The Fallen Kingdom is the final instalment of Elizabeth May’s Falconer Trilogy and it was without doubt my favourite of the series.  This is definitely a series that has evolved, starting out with a fairly fun novel that introduces to us the central characters we then moved on to a much darker story where the stakes were raised and finally concluded with The Fallen Kingdom in which, for me, Elizabeth May really comes into her writing chops.  This is a twisted story that ventures into the realms of the Morrigan.  A wild, passionate and imaginative story that brings the series to a gripping finale.

Spoiler Alert: Please be aware that if you haven’t read the previous novels spoilers may be contained within the review below.

At the start of the story we meet Aileana wandering lost in a forest and without any memory of who she is or anything about her past.  She’s brimming with potent magic so strong that it’s threatening to tear her apart.  Fortunately she meets up with Derrick who seems to have spent the past two months searching for a glimpse of her and although she doesn’t recall who he is she realises that he feels ‘okay’ – so basically she doesn’t unleash her magic and kill him.  Yes, Aileana has turned into something rather deadly.  She already had an abundance of training and something of an inherited power as the Falconer but in this latest instalment she is endowed with incredible power – and of course, with great power comes great responsibility.  So, save our world and that of the fae.  No big deal, just locate an ancient book of magic and all will be good.

I don’t really want to go too much into the plot of this as it would spoil the read for you – but, I can say that this instalment is fast paced, inventive, packed with imagination and fairly sizzles whenever Aileana and Kiaran share page time.

So, what can I talk about in this review.  Well, firstly, the characters.  We meet up again with Aileana, a new powerfully magic version with her very own time bomb just waiting to go off.  Every time she uses her magic the clock continues to tick but conversely she needs the magic to face some of the obstacles in her path.  Kiaran.  Kiaran almost seems less potent by comparison to Aileana but even so he has a brooding stormyness to his character that could shame even Heathcliff – not to mention that he’s somewhat pleased to find Aileana alive and kicking.  Derrick of course is an absolute star and I wasn’t surprised to see that he enjoyed a lot of page time – frankly I can’t imagine any reader not loving this character. A cheeky wee pixie, packed with magic and who loves to sew, all you need to do is ply him with honey.  And Aithinne – another quirky character that I really did enjoy in this instalment and in fact that brings me to the second point.  The banter.  I loved the dialogue in this book.  It just flows and feels really natural. It’s actually a pleasure to read because it isn’t stilted at all.  The characters feel like they’re chatting in much the same way we would with sarcasm and muttering under the breath – or is that just me??

The setting. The two worlds, human and fae, are decaying at a fairly rapid pace – it almost has a Neverending Story feel where great chunks of the land are just falling off – especially towards the end of the book where there seems very little left of the world at all.  But, without doubt, the absolute star of the show was the realm of the Morrigan – creepy, desperately creepy in fact.  A place where people tread slowly in fear of being heard and yet the Morrigan knows they are there regardless and will use their bones to decorate her garden, once she’s had her fun of course.  All bets are off once Aileana and her companions enter this world.  It’s like falling into the rabbit hole but instead of appearing in Wonderland you’ve arrived at the Land-of-all-things-nasty.  The Morrigan knows your worst fears and she’s not afraid to use them so think happy thoughts. *raindrops on roses and whiskers on… lions and tigers and bears, oh my’

Well, I say the setting and the fae realm we get to explore were the scene stealers but the romantic elements and the passion between Aileana and Kiaran were also rather intense.  Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t the main focus of the book at all and that makes me glad because I don’t mind my books with a side order of romance but I don’t want it to overpower the story, however, in Gollum-type fashion, it also makes me sad – because reading about these two characters and the intensity between them is really rather compelling and for once I probably wouldn’t have complained to find myself reading more of it.  Go figure – it’s just compelling, what more can I say.

Finally, the conclusion.  I think May gives us an excellent conclusion.  I’m not going to say that it wasn’t very sad – because it was, and you’ll just have to find out why for yourselves, but it was also the best ending that I think she could probably have written.

In terms of niggles – I think that I had a moment of anger with Kiaran because of at least one aspect of the story that I won’t elaborate on – and I would have expected Aileana to react a little more strongly towards him.  But, I think this was tempered when I remembered that both Aileana and Kiaran had at times during the story acted out of character due to the experiences that they were individually going through.  So, I got over that niggle to be honest.  That only left me with one slightly raised eyebrow and it’s to do with the actions of one of the characters at the end of the book which, even though I could see coming, didn’t sit quite right in explanation terms – it’s a very small thing though and didn’t distract from the read at all.

Overall, I thought this was a great conclusion.  It was dark, twisted, fantastical, well written, packed with action and imagination and brimming over with passion and intensity. What more could you want?  Oh, mmm, another book maybe.  Okay, greedy.  All I can do is urge you to go and grab a copy, it’s available after all so what you waiting for?

I received a copy through Edelweiss courtesy of the publisher for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.