Fate of the Fallen

By: Kel Kade

Narrated by: Nick Podehl

Fate of the Fallen is the start of a brand-new adventure from New York Times best-selling author Kel Kade.

Not all stories have happy endings.

Everyone loves Mathias. Naturally, when he discovers it’s his destiny to save the world, he dives in headfirst, pulling his best friend, Aaslo, along for the ride.

However, saving the world isn’t as easy, or exciting, as it sounds in the stories. The going gets rough, and folks start to believe their best chance for survival is to surrender to the forces of evil, which isn’t how the prophecy goes. At all. As the list of allies grows thin and the friends find themselves staring death in the face, they must decide how to become the heroes they were destined to be or, failing that, how to survive.

©2019 Kel Kade (P)2019 Macmillan Audio

A bit odd but interesting enough

Big fan of Kel Kade and Nick Podehl, grabbed this as soon as it came out. The plot is odd and you spend almost all of the book having No Clue where the story is going, which can be off-putting.

The characters and their interactions are cute and funny, which carries most of the book. Throughout the story there are scenes that jump to other perspectives that feel rather boring or unnecessary, but they're not terribly long.

Overall rather enjoyed the book, even if the ending felt abrupt.

Great new series

Even though I would prefer a conclusion to KDT first, I really enjoyed this book and look forward to its sequel. Nick Podehl continues to be my favorite narrator and I often forget it’s even him sometimes! Thank you both for giving me great stories to listen to.

This book was truly very good.

This book was truly very good. Kel Kade, I am impressed. I think writing about the Gods and prophecies can difficult, but you nailed it.

Fantastic - Kel Kade has done it again

I really enjoyed the complex journey of the main character and looking forward to the next book from this series and the dark reign series.

An interesting blend of depressed, morbid, comic fantasy

I’ve read and loved and eagerly await Kel’s other works, but I admit I really did not enjoy this book the *first* time I read it. I generally avoid anything that whiffs of sadness, and this book certainly has it. But with a few years spacing, and after a re-read of her other works, I decided to give it another shot. I genuinely enjoyed it and just bought the next (and fully expect to buy the 3rd).

Kel’s pacing is a touch slow, but not terrible. The humor is under-stressed, often morbid, and has a certain quality to it that almost reminds me of British humor, and even Monty Python at times. It feels like it’s lining up to be a tragic comedy, but really don’t know yet. That’s one of the good things about this story: there are a number of potential explanations for “what’s really going on here,” thus plot predictability is low. The character development comes in sudden bursts, but it all fits well with the story so it’s not a problem.

But what’s really enjoyable to me is the worldbuilding. There are several elements here I haven’t encountered in fantasy before, and that’s really enjoyable to see. I look forward to seeing this story play out, and I hope more people read Kel Kade.