Retribution by Jennifer Fallon

Retribution by Jennifer Fallon is the second book in the War of the Gods trilogy, preceded by The Lyre Thief which I have also read and reviewed. As you might guess from the series title, this is a big fat fantasy book. And, being the second in the series, is not a good place to start reading. I definitely recommend starting with The Lyre Thief, or even the earlier two series: The Hythrun Chronicles and the Demon Child Trilogy.

Since fleeing Winternest to avoid King Hablet's wrath when he discovers the truth about her parentage, leaving her slave, Charisee, to take her place, Rakaia has been on quite an adventure. She has met the demon child, traveled the continent with the charming minstrel, Mica the Magnificent, enjoying more freedom than she ever imagined trapped in the harem in Talabar.

But her freedom has come at a cost. Mica has committed an unthinkable crime, worse even, than stealing the golden lyre, and she is now his unwilling accomplice, sailing the high seas on a Tri-lander pirate ship, doing everything she can to avoid upsetting the man she once thought she loved, but has now realised is quite insane.

Meanwhile, Charisee, still pretending to be Rakaia, is trying to make the best of her new life as the Lady of Highcastle. But Rakaia's past will catch up with her, even as her own lies are in danger of being exposed.

As Adrina struggles to hold Hythria together, and Marla tries to deal with the fallout from the shocking events that take place in the Citadel during the treaty negotiations, Wrayan Lightfinger and the apprentice sorcerer, Julika Hawksword, must travel to Sanctuary to find out why the fortress is back. What they will discover is shocking and will affect the entire world, even though they don't realize it.

I have been a fan of Fallon's writing for many years now (much longer than this blog has been in existence) and this latest instalment set in her longest-running universe does not disappoint. Fallon continues to masterfully connect the plot threads of many characters in ways that feel organic rather than contrived. There's a lot going on in this book and each set of characters have their own motivations for following their own paths. To the point where events that are genuinely coincidental (from the reader's relatively omniscient perspective) seems suspicious to characters inside the story.

The complexity of the intertwining storylines is something I have always enjoyed in Fallon's writing. Retribution picks up the same groups of characters that we came to know in The Lyre Thief and continues their stories. I would not expect this book to make sense without having read the previous volume. I imagine that having read the earlier series is also helpful since there are some references to earlier events and some minor characters in Retribution who were central to the stories in the Demon Child Trilogy and/or the Hythrun Chronicles. Although The War of the Gods is a separate series it is also a continuation of ideas and characters introduced earlier.

I really enjoyed Retribution and am looking forward to the next book in the series (although I fear it will be a longer wait than I would like). I recommend this series to fans of intrigue and fantasy books with large casts of characters. And especially to fans of Fallon's earlier works, especially the two series set in the same universe.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2017, HarperVoyager
Series: War of the Gods, book 2 of 3
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Interview with Jennifer Fallon (Snapshot 2016)

This interview is one I conducted as part of the 2016 Australian Speculative Fiction Snapshot. You can read and introduction to the project here and follow the rest of the reviews that will be posted over the first two weeks of August at the Aus SF Snapshot blog.

Jennifer Fallon is the author of 17 full-length bestselling novels and a number of published short stories in genres ranging from horror to science fiction, and a bestselling series on writing.
In addition to 4 complete fantasy series - The Demon Child trilogy, The Hythrun Chronicles, the Second Sons Trilogy, The Tide Lords Quadrilogy and the Rift Runners series - Fallon has written both a tie-novel and short fiction for the TV series, Stargate SG1, an official Zorro story, a novella for the Legends of Australian Fantasy Anthology and has a superhero - The Violet Valet (Chicks In Capes).
Fallon has a Masters Degree from the Creative Arts faculty of QUT. A business consultant, corporate trainer and application specialist, Fallon currently works in the IT industry and spends at least a month each year working at Scott Base in Antarctica.

With the release of The Lyre Thief earlier this year you took readers to the world of the Hythrun Chronicles for the third time, after a bit of a break. Is there a particular appeal to writing books set in a world you’re already familiar with, compared with books set in a completely new world?

I swore I would never go back there at all for many years, but now I have, I am having a ball. In fact, it's kind of addictive to go back into a world so clearly defined, working with characters I know so well, besides discovering new people and their stories that inhabit this world.  If anything, I am now in danger of never wanting to leave. As I get further and further into this series, introducing new characters and new parts of this world, I keep wanting to tell their stories, too. This series, I suspect, may not be the last, although I do have some "issues" to sort out with the US publisher going forward before I decide that for certain. Stay tuned!


You had plans to release a “director’s cut” version of the Second Sons Trilogy, which I see from your website has been delayed. Is this still forthcoming? What can readers expect from this new version?

We had an inquiry from a UK production company about a TV series for the Second Sons. Everything was held up while we worked through this, and by the time it was resolved (as in, did not proceed) the deadlines for the War of the Gods series were looming. It will still happen, but not for a while yet. It has been bumped for the priority of the other series.


What are you working on next? Other than the second and third books in the War of the Gods trilogy, what can we expect to see from you in the nearish future?

Second book, Retribution, is done. About to start Covenant. Nothing else in the pipeline. I work full time as an IT consultant and have a thriving Social Media Management business in addition to my writing. There are only so many hours in a day!


What Australian work have you loved recently?

See above! I literally cannot remember the last time I read anything for fun, from Australia or anywhere else. Everything I do is research, research, research, for my writing or my business life. I haven't even gotten around to watching the latest GOT series. I am hoping someone will make a scientific breakthrough that enables me to have either another couple of days a week, or an extra couple of hours a day. Either would do. I'm pretty much down to 4 hours of sleep a night, so not really any wriggle room there.


Which author (living or dead) would you most like to sit next to on a long plane trip and why?

Great question. Been pondering this for days. In the end, I think it might be Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind. I would dearly love to talk to her about her research, her feeling for the characters, wondering if she realised just how toxic a relationship her grand romance was. The characters in that book are very self serving and often not very pleasant, and yet she makes them heroes in an indefensible world. I find that skill fascinating and would love to know it she did it on purpose.

Singleton Short Stories

I read a few isolated short stories and thought I'd post a few words about them. So here we are.

First Kill by Jennifer Fallon is set in the same world as the Hythrun Chronicles, the Demon Child trilogy and The Lyre Thief. It features Kiam Miar, an assassin who is one of the main characters in The Lyre Thief. This story, like the title suggests, is about the young assassin's first — graduation — kill. As far as I can it's set before the events at the end of the Demon Child trilogy, but you don't have read any of Fallon's books for this story to make sense. That said, if you have read The Lyre Thief and enjoyed the character of Kiam Miar, this is a good story to read.

When I started reading, I wasn't sure how Fallon was going to make the story interesting rather than a straight recounting of Kiam killing someone. I obviously don't want to spoil it, but there is more going on than a straightforward assassination and the story showcases young Kiam's cleverness.

You can read the story on Tor.com or pick it up from your favourite ebook retailer.

~

Finnegan's Field by Angel Slatter is another Tor.com original and, being a Slatter story, how could I not read it? It was horrifying. (Intentionally so.) I will note that at one point, maybe halfway through, I caught myself thinking "Oh, but that's one horror element, the rest of the story doesn't feel that much like horror..." But then I got to the end. This story is definitely horror. Also, if you don't like reading about bad things happening to children, don't read this one. Like, really, don't. Read The Bitterwood Bible or something instead.

The story is about a little girl who goes missing one day, like children sometimes do. Unlike other missing children, she shows up again three years later. The first thing her parents notice, once she's home and safe and clean, is that she didn't grow as much as they would have expected in three years. The subsequent things her mother notices are a bit more dire and a bit more supernatural. Set in small town Australia with a helping of Irish folklore, this is an excellent read for fans of dark fantasy and horror and, of course, fans of Slatter.

You can read the story on Tor.com or pick it up from your favourite ebook retailer.

~

Glass Slipper Scandal by Tansy Rayner Roberts is an original short story podcast on Sheep Might Fly, the author's fiction podcast. I listened to all eight episodes of it in one go during a car trip, which added up to less than two hours. I was quite glad to get it all in one go since I am very much not a fan of episodic stories, especially when the episodes are so short (10-15 minutes each).

The story itself is set in a magical kingdom where Prince Charming is being forced to look for a wife and a large ball is being held. The protagonists are a relatively new journalist and one of the princesses, who has motivations beyond wanting to marry the prince. Told with Roberts' characteristic humour, this is a light-hearted tale that twists several fairytale tropes. The newspaper element also leant itself well to exaggerated proclamations of scandal, which added to the amusement. Recommended for fans of light-hearted and humorous fantasy.

You can listen to the story by subscribing to the Sheep Might Fly podcast, or by following the links here.

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon

The Lyre Thief by Jennifer Fallon is the first book in a new series, The War of the Gods, set in the same world as the Hythrun Chronicles and the Demon Child Trilogy. It is set about ten years after the events in the Demon Child Trilogy and features many characters from both older series, as well as several new characters.

Her Serene Highness, Rakaia, Princess of Fardohnya, is off to Hythria, where her eldest sister is now the High Princess, to find herself a husband, and escape the inevitable bloodbath in the harem when her brother takes the throne.

Rakaia is not interested in marrying anyone, least of all some brute of a Hythrun Warlord she's never met, but she has a plan to save herself from that, too. If she can just convince her baseborn sister, Charisee, to play along, she might actually get away with it.

But there is trouble brewing across the continent. High Prince of Hythria, Damin Wolfblade, must head north to save the peace negotiated a decade ago between the Harshini, Hythria, Fardohnya, Medalon and Karien. He must leave behind an even more dangerous conflict brewing between his wife and his powerful mother, Princess Marla.

...And in far off Medalon, someone has stolen the music.

Their quest for the tiny stolen lyre containing the essence of the God of Music will eventually touch all their lives, threaten everything they hold dear and prove to be far more personal than any of them can imagine.

I have always been a fan of Fallon's books, since I first read the Second Sons trilogy, and my enjoyment of her writing has not wavered with this new addition. If you are familiar with the Hythrun Chronicles, that's the Fallon series this book most reminded me of. Furthermore, while this first book in a new series provides a reasonable jumping-on point, I don't particularly recommend starting here. It's not completely necessary, but I do recommend reading the Demon Child series and the Hythrun Chronicles to understand more about the recurring characters' back stories. About half the main point of view characters are recurring and half are new (this is out of I think five point of view characters, one of whom I don't think was very prominent in the earlier books.

Having said all that, it's been rather a while since I read the earlier two series. I think I last reread the Hythrun chronicles six or seven years ago, so my memory of the minutiae was hazy at best. While I had no trouble following the story in The Lyre Thief, giving this, I would have enjoyed it even more, I think, if the memory of "wait, who's that again? The name seems familiar" had been fresher in my mind.

As I said, there were five point of view characters in this book. There's Rakaia and Charisee, royal and baseborn sisters, respectively, whose shenanigans after Rakaia is promised to an old Hythrun lord attract the attention of the God of Liars. There's High Princess Adrina, sister of the aforementioned two and wife of Damin Wolfblade. There's an assassin, the Demon Child (which, actually, wasn't capitalised in the book, which kind of bothered me), a Fardohnyan seneschel... All of whom get entangled in interweaving plots and schemes.

One of the things I love about Fallon's work is how she writes intrigue with several characters having independent goals and schemes which just happen to overlap in entertaining ways. Most of the time, characters are just doing their thing without particularly considering how it might be affecting other people (especially when it's other people they don't even know well).

This is a long book with many characters, but one that I found difficult to put down. Aside from forgetting details from the earlier books about recurring minor characters, I had absolutely no trouble filling the story in The Lyre Thief. Even though there were long gaps between scenes for some of the characters (one in particular, but I don't want to spoil things), Fallon made everything memorable enough that I had no trouble remembering what they were up to.

I enjoyed The Lyre Thief a lot and the only disappointing thing is that I now have to wait a while for the next book! It didn't end on a huge cliffhanger or anything (well, maybe a small one? It was more of a hook for the next book. What constitutes a cliffhanger these days?) but most of the plot lines are unresolved and I want to know what happens next to all the characters! Very much looking forward to book two (which I think is still a year away :-/ ).

I highly recommend The Lyre Thief, especially to fans of The Hythrun Chronicles and The Demon Child Trilogy. You don't have to have read those two earlier series before you read this one, but I think that it would help. For those unfamiliar with Fallon's work, she writes excellent action and political intrigue focussed fantasy. Mostly the intrigue with many intertwining threads.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: March 2016, Harper Voyager AU
Series: The War of the Gods book 1 of 3
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased on iBooks
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge

Snapshot 2014: Jennifer Fallon

Jennifer Fallon is the author of 17 full-length bestselling novels and a number of published short stories in genres ranging from horror to science fiction.

In addition to 4 complete fantasy series - The Demon Child trilogy, The Hythrun Chronicles, the Second Sons Trilogy,The Tide Lords Quadrilogy and the Rift Runners series - Fallon has written both a tie-novel and short fiction for the TV series, Stargate SG1, an official Zorro story, a novella for the Legends of Australian Fantasy Anthology and has a superhero - The Violet Valet (CHICKS IN CAPES).

Fallon has a Masters Degree from the Creative Arts faculty of QUT. A computer trainer and application specialist, Fallon currently works in the IT industry and spends at least a month each year working at Scott Base in Antarctica.

You’ve recently released a lot of your books through Snapping Turtle Books and under the name JJ Fallon. Are those two developments related? And can you tell us a bit about why?

The JJ Fallon moniker was a joint decision between me and the publishers, in part to reach a greater audience. I know people try to scoff at the notion, but there truly is a gender bias when it comes to female fantasy writers and the idea that if a woman wrote it, it must be a romance. Robin Hobb and Lian Hearn both published under their own names but didn't truly hit the big time until they chose gender non-specific pseudonyms. It's sad but true I have to say, and so far it seems to be working.

As for Snapping Turtle, I know the people involved in starting up this company very well and given some of the appalling stories I could tell you about my treatment at the hands of some of the "big name" publishers, I was more than happy to go with a small publisher who shares the same vision for my work as I do. I still have contractual obligations to some HaperCollins Australia and Tor in the US, but any future works not related to those series that other publishers hold an ongoing right to, will be through Snapping Turtle. They're looking for manuscripts by the way, if any of your readers want to submit something. Details and submission are via their website.

The final instalment in the Rift Runners trilogy, Reunion, came out last year. In the series you play with a lot of different worlds. Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration for that set-up?

I like the idea of messing with history and I wanted to play in the real world for a bit. I was able to achieve both with this series. I also liked the idea of how everything is contextual. Darragh can do things in the Druid world that end up with Ren getting arrested in our world for the same thing. Also, ninja leprechaun. What more can I say?

With the most recent series of novels complete what are you working on next? What can readers look forward to?

I am going back to the world of the Hythrun Chronicles. The new series is called the War of the Gods, and the first book, The Lyre Thief, will be out next year.

Here is the blurb:

Her Serene Highness, Rakaia, Princess of Fardohnya, is off to Hythria, where her eldest sister, Adrina, is now the High Princess, to find herself a husband, and escape the inevitable bloodbath in the harem when her brother takes the throne.

However Rakaia has a dangerous secret, far more deadly than the prospect of marrying some decrepit old Hythrun Warlord to seal a trade deal. If she can just convince her baseborn sister, Charisee, to play along with her escape plan, she might actually get away with her life.

But when the demon child does a deal with Death to bring Brakandaran the Halfbreed back from the afterlife, the unthinkable happens. Adrina must somehow stop the peace treaty unravelling and enlist the help of the assassin Kiam Miar to bring her sister safely home.

...And in far off Medalon, someone has stolen a tiny golden lyre from the Temple of the Gods in the Citadel. The missing lyre and the thief who stole it will eventually touch all their lives in ways none of them could ever imagine.

What Australian works have you loved recently?

A couple of new authors Snapping Turtle is putting out – Ryn Lilley and Ashley Capes. Both Aussie, both great writers. I recommend both highly!

Have recent changes in the publishing industry influenced the way you work? What do you think you will be publishing/writing/reading in five years from now?

I think ebooks are the way of the future and that traditional publishers have yet to work out that trying to price an ebook to match a hard copy edition is ridiculous. I have this discussion with them all the time:) I am yet to win the argument. I also think they have no idea how to leverage social media effectively, which is why most of the new writing "millionaires" are independently published. They are living in a world where size doesn't matter so much, and still trying to control it. As book stores close and the only place you can find the books you want is online, (when was the last time you saw all 18 of my books on a single shelf in a bookshop?), the electronic format will rule. A few years ago, I sold 1 ebook for every 10 print copies. Now it's the other way around.

 ~

This interview was conducted as part of the 2014 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction. We’ll be blogging interviews from 28 July to 10 August and archiving them at SF Signal. You can read interviews at:

http://tsanasreads.blogspot.se/search/label/2014snapshot (here)
http://fablecroft.com.au/tag/2014snapshot
http://kathrynlinge.livejournal.com/tag/2014snapshot
http://bookonaut.blogspot.com.au/search/label/2014snapshot
http://www.davidmcdonaldspage.com/tag/2014snapshot/
http://tansyrr.com/tansywp/tag/2014snapshot/
http://randomalex.net/tag/2014snapshot/
http://jasonnahrung.com/tag/2014snapshot/
http://stephaniegunn.com/tag/2014snapshot/
http://helenstubbs.wordpress.com/tag/2014snapshot/
http://ventureadlaxre.wordpress.com/tag/2014snapshot/
http://mayakitten.livejournal.com/tag/2014snapshot/
http://benpayne.wordpress.com/tag/2014snapshot/ 
http://www.merwood.com.au/worldsend/tag/2014snapshot
http://crankynick.livejournal.com/tag/2014snapshot

Reunion by Jennifer Fallon

Reunion by Jennifer Fallon is the third book in the Rift Runners trilogy. You can read my review of the second book, The Dark Divide, but unfortunately I read the first book, The Undivided, before I started blogging. This review, by the way, contains only minor spoilers for the earlier books.

Jennifer Fallon has long been one of my favourite authors, a fact that I was strongly reminded of as I read Reunion. There is a certain amount of snarky wit to her writing that I didn't realise I had missed until I came back to it. A small example:

 ...in prison, as in great literature, it is much more effective to show than tell.

Clearly, I should read Jennifer Fallon books more often; they used to be on my re-read rotation, before I moved to a different continent to most of my books and also became a book-blogger.

Whereas The Dark Divide picked up quite soon after The Undivided left of, Reunion starts after a three year gap. That and the real-world eighteen month gap since I read the previous book left me slightly disoriented at first, but I quickly remembered who everyone was and why, and was soon able to get on with enjoying the book.

The main thrust of the story in Reunion deals with Ren and friends trying to stop the Matrachaí from killing all the magical creatures in all the parallel dimensions and worse. Of course, as soon as they think they know how to fix everything, something else goes horribly wrong. It's hard to get more specific about the plot without spoilers, unfortunately.

One of the things I've always thought Fallon did quite well is write complexly motivated characters. Not only that, but the way she weaves their story lines together to form an intricate web is masterful. At every turn each character does the thing that absolutely seems most right to them in the situation but that has ramifications they could not have predicted. Generally rather entertaining ones.

The ending of Reunion was satisfying but left some threads open to follow on in a potential subsequent series (but not a cliff-hanger, fear not). I hope there will be more books at some point, but I don't mind waiting (especially since the next Fallon series coming is a sequel to the Demonchild Trilogy and Hythrun Chronicles).

In short, Reunion was an excellent read, as has been the entire Rift Runners series. It's not the kind of series you can read out of order, so if you haven't read the other books, I strongly suggest starting with The Undivided. To readers who have enjoyed the earlier books, this is a no brainer. Readers new to Fallon's work will find this series a less epic fantasy introduction to her works, since it's set partly in our world.

5 / 5 stars

First published: October 2013, Haper Voyager AU
Series: Rift Runners book 3 of 3 (for now...)
Format read: ePub
Source: Publisher thanks to the author
Challenges: Australian Women Writers Challenge

Retro review: The Second Sons Trilogy by Jennifer Fallon

Jennifer Fallon is one of my favourite authors and I have enjoyed all of her books. You can read my review for The Dark Divide, her most recent release, here.

The Second Sons trilogy was Fallon’s second trilogy, after The Demon Child Trilogy. It was first published by Voyager AU between 2002 and 2003. It has since been released in the UK in 2005, the US from 2004 to 2005, and I think also in Germany. The covers I’m using in this post are the original Australian ones. And for the record, I’m pretty sure I’ve read the series at least three times.

Book 1: The Lion of Senet
Book 2: Eye of the Labyrinth
Book 3: Lord of the Shadows

Second Sons is set on a world with two suns — a red dwarf and a yellow star more like our sun. The unusual celestial setup means that there is a lot more volcanic activity than on Earth and that it’s never really dark. At night the red sun shines and during the day the yellow sun lights up the world fully. At this stage I should point out that the physics isn’t 100% accurate which bothered me when I first read it but which was easier to ignore on subsequent rereads. I suspect the fact that this is billed as fantasy rather than science fiction (even though there is zero magic and 100% strange other planet) helped me not be as annoyed. That and the excellent story.

The main characters are mostly their parents’ second sons (apart from the women/girls, of course), hence the series title. My favourite was definitely Dirk the main character. In fact, he is one of my favourite male characters in any series because unlike the traditional fantasy hero, he saves the day through wits not by running in swinging his sword wildly. He’s also a bit of an anti-hero, but I’ll get to that.

At the start, Dirk, second son of a duke, is apprentice to the duke’s physician. He is uncommonly smart (can do difficult maths in his head) and really wants nothing more than to pursue his studies. Since his older brother is set to inherit, this doesn’t seem to be an unrealistic hope. Until a wanted pirate washes up on the shore and Dirk gets caught up in other people’s political scheming.

Dirk’s virtue is that he is smart enough to turn the tables against those in power and that he doesn’t mind doing morally questionable things for the greater good. Throughout the series he falls in with groups generally considered dishonourable like drug runners and religious sects. I like morally ambiguous characters (mostly because I tend to find them more realistic and less grating). To top it off, Dirk’s final coup/day saving climax is to die for (well, after you get past the wait what is happening oh my poor defenceless knowledge of physics… oh… OHH. Ahem).

Of course, Second Sons wouldn’t be quite as great without an excellent cast of supporting characters. Jennifer Fallon is great at writing complex and difficult characters in all roles. The Lion of Senet — a king-like ruler — has being blatantly manipulated by the High Priestess of the Shadowdances (an upstart sect that formed in the wake of a time of turmoil when the second sun stopped shining — honest, the physics could be worse) ever since she convinced him to sacrifice his first-born to bring back the light. Now she desperately needs to work out when the suns will do something unusual again and has been trying to crack the mystery left behind in an ancient labyrinth. Cue her interest in Dirk and his mathematical prowess.

My favourite supporting characters were Alenor, crown princess and cousin to Dirk, and Marqel, acrobat cum social climber. Alenor I liked because of her strength in dealing with the people around her, most of whom didn’t really have her best interests at heart. Marqel I didn’t so much like as a person, but I very much enjoyed reading about her antics. She was the kind of character you want to throttle for her blind ambition. In my opinion, any character that makes you want to scream at the page (because of the emotional connection, I mean, not because they’re poorly written) is an excellent character. I particularly liked how polarising she was with the other characters — some loved her and bought into her scheming while others saw through her straight away, but of course they couldn’t convince the former of that.

Thematically, the Second Sons series explores the nature of belief and the whether the end justifies the means. I’ve noticed that most of Fallon’s books interrogate religious ideas (eg Demon Child has atheists encountering gods/magical beings they don’t believe in, Tide Lords is about a suicidal god/immortal) and I always enjoy the way in which she does it.

I highly recommend the Second Sons trilogy to anyone who enjoys epic fantasy, especially of the unconventional variety and to anyone who doesn’t mind their science fiction not being strictly scientifically accurate. Also to anyone who enjoys intelligent main characters.

The Dark Divide by Jennifer Fallon

The Dark Divide by Jennifer Fallon is the second book of the Rift Runners (trilogy, I think). The first book was The Undivided.

This is very much the sort of series where you can’t read book two without having read book one before it. The Dark Divide picks up more or less right where The Undivided left off. I don’t think I can say anything too specific about the plot without spoilers for the first book.

The story mainly follows Ren and Darragh, the Undivided twins, Trasa the half-banshee and Pete the cop who is on the case of the shenanigans the other characters committed in the first book.

I liked The Dark Divide more than The Undivided. When I read the first book, I enjoyed it but I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t as full of twisty intrigue as I have come to expect from Fallon’s books (not that disappointed since I still have it 4.5 stars when I read it). The second book more than makes up for it. Where the first book had to introduce a lot of world-building concepts (faeries, rifts between realities, the magic of the twins’ existence), the second book was much more free to dig deeper into everyone’s motivations. There were a lot of ah-ha! moments and a lot of dawning comprehension as pieces of the puzzle came together.

One of the things I particularly liked was the juxtaposition between fantasy-world values and our world values. As in, often times killing someone for the cause in a fantasy book (in general) is seen as necessary. However, move the act (and the fantasy book character) into our world and a host of problems arise.

Another aspect which I thought was well done was the inclusion of a certain real-world recent-historical event. It was something that could easily have felt tacky but worked because the ordinary consequences were given as much (if not slightly more) weight as the plot-related consequences. Also, history wasn’t rewritten to accommodate the plot; from the characters’ point of view, it was a coincidence that affected them but that they had nothing directly to do with.

This is a very good series and I encourage all lovers of fantasy to give it a go. Since I didn’t talk about anything very specific above, I am also going to include the blurb for The Undivided, to give an idea of where the series is coming from.

The Undivided are divided. The psychic twins, Ronan and Darragh, have been separated by the traitor Druid, Amergin, who has kidnapped Ronan and thrown him through a rift into another reality. Now time is running out for Darragh. If Ronan isn’t found soon, they will both die. But his twin brother is lost in a reality where Druids are legend, and there is no magic. Somehow, before the Autumn Equinox, they must find one young man in a world of six billion people…

Meanwhile, Ren Kavanagh has no notion of where he comes from. He is plagued by strange injuries that appear from nowhere and everyone is convinced he is deliberately harming himself for attention. Then he meets the enticing and mysterious Trasa, and before he can figure out how it happened, he is in serious trouble - arrested for arson and possibly murder.

Rescue will come from a completely unexpected direction. Ren is about to discover more about his origins than he bargained for, meet the twin brother he never knew he had, and discover nobody is what they seem, especially his new friend, the half-faerie, half-human Trasa… Amergin’s daughter.

I also like how the covers match thematically. I look forward to putting them on the same shelf.

And if that wasn’t enough, The Dark Divide also has ninja leprechauns. Seriously. How can anyone resist reading about ninja freaking leprechauns with shuriken?

5 / 5 stars