Blurb:

Elliot is now alone. He’s left Elmor and his friends behind as he heads for the Mountains of the Forgotten World on a mission, which is almost impossible to accomplish.

The Elder Races, the creatures that according to legend are haunted by an ancient curse, are his only hope of defeating Walter. Nobody knows if Elliot has the power to break the curse, and Queen Sophie and the people of Elmor depend on him. Walter may have been defeated in the last battle, but he’ll soon return more determined than ever to destroy his remaining enemies once and for all.

Elliot needs new allies, but the creatures he wants to get on his side have suffered at the hands of humans. Will he manage to convince the Elder Races that he is different?

The second book in the series, The Dance of Light, will engage you in a compelling journey full of unexpected twists and thrills until the very last page.

Review:

This is one of the few novels I paradoxically knew was the continuation of a tale I’ve read before but don’t remember it to a full degree. Mainly due to me reading this back in the end of February, before the review site went up and I was just starting my humorful talks with authors. The gist of “The Return of the Knights”, the novel that predates this one, is thus:

Random child by the name of Elliot wanders out of a village into the capitol Iovbridge, and relays a message from his master to the queen. The queen goes along with it after she sees the bladework, he wanders off with a motley crew, some of them die in battle, they reach Wirskworth, another battle ensues, more people die, and Elliot is on his way again with his motley crew and are about to split ways.

If asked for more details about “The Return of the Knights”, I’d have to reread it due to there being a 140 book gap between the first read and now. However, the second book, the second book I can say more about. 

If I wanted to interest you in reading “The Fall of the Giants”, I’d give you this blurb:

“Elliot is heading out to the Mountains of the Forgotten World to claim a blade. The Warlord Walter continues his expansion of power. Care to know more?”

But like always, there is even more to the tale than just “he go there, the other guy go there”. So I’ll try to shine a light upon that in this review.

First of all, we have Elliot and Walter.

Elliot is of a line of Kings and Queens, the Egercolls. Walter is of another line, the Thorns. One of these two is a ruthless monster, the other is a mostly innocent child with barely any worldly experience. One doesn’t care who rules, the other wants to rule them all. Both are good with blades. Elliot grows a bit throughout the novel, learning a bit more about the elder races, and learns of their curse and how it should be broken. Walter is Walter throughout this one, murdering and rampaging throughout the country, taking more land to himself and garnering the power of the wyverns. He remains the same throughout the novel. 

Then, we have worldbuilding. Like the previous novel, this one has maps, and the cities feel there. I enjoyed the travelling parts and the history parts, and I’ll have popcorn for book 3 when that comes out.

After that we have the magic. It’s tied to bloodlines and how demented one is willing to get. More the former than the latter, however the latter really does come into play when it comes to Walter and his psychopathic behaviour. If you’re tied to the Egercolls, you might be able to ride a pegasus. If you have the blood of wyverns or giants or other nasties running through your veins, and you are able to find a wyvern, you can ride that critter. Besides that, the elwyn, the precursors to the elves, marry for life and die when their loved ones do. And both the elwyn and the elves have magic, alongside the giants and wyverns. 

Lastly, there’s the portrayal of absolute destruction and evil that Kontaxis paints with Walter that is reminiscent of Lord of the Rings and Sauron. Its done to a degree that when Walter went ahead and did something, I was expecting it to be evil, and was right on that account but not on the scale of that evil. Cannot wait to see how all of this culminates in the later novels.

There is a gripe or two I have with Kontaxis work. First of all, the dialogue felt stilted in some parts, and secondly, some parts felt more like information dumping instead of an actual story. Besides that though, I’d have to learn Greek and read the original, non translated version to get a full grasp on that, and since it takes a while to learn a new languages, that won’t be for some time.

If you are interested in fantasy, like pegasuses, wyverns and magical glowing blades, “The Return of the Knights” and therefore this one, “The Fall of the Giants”, is for you.

As always, thank you for reading this review, and I hope I’ve nudged you towards your next read. If this doesn’t sound like something you’d like to read, don’t worry, we have plenty of other content here for you to stare at as well, with reviews for books that are more in the space opera genre, or novels that go away from the epic fantasy and are instead more cosy to read,

Wherever you are reading this review, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night!