Tagged: chavali
Harbinger by Lee French and Erik Kort
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
Adjusting to her new life as a soul-bound agent of the Fallen has Chavali pushing herself harder than ever before. Between learning to fight, dealing with idiots, and climbing stairs – lots of stairs – she has little time to waste on thoughts of the future. Or the past.
When another agent fails to report in, Chavali is sent on the mission to discover her fate. Ready or not, she saddles up for a new adventure with new dangers.
The search takes her to Ket, a coastal city slathered in mystery. There, she faces ghosts from her past and demons of her future as she seeks answers. All she seems to find are more questions.
Plague, murder, lies, espionage…this city harbors much more than meets the eye, and maybe too much to handle.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the only real things that disappointed me in the last book was that we never explored the origins of the Fallen. I was expecting French and Kort to go into their mysterious origins a little bit but that never really happened, unfortunately. Their world-building was just as good as it was when they wrote the first book, but in some ways Harbinger brings up more questions than it answers. Still, I could really appreciate the time and effort they both put into fleshing out the city of Ket, where all of the main action takes place.
In the first book Chavali went through huge changes as a character. She does that here in book two but not to the same degree, really. What’s interesting is that with Harris she learns mercy and with Colby she learns that not everything is black and white and seeing the world that way can be a significant hindrance. And what was far more interesting to me personally was the way she interacted with people, helping them with their problems in an honest sort of way and caring about someone besides herself. That’s definitely a marked difference from The Fallen. She’s no saint, but I did love the way her character developed so naturally throughout the book.
The best and sometimes worst part of Harbinger is the plot. It’s the best thing because it’s much more complex and fast-paced than that of the previous book. It’s also the ‘worst’ thing because sometimes it’s too complex and there are far too many new names brought up without sufficient backstory. That’s not necessarily a major thing because it doesn’t detract from the overarching goal (find Elise and find out why she died) but it does make things more than a little confusing at some points, especially when you get everyone’s spies involved in the group’s business. I would have liked for either a little more fleshing out of each character or just fewer minor characters just to keep the plot straight.
Still, I did enjoy Harbinger on the whole. I loved Erik Kort and Lee French’s world and their world-building. Their major characters were much more fleshed out this time around and Chavali really is turning into a different person as one of the Fallen. My only real complaints were the lack of new backstory discovered and the introduction of too many minor characters without really fleshing them out. But the question is: will I be reading the third book? Of course because I want to see what happens to Chavali and the gang; I’ve come to care for them as characters.
I give this book 3.5/5 stars.
The Fallen by Lee French and Erik Kort
(Cover picture courtesy of Goodreads.)
For hundreds of years, the Blaukenev clan has wandered across Tilzam, from one end to the other and back. Each wagon carries history, love, laughter, pain, sorrow, and secrets. Their greatest secret of all may be Chavali, the clan Seer.
Spirits claim/use/save/damn her.
With her gift/curse, nothing surprises her anymore, no one keeps secrets from her. She, on the other hand, has more than enough secrets to keep. Secrets of her own, secrets of her clan, secrets of the world, secrets she even keeps from herself.
There are always people who want secrets.
Some will do anything to get what they want.The Fallen is the foundation of the story of The Greatest Sin, of a world adrift from its God that desperately wants Her back. Chavali’s comfortable, predictable life will be ripped apart and burnt to ashes as she’s forced into the middle of that struggle. Change, she hates it passionately. It hates her right back.
[Full disclosure: I received a free ebook in conjunction with the blog tour in exchange for an honest review.]
One of the things that surprised me the most about French and Kort’s world is how vivid it is. Even though we only see a limited bit of it through Chavali, the rich lore of The Greatest Sin as well as the obviously well thought out traditions of Chavali’s people all combine to make it a wonderful fantasy world. I personally would have liked to learn way more about the other countries and the Fallen themselves, but I think that’s for another book entirely. Still, both authors reveal enough about the world that you feel curious about it, but not lost. And that way there’s no huge info-dump right at the beginning; instead there’s a natural learning curve as the book goes on.
The characters were nothing stellar, but they were fairly good. Chavali can be temperamental and rude but I can sort of understand why when people keep touching her and passing on their thoughts without her permission. Especially when those people are particularly repugnant or are like Keino and want things that she can’t and won’t give. Still, Chavali was a very sympathetic character and when you consider just how much she changes from pampered seer to member of the Fallen, you realize she is fairly easy to relate to. Haven’t we all lost some arrogance at one point in our lives?
I can’t reveal too much about the plot without giving away some pretty important spoilers, but let me just say that while it’s not predictable, it’s not completely unpredictable. There are familiar tropes that will allow you to predict what happens next but at the same time, French and Kort mixed things up a bit by introducing the Fallen and revealing more about Chavali’s tribe. So while it’s not an on the edge of your seat plot, it is interesting enough that I wanted to read it in one session. All in all? I’d have to say that The Fallen was pretty good and I can’t wait to start on Harbinger tonight.
I give this book 4/5 stars.