Inspired by a Persian legend and originally titled Flame, this is the first book of the Farsala Trilogy. The new and improved title, while dramatically distinctive, has the drawback of giving away the ending. But since the story is only getting started, that's probably all right. The kingdom that falls in this book is called Farsala, a society that has held its own for many centuries against hostile neighbors on both sides. Its strength is also its vulnerability: an aristocratic class of cavalry officers, called the deghans, that has ridden down every enemy it has faced in battle. But the deghans are also proud, prickly, jealous of each other's position, and apt to treat the peasantry as a lower life-form than their horses. There is also something about their religion, which propitiates eleven evil djinn—sometimes to an extent that corrupts the rule of law&mash;while doing lip-service to a single, benign deity called Azura. Throw in an enemy empire with a relatively liberal system of laws and a tradition of either conquering a country within a year or giving up—which sounds like an easy foe to beat until you realize how seldom they have given up—and you might begin to see why Farsala is poised, tipping, ready to fall.At the heart of this tragedy are three young people, ranging in age from fifteen to about twenty. Teenaged Oraya is the spoiled, haughty, willful daughter of Farsala's military commander. Merahb dotes on his daughter above all things—more than his wife, his younger male heir, even his illegitimate son Jiaan, whose career he has advanced with a patronage that makes Oraya jealous. Jiaan, for his part, has to put up with a lot of hazing from full-blooded deghans his age, who refuse to accept him among their ranks, and from the half-sister who seizes every opportunity to call him a "peasant-born bastard." The unlikely third side of the triangle is a young peddler with a maimed hand, who nurses a deep grudge against the deghans, their social system, and especially their treatment of peasants like him. Kavi travels up and down the trade road with his beloved mule Duckie, trading with miners and farmers and travelers from foreign lands, and keeping his shadier dealings just a click downwind of the law.The book, alternately told from the point of view of each of these three characters, doesn't spend much time introducing them before events start swirling and sweeping them into a collision course with their country's fate. Rumor has it that the Hrum Empire will soon be ready to invade Farsala. Merahb fears for his country's future, especially if his political rivals succeed in replacing him as high commander. But thanks to the twisted church-state politics of the deghans, young Oraya must be sacrificed to the djinn—supposedly to enable Farsala to win the impending war. Merahb has other plans for his daughter, however. Plans that involve a skillful deception, a hiding place in the mountains, and a little help from the Suud—strange, nocturnal people who live in the uncharted desert beyond the mountains. Both Jiaan (willingly) and Kavi (unwillingly) play a role in Oraya's escape. But as calamity descends upon Farsala like a thunderstorm, each of them faces sudden changes in their status, their importance, their role in history. By the end of this first installment, it looks as though at least one of them may be the great mythical hero, promised to return in the hour of Farsala's greatest need.Though this book is very fast-paced and oriented toward teen readers, it is also a challenging book in several ways. Oraya is not an easy character to sympathize with, even after she begins to transform under the magical influence of the Suud. Jiaan's first taste of battle is humiliating and heart-breaking, yet somehow he seems destined to become a great military leader. Most surprising of all is Kavi, whose loyalties are up for grabs and who may not seem to have the strength—either of body or of character—to influence events other than toward disaster. While you're still deciding whether you care about him or despise him, or to guess whose side he will end up on and whether he will live long enough to make a difference, everything changes in a rush of emotionally staggering events. And just like that, you'll be on the hook for Book 2, Rise of a Hero (originally published as Wheel).Denver-based author Hilari Bell has written a dozen and a half books, of which I have only read one so far (The Wizard Test). After dipping another toe in her work, I will surely pick up more of the Farsala Trilogy on my next trip to the library. Other titles of hers that interest me include The Goblin Wood (also the start of a trilogy), a trilogy (soon to become a quartet) called "Knight and Rogue," and the conclusion of this trilogy, Forging the Sword.
This trilogy came highly recommended by Tamora Pierce, who is one of my all-time favorite authors, and my brother, who I almost always listen to in the area of books. Tamora Pierce has listed this book on one of her recommended reading lists (and yes, I do stalk those when I'm bored). I was a little hesitant when I read the excerpt because, while I do love fantasy, I don't always enjoy worlds where the author makes up half of the worlds and the culture is just so out there. With all the 'Time's Wheel turning...' and Sorahb business, it raised some eyebrows for me. But I'm glad I decided to go ahead and read this anyway; I was pleasantly surprised. Fall of a Kingdom takes place in the land of Farsala, where the people have more or less prospered in their flawed system for many years. An ancient tale tells that when the land is in danger, an old hero will be reborn to save it. The people have not needed this hero, and the story had become more of a myth than fact. But then comes talk of a new enemy, the Hrum, who have been sweeping through other countries and quickly destroying them. The Hrum are just and fair, giving the common people the same rights as anyone else. The current ruling class in Farsala, the deghans, are the complete opposite. They take what they can, anyway they can, and spit on the peasants who work for them. The story switches between the stories of Jiaan- the illegitimate child of deghan who is treated like a peasant, Kavi-a traveling tradesman who finds himself helping the Hrum and the deghans, and Soraya- a young noble woman with enough spirit to take on the whole Hrum army herself. The characters are so well done that I think they may have been my favorite part of this whole book. They are not static or flat in anyway. I could see their motivations, insecurities, and flaws which were very believable. Jiaan I connected with quickly; the only thing he wants is to be accepted by his father, to be shown a hint of pride or emotion from him. He follows his father everywhere like a poor little puppy, begging for affection. He definately touched my heartstrings. Soraya was the fiery deghass, who didn't make excuses for herself and did what she had to do to survive. Her perspective of the story is always filled with peasant-hating comments that made her more realistic, as we are told throughout the whole story that deghans are stuck-up jerks. I was thrown back in forth between hating and loving her, which is where I think I was supposed to be. I may have I ended up loving her the most by the end of the first book, and I'm not even done with the series! Her story shows the promise of growth, which is very exciting. Kavi was complex as well because he wants the best for the common people, the everyday people like him, and he is constantly torn between who would be better as caretakers for them: the Hrum or deghans. He is a simple man, who doesn't know much about politics, and like most peasants is kept in the dark about such things. His hesistation about what was the right thing made me confused about what the right thing to do was as well. There is no clear cut choice between the Hrum and the deghans. The beginning dragged a little. The action to a while took awhile to completely set itself up. We have a faux-kidnapping, but it wasn't that exciting. Also, there is no dictionary to explain the words, and the reader is just thrust into this world without any explanation. I was extrememly confused when I started reading as to what a 'djinn' was and who ranked higher, a gahn or a deghan/deghass. Eventually that all worked itself out, and from then on the story flowed well. The action was tense and exciting, with just the right amount of pause when the perspective was switched. It didn't feel choppy to have three different main characters.
What do You think about Fall Of A Kingdom (2005)?
For all this book's good points (and there are many), it still fails because of one thing: I was rooting for the 'bad' guys the whole time.Bell created a kingdom, Farsala, which has no redeeming qualities. The peasants are treated like shit, their technology is stale, their legal system is so corrupt it has more holes in it than swiss cheese. Every part of every facet of every system they have is flawed.On the other side, we have the Hrum. More commonly known as the Romans. They have a fair everything. A fair legal system, a fair tax system, and their military and government is a meritocracy instead of a noble/royal system. Sure, they conquer neighboring countries, but they do so with a minimal loss of life and improve every country they take over. This isn't just a lit told to one of the characters, it's confirmed over and over and over again by multiple sources. These are the good guys, but we're supposed to hate them.We're supposed to hate them because they keep slaves. Really, that's the only reason. Roman slaves. I don't think this author knows what that means, or knows what the life of a Persian peasant was like. She says that the nobility treats their peasants "almost as bad as slaves" but, no. It's worse. Roman slaves are protected from violence and being overworked, whereas in this story a main character is maimed by the whim of a noble and no one bats an eye.So, the life of a Roman slave is safer and better than the life of a Persian peasant, but the Roman stand-ins are supposed to be the bad guys because...reasons. The author couldn't find any good reasons, so she harps on the slave thing and tries to make the commander out to be a monster, even though we never see the commander do anything bad-guy-worthy. He's just...sort of stern, but that's it. We're told he's terrible, but never shown it, so the whole thing falls incredibly flat.If I bother to read the second two books, I'll be cheering for the Hrum the entire time. Really, there's no reason not to.
—Whitley Birks
This book was really okay. It wasn't a stay up all night read for me and it didn't especially capture me. The different points of views left me confused about what this was all towards and there didn't especially seem to be a storyline (although this is probably because this is the first book in the series.) I also didn't connect with Kavi or Soraya at all until the very end when they actually resolved to do something. So far, I'm only interested in Jiaan. I don't understand why Bell chose to have such different stories in one book that are connected by miniscule spider thread strands, but if she manages to make them all come together nicely, it will be an ingenious series. In the end, I'd give it a 3.5 ish review.
—Courtney
I quite enjoyed this, and still have fond memories of it. I have a fondness for arid climates in fantasy books, and they were much rarer in 2004. However, the most interesting thing about this book is that it taught me that I'm a title snob. Proof?I get this from the library, in the original edition (title: Flame). I adore it, and even look into buying the sequel as an arc (title: Wheel).Three years later, I buy the new edition in paperback from a thrift shop (title: Fall of a Kingdom). I find it tedious.I figure on trying it again a few years later and get it from the library again (title: Flame) as my paperback was who knows where. I like it again, though not as much. Not surprising, as I'm 5-6 years older.I find the paperback in a pile of star wars novels (?!?) later that year and flip through it again. Boring.There is something amiss with my priorities. Although I do wonder what the publishers were thinking when they renamed this series. They went from interesting titles and series name to the most generic of each. Lucky for me the public library has the old version, in a different catalog entry from the new one. I can enable my bias as much as I want.
—Lou Rocama
