H.C. Newell

Blurb
After a vicious attack against the Order of Saro, Nerana finds herself lost in the wastelands of Aragoth. Forbidden of humans or evae, the desert is a land teeming with fire and vengeance, and Nerana’s only hope for survival lies in the trust of another.
Aélla, a powerful evaesh sorceress, travels the desert on a pilgrimage of sacrifice and strength. Determined to enter the Realm of Elements and see her quest complete, she must survive the hardened warriors of the desert, the vaxros, who banished her kind from their land centuries ago.
But the vaxros aren’t the only threat, and the weight of such imbalance could shift the fate of the world.

Review
For me, the Forbidden Realms is an action-heavy fantasy adventure, packed with a lot of magic and compelling characters. I give 4 stars to the second book in the Fallen Light Series, but don’t be deceived by that rating as I’m sure many of you will give it the full 5 Stars. And rightfully so. There were just a few details that didn’t quite match my personal preferences.

[…] those who are in power sought to stay in power, no matter how disastrous the consequences might be.

But first things first: the worldbuilding and characterisation, once again, is amazing. Laeroth is a place inhabited by races with relentless faith in their traditions which have lead to racism and an epic conflict about how the world has to be. Within this conflict, everyone seems to have his own idea on how to succeed. Thanks to these numerous perspectives clashing again and again the epic scale stays present throughout the whole book. And fighting isn’t the only option for the characters to make their point. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot of fighting and action, which is written very well, but the dialogues are at least as impactful as the muscular vaxros (a race of large warriors) are. The emotions carried through those conversations are simply beautiful. The character development feels real and well executed from start to finish. Especially the inner conflicts are shown perfectly.

“If ill intent keeps me alive, then it’s what I’ll have to do. Sometimes, the world forces us to make hard decisions.” “You always have a choice, Nerana. The path you take is yours to decide and no one else’s.”

So why did I only give 4 stars then? Well, as much as I like action, I’m not the biggest fan of magic heavy action. There’s blasting fire and magical lightning all over the place. It just feels a bit over the top. Also, sometimes the main characters seemed to be wearing some kind of plot armour as they where healed quite often after suffering major injuries during battles. But as mentioned before, those are just some minor issues based on my personal preferences.

As far as I know, there will be six books in the Fallen Light series. You can definitely count on me to read the upcoming books as soon as they will be released.

The Curse of the Fallen is a fast paced fantasy adventure full of magic, dungeons and horrifying creatures with a main character searching for a cure to what feels like a curse to her.

“Everywhere I turn, someone’s trying to kill me.”
„Welcome to the land of luxury.” He smiled. “You’ve got a powerful gift. That comes with a price.”
„More like a curse.“

I had a great time reading this book. It felt like an action packed D&D campaign, including compelling grey characters and just the right amount of humour within an immersive and dark world. I especially liked the dynamic between the main character, Nerena, and her best friend Loryk. The well built world just enfolds as the story progresses, letting us learn more about the lore and the character’s motivations from the very start until the last page of the book.

„… I‘d rather spend my time tracking the person who killed her. It won‘t keep her alive, but it will keep others from dying.“

As English isn’t my first language, I also appreciate what I would describe as a well structured and accessible writing style. Plus, the author has created some great and memorable lines and dialogues.