Falling Kingdoms

Author: Morgan Rhodes

Genre: Young Adult, Romance, High Fantasy, Adventure

Publisher: Razorbill

Year: 2012

Ranking: 4/ 5

 
 Synopsis

In the three kingdoms of Mytica, magic has long been forgotten. And while hard-won peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest now simmers below the surface. As the rulers of each kingdom grapple for power, the lives of their subjects are brutally transformed... and four key players, royals and rebels alike, find their fates forever intertwined. Cleo, Jonas, Lucia, and Magnus are caught in a dizzying world of treacherous betrayals, shocking murders, secret alliances, and even unforeseen love.

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed? It's the eve of war.... Choose your side.

Princess: Raised in pampered luxury, Cleo must now embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of magic long thought extinct.

Rebel: Jonas, enraged at injustice, lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country cruelly impoverished. To his shock, he finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Sorceress: Lucia, adopted at birth into the royal family, discovers the truth about her past—and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Heir: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, firstborn son Magnus begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword

The Author

Morgan Rhodes lives in Ontario, Canada. As a child, she always wanted to be a princess -- the kind that knows how to wield a sharp sword to help save both kingdoms and princes from fire-breathing dragons and dark wizards. Instead, she became a writer, which is just as good and much less dangerous. Along with writing, Morgan enjoys photography, travel, reality TV, and is an extremely meticulous, yet voracious reader of all kinds of books. Under another pen name, she is a national bestselling author of many paranormal novels. Falling Kingdoms is her first high fantasy.

Personal Experience with This Book

I really wanted to read this book for a long time. Many people talk about how it is similitar to Game of Thrones and how amazing it is. This aroused in me a great interest in reading this story; and I feel so great to have read it.

The world Morgan Rhodes created is amazing and the magic that exists within it is wonderful. It is a well-constructed world, a world so vast that the reader discovering new things in each of the pages of this book, and I am sure that in the next ones to come.

We have a story told from different points of view and, where these views are completely story - or almost entirely - apart from one another. Three kingdoms and at least one different point in each view. We all can see how all our characters are connected with each other as the story unfolds. As hatred, love and political conspiracies arise.

The different POVs allow us to imagine with a broader view the world that she creates. Rhodes covers more field and gives us the opportunity to meet a host of characters who are nothing like each other. I love it when a writer has the ability to create such different characters in the same story and, at the same time makes; them feel as unique and imperfect that one can actually believe they could be real people.

We got Cleo in Auranos; Lucia and Magnus in Limeos and; Jonas in Paelsia. My favourites are, I will say Cleo and Jonas and I will explain why. Cleo is a girl who at first is very superficial - what is expected of someone who has been given everything in her life and virtually assured future - but also has a sense of what is right, which is awesome. This girl is very brave and bold. I loved the way she express herself, always saying what she thinks and having the fortitude that characterizes her. Her character will be that kind of warrior princess, or so I hope. Jonas, on the other hand has that bad boy attitude that I like. He is impulsive and very confident. He wants to be great and, his family and his people are more important to him than anything.  Yes, he is full of vengeance but that does not take him away from doing what is right.

On the other hand, there are Magnus and Lucia, who did not convince me. Both are good people, for now. Both have a despotic father who only wants power and more power and who does not care to pass over his own children just to get what he wants. However, both felt short. Magnus gets worse instead of better and start thinking more like his father. I do not like his arrogance, and even when his love for his sister is beautiful, his other actions leave much to be hated. Lucia, on her own, is a frightened child. I think her character definitely will have an incredible transformation that I personally want to see but still in this first book, the girl is left completely use by her father. She has no voice, judgment yes but her opinions are just inside her. It is like a chess piece her father moves.

As for the plot, I think this book is not much. We see more or less how the whole conflict starts and how the story will develop but, for this book, we are entering the world and meeting the characters. The real plot of the series is revealed right at the end of this first book. I was so intrigued when I finished I started the second right away.

The reason I did not give the book a higher rating is because although I liked it, I felt it lacked something. I do not really know what it is exactly but there is something that fails to enchant. That feeling that a book gives you like "wow, what I just read", this book does not have it. However, I think it has great potential and is a story that it is seen to be well thought out. I recommend it to people who like epic fantasy. There is a lot of political intrigue thus some people might find it boring. I liked it very much.