I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.
A young warrior’s obsession leads to disastrous consequences and a journey of redemption on author Faramond Frie’s novel “Yankai’s Skull”.
The Synopsis
200 years ago, a Tibetan Shaman entrusts Yankai with the secret that other worlds connected to ours exist and contain immense and dangerous power. Yankai is obsessed with gathering the knowledge required to protect his people from these worlds and following years of study, he stumbles upon a doorway to one of them. Yankai crosses into a dark and advanced world powered by the essence of Human Beings. Captured and tortured, he fights back and escapes to Earth but brings with him a being of immense power and is followed by another intent on revenge.
Over 2 centuries, Yankai seeks the elusive and deadly Poet whom he believes can help him destroy these beings. Aided by an immortal, a psychic and a man prepared to risk his life for Yankai’s cause, the threads of all their lives converge into a single moment where the fate of all will be decided.
The Review
In this short yet powerful read, the reader is treated to a dark fantasy driven narrative infused with a bit of sci-fi action and a historical style of fighting in a modern day world. This mashup of genres and story devices make for an engaging read, giving the reader just enough backstory peppered throughout the narrative to connect with the characters without taking the reader out of the moment entirely.
The only critiques for this novel would involve transitions. There were moments in the narrative where it can be somewhat hard to discern where one character’s perspective ended and another’s began, so the use of transitions would have done well to help the story flow a bit more smoothly. However this wasn’t enough to take the reader out of the narrative completely, and I still found myself engaged in Yankai’s tale.
The Verdict
The novel is a fast paced, action-fueled fantasy that blends many different genres and has a way of making the modern world still feel ancient and mythical in its approach. The twists and turns that bring a plot device early in the narrative back into the novel’s finale is going to be a fun and shocking twist readers won’t see coming, so be sure to grab your copy of Yankai’s Skull by Faramond Frie today!
Rating: 8/10