**This book has been completely re-edited and re-written with an extended ending**She's dreamed of being a great warrior. Instead, she becomes her world's worst nightmare. Aria is living the life of a healer, a position that's been forced on her to keep her away from her dreamwalker abilities and her true desire of being a warrior. But there's one dream that refuses to leave her alone- a man in a barren landscape of sand and rocks and ur'gel, deadly creatures designed for war. But as she fights to learn how to hone her dreamwalker gifts in order to save this man who she feels an odd connection to, her world folds in around her. Her village is attacked and her brother is taken. The ur'gel demand one bring Beru. The man from her dreams. But all the information she has about the man called Beru is that he was a traitor to the great hero, Onen Suun, who imprisoned the fallen over two centuries ago. If she frees this enemy in order to save her brother, how could she live with herself? But if she doesn't and her brother dies... Save her brother or start a war. The decision is hers. Reading Fallin Suun, available NOW for FREEBook 1: DreamwalkerBook 2: Spell BreakerBook 3: Soul HealerBook 4: Being the SuunBook 5: Breaking the SuunBook 6: Finding the SuunBook 7: Soul GobletBook 8: Heart StoneBook 9: Mind Ring
J.A. Culican is a USA Today Bestselling author of the middle grade fantasy series Keeper of Dragons. Her first novel in the fictional series catapulted a trajectory of titles and awards, including top selling author on the USA Today bestsellers list and Amazon, and a rightfully earned spot as an international best seller. Additional accolades include Best Fantasy Book of 2016, Runner-up in Reality Bites Book Awards, and 1st place for Best Coming of Age Book from the Indie book Awards.
J.A. Culican holds a Master's degree in Special Education from Niagara University, in which she has been teaching special education for over 13 years. She is also the president of the autism awareness non-profit Puzzle Peace United. J.A. Culican resides in Southern New Jersey with her husband and four young children.
For more information about J.A. Culican visit her website at: www.jaculican.com and follow her on Facebook: @jaculican
Aria is a young girl who wants to be a fighter, but she's been designated as a healer. Oh, joy! She just doesn't have the skill for it but still, she tries. She's seen the suffering of others, but let's be real...her abilities...aren't the best. When the call arises, she steps up the plate and helps defend her people when ur'gel invade her village and begin slaughtering the people. Oddly enough though...they are there...for her! Seems like she has a unique talent that she is just now discovering. The healer she was training under wants nothing to do with her and now she must seek help from another Dreamwalker. Her brother has been abducted and unless she can release a man that she sees when she dreamwalks, they will never let him go. Sounds like Aria has her work cut out for her because now she has to learn how to dreamwalk and learn the possibilities that come with it and fast. Dreamwalker is an engaging story that hits the ground running from the beginning. I liked that I could feel how unhappy Aria was with being made to apprentice as a healer. You just feel that she wants to be a fighter and to be out there doing something more...useful, in her mind. I appreciate that she understands the importance of healing, but she also knows that she's not adept at it either. It makes me curious as to why her family wanted her to be with the healers. You really get a feel for the danger that they live in when the village is attacked, and then there is the curiousness of why the crops and land are dying. The authors weave a story with a lot of suspense, mystery, humor and danger! The characters kept me engaged as I was eager to learn what was going to happen next. The race is on to save her brother Gavin and to release someone that so many believe is nothing but evil. There isn't much that I don't like about this story. I understand that Aria is young and impulsive, but I wanted more from her. When she was fighting with the monsters, her shots were just...terrible. For wanting to be a fighter I honestly wanted her to be out training in secret if need be to get better. There are also some scenes/moments that I wanted to read. I wanted to read how certain characters were taken out. But this is Aria's story so I get it. LOL. All in all, I enjoyed reading this book and look forward to reading the next in this series! If you love fantasy novels, twists, suspense, and danger then this is the book to pick up. I am rating this book 5 out of 5 stars.
OMG, this book had action, suspense, and more. It was hard to put it down. I will say that I'm glad I read Falling Suun first, for the insight. Aria is learning to be a healer, even though she wants to be a warrior. Aria goes into a dream and meets Beru. Now that her village has been attacked and her brother taken she must make a choice. What will she do to get her brother back? Can she get help? What does Beru have to do with it? Who can she believe? I received a free copy for my honest review.
A novel about a young woman called Aria, who had been sent to be trained as a healer by her family in order to keep her safe from the constant war their country was fighting against the Ur’gel, however she did not fit in with the rest of the healers at Mother Osburg’s training centre, she wanted to be a fighter. Yet when the town is invaded and she does try to fight she was not much good at this either but she discovered she was a dreamwalker instead, and that the Ur’gel had come specifically for her. They wanted her abilities to break Baru out of prison. Baru had been a lieutenant of Dag Draath, lord of the Underworld, during the dark wars. He was immortal and had been imprisoned for 250 years. In order to force her to do what they asked the Ur’gel kidnapped her brother Gavin who was crippled. She travels and tries to learn as much as she can from the warrior-wolf Sade, on their way to Western March to seek the advice of another dreamwalker, who she hoped would mentor her in the newly discovered skill but instead all hell is let loose. This is an epic fantasy adventure of the most thrilling kind, which has great world building and fantastic creatures including the magnificent shapeshifter Sade, the white wolf warrior and the evil shadow sorcerer. Aria travels in great company and makes a whole new set of friends at the time she needs them most. This is the first book in the series which I think will provide us with quite a few more great adventures in the near future.
This is the first book in the Legends of the Fallen series and the main character is a reluctant healer called Aria. She wants to be a warrior, but because she has an untrained ability as a dreamwalker, she has been forced to train as a healer. She is not very good at any type of magic or spell and most end in disaster. She sees the role of warrior as one she has always wanted, where she can do the most to hit back at those who attack her family or village and to keep them safe from the monsters that are multiplying and attack from the sky, called ur’gel. During the Dark War, someone called Dag’draath used these creatures as he tried to conquer the world, hundreds of year before. He was vanquished, but the seed of distrust was planted between all the races, human, dragon, and elves. After a busy few days healing the injured from battle, she falls asleep and has a strange dream of a man, she will later learn is called Beru. He is in a strange world, all alone, until an ur’gel attacks him. She tries to help and gets hit by the ur’gel’s sword on her hand and then awakens to find her hand bleeding!
This injury doesn’t heal, no matter what she of her best friend Noble can do, so Mother Ofburg, the head healer, is called in. She knows it is from an ur’gel blade and that is obviously happened when Aria was dreamwalking, something she denies, having never been told about it before. It seems this is an ability, a rare one, that she has and she will need to be trained to use it safely and properly. The man from her dreams keeps pulling her in, there is a strong connection somehow between the two, even when she learns he is in an extreme and very safe prison. Put there after he supposedly betrayed Onen Suun, the great hero who imprisoned the Fallen some two hundred years ago. She continues to have dreams about him in his vast and barren prison, with ur’gel all around. When another attack happens, this time her family farm is also attacked and one of her brothers is killed and another taken prisoner, by a much larger and somewhat different ur’gel, who seems to be their leader.
The creature communicates through her mother and tells them all that all they want is the dreamwalker and they will set the boy, her brother Gavin, free. The dreamwalker is to bring Beru to them and they will set the boy free! That is the name of the man she keeps visiting in her dreams. If she does what they ask, it will start another war and one that humans and others on this world may not survive. If she doesn’t then her brother Gavin will die. Whether she can even trust the word of what are mainly mindless killing monsters, is unclear. She now needs to travel to the Western March to locate a known dreamwalker to ask for his help in training her, so she can find Gavin and the ur’gel that took him. Once she gets this man’s help, she will be able to get Beru out and turn him over to this strange shadow mage and the ur’gel, in exchange for her brother. What they want with Beru is unknown.
She has a difficult decision to make and what she decides will change everything, one way will affect her family, but the other may cause a war. If she doesn’t do as requested, the ur’gel will continue to hunt her down and kill anyone that gets in their path, leaving innocents dying by the hundreds or even thousands. Even her healer trainer blames her for all the deaths that occurred and she takes it hard. Someone close to her has been killed and now she has no idea who will help her in her journey! Freeing a traitor may leave a doorway open for other Fallen to travel back to her world, from the prison Onen Suun gave his life to create. A great read and only the start of what is to come, in this adventurous series. Fantastic characters and an adventure that has only just begun. I can’t wait to read more of this series and see where Aria’s dreamwalking takes her. I received an ARC copy of this book from the author and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
It was...enjoyable, I guess? The concept and world idea was enough to keep me interested throughout. Where the book failed was telling, rather than showing, which negatively affected everything from characters to the world itself. I was told about certain character traits or interpersonal connections but never saw them displayed in such away that they were real (in the story). For example, we are told about Aria and Beru's relationship and how they have this connection and bond, but all that happens off-page. We are told about deep conversations they have but the only thing we see is Beru telling Aria to go away. How am I supposed to believe they have this relationship when all I see is the opposite? Sade is another example of weak character building where we are told about her, but when we see her, she vacilates between being stoic warrior chick to playful teenager with no rhyme or reason to the changes. This is true for most characters, all of whom are so random that there's no grasp on who their characters are; it feels kind of like they are whoever the plot needs them to be at a particular moment. World building similarly suffers. The author brings up a lot of ideas, like Sade's wolf-shape shifting or healing magic or the like but never really does anything with them. Maybe that will crop up in later books but for now, it feels like a distraction. No sense of geography, scale, or stakes are given. Terms and peoples are bandied about as if I'm supposed to know who and what they are but I don't. In short, this book has a lot disjointed pieces that aren't put together in a coherent manner. By the end, I felt like I was looking at puzzle pieces on the floor, trying to figure out what exactly happened. Finally, the lack of stakes was a problem for me. Everyone said that releasing Beru from his prison would be a problem but no one says why or what would happen if this one particular person would be freed. Neither is it clear why the Uragel or mages want him or what he can do. I kept saying, "and why do we care if he's released or not?" It seems like this big tough decision, but I never go the sense that there were any serious consequences to him being let out; the only challenge was Aria being able to actually do it. This book could be best served by the author going back and constructing a fleshed out world, better understood characters, and a clear plot. Good idea that is half-baked.
An exciting first book in this new series promises to be a fun ride. Aria is a dreamwalker but needs some guidance on how to manage her talent without using up too much energy. When her village was attacked by ur’gels her invalid brother was kidnapped. She would do anything to save her brother from the ur’gels so she sets off to find him with the aid of a warrior friend, Sade. On the road they meet up with a novice sorcerer and onward they go to the village of Western March where an experienced dreamwalker resides and where the ur’gels are set to attack next. Much happens in Western March while this merry band is there. Suffice it to say there is a happy ending but not without some struggles and sadness. The characters in this book add an interesting uniqueness to the story that makes you smile, laugh and cry. The world building is multidimensional and is easy to imagine. Although with 27 books expected in this series I would venture to say there will be more lands to discover and different characters to become acquainted with. I’m greatly looking forward to reading the future books in this series.
I would give no stars if possible. This book is poorly written and feels like it was written in an afternoon. The world was not well put together or believable. There are creatures that talk but besides being larger no real descriptions are given. Some creatures attack and some you make friends with? Also there is a god of darkness, period. Nothing is hashed out besides that and there was a war a long time ago. The characters are all one dimensional and their conversations are so simple it is laughable. I only finished the book because it was incredibly short and I’m weird about not finishing books. I throw money away on crap all the time but with this I want my .99 back! The most infuriating thing is that the reviews are no doubt all fake. While I understand some people like stuff I don’t, the reviews were 100%fake since they are just flat out lies. The characters are not relatable, the world is all over the place and not in a Malazan book of the fallen good way, and the plot was uninteresting to say the least. Do not read this book! Do not believe the reviews! I feel very manipulated and angry that the reviews convinced me to buy this book.
Absolutely loved this book. I wasn't looking forward to this book although I am a fan of J.A. Culican and her Hollows Ground series of books is blooming brilliant but I fount the prequal to this new set of books -Falling Sunn, hard going. But I was very happy to find that in this book J. A. Culican & Tanya Dawson are back to their brilliant selves - The storey flows nicely and i read the book in its entirety with out putting it down. Aria is a new Heroine and very likeable, She wants to be a Warrior but is sent to train as a Healer and then finds out that she is something very rare, a Dreamwalker. Epic fantasy adventure where Aria is trying to save her brother and being forced to use her Dreamwalker powers which she herself doesn't really understand and in order to rescue her brother she has to set free Beru who was a traitor to the great hero, Onen Suun and who has been imprisoned for 250 years. Wonderful world building and great storey telling
I'm not sure if my digital copy was different or had issues but my experiemce differs these other reviewers. The story has potential and some had interesting parts that were enjoyable, but the writing was choppy with hard to follow sequences and not very realistic dialog/conversations. The main character went from just meeting someone and being internally guarded in one paragraph to having the new character know everything about her in the next paragraph and they're suddenly best friends. Relationships between characters were not well flushed out and it made for a sometimes confusing read. I haven't read any other books by this author, so I don't know if this is how they normally write, but I won't be reading the sequels.
I’ve loved everything written by J.A. Culican do its no surprise that I glommed on to Culican’s collaboration with Tanya Dawson even though the latter is new to me. I’m glad I did, as I freakin’ loved Dreamwalker (Legends of the Fallen, Book 1). Highly imaginative and perfectly written. Read the publisher’s blurb to get the plot basics - but know that this is complex yet totally wonderful (and totally fun). But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review to my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises. The book definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the book is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend. I’m definitely looking forward to the next book in this series.
A fantastic read. As soon as I opened the book, This read grabbed me right from the start. Aria is a healer she is helping her family. All the sudden there place is attached and her brother is kidnapped and the only way she can get him out. Is to complete the mission of getting someone else released. The Author takes you into a fantasy world that you can see visually in your mind. And you really feel for the Characters. Some scenes you may need a box of tissues. Once I started reading I couldn't put the book down. Fantastic Writing. And an Epic beginning Shauna Joesten
This book was pretty good. There were several key things missing for one to make sense of some of her dreamwalking. And then at the end the argument between the her and Beru went way to easy and it was like everything was just fine. What?! Ok. Other than that I enjoyed parts of it and am intrigued enough to keep reading, for now. There were a few cuss words and sometimes the characters said thing in a way that pulled me out of the reality of the world the author built to modern day.
After reading the reviews for this book I was a bit hesitant to grab this book, but hey mixed in with the negative there is positive also. I will agree with some of the comments like was the invading leader friend or foe. I’m still confused on that one. The story does move at a fairly quick pace there is certainly no fluff in this book. Overall I can say that the world building was good and character development although quick was at least there. I will definitely being giving the next book in this series a chance. To the narrator a job well done nice clear speaking.
Oh my goodness! This story is amazing. I loved the characters, the action, suspense, mystery, drama, and all that was packed into it. It is one of those tat you just can’t put down. It is like a balm that soothes my mind. I started reading and the more I read the more I was drawn in. I loved all the characters with their quirks and personalities. It is extremely well written and the flow is superb. This is so good and I can’t wait to read more.
She always wanted to fight, it’s just that no one else wanted her too. As an ARC reader I have certain authors I love, and this is one of them. The young woman’s story of loss and triumph helps her to realize who she truly is, and what she’ll give to save those she loves. Whether it’s from the evil mage, the beasts that hunt her, or from a man she finds in a prison, in her dreams. To save everyone, she must trust her heart, and set him free.
With Dreawalker (Legends of the Fallen Book 1), the J.A. Culican & Tanya Dawson collaboration yielded a solid beginning of a good fantasy series. The characters are likable and unique. The story line has the right amount of intrigue to keep the reader engaged, and adventure that keeps the story interesting. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
This is a fantabulous start to this series! An epic fantasy filled with magic and my personal favourite, dragons! Well written this collaboration has produced a world like no other, with a fantastic storyline and some awesome characters! This story had me on the edge of my seat and I cannot wait to read the next book!
I enjoyed this book but found it difficult to follow at times. I had read the prequel and that helped. I enjoyed Aria, Sade, Astor, and Iri. They were an unlikely group but melded well in the end. Dreamwalking appears to be difficult and Aria doesn't have much help to learn all about it. I am still a bit confused about dreamwalking and all that is possible.
A good premise poorly executed. Aria is a dreamwalker. Unknown to her, she encounters a strange prisoner in her dreams. I couldn't get past if the horrible invaders were friend or foe. The invading leader was so wishy washy, that it completely lost me. It was never explained why they didn't want Beru freed. Just confusing with a lot of immature sounding dialog.
This is an interesting story about friendship, family and personal growth. We meet Aria, a healer who really wants to be a warrior, but learns she is so much more. I am excited to see just where this story goes.
I was given this. Book for my honest review. A new author for me. What a book. Awesome, exciting, and you cannot put it down till you get to the end. I read this in two days, You really want to know what will happen. Not spoiling you need to read, Hoping you enjoy as much as I did .
What good storytelling for a continuing series. Aria was a dreamwalker and really didn't know what it was or how to use what she had. Along the way Aria's brother was kidnapped and she was trying to get him back with lots of help from her friends. Good reading
What an amazing fantasy story these authors have dreamed up! I was instantly hooked into Aria's tale and I can't wait to see where her journey leads her in book 2!
Felt a lack of connection with any of the characters, with very little character development. Jumpy plot points and many grammar errors made it hard for me to follow.
I like this book a lot more than I respect it. There’s a lot of good stuff going on, but there are also a lot of rough edges that I would prefer or smoothed down. For example, the first few chapters explain that this world has elves, dragons, magic, and something called “Ur’gel” (which are clearly meant to be a legally distinct version of Orcs). However, the elves and dragons have no bearing on the story at all, and nothing about the Ur’gel being non-human contributes either. By stripping out these elements (and a few other superfluous fantasy details) and focusing on the magic and world-building that DID work, it could have really been special. As it is, I still enjoyed it immensely and in no way regret my choice to listen.
TL;DR: It has more potential excellence than actual excellence, but it’s still a fun read.