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Beyond The Dark Gate: Epic Fantasy Adventure,
The great river of magic flows threatened. Ancient evil crawls from the dark. Can one woman’s broken mind prevail?
Pitted against the hooded man’s ruthless determination to annihilate a race, Crystalyn's mind threatens to slip deeper into madness when faced with a world-shattering choice: hunt down and destroy a former companion who threatens everything, or save those she loves most.
With cunning comes power. With power comes arrogance. With arrogance comes brutality. With freewill at stake, Crystalyn may have to resort to them all…
Jade’s ability of reading futuristic images whirling around a person’s aura grows strong, though not how she would ever want.
Garn’s enslavement ends with something far worse.
Within the heat of the Shimmering Sands, a dark robe hatches a brash plan to gain ultimate power, one that if successful will unleash a great malevolence upon the land.
Surviving by skulking in the shadows for millennia, a new influence emerges, gaining strength from others. Clinical and calculating, its alien cunning has subjugated entire worlds from within the shadows with no one the wiser.
Beyond The Dark Gate is the second book in the riveting epic high fantasy series like no other. Get your copy today!
Pitted against the hooded man’s ruthless determination to annihilate a race, Crystalyn's mind threatens to slip deeper into madness when faced with a world-shattering choice: hunt down and destroy a former companion who threatens everything, or save those she loves most.
With cunning comes power. With power comes arrogance. With arrogance comes brutality. With freewill at stake, Crystalyn may have to resort to them all…
Jade’s ability of reading futuristic images whirling around a person’s aura grows strong, though not how she would ever want.
Garn’s enslavement ends with something far worse.
Within the heat of the Shimmering Sands, a dark robe hatches a brash plan to gain ultimate power, one that if successful will unleash a great malevolence upon the land.
Surviving by skulking in the shadows for millennia, a new influence emerges, gaining strength from others. Clinical and calculating, its alien cunning has subjugated entire worlds from within the shadows with no one the wiser.
Beyond The Dark Gate is the second book in the riveting epic high fantasy series like no other. Get your copy today!
428 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 1, 2021
25 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
R.V. Johnson
11 books16 followersR.V. Johnson writes epic fantasy, both dark and light, and science fiction adventure mysteries that immerse you in a new world; inflaming your sense of wonder. Like the lush world of Astura where a great river of magical energy known as "The Flow" underlies the land and is only accessible to those who can Use... When those who seek power are denied it, war is inevitable. Welcome to The Flow of Power saga.
R.V. Johnson grew up exploring the alienlike settings of red rock deserts and rugged mountains that inspired his love of exploring all worlds.
R.V. Johnson grew up exploring the alienlike settings of red rock deserts and rugged mountains that inspired his love of exploring all worlds.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 9, 2017
There are times where I dread reading series, mainly series where I absolutely loved the first book. My expectations are usually too high and it’s a let down when the 2nd book isn’t as good as the first one. Fortunately for Beyond The Dark Gate, my expectations were beyond met and I was most definitely not let down.
Beyond The Dark Gate starts off almost immediately after Crystalyn, Jade and company returned to Astura through the gate in Ruena Day’s office. The reason why they decided to back to Astura, to find and defeat Darwin Darkwing, a powerful Dark User and one-time love interest of Crystalyn.
Jade seemed to get the short end of the stick in this book, again. Not only is she separated from Crystalyn fairly early in the book, she is taken over by the entity called The One Mind and is completely under its power. It takes over people by inhabiting their minds and forcing them to do its will. Jade is able to keep a part of her mind separate from The One Mind but she is aware of everything that it is doing. For some reason, it reminded me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the old cult classic). Luckily, for her, before she got possessed, she actually met up with Garn. I say luckily because It listens to him.
Crystalyn, however, keeps getting sucked into battle after battle….on top of trying to locate her missing sister. I don’t know how she did it because I would have been overcome with exhaustion. Plus, she kept getting injured and bouncing back. I couldn’t believe it when she was up and walking after getting her head split open by Brother Craven. I did like seeing how she was a very strong female leader who didn’t take anything from anyone. Her anger issue was still there, from the last book, but she seemed to be better at controlling it and channeling it into her symbols.
The secondary characters were what made the book. From Broth, Crystalyn’s bondmate, to 8 foot tall Lore Rayna who was half tree and had a dress that was made out of leaves to Atoi, the Dark Child who has allied herself with Crystalyn for reason’s only known to herself to Hastel, the one-eyed warrior, and many others. They wove a rich backdrop and played vital roles in the story for both Jade and Crystalyn.
I think I was very surprised when Sureen, Garn’s wife and Jade’s and Crystalyn’s mother, showed up not only alive but as a User. There were hints in the first book but I wasn’t ready for her appearance in this book. Neither was Crystalyn. The talk that they had about her disappearance was exactly the one I would have had if my mother had disappeared on me years ago.
There were some unexpected deaths’ in the book that made me very sad and a bit surprised. I was not ready for this character’s death and I think I might have let a few curse words slip out.
The end of the book was fantastic and oh my, what an epic battle.
How many stars will I give Beyond the Sapphire Gate: 4
Why: 3 Dimensional characters and a plotline that kept my attention.
Will I reread: Yes
Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes
Age range: Older teen
Why: Violence and talk of sexual situations (just talk, nothing is described)
**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**
Beyond The Dark Gate starts off almost immediately after Crystalyn, Jade and company returned to Astura through the gate in Ruena Day’s office. The reason why they decided to back to Astura, to find and defeat Darwin Darkwing, a powerful Dark User and one-time love interest of Crystalyn.
Jade seemed to get the short end of the stick in this book, again. Not only is she separated from Crystalyn fairly early in the book, she is taken over by the entity called The One Mind and is completely under its power. It takes over people by inhabiting their minds and forcing them to do its will. Jade is able to keep a part of her mind separate from The One Mind but she is aware of everything that it is doing. For some reason, it reminded me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the old cult classic). Luckily, for her, before she got possessed, she actually met up with Garn. I say luckily because It listens to him.
Crystalyn, however, keeps getting sucked into battle after battle….on top of trying to locate her missing sister. I don’t know how she did it because I would have been overcome with exhaustion. Plus, she kept getting injured and bouncing back. I couldn’t believe it when she was up and walking after getting her head split open by Brother Craven. I did like seeing how she was a very strong female leader who didn’t take anything from anyone. Her anger issue was still there, from the last book, but she seemed to be better at controlling it and channeling it into her symbols.
The secondary characters were what made the book. From Broth, Crystalyn’s bondmate, to 8 foot tall Lore Rayna who was half tree and had a dress that was made out of leaves to Atoi, the Dark Child who has allied herself with Crystalyn for reason’s only known to herself to Hastel, the one-eyed warrior, and many others. They wove a rich backdrop and played vital roles in the story for both Jade and Crystalyn.
I think I was very surprised when Sureen, Garn’s wife and Jade’s and Crystalyn’s mother, showed up not only alive but as a User. There were hints in the first book but I wasn’t ready for her appearance in this book. Neither was Crystalyn. The talk that they had about her disappearance was exactly the one I would have had if my mother had disappeared on me years ago.
There were some unexpected deaths’ in the book that made me very sad and a bit surprised. I was not ready for this character’s death and I think I might have let a few curse words slip out.
The end of the book was fantastic and oh my, what an epic battle.
How many stars will I give Beyond the Sapphire Gate: 4
Why: 3 Dimensional characters and a plotline that kept my attention.
Will I reread: Yes
Will I recommend to family and friends: Yes
Age range: Older teen
Why: Violence and talk of sexual situations (just talk, nothing is described)
**I received a free copy of this book and volunteered to review it**
March 3, 2024
R. V. Johnson's second book in the Flow of Power series is even better than the first. He uses rich, descriptive prose to draw the reader into an imaginative world where technology meets a unique magic system. His skill to bring together many competing plots and subplots into a satisfying and exciting conclusion is masterful. I enjoyed the first book of this series immensely, and loved being drawn back into the culture and mythos of this world "for a few more bells" of high fantasy escapism. Fortunately, there's another published novel on the horizon. I can hardly wait!
February 20, 2017
Where does he come up with this stuff
An imagination that just won't quit. A world of sites and sounds that free your mind to soar to new heights. A few parts were a little confusing to me but worth the read.Crystalyn and jade are parted and Jade body is taken over by a dark presence old and alien. Her father stays at her side to keep her safe but as his other daughter arrived to fight the abomination, he has to choose which to save. So much thought went into the words creating each scene you feel like you are there. It is better to have read the first book or you will be lost. Love this author.
An imagination that just won't quit. A world of sites and sounds that free your mind to soar to new heights. A few parts were a little confusing to me but worth the read.Crystalyn and jade are parted and Jade body is taken over by a dark presence old and alien. Her father stays at her side to keep her safe but as his other daughter arrived to fight the abomination, he has to choose which to save. So much thought went into the words creating each scene you feel like you are there. It is better to have read the first book or you will be lost. Love this author.
January 4, 2017
The series continues with Beyond the Dark Gate. These books really should be read in order to understand what is going on... So read Beyond the Sapphire Gate first.
The alien force become prominent andhad me a little confused in the first few chapters but the the story opened up and I was reintroduced to characters I've come to know.
This certainly is an epic adventure full of action as the battle continues. Character development continues to bloom. Storyline is full of twists and turns that kept me engaged until the very end.... but it isnt really the end (winks).
I'm anxious to find out where the path leads!
The alien force become prominent andhad me a little confused in the first few chapters but the the story opened up and I was reintroduced to characters I've come to know.
This certainly is an epic adventure full of action as the battle continues. Character development continues to bloom. Storyline is full of twists and turns that kept me engaged until the very end.... but it isnt really the end (winks).
I'm anxious to find out where the path leads!
December 23, 2016
The best way to read this book is directly after the first book. Great series. I do look forward to book 3
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews