Free the Darkness by Kel Kade – Book Review

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I stayed up until midnight to finish this book (I started it around about 7pm), so it’s at least good enough to have me willing to finish it. Although, it’s still not a 5 star read for me.

Our main character, Rezkin, is obviously the star of the book, with some interesting characters around him. Rezkin grew up being trained; he didn’t get a childhood, a family, friends. His sole purpose seemed to be being trained as an assassin-type character with lots of Rules and plenty of Skills. It’s almost a training montage for the first few chapters as you witness various hardships and trials as he ages until he leaves the fortress he was trained in and the story really begins. 

Due to Rez’s upbringing, it makes him both fantastic at dealing with a lot of situations in the “outerworld” such as bartering with merchants and spotting swindlers, but it makes him truly clueless in the everyday dealings of how to speak to people, how to even look at someone or smile at them. It makes for a few entertaining passages and character interaction. But I also felt like it was Rezkin’s whole character. And it’s weird, because it kind-of makes sense it is his whole character. He was trained to do nothing but follow the Rules, so the Rules make up the majority of his personality. It makes him seem quite robotic and android-like at times. In any other book, I might have complained, but it somehow works here? Although I hope as Rez separates himself more and more from his past and accepts those around him, he comes into more of a character of his own. 

Rez also falls into the “too perfect” category for a character. At least 6 women fall over themselves to bat their eyelashes at him. He pretty much never fails at anything. There’s one scene I won’t go into too much, but apparently, no one has succeeded in this trial in decades, and they made it even more difficult for him, and he breezed through it without so much as a deep breath. It’s fun to read, don’t get me wrong, he’s seemingly invincible, but at the same time, some of the tension is removed from a lot of scenes because of course, he succeeds. I wonder how that’s going to change moving forward. 

The thing that’s making me keep reading, and considering picking up the next book, is the plot. Rez had a purpose, “Rule #1” which was to honour and protect… and then the trainer gave him the wrong answer. Rez ends up getting the Rule as to honour and protect his friends. It was supposed to be King. Throughout the book, Rez struggles with what a friend even is, let alone why that’d be rule #1. I’m intrigued to see where it goes with people slowly realising who or what he is, and how that impacts him. And what Rez’s plan actually is. He’s definitely scheming, and I just can’t believe everything he’s done is to find one guy. There’s got to be more to it. It’s this “What is Rez for?” and “What is coming next?” that’s keeping me going more than the actual character of Rez. 

Besides Rez, the standout characters for me are Frisha and Tam. Frisha is the first women to fawn over Rez and ends up travelling with him along with Tam. Tam is… I’m not sure what Tam is. Sometimes he seems slightly superfluous, but I get the feeling there’s more to it in the future (Honestly, I’m pinning a lot of hope on future books to iron out some issues!). 

I’ve read that the books get better as the series progresses. And I am enjoying reading about essentially a super-assassin that can do no wrong. When I asked for assassin recommendations, this was accurate, I’ll give them that. I just hope the characters grow more into their own and feel a little less stereotypical and wooden. Even the characters that had a more average upbringing like Frisha still fall into the trap of the stereotypical fantasy characters and I’d love to see that mold broken, just a little.