We’re back again with the ‘Faithful and the Fallen‘ series. I absolutely adored the first book. So much so that I picked up book two the day my next Audible credit was available. I was starving for more!
And John Gwynne served me a whole damn feast.
The Banished Lands have been consumed by the God War. Nathair seeks to unite the lands beneath the banner of the Bright Sun, unaware that he is the very thing he fights, the Dark Sun, avatar of the dark god Asroth. But his true focus remains on Corbin, the true Seren Disglair, and with the help of his captive sister Cywen, Nathair and his allies draw ever closer to our hero. Forces across the world are in motion, hunting Corbin to protect him or slay him. Meanwhile, the boy himself still refuses to accept his destiny, choosing instead to fulfill his oath and protect what few kinsmen he has left.
If you thought the first book had a ton of perspective characters, you haven’t seen anything yet. ‘Valor‘ has a ton of ’em, both to its betterment and its detriment. On one hand, it helps the slow pacing quite a bit; if you’re getting bored with one chapter or character, it won’t be long before you’re on to someone else. On the other, it makes it difficult sometimes to keep the cast straight in your head. There were more than a few moments during my read (well, listen) that I had to pause and think, “Wait, who was that again?”
Corbin is still our lead character, and he’s still your standard chosen one archetype. This time around, he’s entered the ‘deny the call’ step in his hero’s journey. Again, this isn’t a bad thing. I still find the character captivating; watching him slowly become a human wolf, a savage protector of his own pack, is consistently engaging from start to finish.
He also crosses path with another new character: Coralen, half-sister of his sword master, Halion. A warrior princess who predictably falls in love with Corban. I like her well enough; she’s tough, proud, a bit vain, but every bit as loyal and honest as any of our heroes. That said, she doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this book; still, I’m excited to see how she develops in book three.
We also get to meet the main antagonist of the series: Asroth. But I can’t really judge him as a villain yet. He’s only got one scene and about five lines of dialogue. Still, he certainly makes an impression. Hopefully he’ll get fleshed out more in the books to come, because as he stands now, he’s just a generic evil god minus the mustache twirling.
Among the new perspective characters, Maquin was my favorite. In the first book, he was a side character accompanying Kastell in what I considered to be the weakest plotline of the book. But Kastell is dead, murdered by his treacherous cousin, and Maquin steps into the spotlight to avenge him. His story takes some truly crazy turns, putting the character through the wringer in just about every chapter. He goes from honorable giant slayer to defeated slave to heartless pit fighter and further beyond! I genuinely had no idea what was going to happen next. The grand finale of his storyline literally had me pumping my fist in excitement, it was so satisfying and cool!
Of the many villains we have in this book, none are more loathsome than Lykos. This slimy pirate is cunning, cruel, ruthless, and for the majority of the book, in complete control. He’s a master manipulator; he makes a slave of Maquin and rapes Fidele (another perspective character), then tries to abuse and trick them into thanking him for it. He’s utterly captivating, and I couldn’t wait for him to get his comeuppance.
Which we kind of get, but given that we didn’t see a body and there are still two books left, I would be shocked if we didn’t see him again.
My biggest hope going into the second book was that we’d get to learn more of the world and its history. The Banished Lands were a setting ripe for exploration, but the first book was too busy establishing the plot and characters for that. Luckily for me, ‘Valor‘ fleshes out the land, its history, and its culture to a substantial degree! From the fighting pits of the island people to the various clans of the giants, to the spirit world and the magic system.
Speaking of: I really like the magic system! It’s a soft magic system, so it can do pretty much anything the author requires. All you need to do is speak in ancient Giant and believe without so much as a spark of doubt that it will work. If you want to light a stick on fire, you need to believe with absolute certainty that said stick will burn. It’s a simple but fascinating system that adds to the lore of the world, as well as adding an extra bit of tension to combat scenes!
‘Valor‘ is a fantastic sequel! It takes everything the first book did well and expands on it, fleshing out both the world and the characters residing within it. This series has been phenomenal so far, and I can’t wait to dive into book three to see what happens next.
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