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Tales of the Amulet #0
The Prisoner of Tardalim
Tor’s rebellion war against the Mindolarn Empire has delivered a crippling blow, the death of Emperor Mentas. Seeking aid from their allies, the Mindolarn Empire turns to the Principality of Soroth, and their society of mages, the Sorothian Magical Order.
In an effort to aid the empire, the Order’s council calls for an expedition to travel to the nethermost reaches of the world, the Abodine Wasteland. There they must venture to a reliquary of ancient tevisrals–magical objects–rumored to be hidden within crystal ruins leftover from a fabled war now long forgotten.
Among those heading to the perilous wastes is Amendal Aramien, a conjurer with a quick-wit, keen mind, and a licentious appetite. Forced into this expedition, Amendal begrudgingly enters the depths of the reliquary. What he unearths will forever change his life and set the stage for the return of a Dark God.
TALES OF THE AMULET
Several millennia ago a war raged between the factions of dragonkind. With their world ravaged, the Kaldean Alliance forged the Amulet of Draconic Control and the Tethering Stone, and banished their foes to other realms, saving Kalda from utter destruction. Fearing the power of the Amulet, the survivors secreted it away. But now knowledge of the Amulet has resurfaced—and in the wrong hands, war could erupt anew.
In an effort to aid the empire, the Order’s council calls for an expedition to travel to the nethermost reaches of the world, the Abodine Wasteland. There they must venture to a reliquary of ancient tevisrals–magical objects–rumored to be hidden within crystal ruins leftover from a fabled war now long forgotten.
Among those heading to the perilous wastes is Amendal Aramien, a conjurer with a quick-wit, keen mind, and a licentious appetite. Forced into this expedition, Amendal begrudgingly enters the depths of the reliquary. What he unearths will forever change his life and set the stage for the return of a Dark God.
TALES OF THE AMULET
Several millennia ago a war raged between the factions of dragonkind. With their world ravaged, the Kaldean Alliance forged the Amulet of Draconic Control and the Tethering Stone, and banished their foes to other realms, saving Kalda from utter destruction. Fearing the power of the Amulet, the survivors secreted it away. But now knowledge of the Amulet has resurfaced—and in the wrong hands, war could erupt anew.
- GenresFantasy
809 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 2021
25 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 2, 2022
TLDR: A good old ancient tomb(ish) delving expedition with a thoroughly likeable main character. The pacing drops a little in the middle but picks up well at the end. Well worth a listen/read for both the great story and further fleshing out of what is becoming the beautifully constructed universe of the Tales of the Amulet series.
Personal Score: 4.0 stars
Professional Score: 4.0 stars
More reviews at: https://www.fsfreviews.com/
Review:
A thank you to Robert Zangari for providing me with a copy of this prequal to his Tales of the Amulet series. He recommended that I read this one before A Prince’s Errand, but I’m a stickler for reading books in publication order. However, this didn’t negatively impact the story of either books in any meaningful way, and if anything, made me appreciate some of the lore gaps that were filled in this book. As with the last two books, I’ll refer to Dan and Robert Zangari (a father and son team) as the Zangaris throughout, hoping that is the correct way to make a plural out of their last names.
So, to begin at the beginning. This book follows an ill-fated expedition to what the myths within the world of Kalda claim to be their version of damnation: Tardalim. The story primarily follows Amendal Aramien, a young conjurer freshly returned from his vaunted family’s rite of passage to become a fully realised Aramien conjurer. We get the third-person perspectives of Amendal and a scattering of his friends and associates as they set out to the frozen Abodine Wastes to locate Tardalim and the supposed treasures within. We also get a fair bit of story from a Mindolarnian royal who instigated the expedition, but for the life of me I can’t find the correct way to spell her name ANYWHERE, so I’m just going to refer to her as Miss Mindolarnian. Honestly, I’d rather refer to her by something less tame and more insulting, but that goes to show how well her character was written to make me have such a deep loathing for this velvet-draped turd.
The relationships between the core group of mages that undertake the expedition is one of the highlights of the book. You believe they are friends and the further connections that develop between them throughout the story are entirely organic. As with their other works, the Zangaris are masters of writing interpersonal relationships. All the main characters are well-rounded, but I did have a slight issue with some of the side characters, namely in that I personally don’t feel that the amount of time devoted to them was entirely necessary. The ship’s captain in particular and the expedition’s captain to a lesser extent had quite a high word-count which, combined with a few other aspects, significantly dropped the pacing of the middle of the book and turned it into a bit of a slog. I personally feel that a few minor changes to the story could have effectively removed the need for the large sections from their perspectives and maintained the otherwise sterling story-flow from the beginning constant throughout.
Tardalim itself is a truly novel location (to me at least), and uniqueness always scores extremely high from me within a genre that often keep regurgitating the same old fluff. If anything, I feel that for the amount of time and effort that was expended in creating and explaining how this insane prison works, there could have been even more interesting ways in which it was used. I can’t think of any myself, but I’m sure that the minds that crafted such a beautiful mind-fuck could have squeezed out even more awesome. This book also goes a lot further into explaining how the magic systems of Kalda work, which was something I definitely thought was lacking in A Prince’s Errand. I now have a far greater understanding of an aspect that is key to this universe and I am very appreciative for it. The book also has individual chapters between the five main parts from entirely different characters which greatly help with the world-building as well as the story structure which, had those chapters been shoehorned within the individual parts, would have been fairly disjoining. This technique, as well as the little introductory quotes at the start of each chapter (which I use in my own books) are techniques I personally love and, when used well, are an extremely useful story-writing tool.
My last point is less of a direct criticism and more of what I believe was a missed opportunity to hit what could have been quite a meaningful issue raised within the book. Without giving too much away, Miss Mindolarnian has a magic glove imbued with the power to make anyone she turns it on become besottedly infatuated with her. She uses this to both bed whoever she wants and manipulate anyone she cares to. What made me truly hate this character and what I believe was just skimmed over within the book is that that her actions are tantamount to rape. I know such a subject may have been a bit too dark of a topic for the book to go deep into, but it is present and it does happen to multiple characters. Had this been a man using it on women, then I have no doubt that the darker implications of using the glove would have been explored in greater detail, but because it is used against men, the severity of what she is doing seems to be treated far more lightly. The blaséness in which most of the characters react to finding out what the glove does in itself could have been a great topic to explore, namely that most of the male characters didn’t see much of a problem in a beautiful woman having her way with you, even though it is against your will. They all seem far more concerned with the fact that she has suborned their will rather than what she has done with them once their will has been suborned. Anyway, I just feel that it was a missed opportunity to explore what could have been a really meaningful topic.
So in summation, I thoroughly enjoyed the book but feel that the drop in pacing in the middle came dangerously close to stalling the entire story. The quality of the ending made up for it though, both the climax and the aftermath. I personally love it when all the loose ends are tied off as opposed to an abrupt ‘la fin’, and this book 100% delivered on that.
As for narration, as ever, Michael Kramer is one of the absolute best in the business, so any project he turns his voice to always comes out as first class.
Personal Score: 4.0 stars
Professional Score: 4.0 stars
More reviews at: https://www.fsfreviews.com/
Review:
A thank you to Robert Zangari for providing me with a copy of this prequal to his Tales of the Amulet series. He recommended that I read this one before A Prince’s Errand, but I’m a stickler for reading books in publication order. However, this didn’t negatively impact the story of either books in any meaningful way, and if anything, made me appreciate some of the lore gaps that were filled in this book. As with the last two books, I’ll refer to Dan and Robert Zangari (a father and son team) as the Zangaris throughout, hoping that is the correct way to make a plural out of their last names.
So, to begin at the beginning. This book follows an ill-fated expedition to what the myths within the world of Kalda claim to be their version of damnation: Tardalim. The story primarily follows Amendal Aramien, a young conjurer freshly returned from his vaunted family’s rite of passage to become a fully realised Aramien conjurer. We get the third-person perspectives of Amendal and a scattering of his friends and associates as they set out to the frozen Abodine Wastes to locate Tardalim and the supposed treasures within. We also get a fair bit of story from a Mindolarnian royal who instigated the expedition, but for the life of me I can’t find the correct way to spell her name ANYWHERE, so I’m just going to refer to her as Miss Mindolarnian. Honestly, I’d rather refer to her by something less tame and more insulting, but that goes to show how well her character was written to make me have such a deep loathing for this velvet-draped turd.
The relationships between the core group of mages that undertake the expedition is one of the highlights of the book. You believe they are friends and the further connections that develop between them throughout the story are entirely organic. As with their other works, the Zangaris are masters of writing interpersonal relationships. All the main characters are well-rounded, but I did have a slight issue with some of the side characters, namely in that I personally don’t feel that the amount of time devoted to them was entirely necessary. The ship’s captain in particular and the expedition’s captain to a lesser extent had quite a high word-count which, combined with a few other aspects, significantly dropped the pacing of the middle of the book and turned it into a bit of a slog. I personally feel that a few minor changes to the story could have effectively removed the need for the large sections from their perspectives and maintained the otherwise sterling story-flow from the beginning constant throughout.
Tardalim itself is a truly novel location (to me at least), and uniqueness always scores extremely high from me within a genre that often keep regurgitating the same old fluff. If anything, I feel that for the amount of time and effort that was expended in creating and explaining how this insane prison works, there could have been even more interesting ways in which it was used. I can’t think of any myself, but I’m sure that the minds that crafted such a beautiful mind-fuck could have squeezed out even more awesome. This book also goes a lot further into explaining how the magic systems of Kalda work, which was something I definitely thought was lacking in A Prince’s Errand. I now have a far greater understanding of an aspect that is key to this universe and I am very appreciative for it. The book also has individual chapters between the five main parts from entirely different characters which greatly help with the world-building as well as the story structure which, had those chapters been shoehorned within the individual parts, would have been fairly disjoining. This technique, as well as the little introductory quotes at the start of each chapter (which I use in my own books) are techniques I personally love and, when used well, are an extremely useful story-writing tool.
My last point is less of a direct criticism and more of what I believe was a missed opportunity to hit what could have been quite a meaningful issue raised within the book. Without giving too much away, Miss Mindolarnian has a magic glove imbued with the power to make anyone she turns it on become besottedly infatuated with her. She uses this to both bed whoever she wants and manipulate anyone she cares to. What made me truly hate this character and what I believe was just skimmed over within the book is that that her actions are tantamount to rape. I know such a subject may have been a bit too dark of a topic for the book to go deep into, but it is present and it does happen to multiple characters. Had this been a man using it on women, then I have no doubt that the darker implications of using the glove would have been explored in greater detail, but because it is used against men, the severity of what she is doing seems to be treated far more lightly. The blaséness in which most of the characters react to finding out what the glove does in itself could have been a great topic to explore, namely that most of the male characters didn’t see much of a problem in a beautiful woman having her way with you, even though it is against your will. They all seem far more concerned with the fact that she has suborned their will rather than what she has done with them once their will has been suborned. Anyway, I just feel that it was a missed opportunity to explore what could have been a really meaningful topic.
So in summation, I thoroughly enjoyed the book but feel that the drop in pacing in the middle came dangerously close to stalling the entire story. The quality of the ending made up for it though, both the climax and the aftermath. I personally love it when all the loose ends are tied off as opposed to an abrupt ‘la fin’, and this book 100% delivered on that.
As for narration, as ever, Michael Kramer is one of the absolute best in the business, so any project he turns his voice to always comes out as first class.
September 8, 2022
When Mage Amendal, a conjurer, is forced to join his magic-using friends (illusionists, barsionists, arpranists) including the beautiful, unattainable Faelinia, on a quest to Tardalim, a land not known to be real, he’s led by a mysterious voice in his mind who tells him to go and fulfill destiny. The journey is filled with a mission to collect ancient tevrisals, the wonders of an unthinkable land, and deadly monsters unlike they’ve ever seen, as well an unfolding mystery involving the cunning woman from another land who recruited them, Vaem. The story is complex and has a lot of layers. Truthfully, it’s a lot to take in. Most of it takes place on Tardalim, which offers a bewildering experience to the travelers because it was created by an earlier, more advanced civilization. I don’t know how the authors thought all this up! They are engineers, and I can see that in the writing. The characters are more straightforward to understand and in a good way. You don’t always know what they’ll do, but you “get” who they are. I enjoyed the friendship and teamwork by Amendal’s friends and the creativity in the various creatures. And there’s no way to not love Fench, a friendly creature. I’ll let you meet him. There was a satisfying ending. Overall, I liked the book but my head hurts a bit.
September 17, 2025
It's unusual for a novel like this to surprise me, but these authors definitely nailed it. I was expecting a prequel, but this story is so, so much more. There's a very clever adventure with a twisty and unexpected plot. There's a romantic subplot that didn't go at all in a way I would have expected. Armendal started out as a totally unsympathetic, arrogant chump - that male character type I'm usually put off by - but somehow as the story progressed he became totally endearing. That is particularly noteworthy, because it's so rare that authors get this particular trope right for readers like me. Then there are the monsters. If you like fantasy reads with unusal monsters, incredible battle scenes and lots and lots of weirdness, you will LOVE this series. I was really impressed by the variety of creatures with some very intriguing characteristics.
The ending is truly perfect, allowing me to feel satisfied by what has transpired but also totally invested to find out what will happen next. I so can't wait to pick up the next book and see if Armendal manages to achieve the quest he's set himself.
The ending is truly perfect, allowing me to feel satisfied by what has transpired but also totally invested to find out what will happen next. I so can't wait to pick up the next book and see if Armendal manages to achieve the quest he's set himself.
February 27, 2024
Like all excellent prequels, The Prisoner of Tardalim ends in such a way that one is simultaneously satisfied and distraught. Things are broken that need to be repaired—or at least recompensed.
This hefty volume is lush with vivid landscapes, complex structures, and a wide cast of flawed and engaging characters.
I began the story disliking the main character, Amendal, but having met him in The Prince’s Errand, I was eager to watch the womanizing and arrogant man learn and grow—and become someone quite different and sympathetic. His bittersweet journey doesn’t disappoint.
Likewise, the romance, the mystery of Tardalim, the unique creatures (especially Fetch!), and the eerie setting drew me in and didn’t let me go!
Epic fantasy readers who hunger for great magic systems, huge worlds, solid prose, and puzzles—this one is right up your alley. It makes me want to read The Prince’s Errand all over again. Highly recommended!
Content: Some strong language sprinkled throughout (no f-bombs), innuendo and implied bedroom scenes (no on-page spice), and fantasy violence/death.
This hefty volume is lush with vivid landscapes, complex structures, and a wide cast of flawed and engaging characters.
I began the story disliking the main character, Amendal, but having met him in The Prince’s Errand, I was eager to watch the womanizing and arrogant man learn and grow—and become someone quite different and sympathetic. His bittersweet journey doesn’t disappoint.
Likewise, the romance, the mystery of Tardalim, the unique creatures (especially Fetch!), and the eerie setting drew me in and didn’t let me go!
Epic fantasy readers who hunger for great magic systems, huge worlds, solid prose, and puzzles—this one is right up your alley. It makes me want to read The Prince’s Errand all over again. Highly recommended!
Content: Some strong language sprinkled throughout (no f-bombs), innuendo and implied bedroom scenes (no on-page spice), and fantasy violence/death.
July 18, 2024
This story is complex and has a lot of layers. It’s a lot to take in. Most of it takes place on Tardalim. The characters are more straightforward and easy to understand and in a good way. You don’t always know what they’ll do, but I enjoyed the friendship and teamwork by Amendal’s friends and the creativity in the various creatures. And there’s no way to not love Fench, a friendly creature. I’ll let you meet him. There was a satisfying ending. I really enjoyed the book.
Mage Amendal, a conjurer, is forced to join his magic-using friends that consist of illusionists, barsionists and arpranists. This includes the beautiful, unattainable Faelinia, and a quest to Tardalim. This is a land not known to be real. He’s led by a mysterious voice in his mind that tells him to go and fulfill destiny. The journey is a mission to collect ancient tevrisals, the wonders of an unthinkable land, and deadly monsters unlike they’ve ever seen. As well as an unfolding mystery involving the cunning woman from another land who recruited them, Vaem.
Mage Amendal, a conjurer, is forced to join his magic-using friends that consist of illusionists, barsionists and arpranists. This includes the beautiful, unattainable Faelinia, and a quest to Tardalim. This is a land not known to be real. He’s led by a mysterious voice in his mind that tells him to go and fulfill destiny. The journey is a mission to collect ancient tevrisals, the wonders of an unthinkable land, and deadly monsters unlike they’ve ever seen. As well as an unfolding mystery involving the cunning woman from another land who recruited them, Vaem.
September 19, 2022
This is no Robert Jordan !!
Why not be your own work and not try desperately to copy or claim other writers work's ! Then not deliver anything close from the cover to the maps enough with the butchering of other people's work.The plot was outlandish and the world building was not enough with the main characters lacking the author didn't do himself any favors by forgetting the details I tried to understand but the author went all out on the main character but that destroys experience on keeping the beginning captivating to make me keep on reading that just made the experience shallow .The antagonist was still nonexistence at this point so the writer just goes on and on about little brothers and ex lover's crazy dreams that didn't make any sense at all but unfortunately I could not be a fan of this author but hopefully you might like it but I didn't like the plot,the world the author put together it was poorly done that's my opinion thank you and god bless !!!
Why not be your own work and not try desperately to copy or claim other writers work's ! Then not deliver anything close from the cover to the maps enough with the butchering of other people's work.The plot was outlandish and the world building was not enough with the main characters lacking the author didn't do himself any favors by forgetting the details I tried to understand but the author went all out on the main character but that destroys experience on keeping the beginning captivating to make me keep on reading that just made the experience shallow .The antagonist was still nonexistence at this point so the writer just goes on and on about little brothers and ex lover's crazy dreams that didn't make any sense at all but unfortunately I could not be a fan of this author but hopefully you might like it but I didn't like the plot,the world the author put together it was poorly done that's my opinion thank you and god bless !!!
November 25, 2025
Couldn't finish this one. The main character was very annoying and self centred and I assumed that he'd go through a character arch, but nope. By the midway point through the book he was still as annoying and self centred as he started. Just that he was slightly closer to getting into a girls pants. The book also went out of its way to forgive whenever he did wrong things like disobeyed direct orders no matter how much sense they made and he always ended up being right one way or another.
Though I still can't give this a one star because I've read way worse and the actual writing of it was very good. With one exception that probably only bothers me:
I hate made up units of measurements! Not only is this one of those over thinking world building things but it also really doesn't help me visualize things. "This is a this unit wide and this unit tall" Cool, I still don't know how big that is.
Though I still can't give this a one star because I've read way worse and the actual writing of it was very good. With one exception that probably only bothers me:
I hate made up units of measurements! Not only is this one of those over thinking world building things but it also really doesn't help me visualize things. "This is a this unit wide and this unit tall" Cool, I still don't know how big that is.
December 8, 2023
Wow, this story is incredible! Towards the end, I found myself genuinely empathizing with the main character and his friends. The narrative skillfully developed the main character's personality, and the other characters felt seamlessly integrated into the storyline. The only minor drawback is the protagonist's somewhat inflated ego, but it's fitting for his character. Overall, a solid 5/5 stars, and I'm can't wait to get into other books within this universe!
June 16, 2023
This was an enjoyable read (well, listen). It kept my interest, and felt very classic-fantasy, which I love. The characters were interesting, and the writing was well-done.
November 26, 2023
Another excellent read by the Zangaris. Yes. I want more. I want more books from this world!
November 15, 2025
This was an entertaining read, and I found it highly enjoyable. The world of Kalda is an interesting realm I want to explore in more depth, and this novel offers a pretty well-rounded introduction. It is billed as a prequel to the main line of novels, but for a prequel this reads very well as its own story and though first-time readers are thrown into this vast realm, Zangari does a good job of keeping us informed and up to date.
This novel is essentially a dungeon exploration, in which our main character Amendal begrudgingly accepts an offer to participate in the expedition to find an ancient prison called Tardalim. From the moment they arrive to the Abodine Wastes, the expedition comes under assault by a number of deadly creatures and we, alongside Amendal are thrown into the midst of this action and excitement. It had been a while since I read a story focused on dungeon exploration and this reminded me why it can be such a fun concept because Tardalim is like a dungeon never seen before (sure some stories may have similar shifting-labyrinth like dungeons, but Tardalim still manages to feel unique).
Amendal himself is an excellent main character to follow, as he begins the story as a somewhat over-confident ladies' man, but through the course of this story he is put through the ringer, and he is forced to change and grow. By the end you will most certainly feel for the guy. Amendal is supported by a cast of additional characters, friends who support him, and antagonists seeking to use him for their own gain (I won't go into detail here, read the novel yourself). Overall, I liked the other POVs apart from the ship captain, he felt somewhat one-dimensional, but he does not take up much time at all.
The escalatory nature of the book is great because we are constantly put in a high stakes moment full of tension that our characters must desperately relieve, and while they buy themselves time, they are thrown out of the fire and into the frying pan as the tension is always ramping up in a way that catches you off guard and again our characters are desperately fighting for their lives. The climatic action near the end was insane and again, no spoilers from me but it was great to see Zangari utilize every tool he had introduced throughout the story, he knows about Chekov's gun and made sure he used it.
For anybody looking to dive into Zangari's works I do recommend this as a starter and I myself look forwards to finding the time to read more.
This novel is essentially a dungeon exploration, in which our main character Amendal begrudgingly accepts an offer to participate in the expedition to find an ancient prison called Tardalim. From the moment they arrive to the Abodine Wastes, the expedition comes under assault by a number of deadly creatures and we, alongside Amendal are thrown into the midst of this action and excitement. It had been a while since I read a story focused on dungeon exploration and this reminded me why it can be such a fun concept because Tardalim is like a dungeon never seen before (sure some stories may have similar shifting-labyrinth like dungeons, but Tardalim still manages to feel unique).
Amendal himself is an excellent main character to follow, as he begins the story as a somewhat over-confident ladies' man, but through the course of this story he is put through the ringer, and he is forced to change and grow. By the end you will most certainly feel for the guy. Amendal is supported by a cast of additional characters, friends who support him, and antagonists seeking to use him for their own gain (I won't go into detail here, read the novel yourself). Overall, I liked the other POVs apart from the ship captain, he felt somewhat one-dimensional, but he does not take up much time at all.
The escalatory nature of the book is great because we are constantly put in a high stakes moment full of tension that our characters must desperately relieve, and while they buy themselves time, they are thrown out of the fire and into the frying pan as the tension is always ramping up in a way that catches you off guard and again our characters are desperately fighting for their lives. The climatic action near the end was insane and again, no spoilers from me but it was great to see Zangari utilize every tool he had introduced throughout the story, he knows about Chekov's gun and made sure he used it.
For anybody looking to dive into Zangari's works I do recommend this as a starter and I myself look forwards to finding the time to read more.
October 4, 2022
Well Well Done. Fantastic world building, character development and all around enjoyable story. I can't wait to get into the next one in the series.
Great job Dan.
Great job Dan.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews