The Dark Between the Trees

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Balance is everything.

Where the village ends, the rainforest begins, and while children whisper legends of impossible places and heroes, the villagers know there is nothing outside except the trees and what creeps between them. The dark and the creatures it hides have never entered the village, not while sacred spirits, theanki, protect it.

With his father’s body wrapped and laid in the funeral clearing, Talon wants only to get back to his crops, his wife and two children, Sosa and Halo – but the bronze spear hidden in his father’s hut is a complication he could do without. Metal is rare, and hoarding it forbidden, but that’s the least of Talon’s worries. The appearance of a young boy, stained with red dye, who crashes from the trees and collapses at Sosa’s feet, could threaten the delicate balance, and Talon’s decision to protect him will have consequences for his family; perhaps the whole village.

Talon and Sosa are about to be drawn into an adventure which, like many others, is full of heroes and claws and teeth. What those legends rarely say is how much those claws canhurt.

Talon and Sosa’s legend does.

Warning: There is some gore and violence in this book but not an excessive amount. It's carefully placed, but it is there, just so you know!

Information

Status: Completed
Year: 2023
Author: KSNixon

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 5.0/ 5.0
Followers: 8
Views: 9,670

What readers say about The Dark Between the Trees

“Characters are good, very atmospheric. The world feels real and believable, weird sense of claustrophobia when they're out in the trees. The dark is really scary antagonist and I'm already rooting for the MC. I love the way things escalate and the tension a…”
Purple.People.EaterRoyal Road5.0 / 5
“EDIT I left an early review because I really wanted this to go the distance, so Ill update it now its ten chapters in. The story is more dark than scary and it's just started to get gory. I think the author has now removed the two warnings that were on here…”
gillyhopperRoyal Road5.0 / 5

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(2)

Purple.People.EaterRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
Characters are good, very atmospheric. The world feels real and believable, weird sense of claustrophobia when they're out in the trees. The dark is really scary antagonist and I'm already rooting for the MC.
I love the way things escalate and the tension and pressure just build up.
The character development is good, They're finding their feet now. It's more fantasy than anything but with very familiar horror style. The setting feels fairly unique, it makes a change to have characters of colour (I assume?) and set in a rainforest fantasy with a sort of tribal farming village feels like something very different.
gillyhopperRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
EDIT I left an early review because I really wanted this to go the distance, so Ill update it now its ten chapters in.
The story is more dark than scary and it's just started to get gory. I think the author has now removed the two warnings that were on here as I don't think theres anything that bad in it yet.
I like the setting, its something different like a tribe in the the rainforest. I already care about what happens to the characters and there's a bit of development. The story is slowly ramping up, I get why things took their time to start with as you have to get used to the idea of the way things are because now they're starting to fall apart.
We've already nearly killed one character and one has just died, and I'm kinda rooting for the one who is still alive, even though he was a pain.
The characters are quite realistic and relatable.
I like the way their life has been shown, there's no great long exposition, but there's still clearly thought out world building which is dead interesting and I want to know more about the people and why the live in this place surrounded by all the dark and why they think they're alone, and where the Ego character came from.
They style is not slow, but takes it's time to let us get used to things but theres some good foreshadowing, setting up all about this balance, which I'm assuming is going to be unbalanced in a major way. It switches mainly between the two characters the dad Talon (pawe?) and the duaghter Sosa and they're both getting way more interesting. They start as a boring farmer whos frightened of doing anything wrong but then they get way more interesting, so I'm looking forward to what happens next. It doesn't rush into anything, but it's getting more and more intense. Like I say it's not scary like gory but it builds the tension and atmosphere pretty well.
Well written and pretty well edited.
OLD REVIEW
Just two chapters in, but wanted to leave a review because it's the first book I read on here. Characters are bel