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A review by duffypratt
Rage of the Fallen by Joseph Delaney
3.0
Given what happens in the major story here, this book should have been fantastic, and yet for me it fell a bit flat. On the good side, the stuff with Alice was really great, and she continues to develop into a very interesting character. And the overarching plot in the series advances quite well.
But its that advance that I think also causes the big problem for the book. Basically, for the overall story arch, the attempt to bind the Fiend is a really big deal. But, as a part of this book, it is a sideshow. The main plot concerns yet another witch trying to get revenge on Tom. And that story just is not as interesting. So the main story of the book seems like a repetition of what we've seen before, and it is not as interesting as the side adventure involving Tom, Grimalkin, the Spook, and the Fiend. And this imbalance, for me, distorts the entire book.
The other thing that I had some trouble with was the introduction of yet another mythology. The series has some Christian mythology, with the Church and the Fiend being the incarnation of the Devil on earth. It also has dabbled with Greek mythology, with the idea of Lamia, and in this book, with the use of Pan. And already, I've found the juxtaposition of those two a bit hard to swallow, at least with no explanations. Here, we also get introduced to the Morrigan, a Celtic crow god. And this made me wonder a bit two hard about how this world works. Thinking too hard about how the magic works in these sorts of books always risks tearing the veil. Here, I felt the different mythologies were bumping into each other, and the effect was a bit clumsier than what I'm accustomed to from Delaney.
Every series has its stronger and weaker entries, and I can imagine other people disagreeing with me on this, but for me this was probably the weakest of the books so far. And it was still pretty good, but the characters keep saying how they wish they could get home to the County, and I'm hoping for that as well. I think Delaney may be on firmer ground when he stays closer to home.
But its that advance that I think also causes the big problem for the book. Basically, for the overall story arch, the attempt to bind the Fiend is a really big deal. But, as a part of this book, it is a sideshow. The main plot concerns yet another witch trying to get revenge on Tom. And that story just is not as interesting. So the main story of the book seems like a repetition of what we've seen before, and it is not as interesting as the side adventure involving Tom, Grimalkin, the Spook, and the Fiend. And this imbalance, for me, distorts the entire book.
The other thing that I had some trouble with was the introduction of yet another mythology. The series has some Christian mythology, with the Church and the Fiend being the incarnation of the Devil on earth. It also has dabbled with Greek mythology, with the idea of Lamia, and in this book, with the use of Pan. And already, I've found the juxtaposition of those two a bit hard to swallow, at least with no explanations. Here, we also get introduced to the Morrigan, a Celtic crow god. And this made me wonder a bit two hard about how this world works. Thinking too hard about how the magic works in these sorts of books always risks tearing the veil. Here, I felt the different mythologies were bumping into each other, and the effect was a bit clumsier than what I'm accustomed to from Delaney.
Every series has its stronger and weaker entries, and I can imagine other people disagreeing with me on this, but for me this was probably the weakest of the books so far. And it was still pretty good, but the characters keep saying how they wish they could get home to the County, and I'm hoping for that as well. I think Delaney may be on firmer ground when he stays closer to home.