Book Review: Skull Maze by Nyra Jae
Skull Maze immediately caught my attention through its title alone. The blurb reinforced that interest, promising a dark fantasy adventure filled with danger, intrigue, brutal combat, and a morally complex protagonist. An elf glamoured as a human, bound to a deadly assassins’ guild, haunted by fragmented memories, and ultimately drawn toward the infamous Skull Maze is an excellent premise and one that sets strong expectations for a high stakes, tightly paced story.
Despite my discomfort with the third person present tense prose, the novel begins well. Peren Naïlo is introduced as an assassin trained to survive at any cost, navigating a harsh world where violence and secrecy are the norm. An elf hiding his true nature while operating within a ruthless guild is a compelling concept, and the early chapters suggest a focused journey toward the maze itself. Unfortunately, that promise is not fulfilled until very late in the book. Peren does not reach the Skull Maze until around chapter twenty five, which makes the title feel misleading and the build up excessively drawn out.
Much of the novel centres on Peren’s journey across the land, but this quickly becomes repetitive. The structure follows the same pattern again and again. Travel, encounter enemies, nearly die. Reach a village, stay at an inn. Defend the village from monsters, nearly die again. Then move on and repeat the cycle. While danger is constant, the lack of variation removes any real sense of escalation or consequence. Peren always survives, which makes the repeated brushes with death feel hollow and predictable.
At one point, while recovering from his injuries, Peren falls in love with a barmaid. From there, a significant portion of the book shifts into romantasy territory, including explicit scenes that felt unexpected and, for me personally, uncomfortable. This tonal shift clashes with the darker assassin driven narrative established earlier and further delays the central plot. Once this subplot concludes, the story simply resumes its earlier repetitive structure.
The pacing and structure are uneven throughout. Some chapters are only a few pages long and consist solely of Peren travelling through woods or plains with minimal narrative purpose. Others stretch to extreme lengths, dominated by extended combat scenes that blur together. This imbalance creates a sense of filler rather than momentum.
Partway through reading, I began to get strong AI vibes from the prose. Sentences are often overly ornate, with descriptive flourishes layered onto nearly every line. This draws attention away from the story and contributes to the repetition. After checking reviews, it appears AI was heavily used. I have no issue with AI as a tool for research, brainstorming, or light editing such as grammar or pacing feedback. However, when it appears to be used to generate or heavily rewrite prose, the result lacks cohesion, restraint, and a consistent human voice.
Overall, Skull Maze has a strong core idea but struggles in execution. With tighter editing, more narrative focus, and a clearer commitment to its central premise, it could have delivered the dark fantasy adventure the blurb promises. As it stands, it was an interesting concept that proved to be a difficult read.
