The Faithful and the Fallen

Cory’s perspective

Malice takes a little time to get going, but once Corban’s story starts moving and you begin seeing how all the different characters connect, the setup starts paying off.

I didn’t mind the slower beginning because it felt like it was building toward something.

Corban was probably the character I cared about most.

I liked watching him grow from a regular kid into someone carrying a lot more responsibility.

But what made the series work was not just Corban.

It was his relationships with the people around him.

They didn’t feel like they followed him just because the story needed them to. You felt like these people actually cared about one another.

The ordinary moments mattered as much as the big ones.

Those smaller relationships are what made the larger battles and losses mean something later.

I also liked Veradis because his loyalty was complicated.

He wasn’t loyal because somebody was obviously right. He believed in what he was doing.

Sometimes you want him to see things differently, but I liked that he did not suddenly change just because it would have made the story easier.

As the series gets further along, it gets much more violent and intense.

That worked for me because the story had actual consequences.

People died. Bad things happened. You did not always feel like somebody was safe just because they were an important character.

It could get heavy, but that helped make the story matter.

By Wrath, you have spent four books with these people, so the ending has to give those relationships some payoff.

I thought it did.

It did not make everything perfect, and I still wanted more when it was finished.

Who I’d recommend it to

I’d recommend it to readers who like:

• larger fantasy casts
• friendships and loyalty
• battles and war
• characters choosing sides
• traditional epic-fantasy elements
• stories where characters grow through hardship

Malice has a slower opening, so if you only want extremely fast-moving books, you may need some patience at the beginning.

It is less complicated than Licanius and much less of a commitment than The Wheel of Time, but it still feels like a large epic fantasy story.

Where to begin

Malice → Valour → Ruin → Wrath.