Fallon Books

In 1989, while on a family ski trip to the Cascade Mountains, Grace had the most amazing man share her chair at the ski lift. This man was dressed all in white and marveled at the miraculous world around him. He called Grace by name and told her that he had been present at her birth. He then disappeared as if the incident never happened. In fact, Grace was the only person to actually see the man in white. Then in 1999, on Grace's forty-forth birthday, she has another odd experience one that will change her life forever.

Falcon, Fallon, and the Theory of Everything is written as a fictional spiritual journey of Grace as she examines her religious beliefs, her spiritual nature, and the miracles in her life. Much of Grace's early path is like that of any other person. She feels the need to explore her past, let her parents know who she is, her spirituality starts to find its way into her everyday life, and she yearns to expand her knowledge on the subject. These common aspects are comforting and allow the reader to share a common bond with Grace and her experiences as the story becomes more miraculous in nature.

What a surprise read. It made me laugh and it touched my heart. I have to find out what comes next!

We used this as a textbook for a telecom class, and it provides a very good introduction to a lot of the internet topics, covering a large number of subjects in varying degrees of detail. It's mainly theory, except for the web stuff, but it makes for interesting reading.

"The Internet Today" couples Internet expertise with eminent readability. Tom Fallon's ability to make the complex, interconnecting technologies of the Internet easily understandable is in stark contrast to the dry, erudite books common to this topic. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the innerworkings of the Internet and the future of technology, the economy and society itself.

I did not expect so much information. I just wanted the book because I've lusted for this motorcycle in my early adulthood. The bike really 'turned my key' and reading the book educated me on what went into the making of this bike. Motorcycle engineers are now very much admired by me.

Great information, very detailed, superb photos.
Highly recommended to owners of such Ducatis or fans of classic bikes in general.

Wow - am I thankful somebody accidently placed this book on the mystery shelf at my local library. As a mystery buff, I can tell you that Linda Fallon outdoes many of my favorite authors as far as suspense goes. The romantic element was on-target. In fact, I was up until 3:00 a.m. the other night finishing Shades of Scarlet. Now that I know it's a series, I'll definitely buy the other books.

I first found this author's books by accident, thinking that they were horror books. I was surprised to learn that this was actually "romance" book. But the ghost stories are very interesting and very well told. It's probably a better ghost story than most horror books. It doesn't try to be too complicated, and it's easy to read. Let's just say that after reading the first two, I was excited to find that she had written a third. I was still, however, a little embarrased to ask for the book in the "romance" section.

This work grew out of the author's practice of encouraging high school retreatants to find deeper meaning in Gospel stories by dramatizing them. From there, Fallon developed three questions that formalize the process: What is the experience of the story? How does the story touch me? and How does the story call me to live? For "What Jesus Said," he chose seven Gospels taken from the Lent/Easter lectionary for Year A, the scriptures employed to familiarize RCIA candidates with "breaking open the word."

Applying the questions to the story of the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9), Fallon describes a scene in which the disciples are just beginning to understand that Jesus is the Messiah, and respond to the vision of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah with "a jumble" of emotions. The vision itself and Jesus' subsequent words are intended to increase the disciples' faith as they witness the Messiah's suffering and death. Bringing the story into his own experience, Fallon shares several "God-touching-me" occasions in his life. He also addresses his difficulty in overcoming distractions to better be able to "listen to Jesus," and offers two suggestions. First, we don't have to be good at listening prayer, we just have to do it, and second, the secret of listening prayer is that God finds a way to get through to us. As each of the other chapters, this one ends with reflection questions and prayer designed to reveal how the story calls us to live.

The author has done a good job of sharing this unique method for individuals and groups eager to understand, appreciate, and live Scripture more fully.

Full disclosure: I am a life-time friend of the author, I am acknowledged in the book and I am the subject of three pages of discusion and illustration.
All that said, I think the book is outstanding. It is painfully and powerfully honest and revealing. The book is not perfectly titled because the author is acutally trying to show us how each of us can personalize the Gospels. He uses the Easter Gospels as his template.
According to the author the way you personalize the Gospels is to tell your own stories. It is the stories illustrating the author's points that really shine. He illustrates tough concepts with fine stories from friends, families and his own own life. His illustrations from books and other stories worked beautifully. too. The author is remarkably well-read and he uses that skill deftly, never beating the reader over the head with how smart he is, but rather gently helping the reader to understand.
The writing is very clean. by that I mean direct sentences, precious few compound clauses which send the readers searching for alcohol and a crispness that gets to the point. There were precious few places where I said "tighten this, fool!"
The author is especially genuine, helpful and admirable when he discusses prayer at several points in the book. That discussion of prayer resonates with the struggle we all feel. The treatment of prayer is one of the real winning attributes of the book.
My method of reading an inspirational book of any sort involves folding over the bottom corners or pages. Well, the chapter on acknowledging our thirst is a mess. I folded a lot of pages!
There is some real depth and heft to most of the author's concepts. I think that allows the book to be read on several levels.
Thoughtful readers will come away from the book challenged, refreshed and more intent on living the path of Christ.

This book is totally fabulous! I'm a big proponent of first person accounts with living with an ostomy and this book is one big anecdote from both ostomates and ET nurses. It is so full of information that I'm going to read it through a couple times for all the information it has to offer. Although this is meant to be a resource for traveling, I actually found the details of people discussing how they normally care for their ostomies and then how they change their care for traveling to be very enlightening and to contain lots of information not found in the traditional IBD and ostomy books. Perhaps the greatest benefit though, was being inspired by the various individuals who have not let their ostomy slow them down in the least and who lead active lives that should be the envy of non-ostomates! A must have book for the reference shelf.

Well, I finally found some free time to read the book "Yes We Can." If you have not heard about it yet, it is a book that deals with folks traveling with an Ostomy. One of the authors is Barbara Kupfer (Babs) . Many will know her, as she is a regular in the StuartOnline Ostomy chat room.

The book, which is 298 pages, is full of traveling information that is very useful for us ostomates who enjoy traveling. It is not just the views of one person, but from folks from all over the world. It has in-depth information on how to handle just about any situation that may occur while traveling. From flying to hiking, you will find it all.

The book starts out with the twenty-five most frequently asked questions. It is then followed by stories from many folks who have traveled. Then it goes into many good tips for traveling. In the appendix you will even find a good list of ostomy information and management guidelines during your travels. You will also find a glossary of ostomy terms and a language translation chart for many of the related words.

If you are a new ostomate or even if you have had one for many years, I would highly suggest purchasing this book. I found it to be very informal along with some good information.

As always, Lonely Planet provides the best and most up to date information. Fail proof. Fool safe.

"Lonely Planet Ireland" was my introduction to the Lonely Planet series of travel books, and my experience with that volume will definitely lead me to seek out Lonely Planet books on other countries. Lonely Planet's team of writers and researchers writes in a breezy, engaging style that addresses readers as equals (too many travel writers, such as the late Temple Fielding, have talked down to readers). The book is exhaustively comprehensive, covering just about every town, village and point of interest throughout Ireland, and the writers aren't shy in giving their honest, at times bristling opinions when they think something is a tourist trap (i.e. referring to Dublin's popular Temple Bar area as "Temple Barf"). In any case, their descriptions of the places I visited and the hotels I stayed in were absolutely dead-on, and I give the guide high marks for steering me correctly in every instance. (Note to Lonely Planet, if you're reading this: I have a terrific restaurant recommendation in Galway--Cookes Restaurant in Abbeygate Street. Marvelously cozy 17th-century building, nice people, excellent wine list, wonderful food such as the salmon in lemon-dill beurre blanc and the goat cheese and crispy potato skin appetizers.)

Just the guidebook you need to see Ireland at any depth, for a short visit or an extended stay. Travelling in Ireland is pretty straightforward, simple, and every town is geared toward tourism, so this book may not be absolutely necessary to carry with you, but it is invaluable for planning purposes.

I have always been a fan of the lonely planet books, because they really help me find places to go in other countries. However, take my review with a grain of salt because, at this point, I have not taken my trip to Ireland yet. While it is informative and it has given me ideas of places to visit and hotels to stay in, I have not experienced what the book has said. However, it has helped me book hotels and design my iternerary.

After painfully attempting to plan my honeymoon to Ireland with another type of tour-guide, I decided to return to the one that made my trips to Thailand and Costa Rica truly memorable. What can I say? Lonely Planet never ceases to amaze me!! Their FULL review of countries caters to ALL types of travelers, including those on a budget. The other guides' authors write their reviews of primarily expensive places to eat and stay. They also write as if they were being compensated by the reviewees (which they probably are). Not Lonely Planet. These are by far the best guides out there...I will never purchace any other type of tour-guide.

This guide gives all the right information, not too much and not too little, as well as good maps. I liked the maps this guide gives better than the "London A to Z" map, at least from a tourist's perspective.

I normally have no complaints about Lonely Planet books - I've used them repeatedly. The London book is good with great maps, descriptions, directions, and updated admission costs and times, however, I found two things below my expectations: While the maps are good, this edition did not list supermarkets as most other Lonely Planet books do. (When touring on foot as I normally do, I like stopping in to a supermarket for a quick snack or drink - usually quicker and less expensive than going to a restaurant.) The other feature I found confusing is listing sights outside of London proper with no directions on how to get there. If I wanted sights outside of London, I'd had bought the Britain edition! If excursions outside the city are listed, it would help to see how to get there and an indication of how long it would take to get there, so one can plan an itinerary.

. The information about the history of London was Ok.
. Ok with the walking tour
. All the highlights and backdoor are inside this guide

BUT...looking with a backpacker eyes..

. They should reduce the big restaurant list and make a better explanation of the highlights is the sight section.

Just for your information, I love Lonely Planet...this is a constructive recommendation that I give to all the city guides...

Another important thing, specially for what they call "A city guide"...they should give more information (map and path) of the buses. Yes...it is not Paris...in London it is easy to find a map for the buses...free of charge...BUT ...I am paying more that US$15 for a city guide, man...they should include.

So, I think, less restaurant and better transport and sight information.

I used this book for a five-day trip to London, my first time there. It was very helpful, contained just the right amount of information, and gave useful suggestions of what to do with my limited time. I was a little disappointed with the lack of budget accomodations included in the book (hence the four stars instead of five) but otherwise, all of the recommendations I followed were great.

I went to London for about 5 days. A lot of this book was out of date, such as ticket prices for admission to tourist attractions and opening times). Since this edition was published in January 2006, I would recommend a more recent guidebook.

The restaurant recommendations were more upscale than I was hoping for. A place described as Italian with mains costing 7-p pounds actually turned out to be a Mediterranean tapas place and ending up costing 40 pounds per person. I would agree with a previous review that the accomodations were a bit pricier than I was looking for and had better luck finding a place online. I gave it two stars because I did find a nice, traditional pub to hang out in that I went back to multiple nights.

Cross referencing attractions would have been nice - if you looked for a certain subject in the index, it could be spread across 3 different pages (ie. pg 11, 213, 77). I spent a lot of time during my trip with my nose in this book, and I had even flipped through it beforehand! (it took me 2 hours to decide on the inexpensive "Italian" restaurant).

The Walking Tours were ok, but I got the feeling I was missing a lot of things as I followed the maps in the book. I also got lost a lot, which may or may not could be attributed to the book (my travel companions are still laughing about it).

I was so unhappy with this book, I purposefully left it in my rented flat in London. Choose another guidebook.

Jennifer Fallon's Medalon is the first book in The Demon Child Trilogy, which makes up the larger Hythrun Chronicles. The Sisterhood of Medalon has made it illegal to practice religion (the worship of pagan gods), persecutes all believers of the gods, and has forced the Harshini, a race of long-lived beings who interact with the gods, into hiding. The sisters use a highly trained army of male Defenders to enforce their orders across the country. But, the First Sister has just been murdered, and while the sisters are plotting and jockeying for position amongst themselves, the Demon Child -- a human/Harshini half-breed -- is coming to maturity in Medalon and the gods, who are involved in their own plots, need to find the child because it's the only creature capable of killing another god.

The main characters, R'shiel and Tarja, are the children of Joyhinia, a sister whose one goal is to be the First Sister. Though she claims to not have a concept of "sin," Joyhinia commits a lot of it as she seeks to fulfil her ambition. Even her children are not permitted to get in her way, and are used as pawns in her scheming. Eventually, R'shiel and Tarja find themselves allied against their mother and the Sisterhood, and their beliefs are challenged as they actually meet gods and Harshini who, they thought, don't exist.

Medalon was a quick and entertaining read. The pace is fast and there is plenty of action. The characters are mostly well-developed, interesting, and likeable (or hateable where appropriate). A couple of characters are over-the-top enough to be unbelievable (it's hard to believe that Joyhinia dislikes her own children more than she dislikes other people), but they are interesting enough that I found myself over-looking that. The writing, while not particularly beautiful like Carey, Clarke, Valente, or Bujold, is completely competent, clear, and often witty.

I really have only a couple of objections: Medalon is a society based on "law" and "common sense," not ideas of "sin" or "morality." Yet we learn that lust, rape, betrayal, stealing, lying, treason, murder, incest, abortion, premarital sex, and tardiness are "wrong." Whores and bastards are looked down on, paternity of Joyhinia's son is kept secret, abortionists are run out of town, and the man who defends the First Sister is required to take an oath of celibacy. For a society with no sin, they sure spend a lot of time condemning it; it just doesn't make sense.

Second, while the antics of the gods were meant to be funny and entertaining, I found them annoying. For example, the goddess of love styles herself as a little girl and demands that everyone loves her. She casts a spell to make one of the characters fall in love with another and then declares that she hopes another god won't be mad. Well, I don't know if the other god got mad, but I did. The love of the one character for the other (I'm trying not to spoil the plot here) is a major plot element, but its unnatural contrivance makes it seem shallow, and I felt cheated. Some of the other gods and their interactions with disrespectful humans (who remind them to stay vigilant and tell them to "shut up") was just silly. And then there are the ugly but cuddly demons who can become gods if they get enough followers to believe in them. Somehow, this didn't work for me.

But, even with these issues, I found myself really enjoying Medalon; it's not great literature, but it's fun. And I admire Jennifer Fallon for having a bunch of gossiping and scheming unlikeable women being defended by brave and mostly honorable and likeable men. I don't want to ruin the plot, but I'll say that only a female writer could get away with it.

I have picked up (at my library) the next three books, and I look forward to starting Treason Keep soon.
-FanLit.net

I'm not a fan of starting new series, so I was a little hesitant to start this one. (especially since the cover came across as a little too childish) It was only by a great recommendation that I picked this one up, and thank god, I absolutely loved it! After the first chapter you will be drawn in up until the very last book.

Let me start off by saying that this is a great book. I usually go to the book store and paruse books by the art on the cover. I picked it up and started reading, and after a few pages I became hooked. This is one of those books where you really care what happens to the characters, the plotline is epic, and there are plenty of twists and turns. Though the plot is a bit generic; woman is 'chosen' to destroy a god, save the world, etc etc, that's pretty much a staple in every fantasy book i've ever read. It's the character interactions and situations that make fantasy books, and this one does very well.

Medalon by Jennifer Fallon is the first book in the Hythrun Chronicles. The second book is titled Treason Keep with the third being Harshini. An interesting note, in Australia and the United Kingdom list these three books as The Demon Child trilogy. This is Ms. Fallon's first novel, and I have to admit I found this novel purely by accident while looking at books on Amazon. This novel appeared as one of my recommendation and it seemed mildly interesting so I decided to take a chance and get it.

The plot of this novel is very deep and involved. The main plot line is that of the long fabled tale about the emergence of the Demon Child and just what that means for all the people of the land. No one knows who the Demon child is, or just what the Demon Child is supposed to do. I found it a little different, that this is the main plot of the novel but seems to take a back seat to all the subplots most of the time. There are also a myriad of subplots permeating this book, such as a couple of political plots focusing on the Sisterhood and that of a bordering nation. There is a power struggle within the Sisterhood as well. Additionally, there are a number of heathen gods, who may play some part in the Demon Child's story. There are also a group of heathens (rebels) who are seeking to stop the Sisterhood's persecution of their beliefs. Lastly, there is a race of people who are no more than children's bedtime stories who may yet play a part in the unfolding tale. As I said before, this story is rich in range and scope, in fact all the subplots I touched on are only a sampling of what is in the pages. I didn't want to spoil anything, suffice it to say this is a very solid story.

The characters in this novel are as deep and rich as the story. Much like the multiple plots, there are also a plethora of characters as well. The main characters are Tarja and R'shiel who are a Defender and a probate in the Sisterhood respectively. Along the way they meet many, many people. I was trying to come up with a way to really talk about the characters and such without spoiling anything, but I have come to realize to really talk about them would spoil things for the reader. So, please excuse the generic discussion. All the characters in this book have some character development. The main two, Tarja and R'shiel, obviously have the most development but it is fantastic progression. All the dialogue for the characters is believable and allows each character to have his or her own voice. Each characters actions seem to hinge on the character's own personal motivations and convictions. Not only that, but Ms. Fallon's writing quickly drew me into caring about the characters and what happened to them. Simply put, these characters were a joy to read about.

I do have a couple of criticisms about this novel however.

First, and this really has nothing to do with Ms. Fallon, there are some editing mistakes in the novel. Such as misspellings, missing words etc. The only reason I list this is because they are very obvious and being that this novel (at least the copy I have) is in the second printing - these things should have been fixed by the publisher.

Secondly, there were a couple points in the story that seemed rather predictable of what was going to happen next. This isn't a really big deal, especially in the fantasy genre where stories tend to repeat themselves, but none-the-less it was there.

With all that said, I think Ms. Fallon deserves high praise for this novel. Her prose is fluid and easy to read. The progression of the story, and characters, makes logical sense and happens in a very believable way. When I finished reading this novel and found out that this was Ms. Fallon's first novel I was shocked. To me this reads as though it is from a seasoned writer. Ms. Fallon obviously spent a great deal of time not only on the story and characters, but building the world as well. I really enjoy reading novels where the world itself has a particular story and history to it. That is certainly the case here.

All in all I really enjoyed this novel. My only regret is that I had to stumble upon this novel, and I didn't do it sooner. This is certainly a book fans of the fantasy genre should read. I would even go so far as to say that people considering reading fantasy should think about starting with this one. It's a solid novel and one I am happy to have read. This is a book that will certainly be at the top of my recommendation list when people ask for a good fantasy book. I only hope the rest of this series can live up to the promise of this novel.

"Medalon" the first book in the demon child trilogy is a relatively simple fantasy that just appears complicated because of the many gods and political fractions involved. However most fantasy books are like this, as is the real world, so if you can remember what country the main people are from and what religion that different countries follow you'll be fine-if not, well there's a glossary in the back of the book.

The country of Medalon decided a couple hundred years ago to be an atheist nation run by women known as sisters of the blade who are businesswomen and politicians. To bring about this perfect nation they killed off most of the pagan people who worshiped Gods (a little linguistic lesson from a real pagan-the word Pagan means "from the fields" and is essentially a nice way of saying hick) and these semi immortal fairy people the Harshini. The Harshini then went into hiding and are in the present of this book presumed dead. There are a couple other countries, two of which are pagan and hold with the gods (who are real by the way) and one which is monotheistic and ruled by a God who apparently needs to be killed-or so the other gods think. But they won't do it and the Harshini can't kill so there is a prophecy that a demon child will be born who will be half Harshini and who will kill a God.

Meanwhile in the present day in Medalon, in the citadel of the sisters of the Blade political power changes are taking place. One sister is scheming to be in charge and her children, Tarja, and his half sister R'shiel rebel and run away, find out they're not really related at all (can you see where this is going?-yeah, somehow the author manages to make it not creepy because they're not brother and sister at all and he's ten years older so they didn't grow up together...it's actually kind of sweet) and organizing the pagans into a rebellion. Meanwhile one half Harshini is searching the world for the demon child alternately helped and annoyed by the gods (who are hilarious.)

This is a pretty decent book and I really enjoyed it, except for one really annoying thing. Tarja and R'shiel are constantly having to rescue each other. I mean CONSTANTLY! Like one of them would rescue the other and then it would fail and they'd be a in a worse situation and they have to start all over. It's like that for the entire book. It gets old. I mean there is some interesting stuff in the rescues and while waiting for them and in between them there's some romance and good mythology and political maneuvering and funny scenes with the Gods, but it doesn't really break even.

In the end, three point five stars. I'll definitely read the next one though, which will hopefully have less running and chasing!

You have to like the idea for this book. A world with two suns, where every now and then one sun will duck behind the other and throw the whole world off for a bit, and whoever can figure out when that will happen, can control civilization. In this case, "civilization" refers to the usual fantasy book world semi-medieval society, but one where basic math skills are in very short supply. Therefore, there's this group of people who have co-opted their own religious cult based upon knowing when one of the suns will disappear.

Enter "Our Hero". Is he a magnificient warrior felling villians by the hundreds with a huge sword? No, he is not. Is he a fantastic wizard, learning new magic and teaching people how to make nightlights for when it gets dark? No, he is not. Is he a disgruntled youth, with a secret past who must find his way amongst a bunch of evil people who want to use his special abilities for their own ends? Why, yes he is!! You knew there was a typical fantasy story in there somewhere, right? Except in this case, the "special abilities" mean he is really good at math. That's right, mathematics.

I thought this was a great idea for a story. Unfortunately, the kid never really does any math in this book. In fact, he really doesn't do much of anything except talk. Actually, no one in this book does anything except talk. Pretty much the whole book is dialogue. There is literally NO action in this novel, which is quite an achievement, actually. And, you know what? It's interesting dialogue. The story moves along at a decent pace and the hero, such as he is, uses his intelligence in other ways besides solving math problems. It's kind of a fun read, and probably the best of the three. Certainly, Ms. Fallon must be complimented for sticking to a trilogy format for this series, because with all the talking, she could easily have gone all Robert Jordan on us and kept the whole thing going.

As is often the case with books like this, the most interesting character is the bad guy, who in this case is the actual "Lion of Senet". The dialogue between Dirk and the Lion (who has a Russian name, which is pretty cool) is the most interesting in the book. The only fault I have is that the title character is extremely intelligent and still believes the hokey religion, even when he had been shown the truth earlier. This did not make a whole lot sense, but one must suspend some common sense when reading books like this or you'll never find you like. And while I did not enjoy this book as much as I enjoy Robin Hobb's or Scott Bakker's works, it still was a fun read and worth the money.

In the middle of all that talking, no one bothered to explain why the guy is called "The Lion of Senet", when there are clearly no lions anywhere on this planet. Oh well.

First this book , like many reviewers said , is no fantasy .
It is a story of an alternative antic world with 2 suns .
If it was not for the 2 suns , it could have been a slightly modified history of punic wars (Carthago against Rome) .
In itself it is not a sin to write a book that was for some strange reason labelled fantasy , it is only that it doesn't belong there and a reader who was looking for a high level fantasy genre litterature (aka Erikson , Martin , Donaldson , Williams etc) may feel slightly cheated .
Now that it has been clarified what this book is not , what is it ?

It is a variation on religious intolerance that misuses scientifical truths to set up and strengthen its power .
The tools are ignorance , violence , manipulation and faith .
Thus we get a rather straightforward simple plot with characters representing archetypes .
We get Belagren , the Priestess who knows the truth and is obsessed only by 2 issues - prevent anybody from knowing this truth and exert a power as absolute as possible .
We get the Lion of Senet who is a fanatical believer in the Godess and the real wielder of the absolute power .
We get Dirk who is (supposed) a genious and has his doubts both about the religious explanation of the disappearance of one sun (the Dark Age)and about the legitimity of the Lion of Senet's rule .
We get Marqel who is the firm believer of the theory that a goal justifies the use of any means and is also out after power .
And we get a number of secondary characters (Dirk's mother , Alenor , Tia ...) who are archetypes of more or less active resistants to Senet's occupation of their country .

The rest is then obvious - Belagren will try to manupulate the Lion , Marqel will try to manipulate Belagren , the Lion will kill and torture anybody who opposes him and Dirk will try to survive in this environment where dangers lurk on every side and to find the truth about the suns .
Not badly written but not exceptional either .

For me worth 2,5 stars but as this exactly average rating is not possible , I round down because I was at no moment really surprised or interested by this too easily foreseeable story .
It is also for this reason that I didn't buy the sequels that are surely only more of the same .

Normally, when I finish a novel, it is never hard to say "Okay, 2 stars" or "Wow, 5 stars" or anything else along those lines. However, Lion of Senet was incredibly hard to place because while it rocketed off the enjoyment scale, it was lacking in some other sections of my grading criteria.

Usually my five-star books are not only keeping me up at very late hours, but also literarily great. In fact, in most books that I rate poorly, the quality of the writing keeps me from enjoying the story. Lion of Senet was not like most books though. I swear on a copy of LOTR, the story had me breathing, sleeping, eating Lion of Senet. When I finished it, I launched on here to Amazon to read up on the sequel. I stayed up to 4 reading this impossible-to-put down novel. I do not say that often.

On normal circumstances, 4 am is five-star quality (2 am is 4 stars!) Yet throughout those blissful hours, a variety of issues irked me enough to give this book only 4 stars. Some of them were simply pet peeves of mine, but Ms. Fallon has one big ugly flaw in her writing: she cannot make characters act/sound their age.

Her adult characters are fantastic. Incredible. Realistic. Sadly, most of the main characters are, well, teenagers, and Ms. Fallon I'm afraid makes all of them (so therefore not a character flaw of one) sound easily three years younger than they really are.

The worst of it is in her two youngest important characters: Eryk and Mellie. They are both 13 and act and sound as if they were 9. This kept annoying me the entire read. Until I was actually told that Eryk and Mellie were indeed 13, I believed they were 8 and 9 and couldn't get the image out of my head. There was not a signal scrap of information to back up their age, and they weren't the only ones who suffered from this. Dirk only seemed his age because he was supposed to seem older than he really was, meaning that he was supposed to appear 17 when he is really 15. Tia (the first character you meet) is probably the only one who came across (of the teenage characters) as her given age.

That matter out of the way, here are a few pet-peevish occurrences throughout The Lion of Senet:

Modern dialogue, phrasing, and clichés: I do not know what role they play in a science fiction fantasy novel.

Let-the-reader-figure-it-out-on-their-own: At first, I really liked this part of Ms. Fallon's style. She doesn't pile you with information and doesn't leave it out. She also doesn't spell everything out, which I like. I enjoy using my brain while reading to connect information and draw my own conclusions. Sometimes she took it too far, however, and her clever style got in the way. I read half the book not knowing if Dirk was 15 or 16, minor, but annoying (read and you'll see why.)

Portrayal of evil: This is another thing authors commonly annoy me with. They simply toss the word 'evil' into the mix and give me a few things to back it up. Yes, those things are very corrupted, twisted, and wrong, but still a long way from evil. Evil is like hate. Both are words that should not be used lightly, and Ms. Fallon does add a few 'evils' in the mix in a rather preachy way.

You are probably reading this review and wondering how this novel only got 4 stars when those four things were the only bad dirt I could dig up off the top of my head. Well, if the story had not been so gripping, captivating, and downright amazing, those four things would have landed this novel at 2 or 3 stars...

Do not get me wrong, though. I'm harsh when it comes to rating novels, so a four in my book is about a 6 in the average reviewer's. This novel was one of my best purchases in who knows how long and I cannot wait to receive the sequel. (Just a few more days!)

DQ

This whole Second Sons trilogy was like ice cream for me. Once I opened them they were done.I loved this whole series. The only bad thing about these books was that I finished them. These three books were impossible to put down. I really was sad to finish the adventure. There are so many twists and surprises that I don't want to give anything away but do yourself a favor and pickup all three books. These are a must read for all fantasy fans. My favorite authors are Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, George R.R. Martin, and J.R.R.Tolkien. After reading this series I have to add Jennifer Fallon to this list. I can't wait to explore some of her other books.

Very good author. I will read all of her books. I am already through the second book and working on the 3rd of this trilogy. It started a little slow, but it is riveting how in depth the plot has become as I've moved into the second and third book. Definitely recommend this trilogy.