The Fallen Kind by M. Amelk

I’ll be honest, I started this book, got totally distracted by work and other books, and then came back to it.  Part of me knows that’s life, but I felt like a fairly terrible person for doing it.  I feel like you tell an author you’re going to read something, and you do it.  I can’t imagine just waiting for people to be brutally honest via the interwebs about something you put a lot of time, effort, passion, etc into.  So, first: I’m sorry for taking so long to write this review!

Phew!  I’m glad I got that off my chest.  The Fallen Kind follows a lot of different people in various times (i.e. before the world ended, after it ended, in a timeless place that I think controls everyone’s fate).  In that way, it reminded me a lot of The Broken Lands Series.  It was a little hard to follow at times because there were so many moving pieces, but if you stick with it friends, it does start to tie together, which is very interesting in my opinion.

The main thread follows Evan and Beveridge as they use maps to find a special place that is like a promised land in their post-apocalyptic world.  As in most stories, things go awry, and we have the first installment of The Fallen Kind.

First, some things I didn’t love:

• There is a love story in there, but I felt like we didn’t get a real sense of where it was coming from.  There’s a scene that I think definitely helps it feel fated, but I don’t really have any clue what either of them really likes about each other… just that they do.
• The moving pieces are a little hard to keep straight.  I don’t think this is a bad thing, but I definitely took longer to get through the book as I took space to process everything.  I don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a book challenge your mind, so maybe this is a good thing?
• I definitely don’t think this is a “bad” thing, just an FYI more… the writing style is very different than I’ve seen before.  Within the same scene you may lots of dialogue and details about what’s happening and in the next paragraph it could be a summary of the rest of the interaction.  I found it very intriguing.  It took a little getting used to, but I personally have fell into the “It’s neat to still be surprised by reading” category on it.

Ok, things I did love…

• Evan’s character is hilariously snarky.  He deals with feelings through humor and frequently says awkward things at the most inopportune times.  His character is such a stark contrast to his cohort, Beveridge.  They are like two haves of an Oreo; they just go together.  It’s interesting to have the main focus be dudes.  I clearly have a “type” of book, but it was refreshing NOT to have a girl kicking ass when no one thought she could for a change.  Just two dudes making small progress toward a goal.  It’s a little Tolkien-esque in that way.
• The moving pieces are fun to try and anticipate how they fit together.  I went through phases of not wanting to pick this up but needing to as I worked through the story.  Although it may sound weird to not want to read, I think it goes back to feeling challenged by the story.  Even though I had to push myself through some spots, I’m ultimately glad I did.

Where did I land on this?  A few things: I think I’m in for book two, I hope we’ll have more development on the love story front, block off your calendar for some extra thinking time, and as a crazy American, I definitely stalked Mr. Amelk’s origins and may have Googled accents in his region (Nottingham if my Googling is correct).  I highly recommend.

I’d say if you enjoy works by D. Wallace Peach, you’d likely enjoy this as well.  Not as much full on world building, but definitely layers to the story that help it feel whole.