Thoughts on Kreis der Dämmerung Series

This post collects my thoughts on the series “Der Kreis der Dämmerung” (Circle of dawn), a book by German author Ralf Isau. I’ve read this series for the third time, and it is still as captivating as the other times around. The series contains four books. 📚

The story follows the life of David Camden on his quest to destroy a world (and history) spanning secret organization. Born on the first of January 1900, he is a child of the century and has been given special powers and time to ban evil from the earth.

I like how the author weaves his main character into the history of our world. And still manages to provide a fantasy element on top of it. The first book takes a lot of time to get the story started. The story begins with the birth of the main character David in 1900, and we see how he grows up to be a teenager. We know he will be a unique teenager. But it is not yet clear why. I like how the first part of the book is placed in Japan. I think this was also what spanned my interest when I first read it.

When David is an adult, the story starts to accelerate, and we follow him on his multiple adventures alongside significant events in history. He always tries to find a lead to the hidden circle of dawn and find love and friendship along the way.

I like the magical ability David has. They are very subtle but still quite powerful. And as the story progresses, David gets more powerful. In the third book, he can levitate objects with his “time slowing” skill. A skill that, in the beginning, is only used to slow bullets. But it is so powerful. These abilities are an excellent example of worldbuilding by the author. The books don’t have to flash magic or special fantasy characters — just regular people with small and quiet abilities. And most of them only have their beliefs.

And speaking of beliefs, these are one of the major themes touched by the books — or a general theme of this author. You can also observe this in his other works.

I’ve noticed that I’ve grown in my reading and started seeing some writing issues. Which at times took me out of the reading flow. But ignoring these points, I still highly like the series and recommend you read it. Don’t let yourself be detained that it’s a children’s book. I think you can enjoy this work also as an adult. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be an English translation.

• /review