‘The Dark Son: A Grim Company Short Story’ – Luke Scull


Page Count: 27 Pages

One of my current reading goals is to re-read the first two books of the ‘Grim Company’ series and then finally finish it off either around Christmas or just after. You know what I’m like with setting reading goals so maybe don’t take that aim too seriously, lets see how it goes 😉

I thought I’d dip a toe back into the world of the Grim Company with a short story and as luck would have it, ‘The Dark Son’ was a new release that caught my eye. And at only twenty seven pages long, it easily fell into my ‘quick reads’ criteria so away I went and…

Fifteen years ago, Prince Salidar escaped a near-hanging ordered by his very own father, the king. Now the exiled prince has returned to his homeland, vengeance burning like poison in his heart. Swords will rise. Heads will fall. The golden city of Shar will run red with blood.

My first thought, upon finishing ‘The Dark Son’, was along the lines of ‘damn, it has been far too long since I’ve read these books…’ ‘The Dark Son’ is set after the events of the main trilogy and, not unreasonably, expects you to have a working knowledge of the plot and some of the characters who went through those events (although there is some set-up here). I didn’t have that and as you’d expect, didn’t have the connection that would have really made this story sing.

That’s entirely on me though, as ‘The Dark Son’ is still very well written and you can tell that Scull has lined everything up perfectly. It’s not his fault that I’m rubbish at finishing series… ‘The Dark Son’ is very ‘straight to the point’ (fair enough given the page count) but still manages to find time for some gritty displays of a city under siege along with some nice character development and a twist that is rather poignant and fitting, all at the same time.

‘The Dark Son’ is very much worth the read, maybe don’t leave it too long after finishing the other books though. The flip side though is that now I’m really looking forward to getting back into the ‘Grim Company’ books. I’ll let you know how they pan out.

If you fancy another 'Grim Company' short story review, take a look at my post on 'A Ring to Rule Them All', over Here.

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