Reviews

The Fall of the Kings by Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner

solosetup's review against another edition

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3.0

pros:

- successfully descriptive language

- interesting characters

- interesting world

cons:

- a meandering plot

Unfortunately the plot is a good part of why I rated this book so low. I have the worst trouble trying to describe the book to other people because the plot was meandering, weak and confusing. There is little momentum and frequent emotional detours. A similar problem popped up in Swordspoint, but not to the degree it happens here in The Fall of the Kings where I had trouble figuring out why anyone was doing anything at all.

Worth reading, but its not one of my favorites.

yaarnvark's review against another edition

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5.0

I think I loved this book most! Sad to leave the world of riverside. will have to seek out the short stories but i don't think they are available in audiobook format. Jessica Campion needs her own book!

sophlulu_reads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Is it possible to feel deep rage when you finish a book but in a good sense? I loved it. 

I felt like I was descending into madness like Basil. On the surface it seems like it's going to be a lighthearted read but the characters are all flawed and it forces you to confront that there's not always. a right side or a wrong side, but history is always written by the winner. The ending to me was also poetic. We spend the book intimately in the character's heads, but at the most important moment we become a bystander just like anyone else.


keyboardandcouch's review against another edition

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4.0

Lots of reviews seem not to have liked the ending. But I thought it was a good place to leave things.

More proper review when I'm less desperately hungover.

*Awake and Alive Edits 26.03.2012*

I think part of why people find the ending unsatisfying, (and I think it is unsatisfying, I just likes it that way, literary masochism, whey) is that Riverside is a very fully realized setting, and Kushner and Sherman want to leave it so. Things don't end tidily, some people wander off to do other things. It's similar to the end of Swordspoint
SpoilerMichael Godwin disappeared off to where ever the Duchess sent him. He'd been a vivid and interesting enough character that we want to know how he ends up, but we're not going to follow him because his influence on the story Kushner is telling is now at an end. And hey, in The Fall of Kings and The Privilege of the Sword we do get to find out how it all turned out for him.


I thought this book was just a fantastic return to Riverside. I work in University administration and have a general interest in the history and philosophy of higher education, so stories concerned with Universities always tickle me. And I'm woman enough to admit that I found a debate over competing academic methodologies interesting.

shalea's review against another edition

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4.0

Well-written and lyrical, but fairly slow in places.

va_hobbit's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

gbaty's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

juushika's review against another edition

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4.0

Some sixty years after the events of Swordspoint, generations after the nation's last king was assassinated, a rebellious ancient history professor meets a wayward nobleman with royal blood in his veins. The spark between them threatens academic overthrow and treason. The Fall of the Kings is a fitting sequel to Swordspoint, which is no mean feat. Literal fantasy enters the fantasy of manners setting with grace; this sequel is too distinct to be a lifeless repetition of its predecessor, but it has just enough carry-over to incite a bit of recognition and nostalgia. It's as indulgent and involved as one could wish for--it feels almost like canonical fanfiction, but that well suits the tone of a fantasy of manners (although it carries some of slash fanfiction's negatives, including problematic or nonexistent "traditional" female roles). The first two thirds of the book are a joy; the final third begins to wear: the book is a touch overlong and the number of points of view make some plot development redundant and so deadens the otherwise hard-hitting conclusion. What I liked of The Fall of the Kings, I loved: the genre, its indulgence; the queer romances and strong characters and the sheer, fascinating variety of relationships. But ultimately, it's self-indulgent pseudo-fanfic, and while a fitting sequel it isn't classic material in its own right. But that ought not discourage the interested: I recommend it.

yarrowkat's review against another edition

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5.0

This just gets better with time, and for all that i absolutely adore Swordspoint, I think the Fall of the Kings is the most compelling and strongest and most complex book of the series. It does sort of beg for a sequel, and I hope they'll write one someday, but it is also intriguingly complete on its own.

annabennett1240's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0