highlight box for spoilers>>

I worried that Wesson would become twisted to the bad side during this story, because–man, he’d be a force to reckon with. I wish Rezkin and friends had helped him out in the end, but…the ending sets him up as the perfect spy or…down the slope to evil. I’m really hoping for the first, because watching Wesson struggle in espionage is entertaining. 😆

Also, I’m not surprised one bit that Seena got a growth spurt. Toddler dragons are fun, but Rezkin needs a beast like Pride (his old warhorse) to ride and battle with him. So far, we’re led to believe the pool effected Rezkin with a minor boost to learn the elfish ways, but I expect he got a hidden power-up from that incident.

Then, a common way to continue stories is to create a Big Bad villain who’s behind the main villain that the main characters initially fight. We began with King Caydean as the big bad (the one ordering the Strikers to kill Rezkin), but then we learned King Caydean is part demon, so it’s actually the demon inside Caydean who’s the big bad to beat.
In Ritual of Ruin, we learn that the demon playing with Caydean is actually a prince…who’s bad, but not nearly as bad as the king of demons. So…there’s a bigger bad villain to keep this series going for many more books if Mr. Kade chooses.

I said it after book 6, but I’ll say it again: I hope the Caydean arc resolves in the next book…but it probably won’t.