Review: The Fall by Ryan Cahill
Blurb:
The Order have watched over the continent of Epheria for thousands of years. But there are those who believe The Order has had its day. That it is corrupt, indulgent, and deceitful – that it is ready to fall.
The City of Ilnaen is on fire.
Dragons fill the skies.
Traitors fill the streets.
The Fall is a prequel novella that takes place four hundred years before the events in Of Blood and Fire – book one in The Bound and The Broken series.
“We stand when others cannot…This is what we do. We stand against the darkest nights. When all hope is lost, we are the brightest lights.”
Review:
The Fall is an emotional, Sentinel-armor-enhanced kick to the gut while ranking as one of my all-time favorite novellas. I’ve heard The Fall touted as the example of how to effectively write a fantasy novella and, after reading it, I have to agree.
It’s important to note here, especially if you haven’t read my review for Of Blood and Fire, that I decided to follow the Fellensir reading order, which means I read Of Blood and Fire before reading The Fall. As I expressed in the other review (check it out for more details), I sincerely believe that this is the optimal way of starting The Bound and the Broken series. Having the groundwork laid for me by Of Blood and Fire allowed this extremely fast paced and ambitious novella to land on an already established framework and understanding of Epheria. The impact of seeing some of these characters, who played huge parts in Of Blood and Fire or who were mentioned in passing, allowed their story in The Fall to take on greater depths, and ultimately extract significantly more emotional pain as I watched The Fall unfold.
“Pain is the path to strength.”
Where Of Blood and Fire started the reader in a small village with a slow and steady build up of action and lore, The Fall grabs you by the shoulders from the first page, chucks you onto the back of a dragon, and expects that you’re not going to fall off during the ride. The action is non-stop. The Fall is set 400 years before the events in Of Blood and Fire. We follow four main perspectives as we learn about this devastating, bloody night in the city of Ilnaen: Alvira the Archon, Kallinvar from the Knights of Achyron, Coren of the Draleid, and the traitor Eltoar. We get to meet a young Aeson and learn briefly of Farda’s traitorous backstory. These four perspectives are woven together masterfully. There are touch points snuck into each story so you can place it on the timeline of the battle, but there never feels like there is unnecessary redundancy.
The Fall is such a strong novella for a number of reasons. First, and probably most impressive to me, is that Cahill was able to introduce us to four almost completely new characters (I know there were some brief introductions to some of them in Of Blood and Fire, but they were minor) and make us care about these people in the space of a few pages. There are instant emotional connections between the readers and these characters, to such a degree that I felt my heart being ripped out multiple times in the course of a 77-page book! I was on an emotional rollercoaster throughout the entire novella, shocked and heartbroken as I witnessed Alvira and Eltoar’s interaction, cheering a wild battlecry as the Knights charged into Ilnaen, crushed at the death and destruction and ripping apart of dragon bonds, and then ultimately horrified as we meet Fane Mortem in the last pages. These pages are bursting at the seams with blockbuster worthy scenes that I cannot get over. All the scenes with Aeson. Kallinvar’s fight with the Bloodmarked. Coren witnessing the pain of the newly christened Rakina. Eltoar’s brief realization of the sacrifice he has made while standing in the Hatchery. The terrible might of Fane. The amount of lore that Cahill is able to build in such a brief novella is impressive and bodes well for the remainder of this series.
“You must always rise, so that others rise with you.”
The Fall is black velvet, highlighting the diamond that Cahill is crafting in The Bound and the Broken. Cahill’s deep, meticulous history of Epheria and the potential for how sweeping and epic this series can be is encapsulated in this short novella. To anyone who is deciding how to start The Bound and the Broken (because starting it should be a given at this point), start with Of Blood and Fire, learn about Epheria, and then get blown away by The Fall. Please, for the love of Achyron, do not just read the novels and skip these novellas. The Fall is a masterclass in elevating a series into a completely different tier of fantasy story.
