After reading The Shield of Daqan, I immediately got jazzed and wanted to find the game to play too. It's a fun story with heaps of cool world building.

I haven't expected this to be an enjoyable read, but it was. Not really for me age, but still. The worldbuilding was interesting enough and it had me hooked pertty quickly. It is definitelly not my favorite, but it was okay

Shield of Daquan is the second excursion into the Realms of Terrinoth published by Aconyte Books. This time the action and lore is cranked up to 11!

The story is pretty simple enough, the Uthuk are breaching the border of Ru Steppes and the free cities of Terrinoth. It’s up to Trenloe the Strong, Andira Runehand, Kurt, and Fredrick, the Baron of Kell, to hold them off.

The whole book is cram packed full of Terrinoth lore and locations. You’ll learn of many places and people in the realms, including different factions of adversaries like the Uthuk Y’llan, Ynfernael, and even dragons, which makes the setting feel less generic fantasy and something distinctly Terrinoth.

Those pros can also feel like cons when you have a hard time finding sense of place in the story. Although there’s a nice list of interesting main characters, they never actually interact with each other to the point that the book feels like three different stories that never tie together. The two characters standing back to back on the cover are never even in the same scene. Since the point of view keeps hopping between these characters (and more… there are a lot of characters), it’s hard to wrap your mind around where everyone is in relation to things that are happening. Also, large lore dumps will send your head spinning if you’re not familiar with the Runebound or Decent games. The author certainly did his homework writing this, but as a reader, maybe I don’t want to do that homework as well. …I did. With a little research, other maps, and willpower I did get a clear image of where all the events were taking place towards the end.

As someone who wants to know more about this setting, Shield of Daqan was a great book for that. It will introduce you to tons of content that is Terrinoth. Unfortunately, the story basically boils down to “bad guys attacking, good guys smashing, the end.” David Guymer certainly did create a memorable book and I appreciate the detail he included, but this book will unfortunately remain archived in my kindle library.

If you’re familiar with the Decent games, this could certainly be fun to read. If you’re only just starting out I’d recommend checking out Aconyte’s other Decent books first.

This is a hard review to write because in the first part of the book I wasn't feeling the story at all and planned on dropping it, but then by the 2nd half I was a lot more interested, and I'm really glad I didn't dnf it. The Shield of Daqan is an epic dark high fantasy with a world that's probably more developed in the Descent games, which I don't know, so at first I was a bit lost with so many events happening and so many different different points of views and characters.

When I got used to the world and the characters' names, my enjoyment went up by a lot. While this wasn't really the kind of book I'm used to reading, and I didn't get the emotional attachment to the characters as I hoped for, I did enjoy it. David Guymer's writing is so good, and his descriptions of battles were so good I could almost feel like I was watching a movie in my head, with everything really clear. The characters were charismatic too, and by the end I was cheering for the good guys, even if I didn't see much backstory or development to them through the novel.

The plot felt kinda simple, since it's really just good guys vs evil guys all the time, without any depth to the villains, but I enjoyed the progress of the story and the interactions between characters too. Maybe it's because Andira and Treloe grew on me - even if I didn't get to know them as much as I wanted to, probably because this is part of a bigger story in this universe, I guess.

I'm giving it 3.5 stars (rounded up to 4) because while it wasn't really my kind of thing, I could really feel the quality of the writing and I think others (knowing the original source or not) that like this kind of long fantasy, with battles to death with evil enemies to save the world, will probably enjoy a lot!!!

Shield of Daqan, also known as “the book which accidentally spoiled the fact that there was a new edition of Descent coming” is a novel by David Guymer. It’s also Aconyte’s newest Terrinoth offering, following Robbie MacNiven’s Doom of Fallowhearth last year. It takes us once again to the edge of the Daqan Baronies, not quite as far north as Forthryn, but this time to the north- eastern edge – to Kell, the self-declared ‘Shield of Daqan,’ ever-watchful against the monstrous Uthuk Y’llan, ‘the Locust Swarm’ of demon-worshipping savages who seem ever-poised to sweep down and destroy life as we know it.

As is customary for a Terrinoth product, Shield of Daqan begins with a poor-quality map of the vague area in which the action will take place, but with most of the key locations not actually marked. There are a few alternatives online if you particularly want to keep track of who is where.

Notionally, the two principal characters of Shield of Daqan are the pair of heroes, Tremloe the Strong and Andira Runehand – I’m not sure if that’s meant to be the two of them on the cover (possibly it’s just Andira), but don’t get your hopes up for the two of them actually spending much time together during this story. Tremloe and Andira each have their own path to tread, and the amount that those paths overlap is pretty limited.

In one respect, Shield of Daqan is a fantastic book, and that’s in terms of the world-building. I’ve complained in the past – both in book reviews and game articles, that Terrinoth has a habit of coming out feeling very generic: it’s high fantasy, but a lot of the stories feel like they could just slot straight into any number of other settings – or simply your regular D&D game. Shield of Daqan does the best job of anything I’ve read so far of making Terrinoth feel both deep and unique. This is the first time in Terrinoth where I’ve really felt like I’m reading a story set in a truly ancient and storied realm – a lot of it is passed over fairly fleetingly, but it’s done in a strong, broad brush-strokes manner, that argues fairly convincingly for countless stories going on which aren’t going to be told today, but will be referenced and alluded to at every turn.

The downside of this grand, panoramic, sweep over the history of Terrinoth, is that it can leave everything feeling a bit light on detail: as it tries to show you everything, the story sometimes feels like it hasn’t really told you enough about anything.

The narrative of Shield of Daqan starts with lots of disparate strands, as the point-of-view jumps around to set the scene, and slowly build a picture of the fairly cataclysmic upheaval about to be visited upon this frontier land. Along the way, a few of those strands will bump up against each other, but there’s no grand convergence that you might expect from a true epic work of Fantasy literature. Most characters keep their stories to themselves throughout.

If we start with who the blurb tells us are the main figures of the tale, Tremloe and Andira are pleasant enough characters, but the development of the characters never quite lives up to the promise of their introduction.

Tremloe is a strong giant of a man, entirely good-natured and devoid of guile – he is, apparently, without a selfish or deceitful bone in his body. His Valjean-like physical abilities are showcased early on, lifting a broken cart, and of course he gets some impressive fight-scenes, but there is very little in terms of a character arc. He ends the story basically the same as he began: there is a brief attempt to deal with survivor’s guilt, the question of whose fault it is when lesser mortals follow a great hero but lack their fighting prowess and plot armour, but honestly, it was over in a matter of pages, and barely worth the effort. If you want to see the Hero’s guilt done right, then just read the tale of Kaladin Stormblessed instead (Brandon Sanderson, Way of Kings and sequels).

Likewise, Andira’s character concept is an interesting one: she has a mystical rune, a crusade against a demon-lord, and no memory of her life before: she has rounded up various pilgrims to join her on her quest against the Ynfernael, but only one of them gets to be anything more than an extra. A couple of times, Guymer teases you with the possibility of explaining Andira’s backstory… and then he doesn’t. Everything about Andira just “is” and, although it provides some interesting terrain for others to bump up against, her character remains monolithic, starting off with a single-minded focus on her mission, and ending there too.


Aside from Tremloe and Andira, there are a few minor characters given a good chunk of page-time. These are a bit of a mixed bag, containing some of the highlights of the book, as well as a few let-downs. The chapters of villainous perspective feel a little forced: exposition for events that the Daqan characters would otherwise not have understood, rather than any real insight, or attempt to build sympathy for the outside perspective – Shield of Daqan’s villains are entirely villainous, whether viewed from within or without.

The minor human characters are probably the best bit of the story: Kurt and Fredric – the ex-soldier drawn reluctantly back into conflict when war comes to his doorstep, and the Baron who must live with the burden of expectation passed down from legendary ancestors, suddenly moved from the tedious reality of provincial budgetary hardships, to confronting a truly epoch-defining crisis. Fredric’s family also provide some interesting colour and additional texture, although they have to wait a very long time to get enough pages to really start to tell their own story.

Overall, Shield of Daqan is a difficult book to judge. At its best it sparkles with the promise of what Terrinoth could be, and promises to lead you into a world of countless hours of untold stories and legends, a place where ordinary folk tangle with unimaginable threats, and mighty deeds of valour and renown are done. At its worst it reads like a dislocated middle-volume of a grander series that forgets to properly introduce or conclude its myriad story-lines as characters chug-along on rails, doing in the final chapter exactly what they would have in the first. If you’re a fan of the setting, this book is probably worth getting for the insight if gives us into this world, but if you like well-developed, complex characters who are forced to evolve in light of their experiences, rather than just bouncing off the events around them, then you might want to give it a miss.

This was a fun read, and although I hadn’t played the game or been familiar with the world previously, the book does an absolutely fantastic job of drawing you into the world. There was a lot packed into The Shield of Daqan, and it pulls you into the story through some fantastically written characters that really brought the story to life along with plenty of action, and I devoured this book in a couple of sessions and I’ve been left wanting more (and needing to play the game).

The Barony of Kell has long been humanity’s shield against the dark. It is a hard land with hard people, but one that has been in decline in recent years. Famine and raids by bandits under the orders of the mysterious Grey Fox have left the Baron unable to both protect his borders and provide for his people. Humanity’ shield against the dark has been left to rust and as the Uthuk Y’llan swarm across the borders, lead by a priestess at the behest of a demonic lord, all hope for Kell rests in the hands of heroes. Trenloe the Strong and his Companions were hired to support an undermanned garrison. Andira Runehand leads her followers ever on in search of her destiny. Both will be needed if the Shield of Daqan has any hope of standing strong.

David Guymer’s The Shield of Daqan: A Decent: Journeys in the Dark Novel, leaves me very much wishing I had known more about the setting walking in. It also left me feeling like Guymer expected that the reader would not be familiar with the setting and that he would need to give as much exposition on the Barony of Kell and the characters used as possible to get the reader up to speed.

I found myself dragging my feet reading first half to two thirds of The Shield of Daqan, largely because of how much background exposition was being thrown at the reader. It felt like there were just so many characters being introduced and few of them were really connecting or going anywhere. I actually lost track of who two of the point of view characters were for a little bit and, in a moment that was absolutely meant to be tragic for Trenloe, could not place who some of the doomed minor characters were. This was largely due to information overload. There were something like six point of view characters that were swapped throughout the book, each of them with their own associated side characters and histories that needed to be explained and their own arguable places in the plot. It was a lot to take in and it wound up feeling like very little of it actually mattered.

This sort of characters in service to exposition did not really work for me because it left so many of the minor characters feeling less like characters and more like feeling tokens. I wanted to know more about several of these minor characters, especially the ones in Trenloe’s section of the story.

This felt very like a book that could have quite happily been split into a couple of different books and given room to breath and expand a bit. Let the characters develop more and the information about the world be spread more evenly out instead of all grouped up at the front half. The writing itself was solid, especially once the protagonists had all finally been established and the Uthuk Y’llan threat had shown up and things were moving. Guymer does a good job with his action scenes and his character work is strong. It just feels like he was trying to cram too much story into not enough pages, if the pacing had been better balanced this could have done a good job of making the conflict feel layered and emphasized the differences in how the various protagonists were affected by the famine and bandits and the sudden swarming assault of the Uthuk Y’llan.

The Shield of Daqan is a book that I wanted to like more than I ultimately did. The writing and character work were both solid. But both were also desperately let down by the pacing and I very nearly gave up in the first half because of how desperately slow things felt. I do intend to read more of Guymer’s work in the future and I find myself curious about what he would do with one of the other franchises that Aconyte Books publishes for. So, at the end of the day, I give The Shield of Daqan a three out of five.

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Descent: Journeys in the Dark book The Shield of Daqan written by David Guymer and published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

Secondly I am a friend of Davidon Facebook, and whilst we aren’t best buds, we do interact with each other on occasion and I consider him a class person.

I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

What’s is Descent: Journeys in the Dark

Simply put Descent: Journeys in the Dark is good old fashioned dungeon crawler whose linage goes all the way back to Heroquest.

Based very much on the Doom board game published by Fantasy Flight Games, you can see influences from across the gaming hobby, with bits from Space Hulk and Lord of the Rings being identifiable.

It’s set in the world of Terrinoth, a setting shared with Runewars, Runeage and a few other games and RPGs published by Fantasty Flight Games.

It’s a high fantasy universe and you will recognise many of the tropes and races seen in other similar fantasy style settings. It’s not particularly unique, but it is fairly well developed and interesting.

Descent is the dungeon crawler game in that universe, with one player being the evil overlord of the dungeon and the others taking in the tiles of the hero’s.

For a dungeon crawler, let’s be honest it’s one of the best out there, and the only reason it’s not in my collection is that Lindsay and Megan aren’t as enthusiastic about high fantasy as I am!

The Story

This book is honestly a real page turner, I devoured it in two sittings, it really is that good.

Told from multiple points of view like the Song of Ice and Fire books, this really is a engrossing and wonderful book to read, my favourite of Aconytes books thus far.

The book tells the story of the invasion of the Barony of Kell, once the last bastion against the evil from beyond the veil, and now is a shadow of its former self, assailed by bandits and famine. The noble Baron is a leader who cares for his people and he has found himself caught between the trap of feeding his people or defending them, without the manpower to do both. The Barony now faces an invasion of the barbarous Uthuk, led by vile Ne’Krul whose purpose is to bring her demonic masters into reality.

We have the legendary Trenloe the Strong and his Companions of Trenloe, a group of mercenaries, dedicated to protecting the people of the realm, and we are introduced to them as they escort refugees to safety. And the other hero, the holy warrior Andira Runehand, and her band of pious pilgrims, come to confront demons and stop them from entering the mortal plane.

These two heroes find themselves becoming the last hope of Kell, and through separate journeys play a part in an epic and desperate battle to save the world.

Conclusion

Its fun, its exciting, its literally dripping with personality, and what’s more, you need absolutely zero knowledge of the setting. This is a perfect franchise genre novel in my opinion.

Its absolutely character driven and not one scene in the book feels forced, everything feels like its there to drive the characters more, to give more insight to them. The first sitting, I literally devoured 65% of the book because I simply couldn’t put it down, and I only stopped because I actually feel asleep at 4am!

I cannot highly recommend this book enough, the only slight negative, is that this very much feels like the start of an epic series, and I am now desperate for the next book, so David, get writing post haste!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the opinions expressed in this review are my own.
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Wow! While I have never had the fortune of playing the game upon which this story is based, I was eager to give this one a try regardless. And boy am I glad I did.

The Shield of Daqan is a suprisingly quick read. I say surprising because with the sheer amount of character development packed into one book alone you wouldn't think it would be possible.

The pacing is smooth, the world-building is refreshingly strategic in its placement and detail and the characters are unforgettable.

This is probably one of my favourite depictions of well-rounded and inherently good characters.

The Shield of Daqan is definitely one of my favourite books of this year! And I'm really hoping to see the story continued.

Overall rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5 stars

I am big fan of David Guymer having read most of his Black Library books and enjoying most of not all of them, this was a nice change not being in either in the grim dark future or the Age of Sigmar, I am not familiar with the background that this book takes places in but to be honest it made no difference, the book was exciting and intriguing with action, suspense and drama in the right places, a jolly good read

The Shield of Daqan is quite honestly, one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure to read this year – which is something of a bold statement considering some of the delights that I’ve had the good fortune to devour! Set in the same world as the hugely popular world of Descent: Journeys in the Dark – The Shield of Daqan is, at it’s very core, a story of good vs evil; heroes against demonic hordes.

Too explain the plot in such simple terms however, is doing the story a great disservice as there is so much more than ‘the basics.’

The heroes all have their own different flavours to them. We’re initially introduced to one called Trenloe the Strong and his roving band of mercenaries called The Companions (of Trenloe) as they’re escorting a band of refuges from their bandit ridden homes to the sanctuary of Kell – a more prosperous neighbouring county. In no time at all, we’re given a display of why Trenloe is known as ‘the Strong.’ He is an instantly likeable central character and is easy to root for. Although not the brightest spark his heart is in the right place and he tends to do what is right for the people around him; despite the attempts to reign him in by his Dwarven partner Dremmin. Another fantastically written character in her own right. The balance of these two characters sets The Shield of Daqan off to a captivating start, Trenloes optimism and cheer is off-set by Dremmins more cynical approach to situations. Right from the first Chapter I felt a strong (pun intended) connection to these central characters, at every step I was eager to know what was going to happen to them.

Then, there is Andira Runehand, another legendary hero. If Trenloe the Strong is easy to get along with, Andira is almost the opposite; she is much more complicated to relate too but there is something fascinating about her. Her separate tale is captivating. She is cold and aloof and yet has scores of pilgrim followers that have flocked to her banner and worship her. The decisions she makes throughout The Shield of Daqan are driven by a single purpose; stop the Ynfernael. Whatever the cost. There are times when I was reeling about the choices that she made and the consequences they had for the other characters that have ‘allied’ with her; the Greyfox, Sarb, Sir Brodun and even the world weary Kurt – who I adored.

Alongside these heroes and their companions are a more human element to the population. The Barony of Kell, where the crux of the story happens, is run by Frederic and it is he and his homeland that bears the brunt of the Ynfernaels sinister plans.

I am always impressed when an author can convey different personalities of the characters within a book and this is something that I recall David Guymer doing in expert fashion in The Court of the Blind King. I am thrilled that he has been able to bring the magic of each of these characters to life. As they all have their own parts to play in The Shield of Daqan and each characters story is well weaved into the over-arching plot, nothing happens ‘for the sake of it’. The Shield of Daqan is very much a character driven story and each chapter is dedicated not only to a singular character and their plight but also the effect that they have on the ever advancing story.

The pacing of The Shield of Daqan is fast! To use the time-tested cliche, there is never a dull moment. The plot is driven forward through a series of smaller conflicts right to epic, large scale battles. Each situation is met by one of the heroes and solved (or not) in their own way. There’s even dragons to fight along the way! It’s an epic tale of sword and sorcery set in a captivating new world to explore.

Alongside the chapters from the heroes and companions perspective there is also insightful chapters with a focus on the traditional ‘bad-guy’ roles. In this case, Ne’Krul the Warrior Sorceress and Archerax. These are rarer than the hero chapters, but just as impressive in both characterful content and plot drive.

Considering The Shield of Daqan is a tie-in with the board game (Of which I’ve never had the pleasure of playing) I don’t know exactly how much world-building had already been done prior to this book. What we are given here seems to be a small section of a much broader world. The vast majority of the book is written in the Barony of Kell, but there are other areas of the world mentioned, giving the impression that the world is much bigger than just what we’re shown. What is written in The Shield of Daqan is richly described and leaves a vivid impression in the readers mind; the world setting is as wonderfully rendered as the characters personalities. A glorious treat to have such a fantastic cast playing within an incredibly written world.