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dromwald's review against another edition
5.0
I'm not an academic nor am I a literary critic so I'm not really qualified to say what constitutes a 'good book'. For me though a good book is one that immediately drags me into the created world, that vividly creates that world in my mind and this book did that and some! The book is many things; its a tale about man's inhumanity to man (and animal!), it's dark, it's grim, it's exciting - but it is also a love story albeit one set in a very grim time in American history.
I genuinely cared about the characters and the villain of the work is one of the meanest sons of a bitch one can imagine. In short, brilliant stuff and I can't wait to read more by this author.
I genuinely cared about the characters and the villain of the work is one of the meanest sons of a bitch one can imagine. In short, brilliant stuff and I can't wait to read more by this author.
bmg20's review against another edition
3.0
‘Outside the door, the world was taking shape out of the high-country mist. Blued timbers sprung of the fugitive reality of dawn, ghostlike, perfect hidings for ambushing men.’
[b:Fallen Land|25632620|Fallen Land|Taylor Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1433011971s/25632620.jpg|45447074] tells the harrowing tale about two young people that manage to fall in love in the midst of the Civil War. Callum is riding in the company of a band of Confederates being led by a dangerous man; the Colonel. He is a man both loved and feared; described as “a man of great cruelty who nevertheless protected them, led them, eclipsed any guilt of theirs with his own. At his behest they had razed and butchered, no reason but hunger and the Colonel’s orders.” When they reach a house and Callum is the first to find a woman inside, his immediate instinct is to protect her and he kills a man to do just that. While wounded in the process, he wakes to find that while he protected her from the first man, he wasn’t there to protect her from the second. This knowledge spurs him to leave his troop and set off to find her again and ensure she’s okay. Callum is subsequently accused of murder and a bounty is put on him, forcing him and now Ava to flee from certain death.
‘…the bounty of the boy’s head was only of greater import, for men such as them have little place int he world that stood scorched and remnant before them.’<.i>
The story is told primarily through Callum’s point of view, however, we are shown snippets through the eyes of the bounty hunters and their devotion to Callum’s death is ruthless. Fierce and relentless, these men have no qualms about tracking him down for the purposes of obtaining the money promised to them; even if it involves killing or maiming innocents that stand in their way of discovery. The duo are forced to endure tremendous hardship and any hope that they have of making out of this alive is seemingly improbable.
While I found the writing to be positively sumptuous, the story itself did follow a meandering pace and took me quite some time to finish. The violence is extreme, but fitting. The romance is lacking with no spark between the two to be seen, which you wouldn’t expect since Callum made some pretty life-changing decisions in order to protect this woman of mystery. I can understand his intentions to protect a woman, I just never quite understood exactly why he went to such extreme lengths to do so. Setting all that aside, this is still a notable debut that leaves me anticipating future works to come from this author. I will also be checking out his short story collection, [b:In the Season of Blood and Gold|21871012|In the Season of Blood and Gold|Taylor Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398265124s/21871012.jpg|41161818], which is more Southern Gothic/Country Noir.
I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
[b:Fallen Land|25632620|Fallen Land|Taylor Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1433011971s/25632620.jpg|45447074] tells the harrowing tale about two young people that manage to fall in love in the midst of the Civil War. Callum is riding in the company of a band of Confederates being led by a dangerous man; the Colonel. He is a man both loved and feared; described as “a man of great cruelty who nevertheless protected them, led them, eclipsed any guilt of theirs with his own. At his behest they had razed and butchered, no reason but hunger and the Colonel’s orders.” When they reach a house and Callum is the first to find a woman inside, his immediate instinct is to protect her and he kills a man to do just that. While wounded in the process, he wakes to find that while he protected her from the first man, he wasn’t there to protect her from the second. This knowledge spurs him to leave his troop and set off to find her again and ensure she’s okay. Callum is subsequently accused of murder and a bounty is put on him, forcing him and now Ava to flee from certain death.
‘…the bounty of the boy’s head was only of greater import, for men such as them have little place int he world that stood scorched and remnant before them.’<.i>
The story is told primarily through Callum’s point of view, however, we are shown snippets through the eyes of the bounty hunters and their devotion to Callum’s death is ruthless. Fierce and relentless, these men have no qualms about tracking him down for the purposes of obtaining the money promised to them; even if it involves killing or maiming innocents that stand in their way of discovery. The duo are forced to endure tremendous hardship and any hope that they have of making out of this alive is seemingly improbable.
While I found the writing to be positively sumptuous, the story itself did follow a meandering pace and took me quite some time to finish. The violence is extreme, but fitting. The romance is lacking with no spark between the two to be seen, which you wouldn’t expect since Callum made some pretty life-changing decisions in order to protect this woman of mystery. I can understand his intentions to protect a woman, I just never quite understood exactly why he went to such extreme lengths to do so. Setting all that aside, this is still a notable debut that leaves me anticipating future works to come from this author. I will also be checking out his short story collection, [b:In the Season of Blood and Gold|21871012|In the Season of Blood and Gold|Taylor Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1398265124s/21871012.jpg|41161818], which is more Southern Gothic/Country Noir.
I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
amysbrittain's review against another edition
4.0
Aaaaah! I was so stressed out about the circumstances, but the preciousness of lives lived moment by moment (while the characters fight for survival--and also attempt to live as good people and find love and joy) was wrought beautifully by Brown. The perspective of coming upon the devastation immediately after Sherman's march through Atlanta was particularly shocking and affecting. A rough yet sometimes tender story set at the end of the Civil War, amid the confusion and desperation and cruelty and kindnesses that time.
elvenavari's review against another edition
2.0
A short, easy read...though a lot of it felt really disjointed to me. Things seemed to happen and then there were other things happening but often I wasn't sure how the two connected.
sjj169's review
2.0
I feel like it took forever to finish this book. It's completely written in beautiful language but I felt like that very language just tried too hard. I think [b:Cold Mountain|10920|Cold Mountain|Charles Frazier|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1442416348s/10920.jpg|1006369] and some of [a:Cormac McCarthy|4178|Cormac McCarthy|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1414695980p2/4178.jpg] books are written in that same style so it may be that these types of books just aren't my genre. I'm including several passages from the book in this review to give an idea of the way it is written. I'm sure it will sell thousands and millions of copies because it completely bored me.
This one starts with a very young (around fifteen year old) Callum. He is riding with a group of soldiers after coming to America as a orphan, he had taken up being a horse thief to make his way and fell in with this group.
Then he finds Ava........
Ava has a nightmare time with that same group of soldiers and Callum leaves them to "save" Ava. He ends up with the two of them being hunted across the "fallen land." They are crossing the south during the last points of the Civil War, trying to get to one of the coastal cities where Callum remembers some relatives being.
Some smexy times happen:
Callum snorted through his runny nose. Then he turned his head and pinched the bridge of his nose and blew a thick tail of snot onto the trail.
"Careful your brains don't go missing," said Ava.
I'm poking fun there but there was never a connection with these two characters for me. There should have been because the book is mostly about them, but it's mostly just...
Get on the horse.
Ride the horse.
Be cold and hungry.
Get back on the horse.
It's cold and we are hungry.
There are a lot of these types of passages:
He listened closely for the rumor of hooves on the wind from the north. Listening so hard for danger seemed only to invite the hearing of it. There was the faintest thunder he may or may not have heard. He first thought it was coming downwind from the way they'd come, but the wind was swirling in the meadow and it could have come from the direction they were heading. Or it could be nothing.
So the book never connected for me. I did finish it because I was hoping for something to happen that would save the entire book. But nope. Boring times abound.
Callum slipped off the horse and walked to the edge of the road and sat. He stared, disbelieving, for a long time. He could hardly breathe, like the fire had sucked the air from the night. This was beyond hell, beyond any biblical image of torment. This was real, and it was happening as if it happened just for them.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review
Sandra's review here gives the book five stars, that goes to show that two readers can look at a book differently and that's fine. Not everyone loves the same things.
This one starts with a very young (around fifteen year old) Callum. He is riding with a group of soldiers after coming to America as a orphan, he had taken up being a horse thief to make his way and fell in with this group.
Then he finds Ava........
Ava has a nightmare time with that same group of soldiers and Callum leaves them to "save" Ava. He ends up with the two of them being hunted across the "fallen land." They are crossing the south during the last points of the Civil War, trying to get to one of the coastal cities where Callum remembers some relatives being.
Some smexy times happen:
Callum snorted through his runny nose. Then he turned his head and pinched the bridge of his nose and blew a thick tail of snot onto the trail.
"Careful your brains don't go missing," said Ava.
I'm poking fun there but there was never a connection with these two characters for me. There should have been because the book is mostly about them, but it's mostly just...
Get on the horse.
Ride the horse.
Be cold and hungry.
Get back on the horse.
It's cold and we are hungry.
There are a lot of these types of passages:
He listened closely for the rumor of hooves on the wind from the north. Listening so hard for danger seemed only to invite the hearing of it. There was the faintest thunder he may or may not have heard. He first thought it was coming downwind from the way they'd come, but the wind was swirling in the meadow and it could have come from the direction they were heading. Or it could be nothing.
So the book never connected for me. I did finish it because I was hoping for something to happen that would save the entire book. But nope. Boring times abound.
Callum slipped off the horse and walked to the edge of the road and sat. He stared, disbelieving, for a long time. He could hardly breathe, like the fire had sucked the air from the night. This was beyond hell, beyond any biblical image of torment. This was real, and it was happening as if it happened just for them.
Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review
Sandra's review here gives the book five stars, that goes to show that two readers can look at a book differently and that's fine. Not everyone loves the same things.
sueann's review
5.0
This is one of those rare neglect-your-housework-leave-me-alone-I'm-reading! kinds of books. One character describes the time they are living through (the U.S. Civil War) as "an evil moment in the world." It certainly is graphically violent, and thereby authentic. This is tempered by beautiful descriptions of nature, the gentle teasing between the two main characters and the occasional kindness of strangers. Action-packed and spell-binding, you wonder how or if the main characters will make it out alive. (I'm not telling.) I was both horrified and captivated by the story and the language. This one is well worth your time.
shellihuntley4's review
3.0
Not awful, but certainly not Cold Mountain or a Cormac McCarty book, despite the blurbs.
bookofclare's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.0
great book but just felt kind of… pretentious and purposefully vague at some points. i think a more solid time line & more down-to-earth language would have been more enjoyable.
mgbell0712's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0