Adventures In Aakbal: The Nagual Heart
By Dan LaBash
Independent Author / Publisher
ASIN: B07L7DWNR3
Print Length: 428 pages
Adventures in Aakbal: The Nagual Heart is the first Fantasy book written by Dan LaBash of Appleton, WI. Dan does a great job of bringing this world to life, along with introducing some great characters that are easy to fall in love with.
The book starts with the adventures of a young boy, Selvyn Alexander Macz (Cricket), on the streets in a town in Guatemala. He is pushed into a situation that he’s not excited to participate in, but it seems that it was a setup from the beginning. As a result, he finds himself imbued with a Nagual Heart, which not only gives him some special powers of transformation, but the ability to see memories of those that possessed the Nagual Heart before.
I was a little unclear, even later in the book, if he was selected for his adventure due to destiny, or just because of something in his heritage. I went with the later assumption.
He is forced into a battle/confrontation immediately after receiving the Nagual Heart with Hobnil Chun, the antagonist of the story. He winds up falling into a Cenote, allowing him to enter the world of Aakbal.
It seems that he was somehow expected in Aakbal as there were several people looking for him. Selvyn is found by a Man-rabbit character, Nim Xik, that brings him to the relative safety of a Pure Blood, Hunpo Hunmu.
The first part of the story takes place at Hunpo’s hut, until his brother, Hobnil Chun, discovers where he’s been hiding the boy. Selvyn and Nim Xik are forced to leave at the insistence of Hunpo. The place they are sent sets them up with a rag-tag group of beings that befriend the two and work to find safety for the boy together. The remainder of the book is dedicated to their adventures in trying to find allies, while trying to avoid the evil Hobnil Chun.
Aakbal is divided into areas that are dominated by different groups of people, some seem friendlier than others. Dan does a great job of allowing you to visualize the differences between these locations along with their people.
Overall, I really enjoyed the story and was always interested to find out what was going to happen next. I’ll be waiting to see what happens next in the life of Selvyn Alexander Macz.