Enjoyed thoroughly. More cohesive story arc than first book in series (Dark Griffin). Arren's flight/quest to find his own folk with several fellowships along the way; relationship with Skandar went a little along Dragonheart lines if you sub the griffin for the dragon but otherwise an original storyline with unique characters. ( )

The Griffin's Flight by KJ Taylor is the second book in the Fallen Moon series. I can't discuss what The Griffin's Flight is about without mentioning spoilers for book one. So be warned, while this review doesn't contain spoilers for The Griffin's Flight, it does contain major spoilers for The Dark Griffin. Seriously, don't read on if you don't want key events at the end of book one spoiled.

At the end of book one, our main character, Arren, dies and is magically revived with a caveat: he talks, he breaths, he heals, but his heart does not beat. It's an interesting choice for a main character since, generally speaking, bringing the dead back to life is seen as evil. He's kind of a thinking zombie and while the few people who are aware of the situation agree that whatever necromancy brought him back is evil, I like that Taylor didn't use it as an excuse for more people to hate him. (Not that lots of people don't have other reasons to hate him.)

The other major character is Erian, the bastard son of Rannagon, who Arren killed in book one. In another novel, Erian might have been the hero and Arren the villain. Instead, Erian is annoying and a bit of an idiot with an overbearing, ambitious and controlling griffin dictating to him. The reader is very much set up to sympathise with Arren. Although Erian seeks revenge for his father, much like Arren sought revenge earlier, I didn't feel very much sympathy for him at all. Mostly, I thought he got a bit more page-time than entirely necessary. However, I'm quite into the idea of swapping the roles of hero and villain as Taylor has done. I've always been a big fan of moral shades of grey.

A new character, Skade, is introduced. I didn't hate her, but I suspect her potential wasn't entirely realised in this book and will hopefully come to fruition in the concluding volume. I was a bit disappointed also, that Arren's friends from book one didn't feature very much. Bran and Flell feature only in the opening and the ending, however, I'm confident they will play a bigger part in The Griffin's War, so I'm looking forward to that.

The Griffin's Flight moves away from the exploration of racism that was The Dark Griffin; it's still there, but it's much less the main theme. In fact, thematically there isn't a single overarching theme tying everything together in The Griffin's Flight, which partly makes it feel a little middle-book-syndrome-y. Which isn't to say I found it boring or pointless, just that it was linking two disparate parts of the story: Arren's life as it falls apart in the first book, and the coming titular war of book three (The Griffin's War).

I very much enjoyed the continuation of Arren's story in The Griffin's Flight. I recommend the series to all fans of "big fat fantasy" books. I don't recommend reading book two without having read book one, however. It's definitely the kind of story that should be enjoyed sequentially.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. ( )

Ostracised from society and wanted for murder by former colleagues and peers, Arren runs to the North with only the fearsome Skandar for company. While the first book in this series is focussed on Arren’s rapid estrangement from his friends and family, The Griffin’s Flight deals his struggles to accept his heritage and come to terms with the drastic changes his life has seen over the past few months. Planning to escape to the North and live amongst his people, Arren begins to understand, for the first time, the plight of the Northmen as the slave-class in Cymria. In many ways this book is a lot more personal than its predecessor and allows us rare glimpses into Arren’s heart.

Arren and Skandar develop a lot throughout the novel and strengthen their bond over time. Arren becomes stronger and more self-sufficient, but is increasingly troubled - plagued by the things he has had to endure to retain his freedom. In contrast, Skandar almost seems blithely unconcerned about everything, as long his end-goal of a new mountain home is fulfilled. In my review of The Dark Griffin I mentioned that the ‘voices’ of the griffins sounded human to me. In this book the other-ness of the griffins is more pronounced and I found I enjoyed getting glimpses into their unique world view. It also helps that Skandar now has a better command of the griffish language.

I love Taylor’s writing style because the prose is direct and honest, perfectly fitting the mood of this dark fantasy. The plot is not overly dramatic but always keeps one at the edge of their seat. Arren and Skandar are constantly in danger and treat everyone they meet with mistrust, but their situation doesn’t degenerate to seem absurd. In comparison to The Dark Griffin, I found the writing in this book tighter and more engaging, and although I was expecting a different conclusion and was taken by surprise at the end, I still enjoyed the reading experience a lot.

The Griffin’s Flight is a wonderful continuation of the saga of Arren’s life as he struggles to find where he belongs in a divided world. I love seeing the rich world Taylor has created unfold as I read! An example of excellent Australian Fantasy, I believe this series will be enjoyed equally by both avid fans of the genre and newcomers.

You can read more of my reviews at Speculating on SpecFic. ( )

I really wanted to enjoy this book as much as the first one. Sadly, that was not the case. It is still slow at times and the main character seems to be waffling back and forth more this go-round than the last one. Not as a man struggling with his conscious but almost as if we were dealing with two completely different people.

There were points in the story that people abruptly behaved in quite a different manner or things happened quite unexpectedly. There were no little hidden hints that could lead a perceptive reader to the possibility of these surprising twists and turns. No little psychological tells to give things away that a second read through would leave you going 'aha', I see where this is going now. The abruptness of the behavioural changes was more than a little off-putting. ( )