The Faithful & The Fallen Read-A-Long discussion

Let's kick off the first book with thoughts on the first twelve chapters here!

Alright! I have completed the first 12 chapters and can say I'm ecstatic to be back in this wonderful world. A few things that stand out to me are:
1) I love the shorter chapter format of this book. It makes me feel as though I'm moving swiftly through the story without a ton of effort.

2) Every chapter is JAM PACKED with information about the world or action. We're introduced to so many critical characters very early on and a lot of significant events are happening.

3) At this point in the story I think my favorite character is Corban. I love coming of age stories and I love rooting for the underdog. It feels like there is so much storytelling around Corban in these early chapters because we're introduced to his family, his community, and his best friend. We see some early traumatic events in his, heretofore, cloisered life. He's also going through some of the normal childhood angst of getting bullied and struggling with confidence.

4) What I absolutely love about this being a re-read for me is that I'm better able to identify some of the foreshadowing going on here! I see the root of some pretty epic conflicts taking shape.

This time around, I am listening to Malice on audible and I'm so glad. John Keating is one of my favorite narrators. He also narrates The Ranger's Apprentice Series and Brotherband Chronicles by John Flanagan (two of my all time favorite middlegrade/YA fantasy series). I'm so sad that the other books in this series are not available on audiobook in the US. Hopefully that will come to us eventually!

Hope everyone is enjoying the book so far and looking forward to all your comments!

Just finished chapter 13 of my first time reading this series. While I don't know if she will play a large role in the story, I love Cywen. Her balance of love for family, competance, and wild abandon have me really liking her character.

I love the world building in this too especially the mythology/lore. I think Veradis and Nathair are my favorites right now with their little bromance. I like how each character feels different and real which can really make or break a book for me.

My only problem so far is keeping track of all the side characters but I always struggle with that at first with epic fantasy and it tends to get better the further I get so we shall see. I kind of want to make like one of those crime investigation boards with strings connecting people to each other but no time :(.

I have to say my absolute favorite thing right now is how fleshed out the world is without the usual dragged out descriptions. (You know the whole usual stuff like Gunther son of blah blah cousin of yada yada etc in the suburbs of this little obscure area moved here then there and friends of ... snooze fest). Can really get lost in the world without that and I love it.

It’s all coming back to me now since I started rereading this. As I remember, yes, the beginning has that slow start but it’s giving me the information I need to get to know the characters and the world building. My favorites, Corban & Kastell.

I am so glad that I finally started this series. I feel like I can see all of the moving parts but not the entire picture, so I’m just soaking it in.
As far as characters, I haven’t found one that I just don’t like. But I also haven’t found one that stands out as my favorite. Plus, are they safe and sure to survive to end? That I’m not too sure of. (Just a feeling/thought)

I'm now on Chapter 15 so I can finally comment with my thoughts on the beginning.

1) I love how we're getting snippets of world building that makes the reader want to know what's going on. For example the introduction of Tenebral's banner in Corban's pov chapter, where he doesn't know its significance, then finding info about it in a later Veradis chapter.
I like that sort of touch. It keeps me invested and wanting to know more about the world.

2) On a similar vein I like how Gwynne teases you with cliffhanger chapter endings, but instead of immediately giving you the conclusion of the conflict, he will take you into another pov in another place in entirely. As Frankie said, it makes me want to keep reading to find out what is going to happen.

3) I'm also really invested in the God-War. I don't know what the heck is going on, but I'm a sucker for theology and religious themes, and the kind of Christian and Judaist inspiration for the gods and their soldiers (feather-winged Ben-Elim and leather-winged Kadoshim).
It's giving me serious Paradise Lost, and Fall of Heaven vibes and I'm digging it.

I will say that there are soooo many characters. I've actually started building a relationship chart, so if anyone wants me to post it, I can do that.

YES!! This is one of my favorite things about Gwynne's writing. He is able to impart lots of information and worldcraft without boring the bejeezus out of us. There are a lot of characters in this series, fortunately, there is a list of characters and their place of origin at the beginning of all other books in the series.

Also, I am soooo glad about the map!
I've been flipping back to look at it, to make sure I know where in the world I am at any given time. It's really helpful and clear.

In some books the maps can be really crowded, so I'm like this simplistic more Middle Earth -esque style rendition. It's so easy to follow.

Reija wrote: "I'm now on Chapter 15 so I can finally comment with my thoughts on the beginning.

1) I love how we're getting snippets of world building that makes the reader want to know what's going on. For exa..."

If you want to post a relationship chart I WOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT!!!

FrankieReads wrote: "Reija wrote: "I'm now on Chapter 15 so I can finally comment with my thoughts on the beginning.

1) I love how we're getting snippets of world building that makes the reader want to know what's goi..."

Aye Aye, Captain!
I'll have it up on Google docs for you all in the next couple days.
(Should have really made it an excel spreadsheet to start with...)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lfvt...

Here you go!
It is still very much a work in progress and some characters are missing, but this is a pretty good start. :)

I have a feeling there's gonna be a whole lot more lines in the future. x_x

Reija wrote: "https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lfvt...

Here you go!
It is still very much a work in progress and some characters are missing, but this is a pretty good..."

Thank you so much Reija!!! ***HUGS***

No problem. I've actually found it easier to keep track of all the characters as I've been actively doing the spreadsheet. It keeps them all in my head. :)

I love Cywen too and would like to see more of her and her journey as the story unfolds. As I read I write down characters and who they are like King/Queen, the main POV of the chapter, relations and just people who I think are of some import.

I almost cried cause I thought Kastell and Maquin were going to die fighting together 😭😭😭😭


We haven’t really heard a bunch from Evnis but going off the prologue I bet we can expect something. I am very very sad about Darol and Dylan....why that family?

Corban and the wolven scene in the forest was heart pounding! I’m going to go ahead and say that we’re going to see some things from Corban


I also like how short the chapters are, I was able to reach ch 14 in about 4 & a half hours!

Finally I feel like the items that were made from the starstone will definitely come into play (going off the events of chapter 10)

I felt like the first couple chapters were tough going just trying to place all the people, but once I got through them, when I get a long enough chunk of time, I fly through the book. But it definitely takes a second to get back in the book because of how many characters there are.

I really like Cywen, but I really enjoy hearing from Kastell. I am getting more invested in Corban as well though.

Just finished Chapter 12. The first few chapters were a little rough--easy to read--but a lot of stuff to keep track of. I had to keep checking the map to figure out where everyone was from. I am sure I missed a lot of details. I think I kind of like the Cliffhanger at the end of the chapter thing where it then changes to another POV. It definitely keeps you going.

Alan wrote: "Just finished Chapter 12. The first few chapters were a little rough--easy to read--but a lot of stuff to keep track of. I had to keep checking the map to figure out where everyone was from. I am s..."

Don forget to check out the handy google doc Reija created and posted in this thread - it's very helpful for keeping track. In all the future books there is a character key that you'll find VERY helpful, I know I did!!