Malice (The Faithful and the Fallen, 1)

Great book. Great series overall. Classic Fantasy with some newish elements. Great story and character development. In fact the character development and characterization of different characters struggle with right and wrong was impressive. Really captured the human condition well. Good action and pacing. Overall a really enjoyable read! PS - Adding this same note to all 4 books as it applies equally across the series.

The book screams quality. The vocabulary, the descriptions, the juggling of many characters and the rich story, all give the sense of something really good building up.Nothing is rushed and the story unfolds on its own fair pace, with the revelation somewhere in the middle not so much of a shock but still having an impact.Frankly I enjoy strong villains and the ones here are being slowly evolving and growing in parallel to the protagonist. It’s impressive how the villain is being fleshed and how slowly but surely goes deeper into being evil one small step at a time - to small however for him to realize. Very good job hereThe protagonist too shows only hits of being a great hero but I’m sure that will come to pass.Now story is unfolding nicely, hero and villains are good, then why 4/5 stars? For me and myself only I have 2 criteria for the 5th star:1) did the book force me to read until it was over ? Well, while this one was very engaging it was not captivating because whenever there was buildup we swapped to another character “killing” the emotion a bit. I know why the writer did that but I don’t know if it worked in his favor2) am I emotionally swayed? Well not really here I didn’t feel like crying or jumping on my seat or anything. Just a hint of it at some point. This is rare to happen however, very rare so I usually give 5/5 for not being able to stop readingTo sum it up, I am excited for the next book and definitely get on with it ASAP. Is this a masterpiece? Well, no, but it makes me wonder if one of the next books will be, since the foundations are being laid

I won't really recap the plot because... I can't? There's definitely a plot but it's too vast to explain and just scratches the surface in this book. BUT THE CHARACTERS. The characters were SO good and despite the numerous POVs, I felt deeply connected to all of them. The world is gritty and full of nasty politics and savage beasts. My kind of book. I will say it takes a tremendous amount of trust to stick with this story, especially if you haven't read anything by Gwynne before. There were two main strategies that helped me enjoy this to its maximum potential...maybe they will help other readers as well:1. Keep track of the names. It's hard. There's no character list in this first book, and the number of names can get very overwhelming. Not to mention half of them start with C or K. Whether it's listing them out with notes, or at least grouping them with the storylines each character is a part of, it will go a long way towards making your reading experience easier.2. Be patient. Everyone says it takes over half the book to get moving. I knew this in advance, so I took my sweet time enjoying the first 300 pages of character development and worldbuilding. I recently read (and loved) The Shadow of the Gods which is another first in a series by Gwynne. He did something similar with developing characters and setting the scene, so I had complete trust in him to deliver later in this book as well.This book doesn't do everything perfectly. I do think there was a bit of bloating throughout. And while I was engaged the whole time, it wasn't necessarily one that I was completely obsessed with (which is basically my criteria for a full 5 stars). Malice wonderfully sets the stage for the whole series, but on its own, it's not necessarily a masterpiece. I am SO eager to move on to Valor. If it's anything as good as I've read so far, it will easily be one of my favorite series.

I loved this series of books. The story was very epic with highly thought out cultures and characters. The first book started off somewhat slow, but then exploded into action towards the end. After that it was a mad race of battles and tension throughout the rest of the books. The battle scenes are highly detailed and thought out.One of the things that I really liked about the books is that even though the battles are highly detailed and often gory, overall it was a rather clean book. There was next to no foul language, and no sex even though it was hinted at a times. I also like the fact that many of the main characters were quite Noble in character.

I struggled in the beginning to continue reading. There are a lot of character POVs and world building, making the story progression seem somewhat slow. It was hard to grow attached to any characters at first, as the POVs change frequently and there are quite a few jumps in time. This changes about halfway through the book. Once you gain a grasp on the world and character the story begins to move very quickly and I found myself unwilling to put it down. I have grown attached to a few of the main characters who frequently have chapters in their POV and at others I groan inwardly (no you well-meaning idiot you're on the wrong side!) at their misgiven trust, as they try their best to do what is right based on the knowledge they have. The action packed ending left me wanting more even as I grieved (shed actual tears) the loss of family, friend, and home of our main character.