Book Review | Valour by John Gwynne
My previous book review was for John Gwynne’s Malice, the first book in the Faithful and the Fallen series. I thought that it was good, but not great, and didn’t really stand out to me as a unique and impressive work. However, I found the ending to be a really compelling and well-written contrast to the first chunk of it, so I was excited to get into Valour, the sequel. In this spoiler-free review, I’ll talk about whether Valour met or even exceeded my expectations for the book!
Writing Improvements
John Gwynne’s writing was by no means bad in the first book but also wasn’t much more than fine throughout it, either. In Valour, though, the writing improves greatly on multiple fronts. I found the character work especially to be well executed. His characters are really beginning to come to life for me in Valour and I’ve got some real standout favorites, now (Cwyen and Camlin, especially—I have a type, okay).
I will say that there’s a particular aspect of his writing that I don’t especially like, but that I know is entirely personal taste. For me, I prefer when authors don’t repeat the same information over and over to make sure that we get it. I know Corban doesn’t want to think about being the center of some prophecy and I know that he doesn’t really believe it, but it felt like every chapter we got of Corban was just telling us this same information over and over, which got pretty old (especially because “Chosen One doesn’t want to be the Chosen One or doesn’t believe it” is almost as common a trope as the Chosen One itself).
In my previous review, I mentioned that there was a lot of confusing time jumping. We still have some time jumping in Valour that, again, is going to either be appreciated or disliked based on personal taste. I will say that Gwynne was way more selective with when he did time jumps, so I was never actually confused like I was with Malice, but I still prefer (personally) for chapters and events to be chronological rather than constantly jumping in and out of viewpoints and then returning to them in the middle of important scenes for the sake of a cliffhanger.
I completely understand why he makes the choice—I love cliffhangers usually and they absolutely have their place, but it can be a bit jarring to leave a character in the middle of something important, cutting a scene in half, and then jumping to a few other characters in the midst of that scene that really needs to be resolved. I mainly gripe about this for fast-paced things, like combat. Interrupting a combat scene and then jumping back to it several dozen pages later just feels weird.
Better Characters
The characters in Malice felt a little flat to me, but they become far more well-rounded in Valour now that the story is really starting to roll. I’m enjoying it and am especially enjoying the development of the relationships between them. I think that the characters are probably the best part of The Faithful and the Fallen, with the combat being a close second. I’m enjoying most of the character perspectives we’re getting; oddly, my least favorite (not because I don’t like it, but because I don’t like it as much as the others) is the subject of the prophecy, Corban. I like him well enough, but I didn’t enjoy his chapters as much as I did others. Maquin’s story, honestly, has been my favorite story to follow throughout this entire book. It has everything I want. I’d honestly have read a Maquin novel. He’s not my favorite character, perse, but his story is definitely one I am excited to watch unfold.
Big Battles
Combat is tough to write for a lot of people—I have read a lot of combat scenes and very few are all that great. I enjoy Sanderson’s, and I really liked the combat in Ender’s Game, but those books involve magic or science-enhanced tactics. Writing raw, gritty combat with little to no magic that is unique and exhilarating is tough. John Gwynne is definitely great at writing big battles in a way that is interesting—which is good because there are several big battles in his books! I think that what he captures best in these moments is the sheer chaos of such a fight. His combat isn’t especially dark, which is perfectly fine—he focuses more on what the character is feeling, experiencing, and thinking during the combat. He describes the warmth of blood, the fear amidst the throngs of skirmishing forces, and the absolute terror of not knowing when something sharp will take your life.
The big battles in Valour were my favorite part, second to some of the great character moments we get (including pretty much all of Maquin’s story). The battles were a rush throughout the book and he didn’t pull his punches with them. I especially appreciate that he has managed to make me care about characters all across the story, which makes battles between certain characters a challenge to read—you never know who you’re going to lose, and you don’t really want to lose people on either side, in some cases.
Still Adhering to Its Tropes
Before I wrap up with my overall rating, I want to point out that the main story is still adhering to its tropes. I was hoping we’d get some sort of explanation in this book that made it feel less like a typical beat-by-beat fantasy, but unfortunately what explanation we got just kinda solidified that this is another classic Chosen One story; I’m hopeful still that we’ll get some subversion for Corban’s story, but time will tell. The good news is that I’m enjoying the stories around Corban quite a lot, so even outside of the Chosen One trope at the center of it all, there are great tales waiting to be had.
Overall Rating
A definite improvement on Malice, this second book in The Faithful and the Fallen certain stands out to me as a well-written sequel. It’s certainly above your average fantasy novel, even if it does follow several common fantasy tropes. I’m loving the characters—Cwyen and Camlin in particular—and am eager to see some of these stories unfold (especially Maquin’s). While there are some ways that Valour falls short for me, I still had a good time reading it and would recommend this series to anyone who’s in the mood for some classic-fantasy feelings.
I’m going to give Valour four stars, it was a strong read and I can’t wait for the next book! Ruin looks to be a bit longer than the previous two books in the series; I’m hoping that means I get a lot more Maquin chapters (and several scenes with Cwyen and Camlin).
Conclusion
That’s the end of my review for Valour by John Gwynne, the second book in The Faithful and the Fallen series. I’m looking forward to seeing how this story ends; it’s definitely shaping up to have a few revenge storylines play out, which I’m eager to see… I mean, you know me. I love a good revenge story. This book was enjoyable from beginning to end, which sets it apart from its predecessor Malice for me, given that I found the majority of the first book to be a bit of a dragging read.