The Kingfall Histories Series by David Estes (Kingfall and Dragonfall)

While my reviews are spoiler free I do want to post a spoiler alert here. Reading the description for book two, Dragonfall will spoil a couple of things if you haven't read book one.

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My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language; Slavery and Wartime atrocities, including rape and the killing of children that is done off page; Suicide

 

Be bright but do not burn. Embrace the darkness but do not live in the shadows.

Infused with magic, shadows and starlight, the powerful godblades were believed to be lost nearly half a millennia ago, when the Godswar ended. Now, however, one has been found by the unlikeliest of wielders: Sampson Gaard, a blind but ambitious prince with something to prove. The only question is whether he controls the blade or the blade him. With an insidious evil lurking in the shadows, the answer may very well determine the fate of all Kingfall.

 

 

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language; Wartime atrocities, including rape and the killing of children that is done off page; A fade to black love scene

 

As Kingfall's fuse burns ever closer to the powder keg of all-out war, the secrets of the godblades are slowly unsheathed.

In Travail, Dane and Peony face usurpers and a scheme by those seeking to overthrow the dragon throne, forcing Peony to flee to Solarii with Daneus to request help from the Dead King. In Teravainen, Jarrod must face his demons and learn how to rule in the wake of his father's murder. When the darkblades are stolen, he is forced to ride south seeking retribution, while a newly graduated mage named Quill is sent by Aeromand to investigate.

Meanwhile, as Amari begins her search for Sampson, her path crosses that of another lost soul in the unlikeliest of places. And when Ando leads his hardy band of misfit soldiers into Solarii, an unexpected enemy is there waiting for him. Looming in the darkness is a growing evil that threatens the entire continent, whether innocent or otherwise. 

I read the first book in this series, Kingfall, last year as a buddy read with my friend Melissa on Goodreads, and after a slow start, I ended up really liking it.  In the beginning, I was afraid it was going to be too dark and gritty for me. There were some very sad things that happened to a couple of the characters, and there were a few characters that I just knew I wasn't going to like. Well, after I got into the book it really took off. I ended up loving the story line with Peony and Dane, and Ando's story grew on me was well. It took me a whole year to get back to the series, but I finally did, and coincidentally finished book two exactly a year after I finished book one. 

In book two I was most excited to get back to Peony and Dane. They are the characters that have kept me reading this the most, but along the way other characters have grown on me, and in fact, even surprised me. Characters that I thought would be despicable, ended up changing, and I loved that they proved to be less predictable than I thought. I've enjoyed the self-reflection of some of these characters so much. And while Peony's and Dane's story didn't go the way I was wanting it to, I still very much enjoyed this book, and still enjoying their story as well. I absolutely love the dragon Daneus! Peony's conversations with Daneus and the godblade are very amusing at times.

I was a bit frustrated that we don't know the fate of a couple of characters by the end of the second book. One we haven't seen since book one, and the other, it just wasn't real clear what happened. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one of them is really alive.

There are four books in the series and one more will be published in April 2023. I'm planning on getting to at least one more of them this year, preferably two. It takes me a while to read these big books in ebook form, but I noticed after I borrowed the KU version, that I could buy the audio versions for 1.99 each. That helped book two go a lot faster. I like being able to switch between print and audio for these, and Tim Gerard Reynolds did the narration, so it's good.

Overall, this is a great series, and one of the best self published ones I've read. I liked that there were darker themes but it didn't get too dark, and there was enough lighter stuff to balance it out nicely.