After a social media poll, it was voted that I should write a review on this series. Note that this includes a number of spoilers, so if you're planning to read it, you should probably avoid this blog post. We'll also be discussing PG-13 subjects, so be forewarned.
Recently, I was at the library when I came across part of a fantasy series involving griffins, and I thought it would be a good read. They only had the second book there, so I requested the first to brought to my branch, then picked it up. And so I began my read of 'The Dark Griffin' by K. J. Taylor.
The series, which features a society with griffin riders, started out well enough. The main character is Arren, a young griffiner desperate to prove himself. As his race, the Northerners, have experienced prejudice from Southerners in the past, it only makes him more determined to succeed.
An important man sends him on a quest to capture a wild griffin. However, it turns out his plan was to betray and ultimately ruin Arren. The task is usually carried out by a group, and Arren's griffin was killed when they faced the wild griffin. The man (whom we'll call Meaniehead, because I forgot his name) claims that Arren was supposed to go with a party of other griffiners, but made the reckless decision to do it himself.
So now Arren has lost his griffin and his status as a griffiner. His friends believed the man who betrayed him rather than Arren. When he tries to tell them he was backstabbed, everyone's foolish reaction is to try talking to said betrayer, because that can't be true! But since Meaniehead doesn't want the real story to come out, that only makes things worse for Arren.
Long story short, Arren does something stupid and gets himself in trouble with the law. He manages to get out of it, and decides to exact his revenge. He sneaks into the building where his betrayer is, kills the man, then starts a fire as a distraction so he can flee the city. From that point on, he lives as a fugitive.
It seemed like Arren had become bitter and angry by the end of book one, and I figured he would start to recover in book two. Instead, the story got really weird, and too dark for my tastes. In all honesty, I never finished reading the series. We'll delve into the reasons later.
So now that we've had our plot introduction, let's go over this series. We'll start with the positive aspects of the story first, then move on to the ranting.
You see books about dragon riders often, but not so much griffin riders. Come to think of it, griffins don't get as much attention as some of the other fantasy creatures. It seemed an interesting change, a deviation from the more commonly used fantasy aspects.
The story has some nice world-building. The griffins have sentient intelligence, and their own language, called Griffish. Griffiners learn it as well, to better communicate with other griffins. While griffins can learn to understand human languages, they're unable to speak it due to some of the pronunciations. For example, they can't make the 'b' sound. This makes sense, considering it requires a movement of the lips, something griffin beaks aren't equipped with.
There's also some development of history and culture, both the Southerners and Northerners. The culture of griffins is explored a bit, too, such as a legend of how griffins came to be. Griffins also have magical powers, and the abilities they possess vary from individual to individual.
Let's move on to the issues. As you can guess from my earlier description, things started to go south as the story progressed. And the annoying thing is, it seemed like it might be good at the beginning. I thought parts of book one were kind of iffy, but in book two, the violence, lack of moral values, and the character's corruption really became apparent. I expected the story to get better again, for a redemption arc in the main character, but it just didn't happen.
The story deals with prejudice and flawed societies, so conflict and violence is going to occur. However, there has to be a limit. After a while, it seemed like Arren was in constant turmoil. If there wasn't something bad going on, he was reflecting on how he felt he'd become a horrible person, or they were planning a rebellion and full-out war, or some other thing. Towards the end, you couldn't get a breath of fresh air. There has to be some balance in a story, and I feel like the series became way too dark.
Later in the story, Arren worries what sort of person he is, considering all the people he's killed, among other sins he's committed. At one point, he confides to his father that when he was a griffiner, he made some bad choices in order to rise in his position. I was hoping for a redemption arc throughout the reading, and now I find he was kind of corrupt before. And he alternates between being wracked with guilt, and embracing his corruption. "Hey, I'm a criminal already, what does it matter?" (commits more wrongs) As I went through book two, I found Meaniehead's son, who wanted to kill Arren to avenge his father, more relatable and likable than Arren himself.
Moral values went out the window, in so many ways. For example, Arren goes through an initiation in book two. He basically has to murder, commit human sacrifice, for this ceremony. I don't know if he felt bad about it later, but at the time, he just went along with it. Then he enters a vision, and the Moon God tells him to kill these people, including his former girlfriend (who was Meaniehead's daughter). There was one he didn't recognize, but is likely his unborn child he's unaware he has. End the life of an innocent infant who's also your own flesh and blood, how twisted is that? Just because they're related to Meaniehead, they all must die.
There were also a few details I feel could have been executed better. For example, the pronunciations were poorly explained. Along with that, we have the age-old problem of giant heavy swords. At one point, I was got the impression that a character's sword weighed a gazillion pounds. Realistically, swords used for battle typically weighed 2-5 lbs, and were carefully weighted and streamlined. They weren't unwieldy objects, as many people think.
A fellow blogger, Deborah Kelty, wrote a post titled 'Why Pushing An Agenda Is Dangerous To Your Story'. It was well-timed, since I had recently abandoned book two, and 'The Fallen Moon' series falls into precisely that trap.
As mentioned, there's a lot of emphasis on prejudice. It's a commonly explored theme, especially in fantasy and sci-fi, it seems. However, the thing with writing a story that makes a point is: don't shove it down people's throats or make it a blatant attack. 'The Fallen Moon' series failed here. Along with the corruption arc of the main character, all the moral issues, and other issues, we also get to enjoy the poorly executed allegory.
First, a touch of backstory in the book series. In the history of the land, the Northerners once lived freely and spoke their own tongue. Southerners came in, and after a great deal of war, they gained control and enslaved a lot of the Northerners. The Southerners' tongue became the primary language, and use of the Northern tongue is frowned upon. In fact, enslaved Northerners are punished if caught speaking it.
Ultimately, the story is an allegory about racism. Throughout history, people have suffered unfair treatment at the hands of others, and many of these issues are touched upon in the series. However, the theme could have been executed a lot better than it was. Even without the main character's moral issues and corruption arc that made me dislike him, the concept was poorly done.
For example, character portrayal. At the start of the story, Arren's friends seem to be loyal, but with Meaniehead talking about the madness of the Northerners, and Arren cracking under all the stress, they all end up believing Meaniehead and the stupid stereotype instead. Things like this occur in reality, but after a while, it started to feel like every Southerner was corrupt. Even in a society where prejudice is a common thing, there's typically some individuals who go against the grain, who realize the flaws in society and don't agree with them.
Granted, while the Northerners are portrayed as the good guys who will eventually prevail, their own culture has plenty of flaws, too. Cue the scene involving human sacrifice, and the Moon God telling Arren to kill his former love and the kid he unknowingly had with her. No one seems to consider that this might be wrong. And sadly, I didn't have huge expectations for reading about "Hey, this shouldn't happen!" and someone stopping the practice.
Remember what I said earlier about stories that make a point, and how to properly execute the idea? The way it was written smashed the rules to smithereens. The story seemed to scream the allegory at you, and began to feel like a blatant attack. I'm not always thrilled with past or present events; in fact, certain things in history make flames shoot out my nose. But the way things were portrayed in the series seemed like a trip down Reversed Racism Lane, which doesn't solve anything.
All in all, the moral values of the characters were lacking, and the underlying message came on too strong and was poorly delivered. I eventually reached the point where I didn't like the characters, including Arren, and was no longer interested in the plot.
As you can tell, I really wasn't impressed with this series. It's been a while since I came across a story I disliked so much. It had plenty of potential, interesting world-building, and addressed issues such as prejudice. But ultimately, the story wasn't executed well, had a number of flaws, and wound up not being an enjoyable read. So much, in fact, that I stopped short of completing book two.
Anyway, that's my two cents. More like two thousand cents, really, based on how lengthy this post became. Here's a more pleasant and fun blog post to escape to after my ranting.
So leave a comment below, and tell me what you think of this post. Have you ever read a story, or watched a TV show or movie, that you really disliked, and perhaps you never finished?
Recently, I was at the library when I came across part of a fantasy series involving griffins, and I thought it would be a good read. They only had the second book there, so I requested the first to brought to my branch, then picked it up. And so I began my read of 'The Dark Griffin' by K. J. Taylor.
The series, which features a society with griffin riders, started out well enough. The main character is Arren, a young griffiner desperate to prove himself. As his race, the Northerners, have experienced prejudice from Southerners in the past, it only makes him more determined to succeed.
An important man sends him on a quest to capture a wild griffin. However, it turns out his plan was to betray and ultimately ruin Arren. The task is usually carried out by a group, and Arren's griffin was killed when they faced the wild griffin. The man (whom we'll call Meaniehead, because I forgot his name) claims that Arren was supposed to go with a party of other griffiners, but made the reckless decision to do it himself.
So now Arren has lost his griffin and his status as a griffiner. His friends believed the man who betrayed him rather than Arren. When he tries to tell them he was backstabbed, everyone's foolish reaction is to try talking to said betrayer, because that can't be true! But since Meaniehead doesn't want the real story to come out, that only makes things worse for Arren.
Long story short, Arren does something stupid and gets himself in trouble with the law. He manages to get out of it, and decides to exact his revenge. He sneaks into the building where his betrayer is, kills the man, then starts a fire as a distraction so he can flee the city. From that point on, he lives as a fugitive.
It seemed like Arren had become bitter and angry by the end of book one, and I figured he would start to recover in book two. Instead, the story got really weird, and too dark for my tastes. In all honesty, I never finished reading the series. We'll delve into the reasons later.
So now that we've had our plot introduction, let's go over this series. We'll start with the positive aspects of the story first, then move on to the ranting.
You see books about dragon riders often, but not so much griffin riders. Come to think of it, griffins don't get as much attention as some of the other fantasy creatures. It seemed an interesting change, a deviation from the more commonly used fantasy aspects.
The story has some nice world-building. The griffins have sentient intelligence, and their own language, called Griffish. Griffiners learn it as well, to better communicate with other griffins. While griffins can learn to understand human languages, they're unable to speak it due to some of the pronunciations. For example, they can't make the 'b' sound. This makes sense, considering it requires a movement of the lips, something griffin beaks aren't equipped with.
There's also some development of history and culture, both the Southerners and Northerners. The culture of griffins is explored a bit, too, such as a legend of how griffins came to be. Griffins also have magical powers, and the abilities they possess vary from individual to individual.
Let's move on to the issues. As you can guess from my earlier description, things started to go south as the story progressed. And the annoying thing is, it seemed like it might be good at the beginning. I thought parts of book one were kind of iffy, but in book two, the violence, lack of moral values, and the character's corruption really became apparent. I expected the story to get better again, for a redemption arc in the main character, but it just didn't happen.
The story deals with prejudice and flawed societies, so conflict and violence is going to occur. However, there has to be a limit. After a while, it seemed like Arren was in constant turmoil. If there wasn't something bad going on, he was reflecting on how he felt he'd become a horrible person, or they were planning a rebellion and full-out war, or some other thing. Towards the end, you couldn't get a breath of fresh air. There has to be some balance in a story, and I feel like the series became way too dark.
Later in the story, Arren worries what sort of person he is, considering all the people he's killed, among other sins he's committed. At one point, he confides to his father that when he was a griffiner, he made some bad choices in order to rise in his position. I was hoping for a redemption arc throughout the reading, and now I find he was kind of corrupt before. And he alternates between being wracked with guilt, and embracing his corruption. "Hey, I'm a criminal already, what does it matter?" (commits more wrongs) As I went through book two, I found Meaniehead's son, who wanted to kill Arren to avenge his father, more relatable and likable than Arren himself.
Moral values went out the window, in so many ways. For example, Arren goes through an initiation in book two. He basically has to murder, commit human sacrifice, for this ceremony. I don't know if he felt bad about it later, but at the time, he just went along with it. Then he enters a vision, and the Moon God tells him to kill these people, including his former girlfriend (who was Meaniehead's daughter). There was one he didn't recognize, but is likely his unborn child he's unaware he has. End the life of an innocent infant who's also your own flesh and blood, how twisted is that? Just because they're related to Meaniehead, they all must die.
There were also a few details I feel could have been executed better. For example, the pronunciations were poorly explained. Along with that, we have the age-old problem of giant heavy swords. At one point, I was got the impression that a character's sword weighed a gazillion pounds. Realistically, swords used for battle typically weighed 2-5 lbs, and were carefully weighted and streamlined. They weren't unwieldy objects, as many people think.
 |
| Note that 3 kg isn't even close to 10 lbs. And spinning the sword like a helicopter... doesn't get much more epic than that, or amusing to watch. No skill required, either, awesome. |
A fellow blogger, Deborah Kelty, wrote a post titled 'Why Pushing An Agenda Is Dangerous To Your Story'. It was well-timed, since I had recently abandoned book two, and 'The Fallen Moon' series falls into precisely that trap.
As mentioned, there's a lot of emphasis on prejudice. It's a commonly explored theme, especially in fantasy and sci-fi, it seems. However, the thing with writing a story that makes a point is: don't shove it down people's throats or make it a blatant attack. 'The Fallen Moon' series failed here. Along with the corruption arc of the main character, all the moral issues, and other issues, we also get to enjoy the poorly executed allegory.
First, a touch of backstory in the book series. In the history of the land, the Northerners once lived freely and spoke their own tongue. Southerners came in, and after a great deal of war, they gained control and enslaved a lot of the Northerners. The Southerners' tongue became the primary language, and use of the Northern tongue is frowned upon. In fact, enslaved Northerners are punished if caught speaking it.
Ultimately, the story is an allegory about racism. Throughout history, people have suffered unfair treatment at the hands of others, and many of these issues are touched upon in the series. However, the theme could have been executed a lot better than it was. Even without the main character's moral issues and corruption arc that made me dislike him, the concept was poorly done.
For example, character portrayal. At the start of the story, Arren's friends seem to be loyal, but with Meaniehead talking about the madness of the Northerners, and Arren cracking under all the stress, they all end up believing Meaniehead and the stupid stereotype instead. Things like this occur in reality, but after a while, it started to feel like every Southerner was corrupt. Even in a society where prejudice is a common thing, there's typically some individuals who go against the grain, who realize the flaws in society and don't agree with them.
Granted, while the Northerners are portrayed as the good guys who will eventually prevail, their own culture has plenty of flaws, too. Cue the scene involving human sacrifice, and the Moon God telling Arren to kill his former love and the kid he unknowingly had with her. No one seems to consider that this might be wrong. And sadly, I didn't have huge expectations for reading about "Hey, this shouldn't happen!" and someone stopping the practice.
Remember what I said earlier about stories that make a point, and how to properly execute the idea? The way it was written smashed the rules to smithereens. The story seemed to scream the allegory at you, and began to feel like a blatant attack. I'm not always thrilled with past or present events; in fact, certain things in history make flames shoot out my nose. But the way things were portrayed in the series seemed like a trip down Reversed Racism Lane, which doesn't solve anything.
All in all, the moral values of the characters were lacking, and the underlying message came on too strong and was poorly delivered. I eventually reached the point where I didn't like the characters, including Arren, and was no longer interested in the plot.
As you can tell, I really wasn't impressed with this series. It's been a while since I came across a story I disliked so much. It had plenty of potential, interesting world-building, and addressed issues such as prejudice. But ultimately, the story wasn't executed well, had a number of flaws, and wound up not being an enjoyable read. So much, in fact, that I stopped short of completing book two.
Anyway, that's my two cents. More like two thousand cents, really, based on how lengthy this post became. Here's a more pleasant and fun blog post to escape to after my ranting.
So leave a comment below, and tell me what you think of this post. Have you ever read a story, or watched a TV show or movie, that you really disliked, and perhaps you never finished?
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