The Fall – Thieves of Fate #2 – Tracy Townsend
An apothecary clerk and her ex-mercenary allies travel across the world to discover a computing engine that leads to secrets she wasn’t meant to know–secrets that could destroy humanity. Eight months ago, Rowena Downshire was a half-starved black market courier darting through the shadows of Corma’s underside. Today, she’s a (mostly) respectable clerk in the Alchemist’s infamous apothecary shop, the Stone Scales, and certainly the last girl one would think qualified to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders a second time. Looks can be deceiving. When Anselm Meteron and the Alchemist receive an invitation to an old acquaintance’s ball–the Greatduke who financed their final, disastrous mercenary mission fourteen years earlier–they’re expecting blackmail, graft, or veiled threats related to the plot to steal the secrets of the Creator’s Grand Experiment. They aren’t expecting a job offer they can’t refuse or a trip halfway across the world to rendezvous with the scholar whose research threw their lives into tumult: the Reverend Doctor Phillip Chalmers. Escorting Chalmers to the Grand Library of Nippon with her mismatched mercenary family is just a grand adventure to Rowena until she discovers a powerful algebraic engine called the Aggregator. The Aggregator leads Rowena to questions about the Grand Experiment she was never meant to ask and answers she cannot be allowed to possess. With her reunited friends, Rowena must find a way to use the truths hidden in the Grand Library to disarm those who would hunt down the nine subjects of the Creator’s Grand Experiment, threatening to close the book on this world.
Review:
The first book in the Thieves of Fate series, The Nine, was one of my favourite reads in 2018. The concept intrigued me and the writing and world building were beautiful and captivating. No surprise then that The Fall got bumped up to the top of my to-be-read pile as soon as I received it. The Fall has a lot of the elements that I thoroughly enjoyed in the first book, but it does have a mild version of middle-book-syndrome.
I’d like to elaborate on that first. Some of the plot points don’t have a clear end goal yet and it feels like a lot of things have been set in motion without anything actually moving along at an appropriate pace. Rowena, Old Bear, Anselm and Chalmers get hired by a rich couple to go and investigate the Amenuensis Library in the Grand Library in Nippon. The Amenuensis Library holds all the previous versions of the book that changed our protagonists’ lives in The Nine. Meanwhile the Lanyani and the Aigamuxa are planning to eradicate all humans to reclaim the world for themselves.
Aside from some spots of action now and then, there is a lot of filling that only gives us morsels of information. I’m sure these morsels will be important towards the end of this series, but it is just not quite enough to make this book flow as well as The Nine did. The Lanyani’s plot shifts some allegiances, but again it seems like just a set-up for what is yet to come. The one storyline that did excite me was Clara Downshire’s, Rowena’s mum. I’m fascinated by her abilities and what this will mean for the rest of the story.
But, that being said, I feel that the writing style and the world- and character building makes up for all of it. I absolutely love this world and I’m now definitely emotionally invested in all of the character’s lives.
This book also gave me a better understanding of the world in these books and what the history is behind the religion/science cross-over. It has now become very clear to me that this is either a distant future or an alternate version of our world. Every little bit of history that is familiar gave me a little “aha!” moment. I wasn’t entirely sure after the first book, though it is hinted at. It was quite exciting to have some confirmation of that in The Fall.
The relationship between Rowena and the Old Bear has grown significantly since the start of the first book. They make a very heart-warming pair. I even grew to like Chalmers a bit more in this book!
I also was very happy to see a gender neutral character with “they/them” pronouns appear. It doesn’t happen very often in books and I thought it was brilliant. I’m looking forward to learn a bit more about this character and what they can offer to lift the veil of mystery over the Nine.
The Fall doesn’t quite top the first book for me, but it is so well written and has such intriguing world building that I gladly kept reading on. It has enough going for it to overcome the slower pace and keep me interested in the continuation of the story.
Release Date: June 11th, 2019
Publisher: Pyr
Age Group: Adult
Pages: 400
Format: ARC
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review
