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lizbethandthelifeinbetween 's review for:
Falling Kingdoms
by Morgan Rhodes
I picked this up because I kinda liked The Book of Spirits and Thieves trilogy that got cancelled after the second book. There were some things bugged me, for sure, they weren't my favourites, but I didn't really think [b:Falling Kingdoms|12954620|Falling Kingdoms (Falling Kingdoms, #1)|Morgan Rhodes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1337026387l/12954620._SY75_.jpg|18111704] would be this bad. I guess I kinda forgot that this series was 9 or so books long and that [b:The Book of Spirits and Thieves|22571365|A Book of Spirits and Thieves (Spirits and Thieves, #1)|Morgan Rhodes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429026765l/22571365._SY75_.jpg|42037808] was the 10th or so book by the author.
Everything about this book was cringy. The dialogue was really awful. Every time a character started talking I wanted them to stop. No one talks the way these people do. And it's not like the author was trying to make an interesting linguistics structure to make her world more immersive, it was just really bad, exposition-y, and stuck-up dialogue. All her descriptions felt off and there was lots of telling. Like paragraphs at a time establishing the fact that a character was uncomfortable by something or hated someone. Something that could have very easily been shown in a few sentences and then moved on from. There were no variations in the writing style for any of the characters. While this stuff worked for the character of Magnus, it really, really did not for the others. It just made them all look dumb. Because things were so obvious to one character that it made me wonder why another character was oblivious and literally how was it possible for the entire plot to happen.
Next the plot. It was, wow. It had some potential, but the untapped potential was weighed down by everything else. From the absolute annoyingness that was the lead Cleo to the fact that everything just worked and happened. Anything that should have been built up and given time to develop seemed random and the few things that were supposed to be plot twists were glaringly obvious from the beginning. I wouldn't have had an issue if a character did something oblivious to a bunch of stuff, but a soon as a random other person figured it out and brought attention to it, it just made that character look stupid, especially when it was brought to their attention by someone else and they still said "whatever". If some of these things had been ignored and left alone to come as a surprise, it would have been a bit better. Instead, it just felt really random, kinda like this:
Kingdom 3: Hey, Kingdom 2, my very weak neighbour, let's fight your neighbour Kingdom 1! I may or may not have a super, all-powerful ex-Machina that will make sure we win.
K2: Sure let's do it. That's an amazing plan! Plus one of the nobles there killed one of my peasants who was being rude to him. Their king claims it was self-defence but my peasant says it wasn't so I really hate the king now.
K2 and K3 declared war on K1 the next day.
K1: oops, well uh, people fight.
Mild Spoiler but seriously you see it coming:
K3 has now taken everything over.
You mean to tell me no one but a random peasant saw this coming? And there were no pre-war negotiations other than: "hey look we kidnapped your stupid princess who somehow (even the reader doesn't know how) got out of a palace without her personal bodyguard or literally anyone in the kingdom noticing until she was well into K2 and the ONLY person who recognized her was a peasant boy who hates her because her fiancee killed his brother." There was no struggle anywhere. He just heard rumours of a girl who looked like Cleo walking around, decided to kidnap her, and that was that.
And the emotional tension was in all the wrong places. None of the romances got any development.
This spoiler is for a random (as in came out of nowhere and had no real consequences) plot element plus the ending of [b:Crooked Kingdom|22299763|Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456172607l/22299763._SY75_.jpg|42090179]: If she wanted the emotion, she really should have focused on the relationship between Cleo and her dying sister. That whole struggle lead the middle bit of the plot and carried more weight and importance to the rest of the book than the romances Cleo had. Not to mention that a few of the characters brought in for (what I assume was supposed to be romantic tension) just kinda disappeared once thye stopped being relevant or interesting; if they ever were to begin with.
I don't get why this book was hyped. I'll give it credit for being quick to read when I was actually bothered to read it but it was seriously lacking everwhere. plot, character development, structure, plot development, a distinctive and engaging voice that wasn't annoying. I could go on. While I'm not a huge fan of [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562726234l/13496._SY75_.jpg|1466917], I do not see the comparison. Maybe in the fact that kingdoms are fighting each other and the fact that the magic system and religious beliefs are kinda interesting, but they are totally different. It's doing both books harm. This book does not have the depth and nuance to it that A Song of Ice and Fire has, nor does it have characters that are likable with complex motivations. I actually like a few of the characters from GoT but all I can say for these guys is that Magnus was okay in the beginning but after that started to develop into a wet blanket like Cleo. This comparison is what made me think this might actually be a good book. It would have all the depth and nuance to it that GoT had, minus a lot of the stuff that bugged me because this book is YA. But that is not what this book is. It's a hot mess of random plot points and a lot of characters and kingdoms and oooohhhh look over there! It's a war. I'm glad I got this out from the library and I don't recommend it to anyone looking to get into fantasy or YA lest it turns you off an amazing genre. Go read [a:Kristin Cashore|1373880|Kristin Cashore|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1273894652p2/1373880.jpg] I swear by everything she's written.
On a final note, how does Toronto tie into any of this? Please fill me on what the prequels have to do with anything because that's all that kept me reading.
Everything about this book was cringy. The dialogue was really awful. Every time a character started talking I wanted them to stop. No one talks the way these people do. And it's not like the author was trying to make an interesting linguistics structure to make her world more immersive, it was just really bad, exposition-y, and stuck-up dialogue. All her descriptions felt off and there was lots of telling. Like paragraphs at a time establishing the fact that a character was uncomfortable by something or hated someone. Something that could have very easily been shown in a few sentences and then moved on from. There were no variations in the writing style for any of the characters. While this stuff worked for the character of Magnus, it really, really did not for the others. It just made them all look dumb. Because things were so obvious to one character that it made me wonder why another character was oblivious and literally how was it possible for the entire plot to happen.
Next the plot. It was, wow. It had some potential, but the untapped potential was weighed down by everything else. From the absolute annoyingness that was the lead Cleo to the fact that everything just worked and happened. Anything that should have been built up and given time to develop seemed random and the few things that were supposed to be plot twists were glaringly obvious from the beginning. I wouldn't have had an issue if a character did something oblivious to a bunch of stuff, but a soon as a random other person figured it out and brought attention to it, it just made that character look stupid, especially when it was brought to their attention by someone else and they still said "whatever". If some of these things had been ignored and left alone to come as a surprise, it would have been a bit better. Instead, it just felt really random, kinda like this:
Kingdom 3: Hey, Kingdom 2, my very weak neighbour, let's fight your neighbour Kingdom 1! I may or may not have a super, all-powerful ex-Machina that will make sure we win.
K2: Sure let's do it. That's an amazing plan! Plus one of the nobles there killed one of my peasants who was being rude to him. Their king claims it was self-defence but my peasant says it wasn't so I really hate the king now.
K2 and K3 declared war on K1 the next day.
K1: oops, well uh, people fight.
Mild Spoiler but seriously you see it coming:
Spoiler
K2: Wait, K3 is so much stronger what if they take us over. Also, what are we gonna do with K1 once we win?K3 has now taken everything over.
You mean to tell me no one but a random peasant saw this coming? And there were no pre-war negotiations other than: "hey look we kidnapped your stupid princess who somehow (even the reader doesn't know how) got out of a palace without her personal bodyguard or literally anyone in the kingdom noticing until she was well into K2 and the ONLY person who recognized her was a peasant boy who hates her because her fiancee killed his brother." There was no struggle anywhere. He just heard rumours of a girl who looked like Cleo walking around, decided to kidnap her, and that was that.
And the emotional tension was in all the wrong places. None of the romances got any development.
This spoiler is for a random (as in came out of nowhere and had no real consequences) plot element plus the ending of [b:Crooked Kingdom|22299763|Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456172607l/22299763._SY75_.jpg|42090179]:
Spoiler
So when they died all I could think was "really? all the tears? I literally have no idea who this person is or why I care or why you care." I think if the author had been focused more on building up their relationship than the emotional ending she had planned, it would actually have been an emotional ending. Like Mattias's death in [b:Crooked Kingdom|22299763|Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2)|Leigh Bardugo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1456172607l/22299763._SY75_.jpg|42090179].I don't get why this book was hyped. I'll give it credit for being quick to read when I was actually bothered to read it but it was seriously lacking everwhere. plot, character development, structure, plot development, a distinctive and engaging voice that wasn't annoying. I could go on. While I'm not a huge fan of [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1562726234l/13496._SY75_.jpg|1466917], I do not see the comparison. Maybe in the fact that kingdoms are fighting each other and the fact that the magic system and religious beliefs are kinda interesting, but they are totally different. It's doing both books harm. This book does not have the depth and nuance to it that A Song of Ice and Fire has, nor does it have characters that are likable with complex motivations. I actually like a few of the characters from GoT but all I can say for these guys is that Magnus was okay in the beginning but after that started to develop into a wet blanket like Cleo. This comparison is what made me think this might actually be a good book. It would have all the depth and nuance to it that GoT had, minus a lot of the stuff that bugged me because this book is YA. But that is not what this book is. It's a hot mess of random plot points and a lot of characters and kingdoms and oooohhhh look over there! It's a war. I'm glad I got this out from the library and I don't recommend it to anyone looking to get into fantasy or YA lest it turns you off an amazing genre. Go read [a:Kristin Cashore|1373880|Kristin Cashore|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1273894652p2/1373880.jpg] I swear by everything she's written.
On a final note, how does Toronto tie into any of this? Please fill me on what the prequels have to do with anything because that's all that kept me reading.