Synopsis:
An angry, blood-sucking god and a broke, desperate dungeon master. What could possibly go wrong?
The mighty Aatma has fallen, and Empress Inalda has lost her main supplier and is forced to sponsor new dungeons to fuel her army’s expansion. Gabriel Shook intends to rise to the occasion, but he is broke and must buy second-hand minions from a consignment store to defend his new dungeon. All he can afford is a half-skeleton, rat, and cursed zombie. Half a world away, Talia lives in paradise, but a betrayal threatens her way of life and sets a collision of destinies into motion. What will happen when her god rises, and the otai flows? Can they both survive the machinations of the Empress and the guilds?
Review:
The Last Dai’akan is a unique sort of dungeon-crawler fantasy with some other unusual elements thrown in. There’s a vampiric god, an economy that runs on magical otai, and dungeon masters who brew potions while also fueling the adventurer’s guild (who enter dungeons for treasure and prestige.) It has a lot going on, and a lot going for it.
There are two main storylines. The first focuses on Gabriel Shook, a newly-graduated dungeon master who is as inept at his business as they come. He’s forced to buy second-hand minions to help him protect his dungeon, but it turns out his minions know more about the business than he does. He oscillates between being hopeful and thinking himself worthless, but he stays in the game in order to help his sister, Miranda, who is chronically ill.
The other storyline follows a group of people isolated on an island hidden from view by enchantments. They serve a somewhat insane god who demands blood sacrifices regularly (the god, it turns out, is something akin to a vampire…but his true nature is something else entirely.) The island is preserved by a magical substance called otai, something the wider world covets.
The two storylines didn’t overlap with one another at all until the final chapter of the book. There were times when I wondered why they weren’t written as separate books to begin with, because very little between the two even connected. I also had a difficult time feeling invested in any of the characters; some of the decisions they made were abrupt and made very little sense to me. I think I would have enjoyed it more if more time had been spent on character development.
I liked the concept of the vampire god, and the dungeon system was pretty interesting. The book is well written, and I’m sure it has an audience out there, but it wasn’t for me.
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