The fourth in the Faithful and the Fallen series from John Gwynne, an epic fantasy perfect for fans of George R. R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson and David Gemmell.Events are coming to a climax in the Banished Lands, as the war reaches new heights. King Nathair has taken control of the fortress at Drassil and three of the Seven Treasures are in his possession. And together with Calidus and his ally … Calidus and his ally Queen Rhin, Nathair will do anything to obtain the remaining Treasures. With all seven under his command, he can open a portal to the Otherworld. Then Asroth and his demon-horde will finally break into the Banished Lands and become flesh.
Meanwhile Corban has been taken prisoner by the Jotun, warrior giants who ride their enormous bears into battle. His warband scattered, Corban must make new allies if he hopes to survive. But can he bond with competing factions of warlike giants? Somehow he must, if he’s to counter the threat Nathair represents.
His life hangs in the balance – and with it, the fate of the Banished Lands.
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This is going to be a short review of a huge series. By huge, I mean huge. Long. Very long.
Each book is long. (Have I said that?) With lots of characters. I felt that in Book One I was being introduced to every person in the Banished Lands. I’m guessing it’s the same sort of size as Western Europe (with/ without the UK…) and that’s a lot of people to get to know (+/- c. 66 million people) including several thousand giants and some talking birds. And that, was the first issue I had with the books. Until around the ¾ mark of Book One, I couldn’t remember who was who. Not helping that were the jumps in time and scenes. I had the same issue with David Gemmell’s Rigante series, which this series is similar to. (I’m sure I caught a blue and green cloak in The Faithful and the Fallen. If deliberate or not, it’s still a nice tip of the hat to Gemmell.) In both series, the story can seem to flip ahead and around. It’s also a very slow starter, like many fantasy books. As a result of these three points, I almost quit at the halfway mark of Malice (Book One).
Before I get to the reason why I kept reading, a little more about the books.
It’s classic epic fantasy. You’ve got a vast cast: a reluctant chosen one, meddlesome gods and devious rulers, hardworking gentlefolk, esoteric master swordsmen & women, honourable warriors whose oath is their bond, feisty women, students who outstrip their masters, royal bastards, loving parents who would die for their kids, intelligent animals and a cantankerous crone. There are monsters and non-humans, traitors and bad people who are secretly good. There’s even a soldier who becomes a gladiator/ folk hero and rallies his fellow slaves in the arena. I missed the whore with a heart of gold and the hard-bitten alcoholic with marital problems but who is good at his job (sorry, wrong genre trope) but you kind of get the picture. Maybe I’m coming across too hard. There is nothing wrong with this mix of ingredients – they are a staple of this genre. But they sometimes grated. There are two main reasons:
MINI SPOILER ALERT.
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1 – they are essentially good or bad. There is some greyness. e.g. I can think of one ‘baddie’ who is secretly a ‘goodie’ (Camlin), and a couple of characters who are morally ambiguous (Conal and Meical). But what you see is what you get. The characters arrive fully formed.
2 – when it became apparent that there weren’t going to be any deaths of any of the main characters, it took the tension away from the numerous fights. I was reasonably confident that most people would survive except those that ‘shouldn’t’.
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MINI SPOILER ALERT OVER!
The action is relentless. There are more fights and battles than you can shake a starstone stick at. That in itself is great. But almost every chapter finished with some kind of twist or reversal, a ‘you’ll never guess what happens next…’ moment. It makes for a great page-turner of a book but it gets wearing after a while. Knowing that each chapter is going to have some kind of sting in the tail, means that each sting doesn’t hurt as much. I would have liked some variety of pace.
But, despite this, I finished the series quickly. Having made this long list of issues, why would I do so?
Because I really enjoyed it. Yes, I’ve been critical about it but it was refreshing to read something I was familiar with: a classic good vs evil story line, familiar themes and characters, and, despite my gripe about the constant twists, it makes for compelling reading. And the tropes? They were part of the attraction. It’s been a long time since I read something with such a simple divide between right and wrong.
Some other points.
I liked the book not having a wide range of non-human races. I find this more of an issue these days than I used to.
The names were pronounceable. (Some fantasy authors get carried away with their consonants.)
There was enough gore to evoke a realism to a brutal world.
A special shout out (howl out?) for the dogs. They were realistically portrayed and amusing.
And, finally, there are enough reversals and twists to keep the story interesting. I particularly liked the revelation about the prophecy.
So yes, there were things that didn’t always sit right but I enjoyed The Faithful and the Fallen and will definitely read more by John Gwynne. That, essentially, is all that matters.
PS The covers? Loved them.
Being book 4 of a 4-book series, this review of Wrath is inevitably also a review of the entire series.
The Faithful and the Fallen does little, if anything, new. Instead, it is almost a love letter to the heroic fantasy genre. In hitting the tropes and doing everything very well, it succeeds in meeting reader expectations and deserves to stand as one of the most popular series in recent years.
Characters
There are so many, and Gwynne does a fantastic job of paying attention to each one, generously giving them the space and time in the story to grow. For one writer to keep in their head so many characters and storylines is an impressive feat. So, we have heroes operating in different areas of The Banished Lands, as well as the villain point of views. And yes, most of them fall into the good and evil categories fairly early on. I enjoyed the fact that the female characters had just as much agency and personality as the male.
The series, then, needs to be recognised as an ensemble performance. This isn’t a single character study and so we don’t get the character depth that we might from a single or three pov series. And honestly, no single character really stood out for me. Corban, the YA male hero was a little vanilla for my tastes – very much the farm boy model so common to the traditional, big series in the genre. But for someone coming to this genre fresh, no doubt a great lead character, for the others to work off. And I always got the sense with this series that Gwynne was at least in part thinking of a teenage audience when he was writing this. The animal characters arguably steal the show. With all the attention on grimdark in recent years a bit of simple heroism, loyalty and Truth and Courage is refreshing.
Worldbuilding
The Banished Lands have I would suggest a sort of Dark Age setting that I enjoyed. Technology is limited, there are no great cities. There are various human kingdoms and the remnants of the previous civilisation to enjoy power – the Giants. Other than that, no other creatures (in the world itself). The political, social and military aspects all made sense. All in all, it leant historical authenticity to the setting which allowed me to settle into the story.
Magic plays a role in the storyline, but it’s kept low key and mysterious. Gwynne makes some attempt to introduce a basic magic system, but he doesn’t go on about it. Few pov characters have magic themselves.
Most characters, therefore, contribute with their military skill – we have swordsmen, axemen, archers, knife-wielding cage fighters etc. This is where Gwynne’s interest lies and it’s in this area I would argue that he excels. Combat feels real and gritty. One-on-one duels, ambushes, through to large-scale warfare with set piece shield wall battles are all handled with real skill and these (for me) are the exciting moments.
Plot
As indicated, there is a good-evil storyline at the heart of this, with some decent twists along the way. The return of good and evil gods and what could perhaps be called a spirit realm or at least another dimension enter the story from time to time and of course come into the finale – a familiar epic fantasy device. This part of the story was perhaps the least successful for me and fortunately wasn’t over-used. It is when Gwynne is dealing with quite brutal, real situations – like Maquin and his revenge storyline – that his writing comes alive.
The search for the seven weapons gives the plot some momentum and requires the characters to travel around the world. There are also political upheavals as kings and queens are overthrown and replaced. With so much going on, Gwynne manages to keep the whole thing action-oriented and fast-paced. Of course, the enemies need to come together for regular showdowns and the grand finale. But there were moments, including in the final book, when I felt the plot became a bit forced or unrealistic and lacked the grand scale of Lord of the Rings or A Song of Ice and Fire.
All in all, this is a great series, epic in every respect. There are no real weaknesses, and I would say every definable aspect would score at least 8/10. It’s in the combat scenes that I would argue it sticks its head above its peers.