The Fate of the Fallen

The Three Worlds Cycle #9

by Ian Irvine

After ten years of servitude, Nish is about to be released from the blackest prison of the maimed God-Emperor, Jal-Nish Hlar, his corrupt father. Jal-Nish holds the two sorcerous quicksilver tears, Gatherer and Reaper, and with them controls all of the Secret Art. All opposition having been crushed, he has begun to remake the world in his depraved image.

The only hope of overthrowing him lies in Nish, whom the oppressed peoples of the world see as a messianic figure, the Deliverer for, as Nish was dragged off to prison a decade ago, he wildly promised to return and cast down his father.

Unfortunately Nish is powerless and without allies. But worse, his father wants Nish to become his lieutenant and become as corrupt as he is. Jal-Nish offers Nish everything he has ever desired and, faced with the unbearable alternative of another ten years in prison, he isn't sure he can resist the temptation.

Genres: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, High Fantasy

688 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

I'm an Australian author of 34 novels, mainly fantasy. They include the bestselling Three Worlds epic fantasy sequence, which has sold over a million print copies. It comprises The View from the Mirror quartet, The Well of Echoes quartet and The Song of the Tears trilogy. I’ve just finished The Gates of Good and Evil quartet, the long-awaited sequel to The View from the Mirror. Book 3, The Perilous Tower, was published recently and the final book, The Sapphire Portal, will be published on November 1, 2020.
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WHY I WRITE
Funny thing is, I never wanted to be a writer. From an early age my ambition was to be a scientist. I’m an expert in pollution and I’ve spent my professional life studying it in far-flung places like Mauritius, Sumatra, Mongolia, South Korea, the Philippines, Papua-New Guinea and Western Samoa, as well as all over Australia. Often scuba diving to the bottom of foul, smelly harbours and hammering tubes deep into the polluted mud to collect samples for chemical analysis. Now that’s living!

I was a small, quiet kid who devoured books from the moment I learned to read. When I was naughty, Mum wouldn’t let me read anything for a week – talk about a cruel and unusual punishment.

I discovered fantasy in the early 70’s, with The Lord of the Rings and the Earthsea trilogy, and was immediately hooked. But there wasn’t much fantasy in those days; within a couple of years I’d read everything available. I wanted more and bigger tales, on vaster canvases, but they didn’t exist. That’s why I had to become a writer – to write the kind of stories I wanted to read.

WHAT I WRITE
I’ve never wanted to write about superheroes or huge, reckless warriors who know no fear. I write epic fantasy about underdogs and ordinary people who, in pursuit of their goals, are put to the limit of human endurance. My characters aren’t fantasy stereotypes, they’re real people with believable motivations and unfortunate flaws. I’m well known for strong female characters who have as many adventures as the men, and frequently get them out of trouble (I have five sisters). My characters are often small or clumsy or inexperienced or handicapped in some way, yet they make up for it with cleverness, ingenuity or sheer, low cunning. My antagonists are real, complex people who do bad things for strong and deeply-held reasons – never ‘just because they’re evil’.

Though my characters suffer every kind of torment imaginable, at their lowest point they discover the truest form of courage – they keep fighting because the fate of the people they care for, and the world they love, depends on them never giving up.

SOME RECENT REVIEWS
"Irvine is a veteran storyteller who excels in sustaining complex plots with well-rounded characters. Here, he delivers a compelling tale of vengeance, loyalty, and the search for a place in the world." Starred review, Library Journal (US)

"That Grand Master of the vast epic is with us again! The first gripping volume of what promises to be a vintage Irvine treat. More please!" Crisetta MacLeod, Aurealis Express

"Incredibly exciting. The end will have you eagerly anticipating the next book." Good Reading (Aus)

"He knows how to spin an epic yarn and tell it with real gusto ... ambitious in scope and tirelessly action-stuffed." SFX

Reviews

[Skwerlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like this 5-star-review system! I've rated this book at 3 stars along with some of the books from the previous View from the Mirror and Well of Echoes series, but I certainly would call this book a low 3 stars and those a high 3 stars (but I don't think this book only deserves 2 stars), so far I am not liking this series as much as either of the previous two. One of the things I enjoy about Ian Irvine's fantasy novels is that they are a bit gritty, characters have to walk places and it takes a long time, maybe they don't have enough food, maybe their boots wear out, maybe they have to do all this walking around with no food and lousy supplies while injured. They aren't just happpily wandering around on adventures through forests that always seem to be full of fresh fruits and lots of easily-caught and delicious little critters (they eat bugs and slugs and mouldy bits of whatever they can get). But the Song of the Tears series seems to be much grimmer, and I'm not sure I like the at times almost hopeless atmosphere. In the other books, characters were struggling for various things, fighting, maybe the situations were a bit hopeless but you always felt they had a chance. In this book it has seemed to me as though the "good guys" don't actually have a chance of winning, and so when they do something that goes well it seems that much more improbable- and not necessarily in a good "wow, they really lucked out and scraped by there!" way- in a "well the author will clearly have the good guys win, even though it may seem absurd" way. It's not really as much fun to read a book like that, even when there are failures and challenges mixed in. I'll wait for the next book in the series and see, the other two I felt improved as the series progressed, perhaps the same will be true for this final Three Worlds series.

[Loren Harway · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was eagerly looking forward to this after the excruciating ending of the last series. This latest installment was very Irvine-deeply depressing, making you want to curl up and cry on the floor at the hopelessness of their situtation.
Still it is a masterpiece perhaps not as enthralling as the previous but these are early days, the next book promises to expand the cast (and bring back old and very old characters).
Gory and sexy as always the writing makes you want to stab yourself again and again and again... and then hunt down the bastard that wrote it and continue with him.
I don't think many people know of this series, many abandoned Irvine after his horrifying end to the quartet and wouldn't bother checking for another.
His other trilogies seem to expand into quartets (Chamaera looked to be hoping for a fifth book), perhaps we can expect a quartet despite his promises.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay read. I thought the concept was overall good but it was a little hard to follow at times. The protagonist was kind of annoying because she was constantly doing very brave and truly heroic things but she acted sooooooo weak. Like it was over the top. She should have had a little confidence after she made many daring escapes, risked her life a million times, and killed some dudes. I don’t think I will be moving on to the second book.

Oh also, it ends at a really weird point. I feel like the author was going for a cliff hanger but it was too much in the middle of the action and it felt awkward to end so abruptly.

[Maggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

So I've been reading fantasy novels since I was in second grade starting with Tolkien's famous "The Hobbit" and more recently reading my way through George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire". I admit to not having read Irvine's previous series so I don't have the background knowledge. However, I've read follow up series before with no problems and loved them. This book, sadly, does not fall in that category. Halfway through it, I'm about to throw in the towel because I don't believe in torturing myself. The plot is wonderful but the story progression completely ruins the reading experience. The characters' thoughts and actions make no sense. I mean, at some point you have to stop coming to the same realization over and over that this person is manipulating you or that falling asleep in the middle of a dangerous area near people who want to kill you is a bad idea. Characters also have this annoying god-modding habit where they are horribly injured on page A and almost fully recovered on page B. It feels more often than not like there a holes in the story where Irvine just wrote ideas and forgot to link them together in a way that makes sense. I don't know how many times I've had to stop and wonder if I missed something only to reread several chapters and discover that there really isn't anything leading up to what just occurred. To end on a positive note, I will give Irvine some points for not making this story horribly dependent on past novels.

[Zaryna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was the least challenging of Irvines works I've read since The View from the Mirror. Possibly because I already knew the main character Nish and a few others along the way. In this one Irvine didn't dawdle. It wasn't just these scenes of extremely full on action where the characters suddenly either suceed or fail. The story was a journey, it took me along the whole way, and because of the I really enjoyed it.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly riviting! I feel like I waited for this book to come out forever. Recommended for any fan of fantasy, Ian Irvine is a fantastic writer.

[Peter · Rating 1 out of 5]

After 120 pages in the company of complete idiots I gave up. Shame really: the plot had promise but the characterisation and storytelling was so naive.
Sorry :(

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maelys is sent on the most perilous mission of her life- to rescue the son of the tyrannical god-emperor, so he can become the promised Deliverer and overthrow his father. Maelys and Nish travel elagues, together and apart as they collect followers and enemies alike.

I was conflicted about how to review this one. I finished it wanting to know where these characters go next and how their story ends- kind of a cliff hanger ending- but as I was reading there were several instances where I flinched and physically recoiled. Aside from the horror of battle and war, there are some really gross moments in this including; skin suits, nostril cutting, the bug and its removal and the constant objectification and abuse of those with lesser power, especially women. There are a disturbing number of mentions of Maelys' breasts in the first few chapters, before we've gotten to know her and she has very little personality beyond bookish and quiet until she is faced with incredible and dangerous situations which she manages to work her way out of.

That said, I really want to know if Maelys overcomes her people pleasing nature, fully overcomes her hero worship of Nish- who is incredibly disappointing so kudos to the writer- and eventually takes a hold of power both personally and magically to love her life the way she wants it without the control of a man or her mother and aunts.

4 stars because the world building is incredible and the author pushes boundaries to the grimace point but manages to draw you back in again. Very skillfully done! Plus, it evoked variety of feelings throughout and is bound to stick with me for a long time yet.

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened via audio book rather than read this time around. I think the weakest book in all the Santhenar books thus far. While the world building is still very good, with continual references to ruins / strange artefacts from long ago that I always enjoy. Plot is also its usual convoluted, twisty self, with plenty of surprises, good and bad, along the way. What lowers the score for this book though is the main characters. We don't have some of my favourites from past books (Tiaan, Irisis, Yggur etc) and the characters here seem to keep falling into the same sort of cycle - make a decision, it turns out to be wrong, really regret the decision made, but carry on to make the same sort of decision again next time. Sometimes they make what really seems to be the 'right' decision given the information they have at the time, but the story punishes them for this as well, so things then go bad, and possibly due to this, they never seem to grow from this. Another common irritation, is when they mention that time is running short / they only have moments to act, they seem to have time to admire the scenery / take in details of what everyone is wearing etc. This may be just the nature of a book / audio book, where the time taken to read / listen is quite different to the internal thought processing time, but is a bit jarring. I will continue to listen to the other books (which I haven't read or listened to before) as still keen to know what happens next, but I do hope the characters improve!

[Alex Passey · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not like this book was completely terrible. I can definitely see some teenager picking it up as their first step into swords and sorcery beyond LOTR and thinking it's a pretty good read. But compared to a lot of the other really great high fantasy out there, this doesn't measure up. The story telling was so linear, with very little expansive world-building that went beyond what was necessary to satisfy immediate plot conditions. The magic system was pretty amorphous, allowing obstacles to be overcome by what magical precepts that hadn't been previously hinted at. The term deus ex magica comes to mind. The characters were pretty two dimensional, and there wasn't a lot of memorable banter. The prose as a whole left quite a bit to be desired.

But to be fair, there was a good deal of imagination here. Some aspects of this world were interesting and compelling. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, but there are worse things you could spend your time reading.

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of you who didn't read the first series before reading this, you do not have to for the first 70% of the book. However, (keeping this spoiler free) I recommend it for the last part. I unfortunately didn't read the first series thinking this was the first series. oops.

By itself, this is an incredibly dark fantasy. I kept thinking I was reading a book dedicated to Nurgle of Warhammer 40k. The story descriptions are depressing, smothering, disgusting and so visually realistic that I felt queasy while reading but I couldn't stop. I would compare the tone of this fantasy with Steven Erikson's Malazan series due to the general societally treatment of the human body and spirit.

I also liked it enough that I will read book 2 of this series but probably will not go back to read the first series. I am assuming its spoiled for me now after reading this book. recommended

[Scott Belisle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with something sitting out of reach for so long is that when you finally get access to it, there's no way it can live up to the hype.

This book was out of print for ages in ebook form, or at least I could not acquire it in a format compatible with my ereader. That changed at some point since I finished reading through the Well of Echoes quartet, and I recently discovered that this trilogy was finally available for me to purchase. So of course I immediately tucked in.

Unfortunately, this book did not live up to the Well of Echoes for me. I will almost certainly finish reading the trilogy out of some dogged sunk cost feeling, but I simply did not vibe with this book. Though... Irvine is a master of making you feel the physical discomfort of his characters, so bravo. There is some true misery in this book for Maelys, poor girl.

[Oskari · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 luin puoliväliin, ihan ok. Aika huonot hahmot, ei mitää edistystä. Päähahmojen suhde oli aivan paskaa ja ne ei tehny yhtään mitää. Niin perus tylsä, siuluton ja ärsyttävä. Magia-systeemiki oli ihan surkee ja siinä tuli vastaan ihan random asioita, joita ei selitetty mitenkään. Saatan lukea vielä loppuun. En tiiä miksi annoin 2.5, varmaan ihan hyvää kirjotusta ja tykkään fantasiasta. +++ Juoni oli jokseenkin vetävä ja ainoa syy miksi luin näin pitkälle. Päänsärky, liian epäselvä ja tosi outo.

[Aidan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The switch between POVs is so stark in this book. The male lead has this grizzled, dark, exhausted personality explained through constant exposition. Meanwhile, the female lead stumbles over herself in her haste to tell you how she doesn't deserve to be in the spotlight. The worst thing in this novel is the constant mention of the female lead's nipples and breasts. However, will I remember it's a female character without knowing the exact position of her breasts and nipples in every action scene???!
1 star for being coherent writing.
1 star for interesting use of magic.

[Edel Ryder-hanrahan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay. It's hard for me to put my finger on the stuff that bugged me except I kept having "oh this tired old trope again?" feelings. Tropes aren't bad in books - I even actively wants a little familiarity when I hunt for a new fantasy setting, but it just wasn't doing it for me here. There was honestly not a single character who I was rooting for either. Unlikely to read book 2, but then I am a sucker for completing a story, so you'd never know.

[Taygus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Listened to the Audiobook.

soooo much tension. You're constantly left wondering if they'll make it. It feels like you're on the run right beside them.

I liked the characters, even the nasty cruel ones are very well described.
I do struggle with the creations, namely what flappeters actually look like, and how that word might be spelt.

It's surprising Ian is not more popular among fantasy fans, he has a very detailed world.

[Suvi Tartia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have not read any of Irvine's previous novels, but the world he presented in The Fate of the Fallen felt- for the most part - convincing. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the characters and the plot. I generally dislike giving up on a book, so I struggled on and read the entire novel, but I am not sure if it was worth it.

[Pat Austin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I listened to the audio book of this and I thought that all the description got in the way of the plot. Several things happened during the book that I just kept thinking "Get on with it - how is this furthering the plot???" Maybe all would be revealed in a subsequent book but somehow I don't think I'll be reading or listening to the next book in the series.

[JT Mickey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was hard to follow at times, the characters confusing at times and the ending a let down after 606 pages. However, this was the first book I have read of Irvine's and I will be finishing this series to see what happens next.

[Kuchpl · Rating 5 out of 5]

great read

[Ruth Harwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Onto part two with anticipation, really enjoyed this. A little verbose at times, but not in any story-detracting way!

[Rach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio version

[Isla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book especially the second half ended up staying up late to finish it without realising.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adventure in an Arabian nights sort of way. Strong female character, fighting against odds greater than herself. Showing courage despite her fear.

[db · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book. However, I’m not into all the politics.

[Cat Sheely · Rating 2 out of 5]

Inherently a good story but the constant battles and tribulations went into so much detail I found myself skimming over them.

[Ceri Sambrook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, imaginative writing, but I find the relentless misery in his style tough to endure at time. Let good people be happy once in a while...

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I will admit this review and my opinion is a little strange but bear with me.

I absolutely loved this book. It had all the elements of a fantasy book that I absolutely love, rich story, characters you can fall in love with an amazing world and an epic cliff hanger!
When I went to buy the next in the series I was genuinely surprised to find it was actually the 9th book of a huge saga!
I quickly bought the other 10 books and set out to read it from book one, only to be thoroughly disappointed with the others, I will be giving them a second chance as sometimes I find if you aren't in the mood for a certain type of book you will fail to find it fantastic even if its the best thing ever written. I also only got up to book 4, so perhaps it was this particular set (as its split in to three sets) that I didn't like. We will have to see.

That being said, this book was truly TRULY a gripping tale.
The beginning is a little hard to follow but following my revelation that I had actually missed out on 8 previous books that makes sense.
I will review the others in due course. But as a stand alone book this receives a 5 star rating!

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because, well, I've read the rest of them and I can't very well stop now. I didn't enjoy the Well of Echoes as much as the Tale of the Mirror and wasn't sure how well this one would measure up. Irvine's books are characterised by the hardship the protagonists endure. They are met by challenge after challenge, nothing falls easily into their laps and they work for their rewards - and this is part of their charm. Its a refreshing take on fantasy. However, my first impressions of this series is the author is taking this a step too far. Nothing goes right - in fact, it goes from bad to worse to even worse, and the main character, poor Maelys, gets a pretty tough run of it. Beyond the grit and realism Irvine obviously aims for, in this book it becomes more a form of torture for his characters. At least in my eyes.

That being said, the book is still an enjoyable fantasy romp with familiar characters mixed with new ones. Maelys is far less irritating than Tiaan, the adventure is as wild as ever and the geography and setting is, as always, stunning.

[Alex Boon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ian Irvine is one of the most frustrating authors I have read. He writes utterly unlikeable characters (with a couple of exceptions) and then makes them seem like idiots by supplying the reader with the obvious but ensuring that the characters fail to see it. Along with the irritant "he, Nish," and in this book "the zealot" as a singular description of a character, the narrative becomes increasingly annoying. In earlier books, Irvine " tells" rather than "shows" but this one takes it to a new level of bad writing, especially in one scene where half the plot is revealed through one character eavesdropping on two others. Poor.
On the other hand, I still don't want to stop reading and that's what's frustrating about these books. As annoying as the narrative is, it's still a good story and you still finish wanting to know what happens next and so I suppose I'm stuck with the "he, Nish," for a few more. Sigh.