tsana's review
5.0
The Griffin's Flight by KJ Taylor is the second book in the Fallen Moon series. I can't discuss what The Griffin's Flight is about without mentioning spoilers for book one. So be warned, while this review doesn't contain spoilers for The Griffin's Flight, it does contain major spoilers for The Dark Griffin. Seriously, don't read on if you don't want key events at the end of book one spoiled.
At the end of book one, our main character, Arren, dies and is magically revived with a caveat: he talks, he breathes, he heals, but his heart does not beat. It's an interesting choice for a main character since, generally speaking, bringing the dead back to life is seen as evil. He's kind of a thinking zombie and while the few people who are aware of the situation agree that whatever necromancy brought him back is evil, I like that Taylor didn't use it as an excuse for more people to hate him. (Not that lots of people don't have other reasons to hate him.)
The other major character is Erian, the bastard son of Rannagon, who Arren killed in book one. In another novel, Erian might have been the hero and Arren the villain. Instead, Erian is annoying and a bit of an idiot with an overbearing, ambitious and controlling griffin dictating to him. The reader is very much set up to sympathise with Arren. Although Erian seeks revenge for his father, much like Arren sought revenge earlier, I didn't feel very much sympathy for him at all. Mostly, I thought he got a bit more page-time than entirely necessary. However, I'm quite into the idea of swapping the roles of hero and villain as Taylor has done. I've always been a big fan of moral shades of grey.
A new character, Skade, is introduced. I didn't hate her, but I suspect her potential wasn't entirely realised in this book and will hopefully come to fruition in the concluding volume. I was also a bit disappointed that Arren's friends from book one didn't feature very much. Bran and Flell feature only in the opening and the ending, however I'm confident they will play a bigger part in The Griffin's War, so I'm looking forward to that.
The Griffin's Flight moves away from the exploration of racism that was The Dark Griffin; it's still there, but it's much less the main theme. In fact, thematically there isn't a single overarching theme tying everything together in The Griffin's Flight, which partly makes it feel a little middle-book-syndrome-y. Which isn't to say I found it boring or pointless, just that it was linking two disparate parts of the story: Arren's life as it falls apart in the first book, and the coming titular war of book three (The Griffin's War).
I very much enjoyed the continuation of Arren's story in The Griffin's Flight. I recommend the series to all fans of "big fat fantasy" books. I don't recommend reading book two without having read book one, however. It's definitely the kind of story that should be enjoyed sequentially.
4.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
At the end of book one, our main character, Arren, dies and is magically revived with a caveat: he talks, he breathes, he heals, but his heart does not beat. It's an interesting choice for a main character since, generally speaking, bringing the dead back to life is seen as evil. He's kind of a thinking zombie and while the few people who are aware of the situation agree that whatever necromancy brought him back is evil, I like that Taylor didn't use it as an excuse for more people to hate him. (Not that lots of people don't have other reasons to hate him.)
The other major character is Erian, the bastard son of Rannagon, who Arren killed in book one. In another novel, Erian might have been the hero and Arren the villain. Instead, Erian is annoying and a bit of an idiot with an overbearing, ambitious and controlling griffin dictating to him. The reader is very much set up to sympathise with Arren. Although Erian seeks revenge for his father, much like Arren sought revenge earlier, I didn't feel very much sympathy for him at all. Mostly, I thought he got a bit more page-time than entirely necessary. However, I'm quite into the idea of swapping the roles of hero and villain as Taylor has done. I've always been a big fan of moral shades of grey.
A new character, Skade, is introduced. I didn't hate her, but I suspect her potential wasn't entirely realised in this book and will hopefully come to fruition in the concluding volume. I was also a bit disappointed that Arren's friends from book one didn't feature very much. Bran and Flell feature only in the opening and the ending, however I'm confident they will play a bigger part in The Griffin's War, so I'm looking forward to that.
The Griffin's Flight moves away from the exploration of racism that was The Dark Griffin; it's still there, but it's much less the main theme. In fact, thematically there isn't a single overarching theme tying everything together in The Griffin's Flight, which partly makes it feel a little middle-book-syndrome-y. Which isn't to say I found it boring or pointless, just that it was linking two disparate parts of the story: Arren's life as it falls apart in the first book, and the coming titular war of book three (The Griffin's War).
I very much enjoyed the continuation of Arren's story in The Griffin's Flight. I recommend the series to all fans of "big fat fantasy" books. I don't recommend reading book two without having read book one, however. It's definitely the kind of story that should be enjoyed sequentially.
4.5 / 5 stars
You can read more of my reviews on my blog.
pauliree's review
4.0
A solid second book for a trilogy. Lots of things happen to our hero and he learns a lot more about himself. Although by this stage he has not become very heroic :( I am not sure how dark he will be getting by the end of the book but he has definitely been set up to be the bad guy. Yay for bad guy heroes :)
kvalenagle's review
5.0
If you've finished The Dark Griffin and you want more, there's no reason not to continue reading. Several of the issues from the first book (more setup for magic, etc.) are no longer a problem. It's more of the same not in the boring, "meatloaf again?" sense, but in the way that a good sequel makes sure that fans of the first book are happy.
The up sides are more dragon rider tropes subverted, more gryphons, more world building, more dark fantasy, and the addition of Skade... though talking about her is potentially spoilery, I found she was my favorite character. Eluna was my favorite in the first book, so I've been hesitant as a non-grimdark reader to connect to ANYONE in a series with two villainous protagonists. And I haven't finished book 3 yet, so I may yet regret my choice.
The down sides are that the protagonist feels a little whiny. There were times when his despondency came across well, but there were times when it didn't. The other issue, and this bleeds a little into having gone through a good chunk of book 3, is that the relationships feel similar, whether the couple is in their teens, twenties, thirties, or sixties, there's a sameness. It's not a big issue, but I was left feeling like a stronger developmental editor would have had an easy fix for both of those. Then again, I imagine with all fans, we lay blame on the developmental editor's feet for things like this, right?
I don't want to spend more wordcount on the downsides than the up sides. Definitely keep reading if you finished Dark Griffin and want more. You'll get more gryphons, more riders, more subverted tropes, more of all the things you want.
And now... onto finish the third Fallen Moon book.
The up sides are more dragon rider tropes subverted, more gryphons, more world building, more dark fantasy, and the addition of Skade... though talking about her is potentially spoilery, I found she was my favorite character. Eluna was my favorite in the first book, so I've been hesitant as a non-grimdark reader to connect to ANYONE in a series with two villainous protagonists. And I haven't finished book 3 yet, so I may yet regret my choice.
The down sides are that the protagonist feels a little whiny. There were times when his despondency came across well, but there were times when it didn't. The other issue, and this bleeds a little into having gone through a good chunk of book 3, is that the relationships feel similar, whether the couple is in their teens, twenties, thirties, or sixties, there's a sameness. It's not a big issue, but I was left feeling like a stronger developmental editor would have had an easy fix for both of those. Then again, I imagine with all fans, we lay blame on the developmental editor's feet for things like this, right?
I don't want to spend more wordcount on the downsides than the up sides. Definitely keep reading if you finished Dark Griffin and want more. You'll get more gryphons, more riders, more subverted tropes, more of all the things you want.
And now... onto finish the third Fallen Moon book.
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