I was hyped to get to this sequel. Fool’s Gold was already a huge hit, falling in love with the series mere chapters into it.
The hype live up! The hype lived up!
Dragons may no longer rule over Kondorra, but they’re still a threat as the rest of the continent accepts them. Corrupted human governments are taken over by manipulative dragons who claim to be the new gods. The only people not subjected to this vision of a new world are the five heroes who slayed the dragons – Quirk, Will, Lette, Balur and Firkin. It’s up to them to make the remaining governments and empires step up, and to save the people already swayed the wrong way.
It was fantastic to see the world built out from the previous books. The first book focussed on a single empire on the continent and the corruption there, and to see the rest of the world, especially with characters directly linked to it, was so enlightening. Universities, churches and governments galore! And of course how the dragons attempt to get to them. So cool! It really brings out the ingenuity of Hollins and how he comments on problems we too face in a campy presentation.
This plot hit me hard in so many ways. Between character arcs, relationship tensions and the fate of the world itself, there was so much to guess about and be blind to for bigger reveals. Literally – when you think you know what’s going on and how it would all end the carpet animated and traps you in a little corpse burrito. And what a fantastic predictability and unpredictability it became! Not too much or little of either.
The characters were great as usual, but I have to give credit to Quirk and her character arc in this novel. She became my favourite this time around. Her devotion to her sense of duty and morality and the internal conflicts surrounding that were very engaging – a perfect look into her mind.
One thing I want to highlight is the ensemble characters, the ones without perspective chapters and were there for their own purposes. It is not often that the non main characters are so crucial to building up the world, conflicts and stakes, and to have so many. These were all done very well where it feels so real and with each crowd group being unique.
And now book three awaits. So much exciting content awaits.
False Idols gets a score of 5/5. When the going gets tough, the rating goes up.
Yours in writing
Amy