Review: Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Review: Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes

Rating: A high-fantasy couldabin, shouldabin that failed to grab me. Also there’s incest. Sort of.

 

 In a land where magic has been forgotten but peace has reigned for centuries, a deadly unrest is simmering. Three kingdoms grapple for power--brutally transforming their subjects' lives in the process. Amidst betrayals, bargains, and battles, four young people find their fates forever intertwined:

Cleo: A princess raised in luxury must embark on a rough and treacherous journey into enemy territory in search of a magic long thought extinct.

Jonas: Enraged at injustice, a rebel lashes out against the forces of oppression that have kept his country impoverished--and finds himself the leader of a people's revolution centuries in the making.

Lucia: A girl adopted at birth into a royal family discovers the truth about her past--and the supernatural legacy she is destined to wield.

Magnus: Bred for aggression and trained to conquer, a firstborn son begins to realize that the heart can be more lethal than the sword...

The only outcome that's certain is that kingdoms will fall. Who will emerge triumphant when all they know has collapsed?

Here's the deal. There are three countries: austere, religious Limeros to north, impoverished Paelsia in between, and affluent, temperate Auranos to the south. Limeros and Auranos hate each other and the Paelsian peasants kind of hate everyone, because they are all really poor, even though they produce magical wine that all the supposedly hedonistc Auranians want to buy. One day the Auranian princess Cleo goes to Paelsia to buy said wine and A Bad Thing happens that sparks all sort of other Bad Things. Magic is dead, there are creepy Watcher people trying to find it, and there's political tension galore.

This could have been a great high fantasy, Game of Thrones-eque adventure. It's everything I want in a book. Warring kingdoms? Check! Evil "Kings of Blood"? Check! Dark and dangerous magic and forbidden romance? Double check! But sadly, Falling Kingdoms fell short for me in so many ways.

The beginning was slow. While I enjoy epic, third-person, multiple-protag narratives, this one just didn't captivate me. And the romance… oh, god, I hate to say this, but a lot of it is totally squicky. Magnus is in love with his sister and Princess Emilia was in a love with a man her father’s age. I cannot ship that, guys. And I need a couple to dock my ship to. I need safe shipping harbors! We as the readers are fully aware Lucia is not Magnus’ real sister, but MAGNUS DOESN’T. He spends a whole lot of time lusting after his own sister, who is so beautiful he just can’t help himself. Yes, I know he fights down these repellent vomitous loin-killing unfortunate feelings, which adds some level of broody, tortured depth to his character, but I can only handle so much. And they, like, touch each other’s faces. A lot. My brother and I barely even shake each other’s hands.

The other love connections, while less likely to make me ill, really hold no swoon-factor, either. There is a distressingly tiny amount of kissing, which is not something I necessarily require in high fantasy, but definitely something I prefer. Romantic connections in this book are based mostly on appreciation of beauty. Most of the characters are surface-based and lack any integrity that I could connect to. Everybody has flawless skin, brightly colored eyes, and thick, glossy hair. Princess Lucia is the single most beautiful dark-haired girl in Limeros. Princess Cleo is the single most beautiful golden-haired girl in Auranos. Every male around is in love with them due to their supreme levels of unmatched sexiness. Yawn.

As POV characters go, snooze-worthy Chosen One Lucia is by far the weakest, while I’d say Cleo is definitely the strongest, because at least she’s got some fire. She is a total idiot half the time, making appalling decisions and thrusting off into danger without one sliver of a rational plan, but at least she felt alive. She goes from disregarding magic as pure myth to believing in it with all her heart awfully fast, but I understood her motives.

Despite his tragedies, I felt nothing for Jonas, a cardboard cliché of a rebellious peasant. And while I felt for brooding, suffering, changeable Magnus– he hates his evil father, he loves his evil father, he’s becoming his evil father– I also wanted to shake him and tell him, “Dude, I get you are conflicted because your sister is hot and your evil father is a DOUCHUS MAGNIFICUS, but get over it already.”

Cleo's connection with Theon, the hunky palace guard chosen to protect her, was probably my favorite, even though it is total insta-love but at least they are not FAMILY my GOD. But because I truly did like Cleo as a character, I felt her emotions very strongly, causing me to become more invested in their relationship than the text itself warranted. Cleo’s best friend Nic, also besotted by her super-duper hotness, is probably the most vivid character of the bunch, and he’s only a member of the supporting cast.

But I think that was my key issue with this book– I just didn’t connect. The characters said all the things they should, did all the things I would expect from their respective tropes (Chosen One/ Dark Tortured Soul/Spoiled, Fiery Princess/Loyal Guard in love with his charge/Rebellious Peasant). But they weren’t three dimensional to me.

 

The mythology is probably the most interesting part of Falling Kingdoms, even if it didn’t feel terribly original. The kingdoms are falling apart due to the disappearance of The Kindred, four sacred crystals (cliché, I know) that hold the power of elementia, or magic of the elements: earth, water, fire, and air. Magic is disappearing from the land and all is going to pot, basically. I liked the way the vitality of the earth was tied to magic and I liked the accompanying folklore, even if I’m pretty much over MacGuffin crystals.

I also found some logic holes I could not get past. The economic relationship between the three kingdoms didn’t entirely make sense. People wander around Paelsia very easily, apparently traversing the entire thing in a matter of hours. I couldn’t get a grasp on whether people believed in magic or not. They sort of believed a little bit in some cases and completely in others. A mysterious figure very conveniently turns out to be someone of magical import another character has been desperately searching for.

The writing was just kind of there. Grief flashes in people’s eyes a lot, revenge darkens people’s gazes. Hardly offensive, but not particularly beautiful.

This was a total miss for me, unfortunately. I can see why people like it. The dynamics of the three battling kingdoms was totally interesting. I liked the plot, even if the pacing was problematic. I did like the political scheming and despotism and whatnot. I enjoyed the way all the various storylines came together at the end. Obviously I had issues with a lot of the world building, but I did love the way she described the various kingdoms. I could picture them perfectly. Also, MAGIC WINE. That is exceptionally cool.

 

 

 

Here's a link to a favorable review from someone whose opinion I trust, to prove that all hope isn't lost for this book and it's very likely I'm a big grumpapotamus and my opinions are always to be taken with a boulder grain of salt.