Fall of Kings

The first two thirds of this book are utterly fantastic, I was supremely invested in every scene. This book largely focuses on three bit characters from the first book and that seems like a questionable decision at first, but I immediately loved their dynamic and what they brought to the story.

The struggles in Troy and the problems between Priam, Agamemnon, and Odysseus is so well done. This is probably my favorite depiction of Odysseus to date, I just find Gemmell doing great things with him. And of course we have to talk about Andromache, who is an absolutely phenomenal character and I honestly don't know how I can adjust to other Troy retellings now that I find this version of Andromache such an absolute badass. She's just fantastic in every scene. There are other great characters in this but l'll leave it as a surprise.

In general, Gemmell absolutely Excels with character and dialogue. The dialogue here isn't particularly witty like in other series I love dialogue for (Martin, Lynch, Abercrombie, etc) but it does a lot with a little. Every conversation feels like a conversation that would actually happen, which is hard to do. Each one also makes me appreciate the characters involved a little more, either positively or negatively.

Once again, this book isn't particularly action focused. It's slightly more than the first book, but still not that much. There's a chapter that is named after a battle that makes you think it's gonna be a big deal, but then the actual battle lasts for like a page. Gemmell does write fight scenes well, but I feel like people who don't love action scenes as much would love this series, because once again, Gemmell does a lot with a little (seemingly his strong suit).

The book reaches an emotional climax and a pretty good plot climax about two thirds of the way through, and I feel strongly that it should have been the end of the book. It was the highpoint of the novel in all ways, and the stuff that came in the final part of the book was still very good, but there was a time skip and it introduced new characters, locations, conflicts and relationships, after spending 2/3s of the book building up to a bunch of great things that I absolutely loved. I wasn't really interested in reading about new characters and a different sub-conflict right after.

However, because Gemmell is great, he still wins me over. These rando characters I wished he had saved for next book (and to be clear, there are still major characters from the first half involved, they are just interacting with new people) ended up getting me invested, and their little mini-arcs in the last third of the novel had me invested. Once again, a lot with a little.

The very end of the book felt cliffhangery in a way the first book didn't (which I maintain could be read and appreciated as a standalone, if one chose), so this book should probably be read close together with the final book.

9/10

Another excellent episode in the trilogy. Increasingly machiavellian political intrigue and lots of action.