by Tim Meyer
Summary:
THE GODS HAVE FALLEN, AND SO WILL THE STARS.
Centuries ago, the old gods who walked Endlia vanished from the lands. The prophecy of the Boy with the Star-Shaped Eyes foretold their return, and now, thirteen years following the boy’s birth, the Five Realms are plunged into chaos, with old wars reigniting, and new wars sparking to life.
Ket Norlath has strived to hide from his past. But his new life is destroyed when soldiers ransack his farm and take his family. An ambitious king gives him a serve his cause and seek out the boy from the prophecy – kill him or capture him – or watch his family say their final prayers. Ket chooses to walk a familiar path, paved in violence and bloodshed. With the help of a homicidal court jester and a teenage witchling, Ket travels north. To end the prophecy. Restore balance to the Five Realms. Before the power that grows there ends them all.
Review:
Godfallen asks a question we all too often ask ourselves when we reach an intersection of belief and reality: what do you like on your burgers?
I jest (although this was an actual question asked by one MC to another early on). But Godfallen does tread on classic tropes of revenge, faith, belief in prophecy, and chosen ones, some skewing them, some sticking closely.
A boy with star-shaped eyes is born, signaling the return of the gods, or in many a rulers’ eyes, a chance to increase their own power. A changed man with a mysterious past, Ket Norlath, is tasked by a rival king to go rescue this boy. Sent with him is a mysterious assassin named Jester, as he’s been disfigured with a Glasgow smile and a jester hat sewn to his head. Along the way they meet a young witch (witchcraft is outlawed and hunted), only to unearth some painful memories from their pasts.
I want to say upfront that the characters carried this story for me. If Ket, Jester, and Rayalanna weren’t as strong as they were in terms of mystery, banter, growth, and overall fun, I don’t think I’d have liked the story as much. Jester in particular was a massive highlight. Not only was his character hilarious, competent, and compelling, but he also had a lot of depth. Ket carried the ‘traumatized by my past want to be better’ character trope with aplomb. He was just enough of a mystery, but his motivations of wanting to protect his sons after such heartache was very well done. The young witch Rayalanna was a great foil to Ket, one that was very endearing. The actual boy with the star shapes eyes was intriguing enough, but I think the plethora of other added POVs were not as necessary to be POVs since they didn’t add much to the character growth of our main cast. Again, the cast carried this book, they were just great.
This world with the gods and witches was pretty interesting, the various factions worshiping the gods (or killing in the name of, try not to sing the Rage Against the Machine song, I dare you). The witch powers were very gnarly and also had a bit of internal dialogue crazy to go with them. The ending reveal with the witches/gods was a welcomed addition. And Ket’s back story relating to a neat concept (sorry too spoilery to mention) was really awesome, you’ll just have to RAFO. There was a fun scene with a classic beastie type I enjoyed, one that was funny and scary in equal measures, bringing a levity to the proceedings, again, mostly because it involved Jester.
I did have some personal connection issues with the very modern language in this fantasy world (ie the burger discussion or a character taking a 180 degree turn or someone doing something one hundred percent), and those took me out of the story. I think it stemmed from me going in thinking it’d be classic sword and sorcery (gleaned from that amazing cover, seriously it might be one of the best covers of the year!) only to get a more epic/urban fantasy vibe. Sure there are swords and sorcery in the world itself, but the prose was very modern feeling. Also, I just am not the biggest fan of 3rd POV present tense (Meyer did it really well here so don’t be worried about his competency, I just don’t like the style as it throws me off while reading).
The prose is excellent, despite my personal qualms, and the pace steady. It kept me reading far longer than I wanted to, just because I could envision what these characters were facing, both with internal tension and physical altercations. The dialogue is great, especially Jester’s, his sarcasm and wit is top notch.
Godfallen is a good epic fantasy, bringing some amazing characterization to some familiar tropes. Although the conclusion was solid, it’s clearly setting up a much bigger conflict, one that I’d like to see where it goes.
Find out more about Godfallen!
Bill Adams
During his collegiate days at the turn of the century, he began to develop his passion for writing, especially within the epic fantasy genre about unlikely heroes. It was there, Bill began to formulate the story that would eventually become Ashe’s unwanted journey and The Divine Godsqueen Coda.
Aside from writing, Bill loves movies and reading, especially SFF B-movies. He likes to know all the useless trivia, like who played who, and what the stories were behind the curtain. He is a master at Scene It. Bill’s few other hobbies include soccer, a good whiskey, a slice of pizza, and growing a beard. It is the little things he enjoys most.
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