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obr 's review for:
Academy of Falling Kingdoms Box Set
by Marisa Mills
This series feels like a sleeper hit just waiting for a final round of editorial polish. 5 stars for how much I loved it, 4 because... Well, it's not 100% cooked yet and that frustrated me a little considering how good it could be. 4.5?
I'm the kind of reader who sniffs at excessive comma usage and continuity bugs, but I loved the story and characters so much it didn't deter me. If that sounds like faint praise it's not meant to; I really think that if you like a good young adult fantasy that takes all the tropes and plays all the right notes with them, then this is a series well worth your time.
We follow a girl named Wynter who lives in the slum-like Scraps beneath the floating mage-city of Reverie. Under the thumb of her cruel uncle, she and her friends scavenge for salvageable magical artefacts amidst the trash and dream of escaping. When a mage from the city buys Wynter's services in order get his hands on an item hidden away inside Reverie's Academy for young mages, she's drawn into a web of magical conspiracy and political manoeuvrings that go far deeper than she could possibly have envisioned. If posing as a student mage wasn't hard enough what with her lack of magical ability, she has to face down snooty classmates, rude professors, and a sarcastic prince. Then come the earthquakes and the demon attacks. And to top it off? The demons are talking to her.
Take everything you want from a YA fantasy, chuck it in a blender, add a spritz of future-dystopia and a dash of paranormal/urban fantasy, then blitz. This series satisfied everything: action, coming-of-age drama, adventure, mystery, a light-touch romance, family feuds, court politics... I enjoyed the heck out of it.
Wynter is a strong enough heroine, with the mean girl Viviane and rude jock Prince Alex as her main foils. Side characters really get going by book 2, each of them with their own personal journeys whether they're fellow students (like Jessa and Tatiana), professors (Gareth, Du Lac), the slum kids, and even the nobility. Foppish Dorian and his nasty sister get a great arc. The wonderful thing is everyone is far deeper personality-wise than you'd first think. I do wish we'd gotten to know the snarky Lucian a bit better sooner, but dang I grew to love him. It's so rare to find a YA that has natural-sounding characters.
The plot is a combination of twists you'll see a mile off (internally screaming at Wynter for missing the downright obvious - her main flaw being she doesn't always see things she should) to ones you'll be genuinely surprised by. Yes, there are some world building things that could have been more obvious rather than leaving it to inferences, but it eventually made sense. The pacing is great. It all came together in such an amazingly satisfying YA way.
Now that downside I mention: it's obviously written by two authors. The writing style is pretty consistent, but the content presented quite a number of continuity bugs. Sometimes things were broken up mid-scene indicated by *** breaks, and in those seconds passing characters could flip from one way of speaking to another, forget something they'd just been told, or know something they couldn't have known until the end of the next chapter. For example the transition from book one to book two, picking up the same scene moments later, was very jarring. This sort of thing tended to happen less in book three, but still did. Also for the easily triggered by excessive punctuation usage, the comma works very hard and semi-colons are sometimes in places they shouldn't be.
Do not get me wrong, I really loved this series. But I honestly believe that if it had a thorough editorial review to check for typos and continuity oddities it would shine alongside traditional published young adult fantasy novels - I swear the story and these authors have got that much potential.
All in all, it's a work of epic magical-mystery that was genuinely fun. I'd definitely keep an eye on these guys.
I'm the kind of reader who sniffs at excessive comma usage and continuity bugs, but I loved the story and characters so much it didn't deter me. If that sounds like faint praise it's not meant to; I really think that if you like a good young adult fantasy that takes all the tropes and plays all the right notes with them, then this is a series well worth your time.
We follow a girl named Wynter who lives in the slum-like Scraps beneath the floating mage-city of Reverie. Under the thumb of her cruel uncle, she and her friends scavenge for salvageable magical artefacts amidst the trash and dream of escaping. When a mage from the city buys Wynter's services in order get his hands on an item hidden away inside Reverie's Academy for young mages, she's drawn into a web of magical conspiracy and political manoeuvrings that go far deeper than she could possibly have envisioned. If posing as a student mage wasn't hard enough what with her lack of magical ability, she has to face down snooty classmates, rude professors, and a sarcastic prince. Then come the earthquakes and the demon attacks. And to top it off? The demons are talking to her.
Take everything you want from a YA fantasy, chuck it in a blender, add a spritz of future-dystopia and a dash of paranormal/urban fantasy, then blitz. This series satisfied everything: action, coming-of-age drama, adventure, mystery, a light-touch romance, family feuds, court politics... I enjoyed the heck out of it.
Wynter is a strong enough heroine, with the mean girl Viviane and rude jock Prince Alex as her main foils. Side characters really get going by book 2, each of them with their own personal journeys whether they're fellow students (like Jessa and Tatiana), professors (Gareth, Du Lac), the slum kids, and even the nobility. Foppish Dorian and his nasty sister get a great arc. The wonderful thing is everyone is far deeper personality-wise than you'd first think. I do wish we'd gotten to know the snarky Lucian a bit better sooner, but dang I grew to love him. It's so rare to find a YA that has natural-sounding characters.
The plot is a combination of twists you'll see a mile off (internally screaming at Wynter for missing the downright obvious - her main flaw being she doesn't always see things she should) to ones you'll be genuinely surprised by. Yes, there are some world building things that could have been more obvious rather than leaving it to inferences
Spoiler
(like do all mages know that enchanted objects contain demons to boost their magic?)Now that downside I mention: it's obviously written by two authors. The writing style is pretty consistent, but the content presented quite a number of continuity bugs. Sometimes things were broken up mid-scene indicated by *** breaks, and in those seconds passing characters could flip from one way of speaking to another, forget something they'd just been told, or know something they couldn't have known until the end of the next chapter. For example the transition from book one to book two, picking up the same scene moments later, was very jarring. This sort of thing tended to happen less in book three, but still did. Also for the easily triggered by excessive punctuation usage, the comma works very hard and semi-colons are sometimes in places they shouldn't be.
Do not get me wrong, I really loved this series. But I honestly believe that if it had a thorough editorial review to check for typos and continuity oddities it would shine alongside traditional published young adult fantasy novels - I swear the story and these authors have got that much potential.
All in all, it's a work of epic magical-mystery that was genuinely fun. I'd definitely keep an eye on these guys.