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ashleykhoffman's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
Now this is a war fantasy. Some authors try to write war, but every character comes out relatively unscathed, but this is dark and twisty and heartbreaking. There are a LOT of characters and places, and for a first book in a series, I think a lot of them were unnecessary and just made this slower to get through. I had to take notes to make sure I was even kind of following earlier parts of the book. It does seem like the series will be much easier to follow in subsequent books, but be aware if you're a mood reader that this one takes focus and determination to plow through the world building. But the end is worth it and I'm excited for book 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Animal death, and War
Moderate: Grief
hails2dabails's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Murder, Death, Violence, Child death, and Blood
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, and Animal death
kmack79's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Even the brave will fall"
There are humans, draighs, giants, wyrm, wolven, and a talking bird.
The world building was good and the magic system I feel is just the beginning in this book.
The black sun is gaining its ascendency and there are going to be far larger problems to come than this war. The prophesy indicates darkness and light will demand two champions, the Black Sun and the Bright Star. They would be wise to seek out both, for if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind’s hopes and dreams will fall to dust
Corban is a young warrior who is learning to protect and serve under King Brenin. He finds a wolven who he raises from a pup that now has grown and is his protective companion. He is the main character in this book so you definitely root for him.
Veradis is a very skilled swordsmen who is in the High prince Nathair's warband. He seems like a cool character. Seems like a Jamie Lanister type except isnt so cocky. ; )
Nathair- the High Prince, doesn't agree with his father (High King Aquilus) to summon his fellow kings to council.
The book reminded me of Game of thrones in many ways. Its violent. Don't get too comfortable with characters they may die!
There are humans, draighs, giants, wyrm, wolven, and a talking bird.
The world building was good and the magic system I feel is just the beginning in this book.
The black sun is gaining its ascendency and there are going to be far larger problems to come than this war. The prophesy indicates darkness and light will demand two champions, the Black Sun and the Bright Star. They would be wise to seek out both, for if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind’s hopes and dreams will fall to dust
Corban is a young warrior who is learning to protect and serve under King Brenin. He finds a wolven who he raises from a pup that now has grown and is his protective companion. He is the main character in this book so you definitely root for him.
Veradis is a very skilled swordsmen who is in the High prince Nathair's warband. He seems like a cool character. Seems like a Jamie Lanister type except isnt so cocky. ; )
Nathair- the High Prince, doesn't agree with his father (High King Aquilus) to summon his fellow kings to council.
The book reminded me of Game of thrones in many ways. Its violent. Don't get too comfortable with characters they may die!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, War, Death, and Death of parent
lejones1785's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of characters and storylines to keep track of. I loved every minute of it. It's like game of thrones without bad language and nakiness. I had a hard time putting this book down because I was so invested in the characters and the stories. My only complaint is to be prepared for a cliffhanger. I can't wait to start the next book.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Violence, and War
moosereads1's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I absolutely adored this book! It was definitely a slower pace, but honestly I feel like that was a bit necessary to accommodate the intense world building that Gwynne provides. The book made me laugh, cry, and held me on the edge of my seat through it all. I can’t wait to start the next book!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
grunks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Blood, Gore, Violence, Torture, Child death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism and Alcohol
josiah17's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The primary reason this isn't a 5 star read is because of the rough beginning. There's an overload of characters and POVs introduced and it just felt a little overwhelming and chaotic.
Otherwise, this was an absolutely phenomenal book. And it's a debut novel? Ridiculous. I think Gwynne's writing is slightly more polished in his Bloodsworn books, but his work here is still nothing short of excellent. The world of the Banished Lands that has been crafted is epic in scope, mysterious, mystical, and has an astounding amount of depth with various kingdoms, wildlife, and history.
The characters are tremendous too. It took me a minute to warm up to Corban as he's thirteen at the start of the book, but by the end he's aged a few more years and he's clearly incredibly mature and well beyond his years. He's on his way to being an all-time favorite protagonist. And I loved the deliberate choice to view the descent of Nathair through the eyes of Veradis. I'm very intrigued by their dynamic going forward. And there are several other very likeable characters with standout moments and plenty of depth.
And the action. My goodness John Gwynne is definitely the king of writing action sequences. I feel like I can picture every single movement; he writes them so vividly and immerses you right within the moment.
I'm so excited to continue the series. I'm so excited to keep reading the rest of Gwynne's works. The Faithful and The Fallen will undoubtedly become a top 5 favorite series for me.
Otherwise, this was an absolutely phenomenal book. And it's a debut novel? Ridiculous. I think Gwynne's writing is slightly more polished in his Bloodsworn books, but his work here is still nothing short of excellent. The world of the Banished Lands that has been crafted is epic in scope, mysterious, mystical, and has an astounding amount of depth with various kingdoms, wildlife, and history.
The characters are tremendous too. It took me a minute to warm up to Corban as he's thirteen at the start of the book, but by the end he's aged a few more years and he's clearly incredibly mature and well beyond his years. He's on his way to being an all-time favorite protagonist. And I loved the deliberate choice to view the descent of Nathair through the eyes of Veradis. I'm very intrigued by their dynamic going forward. And there are several other very likeable characters with standout moments and plenty of depth.
And the action. My goodness John Gwynne is definitely the king of writing action sequences. I feel like I can picture every single movement; he writes them so vividly and immerses you right within the moment.
I'm so excited to continue the series. I'm so excited to keep reading the rest of Gwynne's works. The Faithful and The Fallen will undoubtedly become a top 5 favorite series for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gore
Minor: Animal cruelty and Torture
xta_07's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This is John Gwynne’s incredibly ambitions debut novel, and Oh Boy, this story was a doozy. The first half of it did feel a bit disjointed as Gwynne sets up everyone on the board. Plus he doesn’t do any hand-holding of any kind. You are dropped into the middle of a world, and you need to pay attention and strap in. Because once he gets going he doesn’t stop!
Bandits and Mythical creatures have started to awaken and harass our characters that live in the Banished lands. Heralding the prophesied god war. Essentially this will be a battle of good vs evil, and the characters we follow are beginning to choose what side they will end up on.
I actually enjoyed most of the beginning chapters in this book, I found Corban’s chapters almost cozy in a weird way. Plus no-one writes a battle scene quite like this author, once the action starts it doesn’t stop. I highly enjoyed this read, and I’m looking forward to continuing the series.
Bandits and Mythical creatures have started to awaken and harass our characters that live in the Banished lands. Heralding the prophesied god war. Essentially this will be a battle of good vs evil, and the characters we follow are beginning to choose what side they will end up on.
I actually enjoyed most of the beginning chapters in this book, I found Corban’s chapters almost cozy in a weird way. Plus no-one writes a battle scene quite like this author, once the action starts it doesn’t stop. I highly enjoyed this read, and I’m looking forward to continuing the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Animal death, and Violence
Moderate: War, Murder, and Child abuse
Minor: Alcoholism
surdiablo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I did not enjoy this one as much as I hoped, which is unfortunate considering the majority of people who participated in a FatF read-along with me seem to have loved it. I couldn't connect with the prose and found the whole book a bit too plain and predictable overall. As usual, I will say what I liked first. I liked the action scenes well enough as it was immersive and easy enough to imagine. Bonding with animal companions was pretty wholesome and I love Storm. Regardless of all the cons I will list soon, I enjoyed the overall story for the most part. It's the classic 'good vs evil' with a modern touch and the last quarter, especially the final 10 chapters is excellent, which makes me wanna read the next book soon enough. It's an ambitious attempt and definitely has potential to be something amazing.
As for things I didn't like, sadly there's plenty. The author constantly throws several character and location names at you from the beginning and inserts exposition dumps during conversations, which interfered with my immersion. There were way too many characters ( yes, I know that's normal in epic fantasies ) but none of them had any real depth, and those who did stay within their assigned archetype. They all felt like cardboard cutouts so whenever someone died or some major event happened, it fell flat as they lacked any weight or emotional impact. I know fast pacing can be fun but it felt jarring whenever a timeskip happened, and pacing still felt slow regardless of short chapters, since POVs kept switching one after another, ruining the momentum. Plus, you know there's not enough descriptions when you have no idea how any of the main characters even look ( Unless that's intentional for headcanon purposes). They all kinda sound the same too and I won't be able to tell if you ask me Is it Veradis or Kastell talking? from a dialogue scene without context. I also found the twists and turns highly telegraphed so ultimately, nothing really wowed or left an impression on me until the very end. It felt like the author was trying to make everything sound and feel 'epic', but it just didn't land for me due to the aforementioned issues. I know all of these may sound like minor problems and I would agree, except when combined with me not being able to connect with the writing style, they were detrimental enough to my overall enjoyment. I do get that it's a debut book ( hence it's rough around the edges ) and the remaining books might be better indeed, but I can't say I <b>liked</b> this book at all, so I am going with a 2.
As for things I didn't like, sadly there's plenty. The author constantly throws several character and location names at you from the beginning and inserts exposition dumps during conversations, which interfered with my immersion. There were way too many characters ( yes, I know that's normal in epic fantasies ) but none of them had any real depth, and those who did stay within their assigned archetype. They all felt like cardboard cutouts so whenever someone died or some major event happened, it fell flat as they lacked any weight or emotional impact. I know fast pacing can be fun but it felt jarring whenever a timeskip happened, and pacing still felt slow regardless of short chapters, since POVs kept switching one after another, ruining the momentum. Plus, you know there's not enough descriptions when you have no idea how any of the main characters even look ( Unless that's intentional for headcanon purposes). They all kinda sound the same too and I won't be able to tell if you ask me Is it Veradis or Kastell talking? from a dialogue scene without context. I also found the twists and turns highly telegraphed so ultimately, nothing really wowed or left an impression on me until the very end. It felt like the author was trying to make everything sound and feel 'epic', but it just didn't land for me due to the aforementioned issues. I know all of these may sound like minor problems and I would agree, except when combined with me not being able to connect with the writing style, they were detrimental enough to my overall enjoyment. I do get that it's a debut book ( hence it's rough around the edges ) and the remaining books might be better indeed, but I can't say I <b>liked</b> this book at all, so I am going with a 2.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, War, and Violence
Moderate: Bullying
Minor: Alcoholism and Physical abuse
dryhop's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this book. That's the tl;dr. I wasn't sure I was going to, and in fact had avoided the book for quite a while, walking by it countless times at countless Barnes and Nobles for a good few years at least. I'm not really sure why. There's going to be some Wheel of Time comparisons here because I am rereading that series at the same time and the differences create a really nice contrast.
Gwynne does not muck about with his words. Chapters can be rather short, almost thriller novel short at times. I am just finishing the 5th book in the Wheel of Time and there was almost half a chapter of description in that book to let you know that the servants wore black livery. In that span, Gwynne would have moved the plots forward with two of his characters in as many chapters. This is more an observation than a pro or a con, but I did find it refreshing by comparison and you really feel like you're plowing through the book as you burn through the shorter chapters. The stakes are real and characters can die. They may not be as at risk as Game of Thrones characters, but there are definitely consequences to actions other than a sternly worded rebuke. In particular, the last probably 15% of the book or so really plows forward in action and a lot changes in that time. I also tended to care about most of the viewpoint characters and didn't feel like I had to slog through a chapter for a character I didn't really like, a problem I am running into with WoT.
For some criticism, it starts out slow. There's a lot of characters and locations to introduce and it takes awhile before I personally started to really feel invested and for the characters to start to feel different. In particular, Veradis and Kastell were vary samey to me for a bit and Camlin pops infrequently enough that at one point I had to stop and slip back chapters to remember who he even was. So be wary if you're a much more limited viewpoint type of person. By the end I had no problem but there was some time in the beginning and middle where I had to do a little work. I personally also found a weird inconsistency with scale. It felt like it could take weeks or so to get somewhere and then they could turn around and walk back in a couple days. Maybe I didn't follow close enough, but it struck me a couple of times.
Overall, I am excited to continue this series and it acts as the perfect counterpoint to the WoT as I reread that. Characters all feel reasonably motivated to be doing what they're doing, there's real stakes, and a big canvas with lots of things happening. It gives me very Games of Thrones vibes while still being its own thing. An interesting note, this book might be the book that I have accidentally purchased the most physical copies of, buying it twice on accident and a third time as part of a boxed set of all four books. There's a lot going on, but I recommend this book.
Gwynne does not muck about with his words. Chapters can be rather short, almost thriller novel short at times. I am just finishing the 5th book in the Wheel of Time and there was almost half a chapter of description in that book to let you know that the servants wore black livery. In that span, Gwynne would have moved the plots forward with two of his characters in as many chapters. This is more an observation than a pro or a con, but I did find it refreshing by comparison and you really feel like you're plowing through the book as you burn through the shorter chapters. The stakes are real and characters can die. They may not be as at risk as Game of Thrones characters, but there are definitely consequences to actions other than a sternly worded rebuke. In particular, the last probably 15% of the book or so really plows forward in action and a lot changes in that time. I also tended to care about most of the viewpoint characters and didn't feel like I had to slog through a chapter for a character I didn't really like, a problem I am running into with WoT.
For some criticism, it starts out slow. There's a lot of characters and locations to introduce and it takes awhile before I personally started to really feel invested and for the characters to start to feel different. In particular, Veradis and Kastell were vary samey to me for a bit and Camlin pops infrequently enough that at one point I had to stop and slip back chapters to remember who he even was. So be wary if you're a much more limited viewpoint type of person. By the end I had no problem but there was some time in the beginning and middle where I had to do a little work. I personally also found a weird inconsistency with scale. It felt like it could take weeks or so to get somewhere and then they could turn around and walk back in a couple days. Maybe I didn't follow close enough, but it struck me a couple of times.
Overall, I am excited to continue this series and it acts as the perfect counterpoint to the WoT as I reread that. Characters all feel reasonably motivated to be doing what they're doing, there's real stakes, and a big canvas with lots of things happening. It gives me very Games of Thrones vibes while still being its own thing. An interesting note, this book might be the book that I have accidentally purchased the most physical copies of, buying it twice on accident and a third time as part of a boxed set of all four books. There's a lot going on, but I recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Violence