Just finished The Starless Crown (MoonFall Book 1) by James Rollins. I've read at least 90% of his stuff just because he typically writes a decent action yarn with some sci-fi/fantasy/mild horror elements mixed in. Not the best books ever, but entertaining and pretty easy to read.
This is (apparently?) his first real attempt at a fantasy series, and it is a mixed bag so far. He's got some interesting characters developing and his world-building isn't bad, but some of the characters seem a bit shoehorned into the story. He has an amalgam of some steampunk-type elements thrown in with knights in armor and fantasy creatures with some telepathy and mysterious relics left from the ancient "gods" - while this sounds like a cool mixture, it doesn't seem to work quite as well in execution, especially with the flying balloon/ships that don't seem to fit into a coherent "world" given everything else he's got in it (some of the action sequences in particular seem a bit contrived in this aspect - with the ships flying through clouds and mists, to the point where it's like ships in dense fog on the ocean, but yet they can see some things far away due to a lucky "break" in the clouds - over and over again). And there are lots of examples where he uses words that are intentional derivations of common words (but don't need to be - for instance "brimstan" instead of "brimstone", etc.). It's like he's almost trying too hard at some of these writing elements, but it ends up just making it a bit harder to read instead.
It is also a bit on the long side - he could have shortened this up a bit without too much of an issue.
My biggest glaring "huh?" on his story is a big part of his premise or series plotline - the "cause" of the "MoonFall" bit doesn't seem to be a reason to actually cause it at all (the physics of it).
The best description I can come up with is that it feels like fantasy as written by a non-fantasy/action writer (which it is), or an action book set in a high-fantasy "lite" setting. For much of the book, it works fine. But there shouldn't be quite as much book. This isn't Donaldson or Tolkien, with their incredibly rich, detailed worlds that need more exposition and description. Trim it a bit and keep to your action writing strengths.
While a lot of the above seems like I didn't enjoy the book, I actually did. These are just some things that stood out as being a bit off. I'll read the next one when it's finished. I think with the first book out of the way the next one shouldn't need to be as long to continue the story. Hopefully some of these things get explained better or hit their groove in the overall story.
) but the events eventually do as backstory. It's a decent, easy-to-read action yarn if you are looking for a distraction. Might check out the next one if it's available for free electronically via Kindle or Libby.
