Review: The Dark Portal by Kyle Belote

Review: The Dark Portal by Kyle Belote

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Science fiction can be an incredibly intriguing genre. When I was in college, I took a literature class explicitly dealing with science fiction, and it showed me just what can be done when dealing with these subjects in a written narrative to create moving stories.

That said, the presence of so many tropes in the genre often means that – if they are present – there must be something done with them that sets the overall narrative apart from others. Unfortunately, while this particular story has a lot of suspense and even creepy moments that stay with you, I didn’t exactly get what I was looking for. I’ll go into more detail in a bit.

For now, let’s discuss the events of the narrative.

Summary

The story opens to a scholar named Darrovan who has been kidnapped by a scientific organization on a military base. Darrovan learns that the base has an alien entity on it that the authorities are trying to learn more about. As Darrovan goes to get a feeling for what this thing is, however, he quickly realizes that he may be in over his head, as the entity strives to gain control of the entire compound.

Can Darrovan stop the entity before it destroys the entire facility?

Thoughts

Now, I’m a little conflicted, because Belote handles this story with a great amount of suspense and mystery, making the read engaging in the moment and hard to put down. However, I’m realizing that there are tropes in here that I personally feel are not played with enough in order for this story to stand out in the genre.

The alien Darrovan and the compound workers are facing is a great example. In the moment, I was terrified of this entity but, having finished the story and having had time to sit with the content, I’m thinking there was more that could have been done to make this thing stand out. In the moment, the suspense was handled well but looking back on it I have too many questions about this element to feel completely satisfied with the overall story. I’ll discuss more of that in its character section.

Characters

Darrovan

Admittedly, it took me some time to warm up to Darrovan. In the beginning, he says some things that kind of made me wonder if he was going to be pretentious and unlikeable. This is partly because he takes time warming up to most of the people on the base. That said, given the explanation we get as to how he got on the base, his being a bit standoffish and short with the staff is understandable.

Also, now that I have read the entire narrative through and know the circumstances in full, I wouldn’t call Darrovan unlikeable. As a matter of fact, as the narrative went on, that mistrust I had regarding Darrovan shifted to another character, Talcen. I suppose I got more wrapped up in the plot as it went on, as the suspense started building. I wanted Darrovan to help the base figure out what was going on.

There is one thing I want to mention before wrapping up his section. There are hints as to a certain element with Darrovan and another character – what their relationship is or what it will build to – but I have questions. How long is that time skip to the epilogue? A year later? Ten? It feels like, once we reach the epilogue, we’re looking at a decade later, but I don’t even know that for sure. I just want a clearer view of the story’s timeline.  

Calistor

It may seem odd that I am including a section on a character whose personality we don’t really see. However, I want to talk about his function in the story and how his character works to build the plot. Honestly, Calistor might be my favorite character in this. From the moment I learned who he was and what happened to him, I felt a great deal of sympathy for him.

Belote deciding to include a character that ultimately shows what the alien can do while also showing the tragic ramifications of those actions makes for one of the most heartbreaking parts of the story! While, yes, the alien was underwhelming for me, the buildup to showing it by showing Calistor hooked me immediately! Not to mention, seeing Calistor still being controlled and essentially a prisoner of this entity’s power heightened the tension in the climax significantly. It was tragic and terrifying to see how this poor individual was later affected by the events of the story!

Zhidur

And here we move on to the alien. Admittedly, the opening scenes with it are pretty great! Belote offers very little information on this character, allowing the suspense to drive up significantly. Early in the story, it does something that I was not expecting, and seeing this event occur kept me reading, anxious about what would occur next.  

However, there is a major problem with how Belote sets up the dark portal’s nature. It is, unfortunately, underwhelming that this entity is used as the antagonist because that idea of the alien or experiment being malicious in nature is often used and discussed in the genre. And – on top of that – we get no specific reason for this entity to be evil. It just is.

At one point, it feels like the reason will be given, only for the smallest hint to be thrown out and then the discussion is dropped in favor of the action because said hint was dropped during the climax. I wanted a lot more from that interaction. Given how short this story is, you can only keep the mystery going for so long before you start to overdo it. We know nothing about what the dark portal is or what it wants. Even if Belote doesn’t want to reveal everything right off the bat, a simple hint could keep the reader engaged and eager to hear more if he were to continue this story down the line. Leave breadcrumbs for the reader to follow.

Structure

The structure is probably the strongest aspect of this story. From the moment Darrovan is kidnapped, the plot unfolds in a linear fashion. There are no cuts to past events or anything. We are strictly dealing with his time on the base, and this helps to support the elements of the plot very nicely, especially when getting into the more tense moments. Seeing the story unfold through Darrovan’s eyes works in most cases, and it becomes clear that the reader is meant to discover things along with him.

Given that we never switch from Darrovan’s perspective, a lot of the characters on the base are presented with his bias – in other words, because he doesn’t trust certain individuals, it ended up being harder for me to trust them, too. This happened with Talcen, for example. Seeing Darrovan not trust others and only getting his perspective alone made anyone he did not trust difficult for me to warm up to as well. I’ll talk more about Talcen in the writing section. There is something I must get off my chest about his character.

Writing

Belote knows how to write well enough to completely immerse the reader. He can build a scene very well and immediately take you where he wants you to go. I particularly enjoyed the scenes where Darrovan was alone with Zhidur. These scenes were beautifully painted, showing the dark room and the mysterious entity. Those scenes hooked me, making me want to know more immediately!

I also really liked how the atmosphere of the base changed as Zhidur got more control. A mysterious but safe atmosphere quickly turned to dangerous and unnerving as the events unfolded. One key element I liked was the lockdown alarm frequently interrupting the prose, showing how the situation was still in the background even as Darrovan and the others were trying to figure out what to do.

I do have one issue with the writing, however. As I mentioned earlier with Talcen, he is written as stiff and unlikeable in the story. Then, at the end, there is a reveal about him that is dropped without much buildup to it when Belote brings back an earlier dialogue exchange to explain the situation. I wish Talcen had been more frequently seen in the story himself, rather than the reveal being dropped at the end after most of the plot is wrapped up. I just feel like the brief explanation we got about him made the reveal underwhelming and there could have been more done with it. I know we’re strictly dealing with Darrovan’s perspective, so then maybe we could have had Darrovan go with him when he went to fight the portal or something, so we don’t lose the consistency of following his character.

Conclusion

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this one. I see interesting elements being played with here, but I don’t think enough is done with them in the end for this to have a completely satisfying conclusion. There are issues with setup and payoff here that bog down the story and keep it from being completely satisfying.

That said, at the same time, the suspense and mystery of this story are handled very well, making this difficult to not stay hooked on! Despite issues with execution, Belote has a fantastic setup here that, with a few tweaks, could work incredibly well with a few adjustments to the conclusion. In the end, I would personally recommend this to someone who likes a story that is difficult to put down, that will keep you turning the pages until the end. I would ultimately call the intrigue built in the narrative one of this story’s biggest draws, and it’s worth a read for those into stories using suspense as a major factor!