Juuuust in case you skipped over the blurb of the book, I will draw your attention to it again. This is important. Read this:

“In an age long forgotten, nineteen hundred and eighty-three Seals were forged—magical disks placed around the world to repel the cosmic chaos beyond.

In the centuries that followed, the Sentinels were tasked with protecting those Seals. For countless generations, they succeeded.

Until now.”

Magical disks, cosmic chaos, Sentinels and now… all is going to pot. The premise, then, is simple: the world, as everyone knows it, is changing. It’s not a sudden, big explosion, that turns everything upside down, it seems to be a gradual, slow change manifesting through earthquakes, bringing devastation and destruction. A natural force, which a mere human is no opponent to. The focus of it all is a huge, looming mountain range. The people living on the one side of it believe there is nothing beyond it. This is the Final Horizon, guarded by a magical barrier, the place where world ends. And yet, a stranger appears through the gorge.

The Stranger of Ul Darak is *mind blown emoji*. It just feels like a whole Universe in between the covers of a book, or so it feels – that’s how vast is its plot.

This book is no lightweight! It covers everything. You will find out about the mountains, the Sentinels and how it works in their part of the world (their pecking order, their tasks, their magical abilities), you will find out about the village of Valdur (their daily life, their fears, concerns and relationships important to the story). Of course, the reader will meet the stranger and the young boy who takes him in.

The writing of this book is… just… natural. The story covers a lot but it never, not once, felt like a chore. I loved being immersed in this fantasy tale that had the huge task of introducing the things yet to come without info dumping.

The Stranger of Ul Darak is one of those fantasy tales that is as solid and as polished as it could possibly be. It feels like a finished product, ready for the bookshelves. It has a classical fantasy feel without graphic grimness. I mean, Eston manages to deliver a chonky, slow paced book, meant for enjoyment as the reader can get lost in the world and things yet to pass. And he does it whilst remaining accessible and suitable to even the younger reader. It has characters to whet the appetite across the board – your regular folk and the Sentinels, the kind people and those who act on their prejudice, and those who act on their fear. There is intrigue with the ancient magic, and mystery and impending sense of doom, without feeling oppressive. The seed for the sense of adventure and exploration is planted within this book and it is a story that you wish to keep reading.