The Blackgloom Bounty

As of late I have had a good amount of novels taking place on Earth coming to me. I have never been a big fan of Earth based fantasy and so I always seem to read these books with a timid attitude. Though many Earth based fantasy novels are, in my opinion, horrible, The Blackgloom Bounty was an absolutely excellent tale.

Taking place in Medieval Scotland, this tale of magic, adventure and love really captured my attention and kept me reading for hours. I have never been a big fan of fantasy novels that took place on Earth as they always seemed to be far fetched even for fantasy. Baxley really chose the perfect setting for his novel and created an Earth-based fantasy novel that knocked my socks off. When I first read the back of the novel I was a little thrown off by the description as it told you right there that the enemy would be defeated. And so I slowly stepped into the tale of Daynin and Kruzurk wondering what the point of reading the novel was if I already knew the bad guy was going to die. Along the way they pick up a young “slave” girl named Sabritha after rescuing her from a vicious noble and continue along their journey. As I came to the climax of the heroes’ battle with the Seed of Cerberus, which I thought was the climax of the novel, I still had a good two hundred pages to read and no idea what was going to happen. I continued along in this superb novel and we not disappointed by the quality of the tale. The novel continued along, following Daynin, Kruzurk and Sabritha on a quest to reclaim Daynin’s family’s lost lands after having looted Blackgloom Keep for an extensive amount of treasure. The group of travelers now must fight against an evil nobleman driven by greed and malice who wants nothing more than the treasure which our heroes possess.

Jon F. Baxley has created a novel that has broken down another of my strongest convictions towards novels. The slightest hint of an Earth-based fantasy has always made me turn my back, but with The Blackgloom Bounty I have finally found a novel that may open me up to new Earth-based novels without having such a strong animosity towards them. After the excellent story telling and writing style presented by Baxley in this novel I have to say it deserves a nice 7.5. Baxley’s novel really drew me in as a reader and brought a nice historical perspective to the tale incorporating two subjects I love, Medieval History and Fantasy. One of the best parts of this novel though in my opinion would have to be the fact that there were two plot lines. The first plot line where Kruzurk takes Daynin along on the adventure to kill the Seed of Cerberus, and second plot line which deals with the reclamation of Daynin’s home land, both of which were exhilarating and entertaining adventures. I really look forward to seeing this series continue and watching the characters face whatever interesting problems Baxley can come up with next.

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