Unpacking 'Children of the Fallen Gods' | #FantasySeries Book Chat - Shelf Addiction Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, booklovers, Welcome back to shelf Addiction, the podcast where
we dive deep into the pages of thriller and fantasy reads.
I'm your host, Tamara, and today we are discussing the
second book in the War of Lost Hearts trilogy. But
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(00:25):
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subscribe and leave us a review wherever you are listening.
Speaking of community, I am thrilled to welcome back my

(00:46):
fantasy series bestie and co host Casey from Heart full
of Ink. Welcome back, Casey. Hello, Hello, I'm so excited
to be here. Are you ready for today's episode?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
You're ready?

Speaker 1 (00:58):
OKAYY?

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Are you?

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I don't know we about to find out. I don't
really know it's about to come out of my mouth
right now, So we're gonna find out together.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I love that I love that so much.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
Yeah, okay, we can talk about that in a moment,
but first, you guys, you can find links for both
Casey and myself, as well as the podcast in general
in the show notes, So click around do all the
things we appreciate for doing that. Before we begin, I
want to remind you that we discuss full spoilers during
book chats, so spoiler alert you've been warned. Today we

(01:31):
are discussing Children of the Following Gods, written by Chrissa Broadbent.
The audiobook is narrated by Esther Wayne and Dan Kelly.
First published March thirtieth, twenty twenty one by Chriissa Broadbents
and later released on audiobook by Tandor Audio. The e
book is six hundred and thirty six pages. The unabridged
audio is nineteen hours and thirty minutes. Casey, which you

(01:55):
kindly read the synopsis.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
No more can be fought with clean hands, not even
one's rate, not even one's waged for the right reasons,
not even the ones you win. Tassana bargained away her
freedom to save those she left behind in slavery. Now
bound by her blood packed, she must fight the Order's
war and Max is determined to protect her at all costs,

(02:21):
But when a betrayal tears apart, Era, Max and to
Sana are pulled into even bloodier conflict. Tasana must gamble
with Raychi's power to claim impossible victory, and Max's forced
into leadership, must confront everything he hoped to forget, his
past and his own mysterious magic. All the while, darker
forces loom, far darker even than the Order's secrets. As

(02:46):
Tasana and Max are ensnared in a web of ancient
magic and twisted secrets, one question remains, what are they
willing to sacrifice for victory, for power, for love? Well,
it was a long book. It was long. It was
a very long book.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
And a very long audiobook is fourteen hours nineteen hours?

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, did you would speed? Did you listen at?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
So? Okay, this is the progression of things. I started
at one point five. Okay, I'm like, this is okay.
And then I got to aim around fifty ish percent
and I'm like, god, damn, this has taken a long time. Yeah,
so up it went to one point seven and then
I feel like I want another fifteen percent, and I
said screw it. Two point two point zero two am

(03:40):
two X. And if I could have tolerated it any faster,
I would have done it. So there's that. And I
probably could have slowed down for the last ten percent
of this book, but I didn't give a fuck, so

(04:03):
I just wanted it over. And so now I may
be a little confused on a fight. To be clear,
that up for me, because you know, honestly, I'm trying
to listen to this book and then Kevin is trying
to talk to me at the same time, and I'm
giving him the dust stare at two x's speed, I'm

(04:26):
pressing pause, I'm starting rewind Paustor, I'm like, oh my god.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
And actually.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
I just said, fuck it, we're going forward. We're going forward. Yeah,
So you finished that. I finished, by the skin of
my teeth. I literally finished, probably twenty minutes before we
have gone to record this episode.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I finished about thirty minutes, so like ten minutes before
you okay, bye, by the skin of my teeth too.
So I will say high level, I like this better
than the first one, which is good. I was very
worried after reading the first one because I was total
met about the first one. There was nothing I really loved,

(05:10):
but nothing I hated. Didn't really care any which way.
This one. I was invested in a Fee in the
totally different world, different characters. All of that intrigued me
more than Max and Disana, so I had something to

(05:32):
look forward to, I guess.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
So I get that because high level. I also really
enjoyed a Fee story. And I have to say, the
best thing in the entire book was her plot twist.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yes, I didn't even see that coming me. I normally
see plot twists coming, and I did not see that coming.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
No.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh, it made me so happy.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
I literally I wish I had a camera on me
same because my reaction there's no way I could recreate
that at reaction, Oh.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
My god, because you know they have. She has this
beautiful lead up where they're all going to the same
place and you think all four characters are gonna be
there and then bam, no she's not that. Well, she
is there, but she's Oh my god, it was so good.
That was Yeah, that was my favorite part. And then
after that it really picked up pacing wise and Neura's

(06:32):
character development. Oh, I love a villain who thinks they're
doing everything for the right reasons, but it's like actually
insane and super villainous, but keep saying I'm doing this
to save everybody. Oh I love that.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
I love her so much, you know, And actually I
think it was another piece of genius that the author
did by giving us her backstory and the way that
she did. Yes, the memory scene, Yeah, that was my
favorite scene. And then the memory scene was my second
favorite scene because that was brilliant to really like get

(07:09):
in her head, experience her entire life, understand why she's
doing what she's doing, agree with her to an extent
because like, yes, if you know these evil people are
gonna come and take over and destroy your country, you
should try to protect your country. But she's so fucked

(07:31):
in the brain that she's doing it evillly.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
But like, I love it. I love it so much
it makes me giddy.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
Yeah, she is a she's a real villain, and like
you said, she thinks she's doing it for the right reasons.
But that always and that's more interesting than the previous
villain who is now dead. He just wanted power, he
the sake of power, and then was corrupted because there
was maggots in his brain or something and then just died. Yeah,

(08:03):
he had like he was using powers that he really
didn't have the ability to use, and so it was
like just his he was disintegrating before everyone's eyes, basically.
But Norah, she's been working against him this whole time,
like she's been the villain this whole time.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
They thought he was the puppet master, but she was
the real puppet master. Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
I don't hate it. I do like that. I'm like, Okay,
that's very interesting. But still she's got to die. I'm
sorry I've got to die.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
But she's such a well done villain, well drawn out,
well crafted, beautiful villain. I am in love with her.
She needs to die, she needs to be stopped, but
I love her villainy, I love her backstory. I love
the reason. Isn't just oh I love a man, or

(08:57):
oh I just want power or nobody will ever love me.
She's very intentionally like, yeah, I did this to myself.
I cut myself off from everybody. I don't want to
love anybody, but I need to love my country and
protect my country, right.

Speaker 1 (09:14):
And that's beautiful, which yeah, and I wish I don't
know it was well done.

Speaker 2 (09:21):
I don't want to say.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
I don't want to criticize it because I do think
that was the second like you, that was the second
best part of the book. Yes, and I want I
hope she can keep that up with her because now
that she has us like feeling some kind of sympathy
for her, right like, even though she's a bad person,
what will happen in the next book, Well, we totally

(09:44):
get more from her point of view, Well we I hope.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
So we got the epilogue from her point of view.
So I'm hoping that setting up for future stuff and
book three because I would love to watch her descent
into madness go even deeper. I'm here for it. I
want that. I want that so much like when I
tell you that is my catnip. That is my catnip.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Oh okay, well I mean not They're better keep it up.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
She better keep it up or I will come back
here and cry in the next episode and feel like
this book is terrible.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Oh my gosh, don't disappoint Dancy, don't do it. Yeah,
I mean it's gonna be interesting because you know, now
Noura has what she always wanted, which is power. She
did want the power as well, Yes, she did want
that seat, and she moved like she wanted it. But
now Maxi's compromised, you know, So she's got to deal

(10:44):
with him and whatever is inside of him. M she's
got to deal with Tasana and Sam and all the
gang who are like, you know, Tasana is like, I
got it, we gotta save him. She's like, how the
fuck long have I been asleep? She's like, I don't
remember what happened. It was crazy, and there's a lot

(11:05):
going on. And then of course we have the fae still.
They are a part of this whole thing now when
they weren't at the beginning. So there's a lot to
contend with in the next book.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Oh yes, but I after book one, I had very
low hopes because so book one was just so boring
to me, Like it was all the world building. It
was all though, we have to learn magic, we have
to practice this, we have to do this, we have
to do that. It was just boring, right, Like, I
wasn't invested. It wasn't bad, but nothing captivated me. Nothing

(11:40):
captured my attention this book. I was super invested in
a fee story from the beginning, from that first line
where she was like, I used to be a princess
and now I'm bawling in barrooms and like I've been
almost murdered by my father, and like I was just
invested in her story. I wanted more of her.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
And and her little romance that was so cute. Yeah,
I really liked how she was growing, Like she went
from someone who didn't think she deserved to be the
Tennyson or whatever to someone who was like, I am
the Tennis and we're doing what I fucking say, and
we're doing what I think is right. She got a

(12:25):
little boyfriend, She figured out that her parents led to her.
She had all these revelations about herself, and then it
seems so great, and then all of a sudden, oh God.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
And then she gets the trade and the worst possible way,
everybody dies in front of her. She gets cut apart,
in tortured for over five centuries.

Speaker 1 (12:53):
That was said. Now see that's also something else author
did really well. We understood and felt the torture she
was dealing with. That thatut literally like we it was
touched on, but we didn't like experience it like real time,
which I was happy for. Because they dismembered her. Yes,

(13:13):
they got her from they somehow they got her essence.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Or power in her brain something.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
I'm a physical being into something that could head hop
on humans.

Speaker 2 (13:28):
But that was after like a couple of centuries of
like pushing, trying, trying. Yeah, Like it was horrific what
they did to her.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, So she went from and even the breakdown of
her whole life. She went from I am you know,
knowing who she was, right, she went to I am
a fa I'm you know, da da da da too,
I'm nothing.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Yeah, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (13:56):
Yeah, I'm right that, which means nothing. I'm nothing, Like
you've got to be kidding me. That was so sad.
I'm like, no, it was sad.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
And I love that scene. I love that so much. Again,
that's these two characters are my catnip, And that's why
I love this book.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
But you know, knowing about if it makes Ray shape better,
oh absolutely, because like everything that she did at first,
like in the first book, like this, this thing's crazy.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
This we thought it was evil for just being insane
and killing his family and doing all these terrible, terrible things,
right yeah, and now it's like, oh my god, no,
we feel bad for you. We know your history, we know,
and I love I love so much that the author
did this as a plot twist, because now you feel

(14:52):
so much empathy and sympathy for her, and you're like,
oh my god, this was her the whole time. It
was Aphi the whole fucking time.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, But she was operating out of a place where
her memories were so far in the back.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
You know, she does not even remember who she is
now that she's like pulled out of Tasana's mind, and
now that she's kind of recreated her in her own
body again, she still doesn't even remember.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
No, but she's she's always been operating, you know how
you're subconscious, like her subconscious remembers, right, Yeah, because when
Tasana was seeing her memories, she's like, I know that guy,
I know that name, you know hair the right, So
she's always been operating from this place of pain and

(15:45):
vengeance and everything else. But she might not have remembered why, right,
Like why was Rayche doing things? Why was she like
clinging on to Max and other things? You know, like
all those things now they sit a little bit differently, mhmm.
And she is not a real villain because she is
someone that has been abused and used and this is

(16:08):
the result of that. This is what happens when you
you turn somebody into a monster and then you're surprised
when they act like a monster. Yes, yes, one hundred percent. Yeah,
that's it. I love that character and now I love
I like Raychet too. I like her in both ways.
Mm hmm, same same. I'm here for it.

Speaker 2 (16:30):
I need I need more of her point of view
in book three. I need her to get her memories back.
I need her to fall in love with her king
all over again, which, by the way, he was fucking
shot with an arrow and fell over and we thought
he was dead.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Yeah, we did think he was dead, and now.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
He's alive again, and I'm just like, can you tell
me how he lived? Was it they only puncture one
lung instead of his heart or something? Thing magic?

Speaker 1 (17:02):
I'm living for this reunion.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
But yeah, I'm moving for the reunion. I'm so happy.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Yeah, yes, that's great, like honestly.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
But also can we hate him when the love of
his life he discovers she's alive and has been tortured
for five hundred years? So his response is, let's burn
the world down, like, yes, yes, King, burn the world down,
get rid of all humans.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Looks that is the epitome of Shadow Daddy activity, right,
like everyone loves with Shadow day that comes in and like,
let's burn burn the world down.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
My woman was tortured exactly, we're killing you and I'm
just like, yes, yeah, it was really interesting, I know,
but no, I'm team are awful.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
They are annoying. And why is it not surprising that
the humans are dreadful humans? They're all bad, like most
of them. How even the slaves and I know they're slaves,
they were slaves. Even they're bad. They're bad to each other,
they're bad to Tsana, they're traders. You know. Hell the
guy that she helped and like included in her little

(18:15):
deal that mother, you betrayed her again again because and
she's like, don't kill him?

Speaker 2 (18:22):
Oh, like girl, honestly, killing or not killing him just
one leaves him to hate you more and leads to
more torture and more people getting hurt. Right, Like he
he had his face chopped to pieces. He's not a
happy person. Just kill him and end his pain.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
Off with his head. You tried to help him. He
is beyond help. He needs to be gone.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
Exactly.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yeah, we're done, so like all the humans, everything they've
done from like trying to create their own magic, to
like work with Fay magic. You know, they've just been
pushing the line and doing all these crazy things for
the sake of power, and of course leave it to
the humans to be like do what's wrong always? Yeah,

(19:15):
which I also don't mind this take on it. I
don't mind that the humans are.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
You know, the worst. Yeah, no, the same. It's a
really fun and interesting not allegory, that's not the word
I'm thinking of, but like, it's a really fun look
at humanity, right because we have all the warring factions,

(19:42):
we have all of the slavery and the refugees, and
how people are still treating the slaves like slaves, and
they're buying people and saying we're going to turn you
into soldiers and then after the war will let you
go free.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
And Noura is buying slaves.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Hmm. She's awful. Mm hm. Oh yeah, no, she is
the worst. Yeah, I love her for it, but she
is the worst. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
But let's not forget that she and Zarah killed a
child queen just so they could be rid of They
killed that girl.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Yeah, she was thirteen, maybe fourteen, because it was thirteen
when she was coming. But like she was a little
girl and they're like, she's in our way, we need
to get rid of her. Well, Zarah killed her at
the end of the last book, and Nara just discovered
it now, but like she was wanting that to happen anyway.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
Yeah, because she that was their plan was to overthrow
her the whole time. But you know, he couldn't wait.
She had the.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
He wanted the power. He just wanted the power.

Speaker 1 (20:46):
Yeah. So I mean we go from like killing royals
and slaves and just you know, Norah like hearing how
she just gave to Sanna's blood. M up, like that
whole time, she kept feeding the blood yep to Rache
which made Rachae wanna like help with her whatever. Yeah,

(21:10):
I'm like, that is so Slee's bucket. And apparently, you know,
she's trying to find out who you know Rachae would accept,
so she's given up everyone's blood. He's like, no one's
an exception. I'm like, that's all trash, trash human behavior.
What are we doing?

Speaker 2 (21:26):
And you know, even to Sanna was annoying to me
because she had that martyr personality and even Max would
call her out on it when she would be like, well,
I have to go talk to every single person. I
have to help every single person. Oh, this one random
slave grandma wants to talk to me over dinner. So
I'm going to go, you know, talk to her, because

(21:48):
I owe them everything. And I was like, girl, you
were a slave too, You saved them, you did more
than anybody thought possible. You don't own them every minute
of your life. You don't owe them everything.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
And they did turn on her. They did turn on her,
they sure did. They did turn on her, and she
had to like defend herself and basically scared them into saying, hey,
I've made you this promise. I intend to keep it.
You know. She went and she tried to sway them,
and you know some of them still turned anyway m
hm and did the wrong thing.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
And then she had to go and tell them, hey,
all these people are dead. Sorry, And she still felt
it was her responsibility to do that in the end,
like she so she was a murder.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah. I found that to be annoying. Like I wanted
her to have more of a backbone. She doesn't need
to be a martyr. That that's the word that's just
stuck in my brain right now.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Well, you know at the end there after she you know,
did that where she went, you know, they had all
the hands delivered and stuff, and she had to go
tell them all that the older people were dead. After that,
you know, she has that whole conversation with Max, like
what if we just ran away? What if we just
went away? And I'm like what girl?

Speaker 2 (23:12):
I was like, do it? Humans are truit?

Speaker 1 (23:15):
I dare you, I double dare you.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
You'll be back in five minutes because some grandma needs
you to help make super something like.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
But Max is similar. You know, I think he wants
to think he's more selfish than that, but he's not.
He would stay and do the right thing whether he
wanted to or not, so which.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
He proved because he was like, yeah, I'll stay and
be in charge. And that fucked up everything.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
But yeah, it did. Even that poor kid, the kid
that was learning magic. And now you know he's even
confronting Max like are you gonna just are you gonna bail?
Are you gonna just leave us? And he's like, yeah, no,
I'm not gonna do that. I mean he wants to,
but he does want to bail, but he won't. Yeah,

(24:07):
and especially now you know, Tasada's not going anywhere. He's
not going anywhere. So, yeah, the humans are very annoying.
They got a lot to learn. But you know that
f they are annoying as well, like you know, they
do each other dirty as well.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Oh. Absolutely, they had five hundred years of infighting, and
I mean before all of this even happened, even more
centuries of fighting. But yeah, no, when he showed up
and he was like, Ifa, do you remember me? I
remember you. As soon as I found out you were

(24:46):
still alive, I came to find you. I was like, yes, yes, King, Yes,
burn this world down for her.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Oh my gosh, Oh, I think that's gonna be so good.
I feel like the third book is going to be
really good.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
I hope, so, I hope.

Speaker 1 (25:04):
So she's setting it up, she said, all of the
pieces are in the right places to take this out
on a bang like it could. This could be a
banger from beginning to end if she does it right.
Because unfortunately, the downside of this, like we mentioned before,

(25:24):
was like it was slow to start a lot, very slow.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
So slow. I mean, okay, so we say slow, but
they were in battles, and I just I find it
so funny that, like, she's literally starting with fight scenes,
and both you and I are like, no, this is boring.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
See the problem is this, And I'm going to use
another book, a series that I've refer to a lot
when it comes to like art of war type of stuff.
You know, the Pierce Brown books. There was a lot
of fighting and a lot of war. But at that point,
we already were really invested in the characters and we
cared about what happened to them. So when the fighting

(26:04):
in the war was going on, we were like dialed
into it. That really didn't happen here. There was a
lot of fighting for the sake of fighting, you know,
yet all me says, but we didn't care about really
anything that was going on. So it's like or the
characters themselves.

Speaker 2 (26:19):
But I feel like normal readers, not us, would be
more invested in Maximuiquana. Like you and I, we could
leave them, right, We could have a totally different book
without them and be happy. I think normal readers liked
them as main characters and are probably invested in those

(26:39):
fight scenes. But you know, like I didn't have a
connection with book one, so I didn't care that they
were fighting. I didn't care that they, you know, had
to fulfill their oaths and go win all these battles,
and it's been months since they've seen each other and
they're you know, I was almost texting they're writing letters

(27:01):
to each other and adding the word love to be like, yes,
I do care about you still, And I.

Speaker 1 (27:07):
Was like, I actually I didn't care about that at all.
When I saw that they were going to separate them
at the beginning of the book, virtually, I'm like, I
don't like it. And the reason why I thought that
is because whatever momentum we were gaining with trying to
believe them as a couple and buy into them as
a couple, to separate them like that, I feel like

(27:29):
that does not make me, you know, yearn for them
to be together. It makes me like, oh, well, what's next?

Speaker 2 (27:35):
You know.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
So it did the opposite I think what the author
wanted it to do to me. So I was not like,
when are they going to be together again? I was
just like, oh my god, I did not like how
she did that. At that point. It was too soon
to do that to them. In my opinion, based on
the status of their relationship and how we as an
audience are supposed to just love this couple, because I've

(27:58):
said it with other books. You can't make me buy
into the couple. If I don't believe it and want
it as much as they do, then I'm not really
dialed in the way I should be so.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
Hard to agree, hard hard agree. But yeah, no, I
was like, Okay, they're separated. I don't care. Let's talk
about this a fee character. I want to know what
she's up to. I want to know what or who
she's fighting. I want to know what bullshit she's dealing with. Like,
I was so invested in her really, like she was

(28:34):
the one that got me through the first half.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, her chapters did pull. Yes, she was doing the
heavy that character was doing the heavy lifting and the
like for the first sixty percent of the book. Seventy
percent of the book, her character was doing the heavy lifting.
And you're right, I would look forward to when the
POV switched back to her. Yes, because all of the
Max and Toshna stuff going on separately, I just did

(29:01):
not care same and that's bad. But I'm thinking because
I like more of the characters now, I feel more
connections with more characters. I think maybe in the next book,
if there's a whole lot of fighting and war scenes.
It might be more interesting, Like if Tusana and Samarn
and you know zarall are fighting, I might care more, Nourah,

(29:24):
you know, I might care a little more. You know,
I don't know, because they're not going to be in
group together anymore. They're all separate.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Yeah, no, they'll be fighting each other, and so the
problem is going to be like, well, I want this
person to win, but I know they're not the main characters.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
So yeah, but I don't know. And then Tusana was
kind of annoying once once, well the one time, the
one time when you know, when Refe decided to save her.
Remember they're having that conversation between the two of them
when they just knew one of them would have to die.

(30:00):
Oh my god, She's like, you promised me I could die,
so you know, I'm going to do this. And basically
Tusana came back from the brink of death. Sam brought
her back, and of course with the help of Reye
kind of like tossing herself into the darkness. But after that, Tasana,
I don't know how many times she brought up. She

(30:20):
didn't have the power. I was like, girl, I have
the magic, the magic, the power. I was like, didn't
you have powers before you could not?

Speaker 2 (30:31):
She was hid She did you doing all that butterfly
stuff before this? Yeah? Did she just take all your
magic away? Or no? Are you crippling yourself because you
feel like you need to have the super booster person
in your brain?

Speaker 1 (30:48):
It's exactly that. I think what her power might have
been level two out of ten, and then with Raysay
she was level ten out of ten. So why work
on trying to be powerful on your own or why
work on your craft when you just have this powerhouse
boosting you. So she's lazy. She's gotten lazy. She doesn't

(31:08):
know what to do. And she's like, oh, I'm only
power level too, you know, that's.

Speaker 2 (31:12):
What it seems idea And she's like, I'm power level
point five. I have to like suck life out of
people and the fire will like spit out of my fingers.
But it's not good past. Yeah. She baxlids so hard.

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Which is weird. That's strange. Everything you had before you
had the boost is still there.

Speaker 2 (31:35):
It should be.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Hmm. Yeah, because in book one she was helping Max
burn stuff, you know, so I don't understand that. Yeah, strange,
I don't know it was. Okay, let's let's take a
quick break. You guys, check out these commercials by listening
to those, you are supporting the podcast and don't get

(32:00):
to pick up like a little something for yourself. You
know it's the fall season is around the corner. Pick
up us awater or a hoodie or something.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
Or those book journals they're so cute, yes, or her
book journal.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
So visit our Dasher store. Click the link below to
find the book journal and we'll be right back. Welcome back, guys. Okay,
what else? What else should we discuss? I know you
got some stuff over there.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
Honestly, no, I know.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
No, Okay, look, we need to bring back the Casey's platform.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
I know. I my brain is fried. I'm editing two
other books right now, and also one of them is
a romanticity that has elves, and I keep wanting to
say elves instead of Faye. So if you hear me
say elves, I mean Fae.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
You did such a good job the first half they
elves once good.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
I'm fighting my brain so hard right now. I mean
it was just so I was bored for so much
of it. And I think I was like reading but
zoning out. There's so many sections and I feel bad
about that, but like, legitimately, I just don't care about

(33:23):
the main characters.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah that's fair.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
Like I just I feel bad, But there's nothing about
either Tasana or Max that I I don't hate them either.
I don't hate them, but I don't love them. They're
just there and I'm like okay. Whereas like Nura, Yes,

(33:47):
she's evil and she's bad and she's doing all these
horrendous things, but I love her for that because she
has depth, she has personality. She's not just miss I'm
gonna to be a martyr. I'm gonna, you know, go
eat soup with Grandma. I'm gonna talk to everybody. I
have to protect everybody. I'm gonna win this battle by

(34:10):
breaking the cliff side, Like I have to be little
miss perfect.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Mm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Like Desana just feels like such a little miss perfect.
She has a lot of trauma.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Which is good, but it's just again, the author missed
the mark with that character. And this is why think
about Red Rising Darrow. All he wanted. His whole mission
was to break the reds free right, chop the golds
down the size, yes, and yeah, the bread's free, and

(34:45):
that kind of aligns with Hasana a little bit. That's
what she wants. But you can't get in that, like
you just don't root for her in the same way.
It's different. It's not hitting she She's.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Still doing all of her dance moves, like it's still
just a dance to her. It's still just a game.
It's still just like a I have to act this way,
so this person gives me this thing, and I realized,
like she is so traumatized, like her backstory is also horrific,
and maybe this is just the way the author showing
her PTSD is basically her fawning over everybody, which is

(35:27):
a PTSD response, and so like maybe that's just it.
Maybe she's just fawning. But I want to see her rage,
and maybe we'll get that in book three. But I
want to see this angry, abused woman raging and actually
burning the world down, actually doing what she says she's

(35:47):
gonna do, and not just keep saying I promise, I'm
gonna help you, but I have to fight this war
because I promised him first. And as soon as I
fulfill this promise, then I'll fulfill your promise, and it's
going to be like five years, but I will fulfill
my promise to you in five years. Like that's just so.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
She's gonna rage when it's time to save her man.
That's it.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
But that's it.

Speaker 1 (36:09):
I think the author did to sign a disservice by
making her like you just described. I feel like she
needed more gusto from the very beginning.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
She needed more anger and rage. And I remember back
in book one, she would try to defend her captor
and be like, you know, he was kind of a
father figure and all, but also my rapist and my
captor and my master, but also father and he's nice
to me and like until he wasn't until he wasn't.

(36:44):
So she has that fawning from the beginning, like she's
always that traumatized. That is her trauma response.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, and I think I don't know. So it's like,
on one hand that trauma understand would be real for
someone coming out of that situation, but for a for
a serious that's got a lot of it's an odd
place where it's like got a lot of dark things
going on, but it's not on the page a lot.

(37:19):
So yet in between so I think so. For even
when it comes to Susana in her situation when she
started doing things for.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
What's his face?

Speaker 1 (37:35):
You know, She's like, I'm gonna fight these wars, but
it's gonna be an illusion. I'm not gonna really kill people.
I'm gonna try not to kill anybody. I'm like, what okay?
So that almost really contradicts the violence of the story,
like all the things are so volatile, but she's like,

(37:55):
I'm gonna just make a show. What are you talking about? Like,
I just do it? Make her more bold, more mad,
more rage, more everything.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
And I feel like, for me, that's why I was
drawn to the other characters, because they had rage and
they let it out, and we got to see these
women rage in different ways, like Afi was literally beating
people up in bars.

Speaker 1 (38:29):
You know.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
One guy made a rape joke about her sister, and
she beat him to the point where he couldn't walk anymore.
And I was like, that's what I want from a
main character that is main character energy, you know, if
he didn't even have as rough of a backstory as
to Sana. But she had all that rage and she

(38:51):
was able to release it in bad ways, like no,
you shouldn't beat a person until they can't walk right,
But in fiction, like, that's the heroine I want to see,
that's the rage I want to see. And Disana is
just again opposite direction, fawning, fake fighting, trying to protect

(39:14):
as many people as possible, making promises like it's so,
I don't want to call her a mary Sue because
she's not quite a Mary Sue, but that very it's
give it mary Sue esque mary Sue light like, it's
very but Nura's out here actually killing people, doing what

(39:39):
she has to do. And when we see her memories,
we realize like she's throwing up too, she's sick to
her stomach. She can't stand that she has to do
all of this, but she's fucking doing it.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
And I think that's like, that was the tone I
kind of expected for this story and not at all
what I got with Tasana. So I think that's why
I love these other characters so much.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Right, So hopefully the author leans into these other characters
like I expect we expect her to, because she's done
really good with some of these other characters. It's just
the original character.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, this is the main original characters just aren't doing
it for me. And I mean, like, the writing is beautiful,
the storytelling is beautiful. I'm zoning out because I'm bored
and my brain is fried and I just don't want
to pay attention and that's a me thing, Like that's
totally on me.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, But I don't think we're alone in thinking about
the ending being boring because of the beginning being boring,
because you know, I like to scroll the reviews when
I'm done, and a lot of people had the opinion
that the first sixty seventy percent was boring, and people
with DNF ing at like seventy percent and more, they

(40:59):
were so over. I mean a lot of people thought
that I'm glad I.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Got to the plot twist, and then after that I
was did pick up, So I'm glad I stuck with it.
But honestly, yeah, I probably would have quit too, because
I was like, I don't like the main characters. Yeah,
I just she has so much and she had one
character carrying this story, which is not good. No, So

(41:27):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (41:28):
I do feel like Tasana. I still want like a
happy ending for her and Max. I do want that
they can.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Go off and live in a new cabin with their
garden and be far away from people and never have
to deal with people again.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
And that's fine, yeah, because they obviously don't want to
hurt anybody. Neither one of them really want to do
the work of getting their hands dirty, not in a
serious way, so, you know. And when Tasana did have
to like go out and take care of business, and
then she let, you know, rightfe do it.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
Yeah, yeah, she like, come on.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
Out, girlfriend, come out and play. We got work to do.
I'll just take a backseat over here.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
You know who. That reminds me of the Rachel Gilling duology,
which we tore to shreds when we read that. But
that heroin also, you know, she had spoiler alert the
guy in her head who was so powerful, and she
had to keep asking him to like come out and

(42:32):
do magic for her because she was so weak. Yeah,
and I hate that so much. I hate when we
have a supposedly powerful heroine who has to keep relying
on other entities for her magic, for her power.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Yeah, I agree, that is annoying.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
MH.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Like, let her be powerful in her own right, please, yeah, please.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
Let her beat somebody up, Let her have her own power.
Let her even if she's a level two, you know,
still have that level too. One's race.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
She's gone like yeah anything, yeah, Like once she was gone.
If she could have said, well, I know I'm not
as strong as I was with her, but I'm gonna
do what I can do, and i'm gonna kick butt,
you know, like something like give us something.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
And she should have been able to do more like
all the butterflies and stuff like. I know that's very
minimal power, but that's still power.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
It is, I don't know, and I think, okay, So
for me. Also another aspect that I think I didn't
realize when we originally picked this trilogy. This is a
very fantasy heavy story. By that, I mean, this to

(43:59):
me is not real manna.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
See.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
It's not heavy on the romance, and I thought for
some reason it was gonna be. But this is not
what it's turning out to be. So I think, just
if by chance, you're listening to this conversation and you're
thinking about reading it, and you know this conversation is
making you want to check it out, just know there's

(44:22):
like barely any romance. There's barely any.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
I mean, like they're in love and they just keep
saying we're in love. There's not a lot of character
growth or relationship growth. No, like there there was a
lot of relationship growth in book one. Book two is
just yes, we love each other and we're still in
love with each other, and we will always be in
love with each other forever and always same love.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Like there was no growth to it.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
No change, no romance. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:52):
So I don't know.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
I guess just be don't be shocked by that. And
I don't know why. Maybe I just didn't do the
right research. But I feel like when I looked at
the genre tags, fantasy and romanticy were like one and
two on the list.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
I mean, and fantasy romance readers don't always label books correctly.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Ain't that the truth?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
So I don't know if there could have been any
other research other than reading the book that you could
have done.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, So I don't know. I just I don't know.
I just love a good you know, we read a lot.
This is not romanticy, So it's not like I'm hung
up on romanticy. But if you're going to put it
in the position where you want us to care about
these two characters getting together and having their happy ending.
You need to give us a little bit more, a

(45:47):
little just a little more.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
I mean, part of every romance book is the relationship growth.
Like that's a huge part of the plot. And if
these characters don't have that, which they don't hear, then
it's just boring. Then we're like, Okay, they're just in
love for the sake of being in love. They just

(46:11):
want to sit in their garden and have sex. But
we're gonna skip past that.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Yeah, And I still don't even know. And they might
have said this, and I just forgot from the first book,
but I don't even know what made them fall for
each other, just from just outside of just being around
each other.

Speaker 2 (46:30):
I think that was it. I think it was just
forced close proximity. He'd been alone for like ten years,
and she just like pushed her way into his life
and they talked and became friends and now they love
each other.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
End of story.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
Yeah, I mean, he offered to run away with her
in the first book, she offered to run away with
him in this book. They both so that means.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Maybe they'll actually get to do it at the end
of the third book, actually run away.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Let's do it this time?

Speaker 1 (47:03):
My god, oh, I say, skip off into the sunset
in a vague way. Sure, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I just.

Speaker 1 (47:17):
I'm not see. The thing is, while I'm really liking
some aspects that we've talked about, I don't want to
get too excited because I feel like if I get
too excited, it's gonna be a letdown. We're not gonna
get We're gonna because I know we're gonna be head
hopping again, and it could be another sixty percent of boredom.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
I have higher hopes because this is gonna be the
last and final book and a Fee is you know,
newly back in the Fay world. I feel like we're
gonna get some of her right away. Mm hmmm. That
is my hope. My hope is she is going to

(47:59):
carry the first half of the book. Also, you know,
Max is in prison and possibly losing his memories. Tasanna
finally wants to burn the world down. Maybe question mark,
I'll believe it when I see it.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
I mean, she seems so insistent about getting him. I
mean she got a safe get him. Yeah, but will
she actually burn the world down or will she just
make a bunch of promises to people then get him
then fulfill all these promises then do all this other stuff,
like let's see what she actually does, Like, I know
she's going to get him, but I don't know if

(48:34):
it'll be like the action packed that I want Tsana's
I'll talk and no action exactly exactly. Oh yeah, that's
exactly her character. Big game, but.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
She talks a big game, but when it actually comes
down to it, no.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Deliver, nothing not happening.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
It just it's just proms and broken promises and yeah. Yeah,
So anyway, I'm more hopeful now than when we ended
book one. When we ended book one, I was like,
I don't think I might ill like the rest of
the series. Like I was worried that I was going
to be a tank for me, but this book surprised me.

(49:23):
So I'm hoping book three will surprise me even more.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
I especially with some of these side characters, Like, yeah,
I hope. So I hope it goes out with a bang,
you know. I hope it's one of those things where
each book it just gets exponentially better. But I'm not,
you know, counting on it in that way, because I'd

(49:48):
rather I'd rather not count my chickens before they had
sort of thing, but we'll see. But so far for
me though, and again, I do have the Crowns of
Niaxia series that I I guess it was a little
duology we did from her eyes. I still think that's
better than this.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
I need to read that.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Yeah, and that was like vampires, so that's better than
this to me. So we'll see. I do have interest
in continuing that series on because she wrote more books
in that world, so I definitely want to go back
to that after this. Maybe I don't know, maybe that'll

(50:31):
be some winter reading or something like that for me
when I half the time. But I don't know. Anything's possible.
But you know, some authors like they do really good
with one series. One series could hit and another one
just not. So anything's possible. No, we'll see, all right,
what else should we rate it?

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Should we go? All right?

Speaker 1 (50:52):
So I'll let you go first? How would you rate
one out of five Children of Fallen Gods?

Speaker 2 (50:58):
Okay, so if this was like book one and only
Max and Tsana, I would give it a three star
because their storyline is three stars. To me, it's not good,
it's not bad, it's very in the middle. Me, it's there.
But because I loved Afi and Neuris so much and

(51:22):
I did not see that plot twist coming, Like it
is impossible for authors to pull one over on me
with plot twists. I'm going to give this a four
star specifically for a Fee and her plot twist excellent,
that's wonderful, that's so kind. I'm not giving it four star,

(51:43):
I think. So first let me give my reasoning. There
was just too much that I felt like I was
like dragging through much.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
There was too much of it. Even with you know,
the alternate story that was things interesting, there was still
way too much of the other for my liking. I
had a big problem with that. That's such a huge
part of the book for me. And the general pacing

(52:15):
was slow to me. Even with you know a fee story,
it was still slow moving. And I also agree with you,
I think that plot twist of finding out that Afa
was Rache was amazing. It was well done. She gets
lots of props on that. So she had a couple

(52:38):
and again, like Nora's backstory, excellently execute it. But the rest,
the rest, and some of it, I feel like the
fighting at the end there, you know, between Max and Nora,
like some of that kind of got lost for me,

(52:59):
probably because I was rushing so much, and I know
some of that's probably my fault, but it is what
it is. Yeah, so some of that kind of got
I don't know. I don't want to throw the baby
out with the bath water kind of thing, but I'm like,
you know, some things were lost in translation for me,
where I'm like, I gotta figure out what the hell happened.
So with that said, there was just enough good things

(53:23):
for me to give this a three good. It's a
solid three. It skated through because of the good things
that I enjoyed. If those things weren't there, if those
two things weren't there, this would have been like a one.

Speaker 2 (53:35):
Ooh yeah, I mean to be fair, like, if these
two side characters weren't here, it would also be like
a two star for me, like it was. They were
so boring. Yeah, I just don't connect with Max or
Tasana at all. Like they barely skated by with three
stars in book one. Yeah, like they if there was

(53:59):
nothing else, I can't stand them.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
What did I bate rate Book one? Do you remember
either a three or a four? I think you gave
it a three. Yeah, that sounds about right. I'm like
I don't think I would have gave it a four.
I don't think, But now I'm curious because now I
can't remember. Hmmm. I know, I believe I gave.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
The first one a three. Mm hmm, but yeah, no, Like,
if this was just the two of them constantly just
being annoying, I would probably try to quit the series.
But because we have so many cool secondary characters, because
we now have all the Fae coming in, like, and

(54:40):
we have villains who are actually good villains. Now mm hmmm,
I am hopeful for the future.

Speaker 1 (54:47):
Okay, well, no, no, I think, But maybe I did
give it a four. I don't know, I don't remember. Well,
if I did, this is a step down. So we'll
see what happens with Mother of Death and Dawn. We'll
see if things like end with a bang. But also,
can I just say I hate the cover art for
book two? Oh yeah, please, It's so terrible awful, Like

(55:10):
what is that?

Speaker 2 (55:11):
I don't know. I know it's supposed to be the
outfit she wore to the ball, because I guess that's
the theme, because she wore the red dress from the
cover of book one to that ball and now this ball.
I don't know. But it doesn't look good.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Well, it's totally out out of I don't know, out
of sync with the other two covers. It looks weird.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
I mean, it all looks weird.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Yeah, but my god, And can I just so In
our on Patreon, Trinette who's also in our book Club,
she pointed out that she had to get a newer
version of this book. And you know, when they update
the cover art for the hardcover, they also update the

(56:01):
e book. So book one, that new cover art is awful.
Daughter of No Worlds. It's awful. Have you seen I
have not seen it.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
I've only seen the Red Dress.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
The Red Dress is way better. So the new hardcover
that Bramble is doing it is dreadful. Actually, I gonna
throw it up on the screen share right quick so
you can see here it is this too. That's awful.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
What even is that? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
So it's an all red cover with like, I don't
know what that is, some lines, gold lines coming out
beer maybe, and the woman is looking like a statue.
It's like super white, like a statue with blonde hair
coming out. It looks bad.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
It looks terrible.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
The original cover is much better. Yeah, I believe that
once it got published by you know, a publisher, they
would pick that awful cover.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Uh it's horrible, it's terrible.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Yeah, so Trenette was saying she's disappointed she has that
ugly cover.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Uh huh yeah, I would be really upset too, is that?

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Oh God, look at this one. So the second book
by Brand Bull looks like it has Max on the front,
but they're going again with that same like Greek god
statue situation. But it's blue, it's spear. Yeah, it's bad.
It's so bad, it's awful.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Okay, I take back every bad thing I said about
her outfit.

Speaker 1 (57:47):
But book two cover is still bad anyway, I mean
still bad. But but the bramble redo is.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Worse, so much worse.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
So I'm curious to see if Mother of Death and
Dawn it's also dreadful again. So it's black. I can
get the thing to stay focused, it won't sit in
the middle. So again, it's like a similar a white

(58:19):
statue looking person with swords coming out of them, and
there's something like a heart. Yeah, it looks like a
heart with some candles.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
Whole chest has been ripped out and there's oh that's
so weird.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Yeah, it's very, very weird. And Bramble that's that hardcover
is coming out next year. That is not cute. Dude, No,
that's not cute. So book three, the original cover is better. Yeah,
they and so lucky me. I don't love this trilogy

(58:57):
like that where I would be adding it to my shelves.
But if I were one of the people that really
enjoyed this trilogy and wanted to add it to my shelves,
I'd be searching for the originals. I'd be going to
use bookstores. I'd be trying to find the originals because
those new ones by Bramble.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Are not the bidis.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
Oh no, yeah, so you guys, let us know what
you think. Do you agree with us Internet where the
new book covers are trash?

Speaker 2 (59:32):
You should agree those are terrible covers.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Yeah, they're not good, Like, how is that possible? Usually
they're supposed to get better.

Speaker 2 (59:41):
Right, they're supposed to They didn't.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
M m no, that's a fail. Hashtag fail, hashtag fail.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:51):
If I had walked by that book in a bookstore,
I would have put it back.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
I wouldn't even pick it up.

Speaker 1 (59:57):
I'd just be like, next, let's find something less weird. Yeah,
very strange, like why did they choose that on Wonder anyway? Anyway,
Oh that's terrible. Yeah, so okay, we're gonna end things there.
On that note, let us know what you guys thought

(01:00:20):
of this installment. Do you agree with the things we
said or are you very opposed to what we had
to say here today? Let us know? Send us like email,
leave us comments, you know, do all the things we'd
like to hear from you, and we may include comments
here on the show if you leave us something we
should have to respond to. All Right, you guys, thanks

(01:00:44):
for listening to this entire episode. We appreciate you for
doing that, and we'll catch you in the next one.
Until next time, take care of yourselves. Bye guys.

Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
Sign everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, please head over
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(01:01:26):
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(01:01:47):
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Unpacking 'Children of the Fallen Gods' | #FantasySeries Book Chat