Review: The Way to Dawn by Charles Lee

Review: The Way to Dawn by Charles Lee 

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love when a story immediately grabs my attention. This can happen any number of ways, but I admit that I often don’t anticipate it coming. So, when it does occur, I’m often surprised by just how quickly the story pulls me in. It’s an amazing feeling when it happens!

That specific situation happened so many times while I was reading this story that I’ve lost track of exactly how often it occurred. I have a lot of questions (and I do see some things I’d like to discuss in more depth), but the overall premise of Charles Lee’s The Way to Dawn had me heavily invested from the very beginning!

Before I go any further into my thoughts, let’s discuss that premise. 

Summary 

We open to a swordplay tournament where two boys named Greyshio and Demeseus are looking to compete alongside their friends. When a stranger from a nearby island takes the prize, however, they discover that the world is in danger. Greyshio and Demeseus learn that the stranger – Derexen – has destroyed their home island during the event. Derexen admits that he is looking to kill Greyshio and Demeseus as well. 

Driven from their home and separated from their friends after the disaster, the two find themselves navigating new roles as World Guardians looking to stop Derexen and his followers from bringing about total global destruction. 

Can they stop him before it’s too late? 

Thoughts 

I’ve loved adventure stories since I was a child. I remember being as young as twelve years old and being interested in stories that had high stakes. And The Way to Dawn has high stakes in spades! The story doesn’t stop reminding the reader what is at risk. This made the book very easy to get through while allowing me to simultaneously form connections with the two main characters. The story balances out each character’s arc and makes it easy to become invested in where their stories are going. 

That said, I admit that I didn’t see the horror angle coming in this narrative. This lends to a darker tone that I had to warm up to. I was worried that it would go a specific way with that darker tone, but the story never fully commits to the path I was worried it would take. The way the horror angle is treated pulls back the curtain a bit on the antagonist’s actions and shows that they’re not just horrific for the reasons I had assumed. While I was unsure about it at first, I do like that it shows the full extent of what is happening. 

Well, I think those are the random thoughts I wanted to talk about. Let’s move on to the story’s structure!

Structure 

The structure of this story left me with a few questions. I like that the narrative shows the three main players we will follow and gives us time to get to know them before the plot kicks in. And once the plot does get going, we see how all the characters are affected by it and the full scope of who they are within it. This left me with questions about the world and their roles within the story, which created investment in the plot and world being built. 

However, at the same time, I wish we had seen more of Greyshio’s and Demeseus’ growth as new World Guardians. While the structure gives time to expand upon both their stories, I think we needed more scenes to see just how they grow as characters. Both of their journeys to those points are glossed over, so the reward of seeing their character growth isn’t entirely earned. 

With that, I think that’s all I have on the story’s structure. Let’s move on to the writing. 

Writing 

The writing left me with mixed feelings. On the positive side, the pacing is fast and kept me invested all the way, even when I have the questions I do! While the beginning with the sword tournament is somewhat slow, it provides setup for the pacing to take off and build intense conflicts! What is at stake is made clear very early on and the writing moves at a speed that makes it feel like these events are piling up on top of one another, creating a situation where I was anxious to see what would come next!

However, I will admit that the writing didn’t always flow the way it needed to. There were instances where the prose threw me out of the story for a brief time. This usually happened with the dialogue, because it wasn’t clear enough to keep me fully invested in the conversations occurring. While it wasn’t enough to break immersion with the pacing being so fast and the high stakes, I need to mention it because it did briefly distract me from what was happening in the story. 

That said, I think that’s all I have on the writing. I think I’ve discussed everything, so let’s wrap this up. 

Conclusion 

I wish I didn’t see the issues that I do, because otherwise this is a gripping story! The characters are interesting, the pacing is breathtaking, and I want to see where this goes next. However, there were things that distracted me and made it harder to entirely get lost in the narrative.

While I enjoyed it and want to know what happens next, I did find issues with it that stopped me from fully immersing myself in the story. With that said, everything I have outlined here means I will be giving this story three stars.