For this months Kindle Lending Library Book of the Month I chose The Fall. I’d seen a lot of ads for it on Facebook, and I think on my Kindle as well. The Fall is about Sam who is a student at Oxford, but he must go on the run from The Shadow. After escaping to Northumberland, he must find Oscar, the last druid to try and help him.
I was excited that a lot of it was set in Northumberland because I’m currently very homesick for the North. I’m also assuming I saw it on Facebook because it was pushed to that geographic region by the author. It also spends some time talking about two of my favourite authors, Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. So at the start I was excited… and then disappointed.
One problem was the fact I was reminded so heavily of those authors. One of the Professors has a pipe and a way of talking which was highly reminiscent of Gandalf. I’m still unsure as to whether this was on purpose or not? There’s also a scene that reminded me of Glorfindel’s passing of the River with Frodo on the way to Rivendell. I questioned whether it was influenced too much by Tolkien in particular.
Another problem was that I really disliked Emily as a character. To the point I was full on hoping she was the traitor just to justify why she was so unlikable. Emily also wasn’t even the person that was pushing Sam further on in the plot. If anything she hindered him and the book could have done without her. Also as she was the only female ‘main’ character, it felt like she was the token love interest and token female which just made me dislike her more.
Another thing was I knew that we were rushing towards the climax at the end. I knew I should be feeling anticipation and worried for our characters. But I just didn’t. The villain isn’t particularly villainous, it’s just a shadow for the most part. Honestly I kept putting the book down because I just couldn’t get captivated because the threat didn’t seem all that important.
The book doesn’t end on a cliffhanger but Hall does set up the second book in the series. This is through our main character asking himself questions which weren’t answered in The Fall. The second book was definitely set up, but it was done so lazily and if I was focused enough on the story, I should have been able to think of those questions myself. Overall I just did not like this book, even though I had such high hopes for it.