Blood of the Falcon (The Falcons Saga Book 1)

Sword of the Falcon

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And there are just way too many different points of view, in fact too many characters altogether. It creates a sprawling, undisciplined mess, frankly.

There was a point in the first book where I turned the page to find yet another new character, in another new castle, with another new set of circumstances to get to grips with. I was so cross I went off to read another book altogether, and although I came back to this one, I resent the effort involved in trying to keep track of all these people and towns and rivers and horses and whatnot.

Sword of the Falcon (The Falcons Saga, #2) by Court Ellyn

The plot follows two distinct threads. The larger part, or so it seemed to me, was the progress of the war, which we saw from every conceivable angle, every skirmish, siege and sea-battle described in painstaking detail. Neither the characters nor the methods employed are particularly special, and most of the time entirely devoid of magic, so I found this part rather uninteresting, and the descriptions of the effects of war rather heavy-handed.

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The other thread, of Kieryn learning to use his abilities as an avedrin, a kind of mage, is to me far more interesting. The elves are particularly well-drawn, being neither the whimsical creatures of fairy-tales, nor the far-above-the-mortal-plane elves of Tolkien. Kieryn is perhaps the most sympathetic character in the book, always trying to do the right thing, and I very much liked the way he gradually learns about his powers and how to use them.

His reappearance later in the war is unquestionably one of the highlights of the book, although latterly his dramatic nick-of-time reappearances to magically help things along came very close to deus ex machina. As the book and the war progresses, the tone becomes darker.

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The war becomes more desperate, and from a small, localised affair bursts its banks and spills in all directions at once. The author captures very well the urgency, the difficulty of making instant decisions, the consequences of a single minor event, the impact of a risky but unexpected strategy and the futility of it all.

The focus is very much on the characters and the effect on them of the events they witness, and a number of them find out just what sort of people they are at this point. This is in many ways a very good book, but I found it rather a frustrating read. The second volume has more of these, and also more depth and thoughtfulness.

Unfortunately, there were other moments when it was all too easy to stop reading, where the writing was clunky or downright cheesy, or littered with careless typos.

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The frequent jumps in location and to a different character, and the sheer number of point of view characters, tended to break continuity rather drastically and made it difficult to care very much about most of them. A wonderful chapter might be followed by a jump to a completely unrelated plotline with a character hardly mentioned before.

Interesting characters are passed over for chapter after chapter. The desire to cover all aspects of the war leads to sprawl. Some parts are obviously only setup for the next book.

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Excising some of the less essential parts of the story, like the pirate angle or the renegade elf, and focusing on a much smaller core cast would have made for a much tauter and more polished story. I really found it difficult to rate this one overall. I actually struggled with it at times, and yet other chapters just sped by. The characters are well-drawn, the sprawling plot strands are neatly managed and there's some depth to the underlying themes.

Dec 01, Lara Durrant rated it really liked it. I've been really happy how much the writing and narrative style has matured from the very first book. Swords of the Falcon picked up a lot pace-wise and got into some very fun and interesting territory. I particularly enjoyed how much character development the main cast got. Their character arcs felt important and satisfying. I'm looking forward to seeing how everything progresses in the third book.

I've really enjoyed this series and can't until the next. A great read, all I can say is how disappointed I am that book three of the trilogy has not been released and I had no idea I was reading a series! The book was interesting to read.

Though I have never liked it when the story elaborates different situations, this was a good one. Jdjade rated it it was ok Jan 18, Angela rated it it was amazing Jul 02, Chad rated it it was amazing Dec 02, Ron Knipple rated it it was amazing Jun 04, Stuart Bohnet rated it it was amazing Apr 25, Knyt rated it liked it Jul 22, Todd mervin rated it really liked it Feb 16, V Miller rated it liked it Oct 22, Victoria rated it really liked it May 19, Evan Elijah Huber rated it liked it Jul 14, Matt rated it it was amazing Aug 28, Brent Markee rated it really liked it Aug 22, Jacob rated it it was amazing Oct 10, Jake Roberts rated it really liked it Nov 10, Brad rated it liked it Jul 05, Nate Adams rated it it was amazing Aug 22, Evildeus rated it really liked it Sep 30, Epuett rated it really liked it May 18, Peter rated it really liked it Apr 03, Joshua Beane rated it really liked it Dec 16, Gabe rated it really liked it Apr 18, Jesse Davis rated it really liked it Mar 28, I just can't help myself.

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Blood of the Falcon , volumes 1 and 2.

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