Fae – The Wild Hunt: Riven Wyrde Saga, Book 1

• By Graham Austin-King
• Narrated By Jonny McPherson

Blurb

Fairies. The Fae. The stuff of bedtime stories and fables. But sometimes the fairy tales are true. Sometimes they are a warning.

For a hundred generations the Fae have been locked away from the world, in the cold, the Outside. They have faded out of sight and mind into myth and folklore, but now the barriers are weakening and they push against the tattered remnants of the wyrde as they seek a way to return.

As a new religion spreads across the world, sweeping the old ways and beliefs away before it, a warlike people look across the frozen ocean towards the shores of Anlan, hungry for new lands. War is coming, even as the wyrde of the droos is fading.

Only by realizing the truth lost in a child’s tale will the world hope to withstand the wild hunt.

Fae: The Realm of Twilight: The Riven Wyrde Saga, Book 2

The Riven Wyrde saga continues…

The Wyrde is dead and gone, its protection passed into the ether. The fae have been loosed upon the world as they begin their wild hunt, a nightmare from fables and legend made flesh. At Hesk, in the heart of the Barren Isles, Ylsriss must confront a reality she never could have imagined when her son is stolen from her by the fae. Her desperate attempts to reclaim him lead her far from this world and deep into the Realm of Twilight where a still darker truth awaits her. As the Bjornmen invaders drive their way deeper into Anlan, King Pieter refuses to act. Selena is forced to confront him directly as Devin and Obair flee Widdengate and begin a search for answers, seeking help from a woman who may be little more than a memory.

I read book 1 The Wild Hunt back before I was doing the blog, so I never did a proper review for it. So I am going to combine them, and this review will be about both books.

I have been so backed up with books the last few months that whenever something on my TBR pile comes out in Audiobook I grab it. So when the second book in this series, The Realm of Twilight hit Audible I snatched it up. After listening for about 5 min I stopped it, went back to audible and got book 1 and started on that one. Now I have done that before because I couldn’t remember what was going on or something like that. But this time there was a different reason. That reason was the narration  by Jonny McPherson was really great.  It may have been his first time as a narrator, but my readers from the UK might know of him from a TV show called Emmerdale. I used my magic to animate a lifeless goblin to give you a sample from book 2

The covers for both books are just a bit creepy and that goes well with the books. Between the two of them I can’t decide which one I like the best.

The Fae have been called by many names Fey, fay,  fae, Fairy, fairies, fair folk; Good People. Those names started because people were afraid to piss  one of them off by referring to them in a negative way. It was believed that If one of them heard you say something they didn’t like or even if you walked close to a place they gathered, they wouldn’t harm you most of the time but go after someone you loved. That would be why your infant died in his sleep or your wife had a heart attack, most bad things that happened would be attributed to the Fae. So it gets on my nerves when people think of Fairies like this

when going by our actual folklore they would be more like this

True in the myths they usually used a Glamour so the would look pretty but in reality they were mostly scary inside and out. So I am glad to see them portrayed more in the correct fashion in this series.Hey look Bob got dressed up as a Fairy princess!

Book 1 starts with Devin as a small boy. His mother runs off with him after the abusive husband actually tries to hit Devin instead of her after Devin jumps on dads back while the dad is beating his mom. We never do learn if the Dad was dead or just knocked out but it does teach a good lesson. A Mother will take a lot of crap but never go after their cub or mommy bear will eat you..

it is on the road to a different city that things get…. strange. I won’t go in to how but it involves one of the Fae and Devin’s mom disappearing. He is found with not much memory and taken in by a nice couple that end up raising him in the village of  Widdengate. That’s as much as I’ll tell you about the plot  you will have to read it yourself to find out the rest.

Now what did I think about it?  Well I was surprised at the lack of fairies for most of the book. They are more of a minor subplot in this book compared to all the other things going on. Don’t take that wrong it is not too boring or too chaotic but going back to my bear analogy it is just right. And even though we don’t see many of the Fae you can tell it is definitely building up to something big.

Book 2 has more action solves a few questions and asks many more. My favorite character in the series so far is the Captain from my audio sample he is great with his dry sarcastic humor But Obair is a close second. Obair is an old man who was the last one holding on to the Wyrde, the force that kept the Fae locked away from our world. It was held by  druids spread out all over the world for a thousand years. But as tales of the Fae turned to Fairy tales the numbers decreased more and more. Now with the Wyrde gone completely the Fae can come and go during the full moon as they please. Taking human slaves back to their realm and killing any they feel like.

The battle scenes are pretty epic and overall there is some great action. There are some rather strange things happening and the author fleshes out his own folklore a bit more in some Intriguing ways.The ants nest has definitely been kicked and I can’t wait to see what happens

Final Thoughts

Both books were very enjoyable with good writing good plot and great characters.  For books with Fae in the title they were a bit light on the Fae For most of the time but that doesn’t hurt the story  at all. There is a lot going on but its not confusing and with the Audio all the main POV’s have a unique enough voice that it is easy to keep track of who is saying or doing this or that.  The whole story has been building  up to what I hope will be one hell of a conclusion. I have book 3 and am torn between wanting to find out what will happen and wanting to wait for the third book on audio. Graham told me that they have just started recording it and expects it sometime around June. Keep an eye out for a giveaway of some kind around then. I give book one 4 stars and book two 4.25 stars

Don’t you just love fairies