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Gareth Otton rated a book it was ok Knight of Shadows (King's Dark Tidings #6) by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
And I'm done with this series... here's why. This book was a great big steaming pile of meh at best, and utter bullshit at worst. The last book finished with the cliffhanger that Rezkin was finally fully separated from all those annoying side charact ...more
May 25, 2026 06:24AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Knight of Shadows by Kel Kade. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Knight of Shadows by Kel Kade <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book liked it Dragons and Demons (King‘s Dark Tidings, #5) by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It's better than the last book, but that's not exactly a high standard to meet. Once again, my dislike of the majority of the cast (especially Frisha) is the main issue. I've long since hit the point where I want them all to die and for Rezkin to tak ...more
May 25, 2026 06:24AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dragons and Demons by Kel Kade. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dragons and Demons by Kel Kade <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book liked it Dragons and Demons (King‘s Dark Tidings, #5) by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It's better than the last book, but that's not exactly a high standard to meet. Once again, my dislike of the majority of the cast (especially Frisha) is the main issue. I've long since hit the point where I want them all to die and for Rezkin to tak ...more
May 25, 2026 06:15AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Dragons and Demons by Kel Kade. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Dragons and Demons by Kel Kade <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book it was ok Kingdoms and Chaos (King's Dark Tidings, #4) by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Upon finishing this book, I find myself glad the next book isn't out yet. The reason for this is that I've fallen into a trap. That trap is that the first book was so good it secured my interest and the other books have been just good enough to keep ...more
May 25, 2026 05:43AM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Kingdoms and Chaos by Kel Kade. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Kingdoms and Chaos by Kel Kade <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book liked it Legends of Ahn (King's Dark Tidings, #3) by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book is a big step down for this series. There are lots of problems that, when taken alone, would add up to only a slightly diminished story and maybe a 4-star read. However, there is one problem in particular that brings this book down to 3 sta ...more
May 25, 2026 05:42AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Legends of Ahn by Kel Kade. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Legends of Ahn by Kel Kade <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book liked it Reign of Madness (King's Dark Tidings, #2) by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Rain of Madness isn't of the same quality as the first book in this series. There's a lot more talking, less action, a meandering plotline, and worst of all, the main character has lost his charm. The very reason that the overpowered main character w ...more
May 19, 2026 12:11AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Reign of Madness by Kel Kade. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Reign of Madness by Kel Kade <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book it was amazing Free the Darkness (King's Dark Tidings, #1) by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is the kind of book that will leave you sleep deprived because once you start reading it you just can't put it down. The author masterfully walks the tightrope of creating a severely overpowered main character but leaving him enough vulnerabilit ...more
May 19, 2026 12:11AM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Free the Darkness by Kel Kade. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Free the Darkness by Kel Kade <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book liked it Culmination (Battle Mage Farmer, #9) by Seth Ring (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I'm really not sure what to think of this book upon finishing it, and that's not where you want to leave your readers in the finale of your series. On the one hand, there were plenty of satisfying moments. I even liked how the days of John having to ...more
May 12, 2026 02:27PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Culmination by Seth Ring. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Culmination by Seth Ring <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book it was amazing Conservation (Battle Mage Farmer #8) by Seth Ring (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
All authors of series that include mega-dungeons, dungeon worlds, or enormous tournament arcs should pay attention to this book. This is an excellent example of how these stories should play out. I usually have a significant issue with this type of s ...more
May 12, 2026 02:26PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Conservation by Seth Ring. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Conservation by Seth Ring <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Gareth Otton rated a book it was amazing Separation (Battle Mage Farmer #7) by Seth Ring (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Some series have trouble progressing their story after growing to epic-scale conflicts. Think of the problem with Marvel movies at the moment. The MCU's first decade started with small stories of exceptional individuals becoming superheroes, then tho ...more
May 11, 2026 11:57PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Separation by Seth Ring. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Separation by Seth Ring <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Gareth Otton rated a book it was ok

Knight of Shadows (King's Dark Tidings #6)
by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)

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And I'm done with this series... here's why.

This book was a great big steaming pile of meh at best, and utter bullshit at worst.

The last book finished with the cliffhanger that Rezkin was finally fully separated from all those annoying side charact And I'm done with this series... here's why.

This book was a great big steaming pile of meh at best, and utter bullshit at worst.

The last book finished with the cliffhanger that Rezkin was finally fully separated from all those annoying side characters that have been such a drain on this series, that he had the opportunity to work from the shadows like the assassin he was trained to be, rather than the usurper king his storyline had become, and he also had a new dragon companion to go along with all that. I saw in that story a mountain of potential to shake up this series, remove the rot that had taken hold, and return to the Rezkin-focused storytelling of the early books.

Sadly, that potential was not realised.

Rezkin is indeed separated from the anchors that weigh this series down, but rather than revelling in his new freedom, his entire story arc is to find his way back to them once more. What's worst about this story arc is that this is obviously where the story will end up, but right now, the story doesn't want it to happen, so everything in between is a contrived obstacle to making that happen, meaning basically all of Rezkin's story in this book is pointless.

Pretty much everything else is pointless, also. There was a whole Frisha plot, which was unbearable because she is so unbearable and has served no point in this series since book one. Then there was a return to the Queendom of female slavers, which was every bit as dumb and excruciating as expected... No, wait. Actually, I just considered how that storyline played out, and it was even dumber than I could have expected, which is really sad, in that the only way this series outdoes expectations these days is by exceeding how much you think it might suck. Finally, there is the world's most underdeveloped and unlikely romance, drawn out throughout the entire book.

Oh, and there's a near identical repeat of the Tam storyline from the last book, only playing out at a breakneck pace, included in a way that seemed like an afterthought to explain why the author had forgotten a whole major character for most of the book, and ultimately went nowhere.

So this book massively failed to live up to its potential, and it's finally where I part ways with this series. I have said before that this series was like the waves created by the splash of impact of the first book dropping, and that over time those waves have been losing momentum. The aim of a series is to keep building upon that initial impact, increasing the waves as they move out so that every book is bigger and better than the last. Here, though, the story uses the "and then" method of storytelling to keep putting new obstacles in the way of those waves, depleting their momentum and eventually causing them to die out altogether.

The first book has kept me surfing those initial waves ever since, but I've finally run out of steam.

This was a series with huge promise when it started. An extremely overpowered but naive protagonist with the ability to transform the world, set loose with only the childlike trust in friendship to guide him, was a truly fascinating concept. Seeing Rezkin do something as monumental as take over the criminal underworld of an entire city just to keep some new friends safe on their journey out of the city was so much fun. It was the best kind of well-meaning chaos that could go good or bad based on naive intentions, and it would have made for a unique story. But then in book two that changed into a more familiar trope of an unknown prince coming out of obscurity to reclaim his birthright, and it's been all downhill ever since. Finally, we arrive here at the last book I plan to read, where every element is so distorted from that first novel that it is entirely unrecognisable. It is impossible to think that the Rezkin depicted at this point in the series could ever have been so naive as to think that friends were something some higher power just sent his way. And that's not a compliment of character growth, but instead an example of how this is not the main character this series actually started out with.

What a shame. ...more

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Dragons and Demons (King‘s Dark Tidings, #5)
by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)

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It's better than the last book, but that's not exactly a high standard to meet.

Once again, my dislike of the majority of the cast (especially Frisha) is the main issue. I've long since hit the point where I want them all to die and for Rezkin to tak ...more

Gareth Otton rated a book liked it

Dragons and Demons (King‘s Dark Tidings, #5)
by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)

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It's better than the last book, but that's not exactly a high standard to meet.

Once again, my dislike of the majority of the cast (especially Frisha) is the main issue. I've long since hit the point where I want them all to die and for Rezkin to tak ...more

Gareth Otton rated a book it was ok

Kingdoms and Chaos (King's Dark Tidings, #4)
by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)

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Upon finishing this book, I find myself glad the next book isn't out yet. The reason for this is that I've fallen into a trap. That trap is that the first book was so good it secured my interest and the other books have been just good enough to keep ...more

Gareth Otton rated a book liked it

Legends of Ahn (King's Dark Tidings, #3)
by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)

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This book is a big step down for this series. There are lots of problems that, when taken alone, would add up to only a slightly diminished story and maybe a 4-star read. However, there is one problem in particular that brings this book down to 3 sta ...more

Gareth Otton rated a book liked it

Reign of Madness (King's Dark Tidings, #2)
by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)

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Rain of Madness isn't of the same quality as the first book in this series. There's a lot more talking, less action, a meandering plotline, and worst of all, the main character has lost his charm.

The very reason that the overpowered main character w Rain of Madness isn't of the same quality as the first book in this series. There's a lot more talking, less action, a meandering plotline, and worst of all, the main character has lost his charm.

The very reason that the overpowered main character worked in the first novel was because he was so lacking in emotional intelligence. This vulnerability offset his extreme competence and made him a compelling character, and injected a lot of humour into the novel. In this novel that vulnerability that was so charming is non-existent. There are head nods to the fact that it still might exist in some small way, but in most cases, it's just an excuse to drag out the romantic relationship between the main character the love interest.

Speaking of the love interest, she has lost all agency in this novel. She didn't have much to begin with as she has always been more of a tool to highlight how emotionally stunted and ignorant the main character is. With that emotional vulnerability no longer there for her to highlight she has lost all use to the plot and gets in the way of the story. She is not shown to be particularly intelligent, brave, funny, witty… in fact, she has no good qualities. She is simply a prize to be won by the main character that is so far removed from the main character's goals in the first novel that it just didn't work here.

Essentially this book is caught in a holding pattern. The author created an interesting premise in book one and didn't know where to take it in book two, so he just keeps retreading the same ground and is less successful every time. The main character has lost his charm, the side characters have become annoying, and everything has lost its shine.

So if that's the case, why four stars? Simply put, I can't bring myself to give this a three. While this is considerably less than its predecessor, it was still fun to read and filled with lots of guilty pleasure moments. As I mentioned in my first review, this is a purely wish fulfilment series, and for someone who likes escapism in his books, that is something I like to read.

Overall this is a fairly average book that is lifted up by its brilliant processor. It's really a three-star novel that's been rounded up to 4 because the echoes of the first book's brilliance lingers in some small way. Fingers crossed that the next book picks up with the first one left off.

** Edit 18th May 2026 **

On a re-read of this book I decided to lower the rating to 3 stars for two main reasons beyond those listed above:

1 - New protagonist - The change in the protagonists character between books 1 & 2 are staggering. In the first book he was a character who was overpowered in martial prowess, physical skills and academic pursuits, but had so little life experience that he legitimately thought there was a higher power out there assigning him friends. He was utterly naive to how the true world worked making his story that of someone putting the worlds most dangerous weapon in the hands of a complete innocent and sending them out into the world. The chaos that follows is the fallout of that naivety mixed with extreme competence and it was wonderful. This story changes that dynamic entirely as now the ONLY area in which our protagonist is remotely naive is in friendships. Outside this he has become a fully formed Gary Stu who can navigate through complex political relationships like he has been doing so all his life. He makes the kind of informed decisions that the protagonist from book one could never have made, and it rises to the point where you realise that earlier protagonist and his story is dead, and now there is a new protagonist with a clear purpose, a master plan and zero charm to back it up.

2 - This story is told through inaction - By this I don't mean there is no fighting, because there is. I mean that all relevant moments that actually move the story forward happen in scenes where characters are just sitting around and talking. Again, contrast this to the first book and you couldn't find more of a difference. The first book had no choice to let the story unfold through character actions because no one knew any off the protagonist's secrets. He had to constantly take actions to move the plot forward and the story was more dynamic as a result. Here the story is tedious as it follows the boring formula of characters sitting around talking about something, then some meaningless actions being thrown in after the fact that are basically superfluous to the dialogue heavy scenes.

Essentially I am saying that this loses its 4th start because it is a completely different story now than what was presented to us in the first book. I'm still not ready to go lower than 3 stars, but I could easily understand why someone might. ...more

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Free the Darkness (King's Dark Tidings, #1)
by Kel Kade (Goodreads Author)

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This is the kind of book that will leave you sleep deprived because once you start reading it you just can't put it down.

The author masterfully walks the tightrope of creating a severely overpowered main character but leaving him enough vulnerabilit ...more

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Culmination (Battle Mage Farmer, #9)
by Seth Ring (Goodreads Author)

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I'm really not sure what to think of this book upon finishing it, and that's not where you want to leave your readers in the finale of your series.

On the one hand, there were plenty of satisfying moments. I even liked how the days of John having to I'm really not sure what to think of this book upon finishing it, and that's not where you want to leave your readers in the finale of your series.

On the one hand, there were plenty of satisfying moments. I even liked how the days of John having to struggle for anything are long behind him. It was the natural progression of the story of an overpowered protagonist, and allowed the author to focus more on world-building and tying up plot threads than on delivering a nail-biting climax.

However, that being said, there were some bizarre decisions made here as well. John's time alone on the dragon planet, leading up to the climax of that story arc, felt like a side quest and not a relevant part of the plot. In fact, the whole John vs Dragon planet war felt like the author planned to use that as a climactic way to close out the series, but couldn't be bothered to write it, so phoned it in and moved on to other, more interesting ideas.

Instead, it gets wrapped up way sooner than you might expect, and the rest of the book is about throwing about 3-4 novels worth of world and story development at you in record time. Completely new concepts are spun into being, John's path progresses to places beyond anything hinted at in the story so far, and essentially, the story ended in what felt like an extended montage of a series that could have been if the author hadn't decided to end the series here.

It also focused 100% on John's story, ignoring all of the side characters introduced throughout the series. There are many characters from numerous books who didn't even appear here and were barely mentioned. It left little to no closure to any story arcs save for John... and even there, I'd say there's still room for more exploration.

So ultimately, it's a mixed ending for this series. I enjoyed it for the most part, but it fizzled out towards the end, rather than going out with a bang. Honestly, if the author had announced that he was going to continue writing this series after a brief hiatus, that would make more sense for the story we got than calling this a finale.

So sadly, the final review for a book in this series is a disappointing three stars. ...more

Gareth Otton rated a book it was amazing

Conservation (Battle Mage Farmer #8)
by Seth Ring (Goodreads Author)

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All authors of series that include mega-dungeons, dungeon worlds, or enormous tournament arcs should pay attention to this book. This is an excellent example of how these stories should play out.

I usually have a significant issue with this type of s ...more

Gareth Otton rated a book it was amazing

Separation (Battle Mage Farmer #7)
by Seth Ring (Goodreads Author)

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Some series have trouble progressing their story after growing to epic-scale conflicts. Think of the problem with Marvel movies at the moment. The MCU's first decade started with small stories of exceptional individuals becoming superheroes, then tho ...more

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