The Fall - David L. Dawson

   2012; 310 pages.  Book 1 (out of 3) in “The God Slayers Quartet” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Post-Apocalyptic Thriller; LGBTQ+ Fiction; YA Dystopian Adventure.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

 

    Question: What should we mortals do when two gods are fighting each other?

 

    It’s a tricky conundrum.  The most logical thing is probably to reason with them and convince then to knock it off.  But gods have a habit of ignoring the advice of puny little humans, and besides, interrupting them by calling their attention to ourselves could seriously shorten our life expectancies.

 

    So maybe it’s better to just let them duke it out.  Except when a god gets knocked off his feet by a punch, he's likely to fall upon an entire village, flattening it and killing most, if not all, of the living things therein.

 

    There’s also a third, more radical option to consider: figuring out a way to kill both gods.  That seems counterintuitive though, because how does one go about killing beings who, by definition, are immortal?

 

    Even worse, what happens if they, or their followers, find out about your schemes?

 

What’s To Like...

    The Fall is the first book in a post-apocalyptic dystopian series by David L. Dawson called “The God Slayers Quartet”.  It takes place somewhere in the greater London area in the 27^th century, an its setting reminded me somewhat of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: some sort of disaster has wiped out most of civilization, with only scant details given about it.

 

    The story is told in the first-person POV, the protagonist being teenaged Ben Casper, the son of the mayor of the local village and who's just returned from his rite-of-passage allowing him into adulthood.  The book is divided into two parts: Part One, “The Glass Palace”, introduces us to the village and its inhabitants just prior to the titular event of “The Fall”, and Part Two, “Underground”, which chronicles the aftermath.

 

    The dialogue is oftentimes witty, and I liked that, and the writing is a curious blend of both “English” and “American”.  So you have lifts instead of elevators, and centres instead of centers.  But you also have meters, not metres; and specters, not spectres.  Somehow it works; I didn’t find it distracting at all.

 

    There are a couple of new creatures to meet and be wary of.  The felums are half-panther/half human and dangerously sentient.  The horned bears are just dangerously dangerous.  I enjoyed the nod to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, and was happy to see that, in among all the action and excitement, you may find some Pratchettian points to ponder about religion and blind faith (see second excerpt, below).  And should those cause you any worry, fear not: repurposing will erase any theological doubts you might have.

 

    The ending is okay.  The storyline stops at a logical point, although none of the major plot threads are resolved and there aren't any twists.  That’s okay though, we’re all set for the next phase in Ben's adventure, and there’s a catchy little teaser at the close to get you ready for Book Two.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  3.9/5 based on 146 ratings.

    Goodreads: 3.43/5 based on 303 ratings and 37 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Viridian (adj.) : Bluish-green in color.

 

 

Excerpts...

    “Every couple of years someone knocks at the door and it makes Father scared,” I explain hurriedly.  “Uncle Rooster and he go outside to meet whoever it is and then come back an hour later.  I want to know who it is they keep talking to, and why it makes him so nervous.”

    “It’s elder business.  We should not be … hmm, now you’ve made me curious.  Maybe they’re doing secret dealings with some shady trader?  Or what if they’re making plans to marry you off to some disease-ridden girl with three arms from another House?  That’s been known to happen.”  (loc. 903)

 

    “This is where the Order of Power comes in,” interrupts Harold.  “They’re the self-appointed church of the gods. The gods don’t care for them but they do their best to destroy any remaining information left in the world that pertains to the gods.  Any literature on the gods is burned and any person who knows anything about them is killed.  They want to gods to be revered in mystery, so the less we know about them the better."  (loc. 2219)

 

Kindle Details…

    You can get The Fall for free at Amazon, and I think that’s always true.  The other two books in the series go for $2.99 (The Sky is Falling) and $3.99 (Chasm).  David L. Dawson offers a couple of other series for your Kindle; the e-books in those range in price from free to $2.99.  He's also written several short stories and novellas, some of which tie in to The God Slayers Quartet setting, and you'll find them in the free-to-$0.99 price range .

 

“I don’t like books. (…) They smell funny and you can’t eat them.”  (loc. 178)

    There are some quibbles, including the usual spellchecker errors that spring up in most books penned and self-edited by indie authors.  Typos here include things such as lightening/lightning, its/it’s, principal/principle, topierce/to pierce, and my favorite: bowls/bowels.  Also, most of the plot twists seemed predictable to me; for instance, I figured out the talking bird enigma long before Ben did.

 

    Amazon labels this a “Teen and Young Adult Science Fiction” book, and I think that’s apt.  There’s almost no cussing (a couple of “damns” is all I noted), and teenage boys are most likely already familiar with a “morning phenomenon” cited a couple times.  The surreptitious note passed to Ben seemed like a WTF to me; I can’t believe he wouldn’t have been searched later when he fell into the hands of the baddies.

 

    You should be aware that the protagonist is gay.  If this makes you squeamish, you can take comfort in the fact that there is very little romance – gay, straight, or otherwise – in this tale, although I have no idea whether this remains true in the sequels.

 

    A number of Amazon and Goodreads reviewers gave the book demerits because the protagonist is kind of a jerk.  They have a point, but I suspect he will become less of one as the series progresses.

 

    ANAICT, The Fall was David L. Dawson’s first full-length novel, coming out in January, 2012.  Overall, I thought it was a decent first-effort, albeit with the usual room for improving the writing/polishing as his career progresses.  Looking at his list of Amazon e-books, however, it appears he hasn’t published anything new since 2014, which is a bit of a bummer.

 

    6 Stars.   I never did figure out what the “Quartet” in the book's subtitle refers to, although I suspect it means this was planned to be a 4-book series.  Several reviewers who have read the the whole series so far indicate that there is no closure at the end of Book Three.  That kind of confirms that the David L. Dawson has since retired from the indie author scene.  You should take this into consideration when deciding whether to read The Fall.