Synopsis
The Order have watched over the continent of Epheria for thousands of years. But there are those who believe The Order has had its day. That it is corrupt, indulgent, and deceitful – that it is ready to fall.
The City of Ilnaen is on fire.
Dragons fill the skies.
Traitors fill the streets.
The Fall is a prequel novella that takes place four hundred years before the events in Of Blood and Fire – book one in The Bound and The Broken series.
Review
The Fall is a prequel novella related to Ryan Cahill’s The Bound and the Broken series. It takes place approximately 400 years before the events of book 1, Of Blood and Fire, and highlights a big event in the history of Epheria that is mentioned several times in Of Blood and Fire and continues to impact current events.
Even though The Fall was released after Of Blood and Fire I chose to read it first, as I have natural tendency to want to do things in chronological order. But, if I could do it over, I would have waited to read this book until I had read book 1 in the series. I think the events in this book would have been a nice throwback to experience after the events of the first book and would have provided some important information and clarified a few things about the history of the The Order. I do have to say that I debated this with others who have read these books, and my thoughts on it are not universally accepted; there are those who think The Fall works as a good introduction to this world, its magic, and the culture of its peoples. Whichever side you end up on, I think we can all agree that The Fall is a good book.
For the most part, I liked the format. This story is broken up into 4 sections that each cover the events of The Order during this time. I am not going to cover the plots points in detail here (because you have to read it for yourself), but it does a nice job of comprehensively covering this incident. The storyline in this novella is world-changing for the people of Epheria, and its importance is made clear in Of Blood and Fire.
I did have an issue with the pacing. This is mostly a me thing, but I tend not to enjoy long chapters. Oftentimes, I start to lose interest without a natural break in the narrative. Longer chapters also make it more difficult to continue on “just one more chapter” as I tend to do. I think Cahill could have kept to the 4-part format, but broken those parts into smaller sections and the author would have still stayed to true to the ideals of this book while improving on the pacing.
Even so, The Fall is an interesting trip into Epheria’s past. It clears up some items from the first book in the series while adding depth to the overall narrative. This is a good read, and for those of you reading this series I recommend making time for it.
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