Fall of a Kingdom

Fall of a Kingdom
The Farsala Trilogy
Hilari Bell
Low Fantasy

Summery
The land of Farsala has stood for thousands of years in peace. The three peoples of Farsala have found a way to service together but the old ways are starting to fail and life for all but the highest is suffering for it.

The three peoples are, The Suud a desert welling nocturnal people, the peasants little more then slaves to there masters they work the fields and make the tools, and the Deghan the ruling class pledged to defend the land and rule it.

A new threat has come to the kingdom, the Hrum empire. The empire has already conquered 29 lands in its path to become stronger and Farsala is next in line. But the Hrum empire has a weakness that the kingdom of Farsala can use against them. The empire has only one year to completely conquer a new land before they let it go and make friends instead. So all the people of Farsala have to do is last one year, but can they?

The book follows the story of three young people who in there own way must fight the Hrum if they are to last the year. But fighting the Hrum might be the easy part working together without killing each other might be impossible.

Soraya is a Deghan and a spoiled brat. She cares little for others out side her family and social level but she will have to find another way to be if Farsala is to last.

Jiaan is the bastard son of the High commander who leads the army and half sister to Soraya. All Jiaan ever wanted was to be like his father and he will have to be if they are to survive what is coming.

Kavi a peasant who travels around selling small goods to the outer villages. Kavi was once a blacksmith and was on his way to become one of the best but a Deghan crippled his right hand and left it weak and him angry. Will Kavi be able to over come his anger or will it be the downfall of his people?

Review
Fall of a kingdom is an interesting book. I very much liked it but it does have problems. Over all I'm happy I now own it and look forward to reading it again, but the book has a few limitations.

First, you have three characters who are all sort of stupid. They do stupid things and are not very likable until later in the book. It could be hard to connected with the characters and with out that connection people may have a hard to reading this book.

Second, the book takes a little warming up. Nothing really happens until about about page 160 everything before that is just build up without any meat to it.

Third, there is a whole different story build in to the book following the life and rebirth of Sorahb. Sorahb a legendary hero who is supposed to come to Farsala's add when needed, but they don't really explain it and its not even important to this book at all. In the second and third book this information makes sense but its a little odd in the first book.

Fourth, this is a fantasy book but you would not know that until about page 300 because of this Fall of an empire is really more of a Military tactics novel and this could through people off.

With all of these problems I tell you now READ THIS BOOK. I promise you will not regret it. Yes the book has a few problems but it is also really well written and even though the magic is far in the back of the book it is pretty cool when you finally get to see it. Also the fighting in it is really fascinating and cool. This book makes you feel like your fighting against a the Hrum.

But that is only the smallest peace of why you should read this book. The fact is that even though this book in only OK the trilogy as a whole is amazing. I ready all three books in less then a week with two jobs, a wife and a heavy social life.

Like a lot of great trilogies, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, the first part is not the best but it sets up the next two parts to be amazing and that is what happens with the Farsala Trilogy. The next two books, Rise of a Hero and Forging the Sword, take the characters at they best and make them better it takes the best parts of book one and eliminates the bad parts.

I would give Fall of a Kingdom a 6.5 out of 10 but I would give the trilogy a 8 out of 10. Read all three books and these will become must haves for your collection.