Kingfall: The Kingfall Histories, Book 1

Wow! What a start to a new series. David's writing and story telling have always been great, but he has become stronger in both of those areas with this book. The story has a great cast of characters that have interesting arcs and he really develops them well. While there are several storylines with multiple POVs, he balances them all out nicely. Plus they overlap enough or run parallel so you never feel like the storylines are independent of each other.David does a wonderful job building and expanding the world and its politics. All the charactes are swept up into one way or another. And if not swept up in the politics, they are certainly impacted by them. The over-arching thread of the God Blades and the role they play are woven into the story naturally and slowly reveal how they are fitting into the story. Love this concept of the God Blades and how he is using them.Lots of plot twists, character surprises and a few gut punches along the way. If you've read David's books before, you know not everyone makes it to the end of chapter, let alone the end of the book. There are real stakes in the story with consequences to actions and choices made by the characters.I can't wat to read Dragonfall and see how this all continues. I puposely stayed away from naming characters so as not to have any spoilers. But I will say there are 5 characters that I'm really invested in what happens to them in the fututre.

As a general rule the book is quite good. Taking place in a seemingly standard fantasy setting, it nonetheless possesses more than a few native quirks to make it stand out. Characters are compelling and the world building is steady and consistent. However, the book also has low points, such as hit-or-miss humor that often seems misplaced (a man goes from suicidal hysteria at the deaths of his family to “I’ll take one of those if you’re handing them out) as well as the occasional easily guessed plot point, though this did nothing to keep me reading for a full day solid.Not a perfect book but more than good enough for anyone looking for a good old-fashioned door stopper to keep them entertained.

Until recently I wasn't much of a fantasy fan. Mostly I was into hard science fiction. But almost by accident I was introduced to the work of Michael Sullivan and fell in love with the narrator of his books, Tim Gerard Reynolds. So I started looking for other audio books he had read, and came upon Kingfall. It had it all: dastardly villains, tragic heroes, beautiful princesses, plucky children, strange creatures and magic, Magic, MAGIC! I confess, I was hooked! I was consumed by Kingfall and went on to read the next three books in the series. Well, almost. I'm stuck about three quarters of the way through the fourth book. Somehow I just don't care about dragons or demons or mages anymore. But this, the first book, was terrific, and many people will tell you the rest in the series are, too. So try it. It was fun while it lasted and you get to listen to Tim Gerard Reynolds.

I loved Kingfall! It has everything I wish from a big epic fantasy novel: impressive worldbuilding, strong and motivated heroes and villains, magic, awesome weapons, and great plot twists. Oh, and dragons!The ending was amazing. One of the best things I've read in years.It was great to sew some of the characters in the Fatemarked series, which I read (and loved) before Kingfall.Now, on to Book 2.

I gave the book an honest effort, but it just wasn't clicking for me. Everyone is painfully obvious in their roles with almost no nuance whatsoever. Andovier is immediately set as the tragic hero attempting to fight back through trauma. Meanwhile, the Teravainen King wrings his hands evilly while doing and saying cartoonishly evil things constantly so you can remember that he is the villain. There's Roman, Prince Sampson's guardian who you're told through word, thought and action over and over that he considers Sampson his surrogate son, and vice versa. Constantly. Almost every other paragraph, Roman is thinking about the boy he raised, or Sampson is thinking about how he depends on Roman. You must never forget their dynamic. Then there's Aisling, the fae creature that despises humanity and sees no good in them, except Andovier's pure nobility of spirit immediately catches her eye, etc etc.Even if the characters weren't one-dimensional, their problems and tribulations are. Prince Sampson is blind but discovers an evil sword that can give him back his visions but makes him commit murders and help demons. The inner turmoil is just painful to read, amounting to "Oh man, I can't believe I'm a murderer now! I hate this, but... I sure do like seeing things!"That said, this series was recommended to me by people who I trust their taste. I acknowledge that something might be good, even if it's not my particular cup of tea. David Estes's works are popular and well-liked, so it's probably more me than the content. Your mileage may vary.

Well thought out world. Starts really strong! Good character building. Looking forward to book 2..Interested to see how this plays out.

I Liked the writing style very much. What’s not to like dragons dragons and more dragons….. very interesting take on old themes I enjoyed it

The story is amazing and will make time fly by.I was a bit disappointed about the quality of the paperback version. I wish I had ordered the hardcover. The paperback cover is very flimsy and sometimes the text on the page was printed crookedly. However, I love the story so much that I just couldn't bring myself to give this book 4 stars instead of all 5.

There's a lot to like in this book but it's let down by the author trying to juggle too many balls! There are already a myriad of characters so to have another "dump" of more at the 50% stage just seems a bit much, not to mention that the book actually ends at 80%! There appears to be another 4 in the Series but being perfectly honest I'm not sure I care enough to keep going & reading the synopsis of each, there's more characters to come! The author has this annoying thing of starting a sentence with "Void" when he wants to story to change direction...why? You also wonder what age this is aimed at, I'm mean we have a Wizard (who actually hasn't been in it much so far) named Grim Fire & the baddie from years ago was called Mirg Erif...I mean really!I could quite happily followed Ando,Peony & Sampson but then we have Griz,Mrz,Aisling,Amari,Jarrod,Dale & still yet more to come!If I could I'd probably just look at the ending of book 5.