“How is it the old saying goes, Cazar? Only fools and heroes tempt death twice.”
“Aye… Heroes and fools are the closest of kin.”

Now that’s the kind of fantasy book that teens and adults can enjoy – a fine mix of Camelot-like fiction and isekai (it’s a Japanese term about normal people from our reality being somehow transported to a magical world), with a heavy dose of adventure and suspense.

Jonny is a young boy who prefers reading than living the adventure being told in his books – smart boy, if you ask me, most characters in such stories keep thinking the imaginary worlds are better, without realizing the dangers. When he ends up – via an accident exploring a cave – in a world like the ones he reads about, he has to quickly adapt to it and learn not only how to go back home, but also how to save this new world, whose darkness and monsters are bound to spill into our own. And to do that, he has to find a legendary chalice – one that hasn’t been found for a long time, and for good reason.

I really liked this book. Its main characters were enjoyable and complex, to the point where you couldn’t really discern who might be the traitor among them (I still say it’s not Turion, he’s way too obvious a choice – and I’m not biased because I have a major crush on the guy). Jonny as a protagonist was a kid with his wits set straight, and a good mental stability – no whining about being in danger, no acting the hero he wasn’t ready to be, just pure logic and reasonable reactions of a youngster scared of the situation who was mature enough to understand what needed to be done and his own limitations. The dialogues were easy to follow, not exactly childish in level, but not too pompous, either. And the battles were exquisite and very realistic, made my heart race every time they encountered those monsters. Also, dragons! And dragon riders! WHO DOESN’T LIKE THAT?!

The only thing I didn’t exactly enjoy was the occasional lore dump. I get that it happened so that Jonny – and us, the readers – would have a general grasp of the world and what its history was, but it seemed forced whenever it happened for way too long, and disrupted the pace. This was the only thing that costed the book the final star.

Be warned, however, that this is an emotional read. It doesn’t seem that way at first. But after the middle of the book the emotional rollercoaster begins, and it doesn’t stop until the end. Jonny sees more and more ugliness in the world he’s stumbled upon, and this changes him, and the writer does a great job of showing it instead of telling us, so we feel the painful clutch in our hearts, too, for what the kid is going through. And I swear, I haven’t sobbed for what happened to a fictional character in a long time, but Groynof’s venture in the tunnels destroyed me. It hit me very hard. The minute he read the words “Who are you to judge?” and realized what was going on, I burst out in tears. Well played, Mr. Maurer, but I still can’t get over it – he was the nicest of them all!

I can’t wait to see what happens next. It’s one of those series that deserve their place in someone’s bookshelves, for sure.

***I was given an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinion stated in this review is solely mine, and no compensation was given or taken to alter it.***

An enjoyable story of a young boy who somehow gets transported to another world where he ends up going on a quest to get the Cup of Power before it can fall into the hands of trolls.