Series: Arkana Sword and Sorcery Adventure #1
Author: Shawn Inmon
Publisher: Podium
Released: May 10, 2021
Received: Review Request

Kradak the Champion is the start of Shawn Inmon’s Arkana Sword and Sorcery Adventure, an epic fantasy series with a sense of humor and adventure. This series is perfect for readers that enjoy portal fantasies, but with a few twists.

They say that you never really know your heroes. That is undoubtedly true of Kradak. He saved countless lives, proving to be a hero to all. However, those that actually know him call him Steve. Because you see – Steve is an actor.

He plays Kradak on the big screen, with decreasing success each release. Yet these movies were enough to trick a couple of desperate souls into kidnapping Kradak, ahem, Steve, in the hopes that he would save their world.

Kradak the Champion is nothing like what I expected. Okay, almost nothing like I expected. It is still a portal fantasy, but it has such a good sense of humor about itself. Likewise, the world that Steve was dragged into was even more fantastical and dangerous than I had envisioned.

In other words, I ended up enjoying Kradak the Champion more than I had hoped, and I had fairly high hopes for this one (I’m going to blame that on the description and purple cover). The whole Steve/Kradak thing still has me giggling, which I appreciate.

The story is a bit slow to start, as we have to get to know Steve and his steadily declining career as an actor. However, once he’s dragged into a new dimension, the story quickly kicks off – understandably.

Steve’s world is turned upside down, as he suddenly has to learn how to be a hero – not just act like one on set. It’s a lot to take in, and it isn’t always easy. There are lots of ups and downs on his path, resulting in a highly entertaining first novel in the series.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the story continues from here, so hopefully, the wait won’t be too long. Also, this was my first time reading anything by Shawn Inmon, but a quick look at his biography shows a whole lot of interesting books in his backlog. I’m going to have to keep that in mind.

Thanks to Podium for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks | Quirky Cat’s Comics | The Book Review Crew | Monkeys Fighting Robots | Storygraph | Bookhype | Bookstagram | Twitter | Tumblr | Reedsy