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Review – The Fallen (The Paesian Prologues) by Jae V. Reece

THEFALLEN_COVERIt’s always a little step into the unknown when you pick up the debut work of any author. When the author is only 17, there is always the added danger that you can lean towards pre-judgement. Luckily from the moment Jae V. Reece began to weave his tales, all thoughts of a potentially difficult read were tossed aside. That’s not to say that the writing is perfect, at times the speech seems a little forced and there is a definite over reliance on the hyphen; but on the whole, it is an accomplished debut from a young writer of promise.

In the first of the 12 prologues we meet Leiden, a winged Prince of the Aeryn, learning dark news of his Father as he bids to escape the ransacking of his home city. This is followed by the introduction of Oba, who we join on an ill-fated journey of discovery to a never before seen set of Ruins. From here we meet an Elven Princess learning of a future disaster that will decimate her people; a bard receiving punishment for fabricating tales; a young dwarf seeing her father receive the death sentence for leading a rebellion and a miner journeying to take a visitor to the very base of the Demon Depths.

You may have already noticed a pattern; if the title wasn’t enough. This is not a light-hearted read; Reece’s fantasy is dark. The prologues are gritty and have an almost ever present under-current of despair. But it works. The stories have depth and the characters are well defined.

There are the odd flashes of hope, amongst the despair, within the stories as we meet the 6 protagonists for a second time and as a way of setting up Reece’s upcoming release of Book 1 of the Tales of Paesia, The Forest Lone, the book achieves what it set out to do. I for one am looking forward to reading more of Reece’s imaginative land of Paesia.

A promising start for a young Fantasy writer.

**** 4 STARS

SEB

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