• Title: ‘Kings of the New Age: Quest of the Balancing Stones’
  • Author: Nathan Bell
  • Publisher: Self Published
  • Publication Date: 22 July 2021
  • RRP: $AUD 27.50
  • Format: Softcover
  • Pages: 309
  • ISBN: 979-8541602432
  • Genre: Fiction

Sometimes you want a book to take you on a fantastical journey of Tolkien proportions.
Other times, you want a gritty drama about politics.
Or the story of a dystopia and a revolution.
Maybe even a mystical dive into the realm of gods – A story of love, loss, and a good dollop of Indiana Jones-like action.
Well, who says you can’t have all of that rolled into one?

If you visit Newcastle, Australia, and walk along Beaumont Street, you’ll likely come across Nathan Bell selling his books and art. A sentinel of the local art scene and known to everyone Nathan will be there to offer you a little local culture.

Nathan on the street selling his many wares – Including ‘Kings of the New Age: Quest of the Balancing Stones.’

Among his many wares you will find his debut novel, ‘Kings of the New Age: Quest for the Balancing Stones.’ A curious book, it somehow blends a staggering amount of tropes and genres into one. Creating a story that has a little bit of everything for a wide range of audiences.
Unashamedly leaning into all instead of picking a less impactful middle ground.

The book features a split narrative: Two concurrent stories that flesh out its post apocalypse, magical world – A Quest and the tale of a city.
The quest is full of fantastical journeying and follows the Wizard Nate. Who, after first prophesising the nuclear apocalypse, has been given yet another prophecy. This time with a way to help.
He must leave his home of Newcastle and seek out the Balancing Stones, and deliver them into the bowels of the earth to save the world.
Along the way, there are tense escapes, magic, and a slowly revealed secret that threatens Nate’s very understanding of the world.

While Nate goes on his epic quest, the city of Newcastle he leaves behind is embroiled in a conflict of its own; and the reader learns of a host of characters each with their own motives and complicated lives…
We read how the city has fallen under the reign of the truly despicable General Bruce, a man whose brutality is barely restrained by the leader of the Kings, a notorious gang that Bruce shares ownership of the city with.
Luckily, a brutal regime provokes eventual dissent and we get the satisfaction of watching a revolution play out as we also follow the journey of the Wizard Nate.

Newcastle is my home I don’t often get to see it through the lens of fiction. Having local sights as pivotal locations where clandestine meetings take place or lavish parties are thrown isn’t something I get to experience often; and enjoyed as a local. With Nathan also including some cameos for anyone in the know.
‘Kings of the New Age’ isn’t just for Newcastle locals though and it’s clear that Nathan paid special attention to creating the world his book unfolds within. It’s complex machinations and internal turmoil. I’m a big nerd, so anything with a lot of world-building is right up my alley.

Throughout the story, we get a feeling of a town, and a world, without hope. Everything in the city is coated in a pervading sense of fear, desperation, corruption, and the seemingly doomed acceptance of those held under the thumb of a tyrant.
Despite this hopelessness, Nathan manages to show us the things that makes humanity great: Our ability to find even the most fleeting spark of light in the darkness. People still have love, kindness, and connection even in a world as dark as the one portrayed in ‘Kings of the New Age.’ And through these bonds, we find our way to hope almost without fail.

Which brings me to one of my favourite things in any story. A good old-fashioned revolution. There’s something so satisfying about following along with a group of people going about and planning to overthrow the tyrant oppressing them.
Something about the underdog story, the planning and secrecy, the fight for ideals in a world fighting just to survive.
I would have liked to see more time spent planning and plotting and even scheming with key character Arthur and the other revolutionaries; but Nathan had other plans for his freedom fighters. In most revolution stories, the bad guy gets beaten and then it fades to black with the promise of a happily ever after. But life doesn’t usually work like that does it?
While a revolution is all daring life-and-death scenarios, there’s a simplicity to it.
That guy over there is bad and cannot be in power anymore, so we have to overthrow him.
When the dust settles though, we find that peace is often harder than revolution.
It’s easy to say something is broken, but fixing it is another matter entirely.

No one agrees on the right way to fix everything; there’s even disagreement about how to choose who can try to fix it. And all that before you count the people who will seek to step into the power vacuum left by an overthrown dictator.

Nathan’s decision to put the revolution only halfway through the book surprised me but it also let us explore the harder part. The practicality of leading and getting a city ready to rebuild.

Then we get to the Quest, where the book diverts from the post-apocalyptic Newcastle setting to a more fantastical epic adventure. We follow the Wizard Nate from the city to coastal towns. From makeshift petty kingdoms, through irradiated wastes and sewers.
A seeming combination of Tolkien, Indiana Jones, and Toxic Crusaders – An epic quest to throw some pretty trinkets into the bowels of the land interspersed with puzzles, narrow escapes, and a surprising amount of tunnels.
Suspension of disbelief is a little more needed in the quest parts of the book but, that’s all part of the fun. Daring sequences through tight tunnels, creatures that defy logic, moments of calm interrupted by new threats and death-defying feats are all par for the course for the Wizard Nate and his quest.

Overall ‘Kings of the New Age’ takes our fear of nuclear apocalypse, and gives it a classic epic fantasy twist.
I’m already waiting to find out what happens next in book 2 and hopefully learn more about the mysterious Brother character, and the Wizard Nate’s true origins!

A sample of the book’s interior.

Links

All images supplied by Nathan.