Hey all! I’ve been thinking lately. You know I love blogging. I also love writing books. I also work full time as a teacher. You know too that we are in the middle of a pandemic, which is causing everyone extra stress. (and making teaching effectively very difficult) I must now confess (in case you hadn’t already noticed) I’m struggling to keep up and juggle all the things. My current WIP novel has suffered the most from this; I haven’t touched it in a few weeks. At this rate, I would finish it sometime in the next decade. Therefore, I’ve decided to post a new blog post once every two weeks so that I can alternate weeks between blog post and book chapter in order to keep my goal to publish the book in 2021. Y’all 2021 HAS to be better right? Anyhow, I hope you all understand I’d rather produce fewer posts than try to publish slap-dash posts.
Now, on to happier things!
WARNING! Spoilers for Book 1 Ahead! If you haven’t read book one, you want to do that first. Read my book review of Book 1 here.
Read on for the book review of Book 2, which contains major book 1 spoilers!
The Fallen Hero
by Katie Zhao
Faryn is reeling from her brother’s betrayal. She feels shunned by the New Order people because one of their own died saving her. Her own father has no memory of her. Things couldn’t get much worse. Could they?
Of course they can!
The gods are ready for an all out war amongst themselves, which will not be very good for the mere humans that will get caught between the two factions.
Faryn must do all that she can to stop this war, save her brother from himself, and find a way to get her father’s memories back.
Who will like book The Fallen Hero?
Katie Zhao is a great storyteller, but in the beginning of this novel, I felt very strong echoes from the beginning of the first book. Faryn is living with people that resent her. She is called on a quest. She has to go with the person who hates her the most. Exactly like book one. I was a bit disappointed by that. BUT …if you loved book one and want more of the same, then awesome, this is the book for you! She delivers on that! I can’t help but wonder if she created this echo for a reason which we might understand in book 3.
I do like her writing style and her characters. The Chinese mythology was fascinating! Zhao has an excellent grasp of story telling. I see the threads of story weaving in and out. I will say this was not the end of the series. I’m thinking it’s a trilogy. She tied of one or two plot threads, but there are still a few hanging at the end of this book.
If you loved book one, then you’ll likely love this one too. I DO look forward to the end of this series–to see how she wraps it up.
What can we learn from Katie Zhao?
- Zhao has done a terrific job of taking ancient mythology and incorporating into our modern culture in a fun way. So if you are looking to blend new and ancient together in your stories, take a look at this series, as she is a master at this!
- She finds clever solutions within the story. Magic is not the answer. Magic only causes more problems. Zhao understands this. Cleverness, wits, sacrifice, friendship, and anything else human is the answer. This is a huge lesson for many writers.
Quill and Books 
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