What do you think?
Rate this book
Ruin's Dawn
"I want to hear everything, Osiris. All that you can tell me."
In the desert town of Mahrae, a young fox is about to discover his power.
A single bolt of crystal energy begins Aidan's journey, one that will test him to his furthest limits and deepest loyalties. The gryphon Osiris takes Aidan under his wing and together they battle shadows and suspicion to bring warring nations to the pinnacle of invention and prosperity - the new city Nazreal.
But not every creature strives for a bright and industrious future.
Conflict is an unsteady foundation for the burgeoning metropolis. The launch of a thousand incredible dreams plants the seed for an immeasurable disaster that even Aidan and his friends do not have the power to prevent. This is the story of Nazreal's ascension... and the end of the world.
In the desert town of Mahrae, a young fox is about to discover his power.
A single bolt of crystal energy begins Aidan's journey, one that will test him to his furthest limits and deepest loyalties. The gryphon Osiris takes Aidan under his wing and together they battle shadows and suspicion to bring warring nations to the pinnacle of invention and prosperity - the new city Nazreal.
But not every creature strives for a bright and industrious future.
Conflict is an unsteady foundation for the burgeoning metropolis. The launch of a thousand incredible dreams plants the seed for an immeasurable disaster that even Aidan and his friends do not have the power to prevent. This is the story of Nazreal's ascension... and the end of the world.
- GenresFantasy
284 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 25, 2020
2 people are currently reading
12 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 25, 2025
It resonated with me! (Sorry, couldn't resist...)
Characters with supernatural powers are hard to do well. Normally when "crystals" are mentioned, I roll my eyes. Aforementioned can easily throw a story off balance. Hugo Jackson handled both of these concepts very well and it blends seamlessly into the plot. The rules of the world are revealed in a logical manner, are balanced, and add to the overall experience.
The main characters Aidan (fox resonator) and Osiris (griffin) are three dimensional. Osiris oozes wisdom that comes with age -- at the expense of character growth. Aidan on the other hand (paw?) embodies the enthusiasm and ambition of youth. Together, they make a great team.
The novel spans Aidan's life from childhood up to his passing. The bulk of the novel is set in the grand city Nazreal -- a place where resonators of all creeds may live in harmony and learn of their gifts. And the perilous task of protecting it against evil.
The plot progresses slower than I expected. Ruin's Dawn feels more like a game of chess than a wrestling match. There is a lot of planning, political movements, negotiations and an undercurrent of simmering distrust. Things only get hairy towards the latter half of the book -- which it does grandly. I admit my expectations were set because of the gorgeous cover which initially drew me to the book.
A closing thought is that even though this is Book 3 in the series, I found it very easy to pick up. It would be interesting what happens in Legacy (Part 1) and Fracture (Part 2).
If you like fantasy novels with unique magic systems and interesting twists, give Ruin's Dawn a read.
Characters with supernatural powers are hard to do well. Normally when "crystals" are mentioned, I roll my eyes. Aforementioned can easily throw a story off balance. Hugo Jackson handled both of these concepts very well and it blends seamlessly into the plot. The rules of the world are revealed in a logical manner, are balanced, and add to the overall experience.
The main characters Aidan (fox resonator) and Osiris (griffin) are three dimensional. Osiris oozes wisdom that comes with age -- at the expense of character growth. Aidan on the other hand (paw?) embodies the enthusiasm and ambition of youth. Together, they make a great team.
The novel spans Aidan's life from childhood up to his passing. The bulk of the novel is set in the grand city Nazreal -- a place where resonators of all creeds may live in harmony and learn of their gifts. And the perilous task of protecting it against evil.
The plot progresses slower than I expected. Ruin's Dawn feels more like a game of chess than a wrestling match. There is a lot of planning, political movements, negotiations and an undercurrent of simmering distrust. Things only get hairy towards the latter half of the book -- which it does grandly. I admit my expectations were set because of the gorgeous cover which initially drew me to the book.
A closing thought is that even though this is Book 3 in the series, I found it very easy to pick up. It would be interesting what happens in Legacy (Part 1) and Fracture (Part 2).
If you like fantasy novels with unique magic systems and interesting twists, give Ruin's Dawn a read.
May 20, 2024
First of all, I absolutely love this series. The adventure of the first book and the cast introduced are still some of my favorites to date. Now saying that I need to point out a few reasons why I don't resonate with a prequel as part of a main series. The author essentially limits themselves to what events and characters they've established as part of that time. And the reader essentially knows most major events that are going to happen. And if there's a time gap, you know that most of the cast will not have survived so there's no reason for the reader to get connected to them.
This book tells the story of Faria's dad Aidan as he was growing up, got better at resonance and
It felt more like a recounting of events, often having weeklong gaps between the chapters. Diverting a lot from the course of the first two books. Jackson's style and strengths are still very present, I'm sure I don't need to mention everything they excel at. You probably know yourself by now if you're at the 3rd book. But Ruin's Dawn felt so different in its story from Faria's and Bayer's storylines. And it often made me wish I was back with the main cast and watching what they were doing.
This is still a really good book. Part of an incredible series. One of which I'm greatly looking forward to the finale off. But I don't think this one matched the greatness of Legacy. There's not a lot to say really. Were it not for the commentary between Osiris and Faria, I would almost say that this book could be read before Legacy.
This book tells the story of Faria's dad Aidan as he was growing up, got better at resonance and
It felt more like a recounting of events, often having weeklong gaps between the chapters. Diverting a lot from the course of the first two books. Jackson's style and strengths are still very present, I'm sure I don't need to mention everything they excel at. You probably know yourself by now if you're at the 3rd book. But Ruin's Dawn felt so different in its story from Faria's and Bayer's storylines. And it often made me wish I was back with the main cast and watching what they were doing.
This is still a really good book. Part of an incredible series. One of which I'm greatly looking forward to the finale off. But I don't think this one matched the greatness of Legacy. There's not a lot to say really. Were it not for the commentary between Osiris and Faria, I would almost say that this book could be read before Legacy.
April 13, 2025
The third book in the Resonance Tetralogy, Ruin’s Dawn continues the story of the world of Eeres. A prequel, it travels back in time to a young Aiden, long before any of the events of the first two books. We meet Faria’s father at a time when he is young and adventurous, with no idea of the future he will face.
Once more returning to Eeres, this time we experience it at a time long before Faria sets out to save her home from the ravages of the Dhraka. Following the journey of her father from a much younger age, we see the world long before the version we know.
The main character is this book is definitely Aidan, Faria’s father, starting from the young age of cubhood and growing to the young adult he was when he first came to know Osiris.
As a young man, he is a somewhat typical child slash teenager, getting into things he shouldn’t and eager to try everything. When his aptitude for resonance crystals is noticed, he is offered to train among the Aretians, a race of gryphons seeking to impart their knowledge and wisdom before their race dies.
As I noted to the author, Aidan at this age is intensely naïve, but this is not unrealistic. At that age we all tend to think we know everything and can fix anything, despite not having the life experience to know better, which can only be won with time. Hoping to make peace between the gryphons and the warlike Dhraka, he believes that with the power he holds he can make the whole world better.
A young fox named Aiden has the gift of resonance, the ability to manipulate the world around him through crystals. A prodigy, he is offered the chance to train with the learned gryphons when he is ready. Eager and interested, he leaves home to learn all he can and hopes to change the world.
I went into this story expecting a very different book. Now this is not a slight on the part of the author, but rather my own expectations. Assuming (though clearly incorrectly) that the second book would continue to follow Faria, I also incorrectly assumed that the third book would feature Osiris taking Tierenan to Skyria to return home. Assuming the fox on the cover was perhaps Kier or some other character, it was a surprise to me (albeit not an unpleasant one) to find out it began much sooner, with a young Aidan, many ages before we meet him in Legacy.
Chosen to train among the gryphons of Arete, Aidan quickly becomes an exceptional student of the art of resonance, seeking to learn all he can about the techniques. During his lessons he learns more about the Dhraka and the long standing rivalry between then and the gryphons. Believing he can find a way to get all of the races to live in peace, he makes a bold gambit to attempt to convince them to work together instead of going to war.
I have to admit that I remember thinking more than once particularly when Aidan starts talking about challenging the gryphon’s notions that the Dhraka are dangerous that he was being incredibly naïve. I don’t consider myself a pessimist or a cynic but I know how to read people and characters very well and I know some people will follow their mentality to the end of the earth rather than consider an alternate point of view even if only for the sake of argument. Such is the case with the Dhraka, who although they play nice in the early stages, clearly never show good faith to pursue the goal of mutual benefit nor do they make any effort to reach out to others without some benefit to themselves.
The author does a fantastic job of conveying the conflicting agendas present in the story. Despite the main character’s best efforts to build something truly remarkable it is clear from their interactions that some seek to advance their knowledge for the benefit of all while others simply wish to increase their own power at whatever the cost.
Overall I’d say that it’s a very enjoyable book as all of the author’s books tend to be, with three dimensional characters who feel very real. The plot is well crafted with a lot of the threads tying back into seeds we’ve seen planted earlier in the series.
[SPOILER]
For the final act the book takes the unusual step of launching the main character forward in time by several millennia. And while I can’t say I saw it coming, I had actually (again incorrectly) just assumed that Aiden was long lived due to his resonance or something along those lines. Once in the future, he is eventually reunited with Osiris and becomes slowly familiar with the world he now inhabits.
While the material itself is very interesting I have to say that as an ending it was somewhat anticlimactic. I had expected something more given the building to the event that catapulted Aiden to the future, but instead of a finale that resolves the storyline at hand the last act is more of an aside. We are left to wonder what happened to the majority of the characters at the end of the third act, and introduced to effectively a new setting which although equally compelling doesn’t provide the closure I had hoped for with regards to the current story.
Though the finale does a good enough job of returning most of the characters to their book one starting positions, I can’t help but wonder if it could have been accomplished more organically.
Once more returning to Eeres, this time we experience it at a time long before Faria sets out to save her home from the ravages of the Dhraka. Following the journey of her father from a much younger age, we see the world long before the version we know.
The main character is this book is definitely Aidan, Faria’s father, starting from the young age of cubhood and growing to the young adult he was when he first came to know Osiris.
As a young man, he is a somewhat typical child slash teenager, getting into things he shouldn’t and eager to try everything. When his aptitude for resonance crystals is noticed, he is offered to train among the Aretians, a race of gryphons seeking to impart their knowledge and wisdom before their race dies.
As I noted to the author, Aidan at this age is intensely naïve, but this is not unrealistic. At that age we all tend to think we know everything and can fix anything, despite not having the life experience to know better, which can only be won with time. Hoping to make peace between the gryphons and the warlike Dhraka, he believes that with the power he holds he can make the whole world better.
A young fox named Aiden has the gift of resonance, the ability to manipulate the world around him through crystals. A prodigy, he is offered the chance to train with the learned gryphons when he is ready. Eager and interested, he leaves home to learn all he can and hopes to change the world.
I went into this story expecting a very different book. Now this is not a slight on the part of the author, but rather my own expectations. Assuming (though clearly incorrectly) that the second book would continue to follow Faria, I also incorrectly assumed that the third book would feature Osiris taking Tierenan to Skyria to return home. Assuming the fox on the cover was perhaps Kier or some other character, it was a surprise to me (albeit not an unpleasant one) to find out it began much sooner, with a young Aidan, many ages before we meet him in Legacy.
Chosen to train among the gryphons of Arete, Aidan quickly becomes an exceptional student of the art of resonance, seeking to learn all he can about the techniques. During his lessons he learns more about the Dhraka and the long standing rivalry between then and the gryphons. Believing he can find a way to get all of the races to live in peace, he makes a bold gambit to attempt to convince them to work together instead of going to war.
I have to admit that I remember thinking more than once particularly when Aidan starts talking about challenging the gryphon’s notions that the Dhraka are dangerous that he was being incredibly naïve. I don’t consider myself a pessimist or a cynic but I know how to read people and characters very well and I know some people will follow their mentality to the end of the earth rather than consider an alternate point of view even if only for the sake of argument. Such is the case with the Dhraka, who although they play nice in the early stages, clearly never show good faith to pursue the goal of mutual benefit nor do they make any effort to reach out to others without some benefit to themselves.
The author does a fantastic job of conveying the conflicting agendas present in the story. Despite the main character’s best efforts to build something truly remarkable it is clear from their interactions that some seek to advance their knowledge for the benefit of all while others simply wish to increase their own power at whatever the cost.
Overall I’d say that it’s a very enjoyable book as all of the author’s books tend to be, with three dimensional characters who feel very real. The plot is well crafted with a lot of the threads tying back into seeds we’ve seen planted earlier in the series.
[SPOILER]
For the final act the book takes the unusual step of launching the main character forward in time by several millennia. And while I can’t say I saw it coming, I had actually (again incorrectly) just assumed that Aiden was long lived due to his resonance or something along those lines. Once in the future, he is eventually reunited with Osiris and becomes slowly familiar with the world he now inhabits.
While the material itself is very interesting I have to say that as an ending it was somewhat anticlimactic. I had expected something more given the building to the event that catapulted Aiden to the future, but instead of a finale that resolves the storyline at hand the last act is more of an aside. We are left to wonder what happened to the majority of the characters at the end of the third act, and introduced to effectively a new setting which although equally compelling doesn’t provide the closure I had hoped for with regards to the current story.
Though the finale does a good enough job of returning most of the characters to their book one starting positions, I can’t help but wonder if it could have been accomplished more organically.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 13, 2024
The series has been a refreshing take on the high-fantasy genre. The last book surprised me already, with its focus on post-adventure cleanup and politics, and this one surprised me again. It's a prequel, set a very long time in the past, meant to establish why things now are the way they are. And most surprising of all, it does so by showing the ancient world that begat all those fantasy ruins that have become a staple of the genre since Tolkien used them in his books.
Even so, it's not an info-dump. Like the last book, despite its kind of heady subject-matter (a lot of geography, history, politics, and magic-system how-to), its focus still manages to stick to a personal journey and relationships. I think if you're writing an epic fantasy and have a desire to use your notes for something other than flavor, this book is a good example of how to do that well.
Definitely will be reading the last one when it comes out!
Even so, it's not an info-dump. Like the last book, despite its kind of heady subject-matter (a lot of geography, history, politics, and magic-system how-to), its focus still manages to stick to a personal journey and relationships. I think if you're writing an epic fantasy and have a desire to use your notes for something other than flavor, this book is a good example of how to do that well.
Definitely will be reading the last one when it comes out!
September 8, 2020
A slick and easy read, which is a testament to the quality of the author's writing and storytelling. I was frequently impressed by how much I'd read during each session without realising how I was gliding through. Smooth.
The story serves to add depth to Jackson's previous titles in the series (Legacy and Fracture), taking the reader back into ancient history and the backstory of the doomed city of Nazreal. As such, I guess you could call Ruin's Dawn daring -- in that it pauses the overarching narrative to 'flashback' at the origins.
That may be so, but it works and Jackson has served up an enjoyable story in its own right in this novel; a worthy addition to the Resonance Tetralogy.
The story serves to add depth to Jackson's previous titles in the series (Legacy and Fracture), taking the reader back into ancient history and the backstory of the doomed city of Nazreal. As such, I guess you could call Ruin's Dawn daring -- in that it pauses the overarching narrative to 'flashback' at the origins.
That may be so, but it works and Jackson has served up an enjoyable story in its own right in this novel; a worthy addition to the Resonance Tetralogy.
December 20, 2020
Disclaimer: Just a quick heads up that this review will spoil some major plot points of the first two books in the series. That is in part due to the nature in which it is written, so if you’re interested in checking this series out I highly recommend reading the first two before diving into this one.
The third book in the Resonance series, Ruin’s Dawn, takes a slightly different approach to how it is written. Almost all of it, save for one section at the very end and some small dialogue snippets before each new chapter, is written as a flashback. This is primarily because the main character this time around is Faria’s father Aidan. We get to see the Emperor of Xayall from his time as a little mischievous fox kit all the way through the disaster at Nazreal. Aidan is humanized and you get to see him be a young man, with all the optimism and mistakes that come with that. This gives the book a sort of quality in reading it that you know, approximately, what is going to happen by the end of the book. The major events of the past have been hinted at or outright stated before in the previous books. The joy comes from the question of it all. How did Nazreal come to be? How did Aidan meet Osiris? What was Faria’s mother like before she passed? All of these are answered in the book and these answers are couched in the themes of knowing one's past to prepare better for the future. History has proven to be cyclical in more ways than one and Hugo is using the additional information from Aidan’s past to better inform the reader and Faria for the challenges she is sure to face in the final book of the series. And while the book is mostly a character study of Aidan, it could be argued that it is also a character study of Faria in some small way. Aidan raised Faria for most of her life and as such a lot of himself can be seen in her. Something else that I really enjoyed was the descriptions of the people in Nazreal working together toward a better society. It had a very commune kind of feel to it, with nations pitching in their own technology to help each other out. While the nations that always wanted it for themselves drove wedges of division into the city that helped to start a chain reaction that would later cause a global catastrophe. This book also has the first nonbinary character, Elysser, in the series and they are a welcome addition to the cast. I really enjoyed the scenes that had them as a part. The best way I could probably describe why I like them is that they sound like they would be good to just sit down and have a chat with. I wish we could have had more time with Kaya, Faria’s mother, towards the end of the book as well. I still think there’s enough there to provide a solid foundation for her motivations and character but I was enjoying her ability to reflect Aidan’s personality. I definitely wouldn’t start here, although I suppose you could chronologically, if you wanted to get involved with this series. There’s a lot of background information that makes the story make more sense with the context from the first two books. Even so, I greatly enjoyed the read and am eagerly looking forward to the conclusion of the series!
If you’d like to support the publisher directly, then might I suggest ordering your copy through: https://www.inspired-quill.com/produc...
The third book in the Resonance series, Ruin’s Dawn, takes a slightly different approach to how it is written. Almost all of it, save for one section at the very end and some small dialogue snippets before each new chapter, is written as a flashback. This is primarily because the main character this time around is Faria’s father Aidan. We get to see the Emperor of Xayall from his time as a little mischievous fox kit all the way through the disaster at Nazreal. Aidan is humanized and you get to see him be a young man, with all the optimism and mistakes that come with that. This gives the book a sort of quality in reading it that you know, approximately, what is going to happen by the end of the book. The major events of the past have been hinted at or outright stated before in the previous books. The joy comes from the question of it all. How did Nazreal come to be? How did Aidan meet Osiris? What was Faria’s mother like before she passed? All of these are answered in the book and these answers are couched in the themes of knowing one's past to prepare better for the future. History has proven to be cyclical in more ways than one and Hugo is using the additional information from Aidan’s past to better inform the reader and Faria for the challenges she is sure to face in the final book of the series. And while the book is mostly a character study of Aidan, it could be argued that it is also a character study of Faria in some small way. Aidan raised Faria for most of her life and as such a lot of himself can be seen in her. Something else that I really enjoyed was the descriptions of the people in Nazreal working together toward a better society. It had a very commune kind of feel to it, with nations pitching in their own technology to help each other out. While the nations that always wanted it for themselves drove wedges of division into the city that helped to start a chain reaction that would later cause a global catastrophe. This book also has the first nonbinary character, Elysser, in the series and they are a welcome addition to the cast. I really enjoyed the scenes that had them as a part. The best way I could probably describe why I like them is that they sound like they would be good to just sit down and have a chat with. I wish we could have had more time with Kaya, Faria’s mother, towards the end of the book as well. I still think there’s enough there to provide a solid foundation for her motivations and character but I was enjoying her ability to reflect Aidan’s personality. I definitely wouldn’t start here, although I suppose you could chronologically, if you wanted to get involved with this series. There’s a lot of background information that makes the story make more sense with the context from the first two books. Even so, I greatly enjoyed the read and am eagerly looking forward to the conclusion of the series!
If you’d like to support the publisher directly, then might I suggest ordering your copy through: https://www.inspired-quill.com/produc...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews