Once Upon a Bibliophile

Warning! This post contains spoilers for the books Falling Kingdoms, Rebel Spring, Gathering Darkness, Frozen Tides and Crystal Storm.

BOOK- Frozen Tides, Crystal Storm, Immortal Reign

AUTHOR- Morgan Rhodes

SERIES- Falling Kingdoms #4-6

RATING- 2/5

I’ve decided not to post an individual review for each of the last three books in the Falling Kingdoms series. This is because I don’t feel as if I have anything new to say about each book. I felt much the same about all three, so it would be pointless to repeat myself. Instead, I’m writing one long post about all three.

FROZEN TIDES

Frozen tides is the fourth book in the Falling Kingdoms series. It follows the war of the Kindred between the rebels, Lucia and the immortal Watchers.

Lucia and the fire god Kyan search Mytica for the ancient stone wheels that are the entrances to the Sanctuary. Broken and lost after Alexius’ death and Cleo’s betrayal, Lucia is ready to watch the world burn- the Sanctuary being her first target. But her past with Alexius brings an unexpected obstacle. With Kyan by her side, she should be the most powerful person in Mytica, so why is her magic dwindling? Amara travells back to Kraeshia with the water Kindred, Gaius and Felix close behind her. As her father negotiates a deal with the King of Blood, her chance to become empress may be closer than ever before. Magnus Damora, with Cleo by his side, has taken control of Limeros, and makes a deal with the rebels to take down his evil father. Kingdoms have fallen, and kingdoms will fall. It’s time to choose your side.

Honestly, when reading Frozen Tides, I couldn’t care less about the plot. I just wanted Magnus and Cleo to fall in love already. Reading it felt a little like a chore. I’d started the series and had to stick it out ’till the end. To be fair, it wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. The writing was alright, just a little… dry. Uninteresting. But the clanger of a plot twist in the previous book totally threw the plot. It made the story confusing, incoherent, and generally unnecessary. I would have been happy if Frozen Tides didn’t exist. If the series had come to an end with Gathering Darkness and that was it. The way we were rushed into finding the Kindred in book 3 meant that the whole elemental-gods plot twist felt almost painful. Like the series was being dragged on pointlessly. I’d generally be up for this as I like revisiting a world through more than one novel. But when the plot feels stretched and thin- like butter scraped over too much bread- reading doesn’t hold the same magic as it normally does. When reading for academic purposes, I know I’ll be bored sometimes, and I’m ok with that. Reading for pleasure though, I want to be captivated. To want to return again and again, not just because of series duty but because I’m invested in the story.

I felt like I was reading the book for no reason. It didn’t bring any excitement or laughs or tears like books should do. It didn’t make me feel. And if a book can’t draw some sort of emotion out of me, if I feel nothing but boredom… for me, a book like that can’t be classed as ‘good’. I mean, yeah the writing was ok. Again, it isn’t the worst book that I’ve ever read. It’s far from the best though. All that potential and excitement at the start of the series channeled into what can only be described as a disappointment. I stuck it out for one reason though: Magnus and Cleo.

I was waiting for them to get together since Rebel Spring. I was so excited to see their relationship develop that I suffered through all the boredom and impatience. And, in a way, it was worth it. I would have preferred it if the book had a compelling plot, but an enemies-to-lovers, forced proximity, forbidden romance between Magnus and Cleo convinced me to carry on to the bitter end. I love romances like this. Relationships built on trust and past wounds, and the inevitable internal conflict the enemies-to-lovers trope brings. It is a slightly overused style of romance in writing these days (what with the rise of book-tok and its craving for ‘sizzling’ romance) but I always enjoy it nonetheless. Maybe Magnus and Cleo weren’t the most original of love interests, but I still waited very impatiently for them to fall in love. Very impatiently. I was rewared with almost no romantic interactions and one kiss at the very end of the book. Granted, this was the beginning of their trust in each other, but they had had 3 books of forced proximity to for this to happen. I so desperately wanted them to fall in love that I carried on with the book when normally I would have given up. And when Magnus realized he was in love with Cleo and Cleo (finally) realized that she loved him back I so desperately wanted to see more enemies-to-lovers banter and romantic scenes that I carried on the the series when I normally would have given up. This turned out to be both a blessing and a curse.

The romance turned out to be exactly what I had hoped for and a little bit more. Magnus, the redemption-seeking anti hero, playing the part of a cruel and villainous prince to hide his loving and vulnerable nature; Cleo, reluctant to trust him until she realizes that their love is true, finally, finally throwing herself into their love with all her heart. Unoriginal, I know. Predictable, I know. But I still loved the two together. What really sold this relationship to me, though, was that barely anybody else knew they loved each other. They stole secret moments together and kept up their face of a forced alliance to all the other characters. I mean, I’m pretty sure that somebody knew what was going on, but nobody talked about it. The secrecy of their love somehow made the relationship more compelling. That was the blessing. The curse was that now I had to read the rest of the series because I was too invested in their story.

CRYSTAL STORM

Crystal Storm is the next book in the Falling Kingdoms series. It sees the rebel army growing again as enemies reach alliances to bring down a common enemy: Amara Cortas, Empress of Kraeshia and Mytica.

Finally Empress, Amara sits on the Mytican throne, spinning the citizens of Paelsia and Auranos tales and promises she can’t keep. Falling for the queen’s pretty lies, the people of Mytica are in graver danger than they could possibly imagine. Back from Kraeshia with more than one new ally, the rebels return to Limeros to find Magnus and Cleo allied with King Gaius. With the effects of his mother’s magic quickly wearing off, Gaius seeks redemption by helping the rebels in their fight to free their fallen kingdoms. Meanwhile, Lucia knows that the world has more in store for her and her unborn child, and reaches a tentative alliance with Jonas. Both know that destiny (or rather, Timotheus) has plans for them, but continue to rebel against fate. The war for power continues, and now more than kingdoms will fall.

Crystal Storm was a little…confusing. There was quite a lot of randomness to the plot and loads of different magics and gods (at one point even a multiverse) that never got any follow-through. Adding these details earlier in the series or writing them with more dedication might have made it super exciting but it fell a little flat. Like too many things in this series, all these new additions to the world and the plot had the potential to be an amazing part of the story. They were just lacking something. It was like they got mentioned for no specific reason. We were suddenly just told that there was some new part of the world or a secret to endless life or something, and then the story just moved on. They used the what-ever-it-was to gain something, and then that was the end of it. Some things (the bloodstone ect) did help to move the plot forward, but it felt like that was the only reason they were there. They didn’t feel like a part of the world, didn’t get mentioned before this point. This definitely made the book feel less real, more haphazard. The changes to the magic system felt like they were added as a means to an end for the characters and nothing more. A way for the characters to easily solve the problems thrown their way without any relevance to the story. Things stopped becoming challenges for the protagonists because everything had an answer. A new kind of magic was discovered and they solved whatever was going on.

Personally, I found this more than a bit boring. Call me cruel, but I want to see the characters suffer a little bit before they achieve their goal. Not that I enjoy watching them suffer. I just want the conflict. When they all achieve whatever the heck they want whenever the heck they want without fighting for it, the book suddenly becames waaaaaaaaay more tedious. It was a repetitive cycle of goal, conflict, goal, conflict, goal, conflict, goal, conflict, goal and on and on and on and… well, you get the idea. Any obstacles were just blasted out of the way. I don’t think I can remember any character truly failing at something throughout the whole book.

Like with Frozen Tides, this isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read. The writing itself wasn’t all that terrible. The world was pretty well built. What let it down was the absence of emotion. It couldn’t bring me to feel anything other than boredom. The characters didn’t affect me at all and none of the numerous subplots brought me any excitement. I just didn’t care any more.

IMMORTAL REIGN

This is the 6th and final book in the falling kingdoms series.

It’s the end! Finally!

In short, all the main characters are working together to try and defeat the Kindred, only they have to be super careful because now Cleo and somebody-else-who-I-forget-the-name-of and also Nic and also Olivia are a bit possessed by the elemental gods. Lucia is trying to save them and her baby. Amara is generally being evil.

You can probably tell that I have lost patience with this series.

None of the original villains are even villains any more. With King Gaius on this massive (and very random) redemption arc and Amara beginning to see the consequences of her actions, we’ve basically got a whole new storyline. Now, the Kindred have turned from the goal to the antagonist. Oh and Amara’s granny is also an antagonist. I guess so that Amara could have a redemption arc? For me, this was a bit too much redemption. I’m all in for a morally grey main character seeking redemption. But when the antagonist suddenly decides they aren’t even evil any more… what’s the point of the story? It’s like one of those children’s plays where the evil fairy can’t die because it’s for toddlers, so they just promise to be good instead. Obviously, I know that people can and do change. In the real world, I’m pretty for second chances. However, when I’m reading, I want the villain to be believable and, well, villainous. As soon as the Kindred revealed themselves to be the ‘real villains’, all the previous antagonists were like ‘ok then, no need for me to be evil any more. I’ll just see the consequences of my actions and become a good guy’. The last book or so felt super detached from the first few books, when Gaius was the main antagonist. Apart from the characters, it could have been part of a completely different series.

Even if I didn’t have a problem with the sheer amount of redemption in this book, I would still have a criticism to make: it happened so fast. It was like they woke up suddenly and decided they were going to be good. In Gaius’ case, he literally woke up and decided he was going to be good. The character development was rushed and, honestly, I didn’t believe it. There was no way that some Gaius and Amara could just have become heroes overnight. It felt like some Mytica-overlord just snapped their fingers and they realized the error of their ways.

The climax was just a bit…meh. Nothing really happened. Frankly, it was a bit of a disappointment. After all my excitement during the first few books and boredom during the last few books, I hoped that it would all pay off in a breathtaking conclusion. It didn’t. Instead, everything got tied up in a neat little bow. Of course, I have nothing against happily ever afters, but this one felt a little…convenient. Everybody got what they wanted, with almost no lasting negative effects of the war. It felt a little childish, in that way. It all ended perfectly, which of course is impossible. The characters were facing enemies that were portrayed as fearsome and impossible to defeat, but when, during the climax, they actually confronted these enemies, all it took was a few small, magical actions and that was the end of them. It was almost too easy. Remember what I was saying earlier about wanting to see the characters suffer a little for their beliefs? Well, they did suffer physically, but there wasn’t really any fighting for the goal. I mean, yeah, getting possessed by an evil elemental god probably wasn’t the best thing that’s ever happened to Magnus, but there was an easy way out of it for him. While, physically, there might have been obstacles and pain and whatnot, there wasn’t any internal conflict involved with the climax. While the excitement might have been there, the depth wasn’t. They just went and did it, then end.

CONCLUSION

Overall, I wouldn’t say that Falling Kingdoms was a terrible series. I enjoyed the first couple of books very much. However, I couldn’t say the same about the last few novels. I found the plot confusing and, at times, tedious. The characters weren’t the most original ever written. There was romance, but I only really rooted for one couple. The writing was a little uninteresting and (though this isn’t really a necessary part of fantasy writing) it was lacking in humor. That said, though, they weren’t awful. I wouldn’t re-read them, but I don’t truly regret reading them either. For all the criticisms I have made of the series, I still don’t think they were ‘bad’ books. Just not very good ones. After finishing the series, I wouldn’t recommend them. I might have done at the begging, but after reading the entire series, I think many people with reading tastes like mine will be similarly disappointed by this series. I definitely won’t be reading the spin-offs.