Review for "The Blackgloom Bounty"

"The Blackgloom Bounty" is the first book in Jon F. Baxley's 'The Scythian Stone Saga.'

The cover art reminds one of an old medieval tapestry or watercolor, a wash of ruddy browns with the barest sparkling of god. A large armored man stands towering over a man and woman. The man is fair haired and holding a sword. The woman is dark haired and dressed in a simple gown. Upon even closer inspection you can see a white bearded magician reading runes from an open leather tome. The four stand in a stone room treasure littered around their feet.
Daynin is a simple plowboy, breaking his back to help his grandfather tend their sparse fields. When the two exiled highlanders stumble upon a magnificent carved stone in their fields, Daynin signs on with a self proclaimed magician in hopes that the sale of the stone will restore he and his grandfather back to their former highland glory. But there's more to the stone and the story than meets the eye and soon Daynin is swept up in a fantastic battle for a treasure, honor, and family, not to mention his own neck.
What I liked:

• The first ten chapters. I couldn't help but feel like this book was written first as a short story that encompassed those first ten chapters. It reminded me of one of the stories I might have found in an omnibus sword and sorcery collections book. Nice pacing, action, villainy, good ending. Things seemed to go downhill from there.
• I'm torn while I liked Sabritha's spirit and fire at first it began to wear thin towards the end....very thin.

What I disliked:

• The first thing that pops into my head here is Daynin's sudden change in language. He steps foot in the highlands and suddenly speaks like an old scottish salt completely different from the vernacular he used just a chapter or two ago. And speaking of language, I honestly don't need that many creative spellings of a word to imagine a scottish accent, and all those extra r's!
• As I mentioned before everything after the first ten chapters seems like it was tacked on as an afterthought. The author had a solid short story which honestly by itself would have merited at least a whole nother crown over what the entire novel presents.
• Several story devices seemed to be skipped over and not given their proper dues. The journey into the wellkeep and the magical guardians therein. The sea serpent that attacks the ships. Brude and Olghar themselves. Nothing is ever really explained.
• It ended rather abruptly with way too many unanswered questions and a lot of alluding to things that may or may not happen.

All in all I think of 'The Blackgloom Bounty' as a viable short story that was stretched way too far. At the moment of this review it is available for $2.99 for the Kindle. The second book in the series  is 'The Regents of Rhum' also available for $2.99. A third book in the series 'The Scions of Scotia' was slated for release in early 2013 but I couldn't find it on Amazon.

3.5 out of 5 crowns

Suitable for mature teen to adult sword and sorcery readers and those with a particular tilt towards Scottish lore.






Synopsis: "Kruzurk first encountered the villain, Seed of Cerberus, when he studied with him under the master magician, Merlin. While trying to stop the Seed from stealing Merlin's tools of making, he is cursed for life by the vindictive sorcerer. Kruzurk is determined to destroy the Seed, and enacts a clever ruse involving a young highlander, Daynin, who is unaware of his role in the great deception. Daynin is led on a hair-raising adventure where he meets and falls in love with the beautiful and cunning Sabritha. Daynin must overcome a host of almost insurmountable enemies, objects and circumstances to return the bounty and Sabritha to his clan's ancestral home. He must use every ounce of wit and guile to outthink, outfight or outrun a litany of adversaries and indeed, even change the future of the highlands forever"