aneagleslament's review
3.0
I remember it was last year at a local convention, Q-Con, and on the second floor of the Queen’s Student Union, Blackstaff Press, an indie book publisher based in Belfast, had a table set up to sell three of their nerdy properties. One of whom was The Polaris Whisper by Kenneth Gregory, a book that I haven’t gotten too yet but plan to by Q-Con XXII. The other two were Folk’d and Folk’d Up by Lawrence Donaghy. And I bought all three, partially because the writers were right there and because there was a “3 for 2” deal, but mostly because they interested me. And with Folk’d I found an intriguing and funny contemporary fantasy book based in Belfast following Danny Morrigan’s journey to figure out what the fuck had happened to his son and girlfriend. The book ended on a cliffhanger as Danny goes down the rabbit hole (Well, more ancient portal but rabbit hole sounds more poetic) into a world of Monsters, Magic and Goddesses. But while I was definitely interested, I got distracted and moved onto other books. But I’ve now finally gotten around to reading the sequel and while it feels like build up to a much bigger adventure, Donaghy still delivers an enjoyable, though rather plot-sparse, read with humour and adventure
Danny’s story this time around is non-existent for 2/3s of the book. Danny wakes up in this new world but in a chapter he’s taken out of this new world and suddenly goes on a vision quest with the to try and explain why what he is doing is so important and really give Danny, as well as the readers, why his family is tasked with it. And don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the vision quest. It was fascinating to read the history of the Tuatha Dé Danann and of the Morrigan family line. But I feel like it somewhat threw off the pacing of Danny’s story. I don’t want to go into the ending too much but it may have been a better fit if they’d cut the post-cauldron scenes from Folk’d Up and into Completely Folk’d, the third book.
The plot on Earth follows Steve; having just seen his best friend swallowed up into the ground, and doesn’t take it well. He soon joins up with Ellie and tries to understand what the hell is going on. He’s an interesting Parallel to Danny as like him, he’s just been thrown into this whole mess. But instead of having a grand prophecy based around him or the potential to have powers of the gods, Steve is just a normal guy who’s finding out that this past year, or at least what he thought was the past year, was a lie. While in Folk’d he seems like a simple comic relief, though near the end you see there may be more than just the protagonist’s best mate, in Folk’d Up we find that he’s such a complex character who was indeed jealous of Danny, the reason is heartbreaking, not to mention potentially controversial. The rest of the characters are fun and interesting as we see them react to these extraordinary circumstances. Some are understandably baffled; some gear up to become heroes and others embrace it as they caused it
Mr Black, or as his friends/mortal enemies call him, Dother, was fantastic this time around. While in the first book he just seemed a bit arrogant about himself, stereotypical boss, with hints of something mysterious and evil, in Folk’d Up he just revelled in it all. We got to see his true self and I loved it. He just loved all of it, casually chatting about the end of the world and the things he’s done. And the beautiful thing is he’s not doing these things just for the sake of being evil. Yes, his kind and the Morrigan’s will always fight and kill each other and he could attack their loved ones, their friends and families, he wouldn’t dream of it. He respects the Morrigan too much and while he recognises that their battle is eternal, he sees that everyone else in the Morrigan’s life is an innocent and wouldn’t dream of attacking them. He is motivated by a specific purpose and while he will actively try to complete it, he’s not completely malicious. I really enjoyed it and hopefully in the last book we’ll see more of him.
But the most improved character is definitely Danny’s dad, Tony Morrigan. In the first book we see him through Danny’s eyes and we see him as an awful man who left him and his mum, ruining their lives. His neglect and abandonment shaped Danny into the Character we find in the start of the trilogy. But this time around, we see Tony be redeemed as we find out his history, from his first time discovering the Faeries to his biggest failure to his deal with the Demon. Meanwhile in the present we see he change from being rather useless, a man who has no real place in Danny’s world, to a man determined to protect those he cared about. He feels he’s guilty for everything happening and wants to finally do right by his family and wrong his grave mistake. It was really enjoyable to find out about him and see how he just had unfortunate event after unfortunate event happen to him.
The newest character in the Folk’d Up is the Morrigan, the Irish Goddess of War and descendant of Danny. Morrigan was a brilliant character to read. At first she’s a bit offended by Danny talking so…brashly to her but soon they get used to one another and throughout their relationship evolve to that of mutual respect and admiration. After the initial disrespect, she keeps ups with Danny never skipping a beat when Danny tries to angrily quip about the situation he’s in. And as we see her history and the origin of the Morrigan line, we see that she is a heartbroken figure, forced to abandon the one she loves for fear of harm that could happen if she was found out. She’s a tragic character and honestly I want more of her.
Ultimately I feel that this book suffers from being the middle act in a story. It had to build up the big finale and it most certainly does, but it sacrifices actual plot development for it. For Danny, we get flashbacks for most of his story, only really moving forward in the last quarter of the book. The Earth plot fares a little better but not much. It feels like Laurence had to stretch this out for the sake of an extra book, which it suffers from. But it makes up for it with the development of Steve, Ellie, Tony, Dother, and the Morrigan. So overall, if you enjoyed the previous book then you’ll enjoy this one. While lacking in plot, you still have the funny, realistic characters and fantastic story from Donaghy. He still expertly transcribes the Belfast dialect and still delivers a fun and enjoyable ride, even if it’s not as good as the first book. I hope Donaghy can use the foundation he’s built here to deliver a brilliant conclusion.I have faith, let’s see if it’s well placed
Danny’s story this time around is non-existent for 2/3s of the book. Danny wakes up in this new world but in a chapter he’s taken out of this new world and suddenly goes on a vision quest with the to try and explain why what he is doing is so important and really give Danny, as well as the readers, why his family is tasked with it. And don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy the vision quest. It was fascinating to read the history of the Tuatha Dé Danann and of the Morrigan family line. But I feel like it somewhat threw off the pacing of Danny’s story. I don’t want to go into the ending too much but it may have been a better fit if they’d cut the post-cauldron scenes from Folk’d Up and into Completely Folk’d, the third book.
The plot on Earth follows Steve; having just seen his best friend swallowed up into the ground, and doesn’t take it well. He soon joins up with Ellie and tries to understand what the hell is going on. He’s an interesting Parallel to Danny as like him, he’s just been thrown into this whole mess. But instead of having a grand prophecy based around him or the potential to have powers of the gods, Steve is just a normal guy who’s finding out that this past year, or at least what he thought was the past year, was a lie. While in Folk’d he seems like a simple comic relief, though near the end you see there may be more than just the protagonist’s best mate, in Folk’d Up we find that he’s such a complex character who was indeed jealous of Danny, the reason is heartbreaking, not to mention potentially controversial. The rest of the characters are fun and interesting as we see them react to these extraordinary circumstances. Some are understandably baffled; some gear up to become heroes and others embrace it as they caused it
Mr Black, or as his friends/mortal enemies call him, Dother, was fantastic this time around. While in the first book he just seemed a bit arrogant about himself, stereotypical boss, with hints of something mysterious and evil, in Folk’d Up he just revelled in it all. We got to see his true self and I loved it. He just loved all of it, casually chatting about the end of the world and the things he’s done. And the beautiful thing is he’s not doing these things just for the sake of being evil. Yes, his kind and the Morrigan’s will always fight and kill each other and he could attack their loved ones, their friends and families, he wouldn’t dream of it. He respects the Morrigan too much and while he recognises that their battle is eternal, he sees that everyone else in the Morrigan’s life is an innocent and wouldn’t dream of attacking them. He is motivated by a specific purpose and while he will actively try to complete it, he’s not completely malicious. I really enjoyed it and hopefully in the last book we’ll see more of him.
But the most improved character is definitely Danny’s dad, Tony Morrigan. In the first book we see him through Danny’s eyes and we see him as an awful man who left him and his mum, ruining their lives. His neglect and abandonment shaped Danny into the Character we find in the start of the trilogy. But this time around, we see Tony be redeemed as we find out his history, from his first time discovering the Faeries to his biggest failure to his deal with the Demon. Meanwhile in the present we see he change from being rather useless, a man who has no real place in Danny’s world, to a man determined to protect those he cared about. He feels he’s guilty for everything happening and wants to finally do right by his family and wrong his grave mistake. It was really enjoyable to find out about him and see how he just had unfortunate event after unfortunate event happen to him.
The newest character in the Folk’d Up is the Morrigan, the Irish Goddess of War and descendant of Danny. Morrigan was a brilliant character to read. At first she’s a bit offended by Danny talking so…brashly to her but soon they get used to one another and throughout their relationship evolve to that of mutual respect and admiration. After the initial disrespect, she keeps ups with Danny never skipping a beat when Danny tries to angrily quip about the situation he’s in. And as we see her history and the origin of the Morrigan line, we see that she is a heartbroken figure, forced to abandon the one she loves for fear of harm that could happen if she was found out. She’s a tragic character and honestly I want more of her.
Ultimately I feel that this book suffers from being the middle act in a story. It had to build up the big finale and it most certainly does, but it sacrifices actual plot development for it. For Danny, we get flashbacks for most of his story, only really moving forward in the last quarter of the book. The Earth plot fares a little better but not much. It feels like Laurence had to stretch this out for the sake of an extra book, which it suffers from. But it makes up for it with the development of Steve, Ellie, Tony, Dother, and the Morrigan. So overall, if you enjoyed the previous book then you’ll enjoy this one. While lacking in plot, you still have the funny, realistic characters and fantastic story from Donaghy. He still expertly transcribes the Belfast dialect and still delivers a fun and enjoyable ride, even if it’s not as good as the first book. I hope Donaghy can use the foundation he’s built here to deliver a brilliant conclusion.I have faith, let’s see if it’s well placed
wyvernfriend's review
4.0
Interesting, a book based in Belfast with a man who is trying very hard to make do, failing himself and his family and when he digs out a space in his garden his life changes forever.
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