Fae - The Wild Hunt
Riven Wyrde Saga, Book 1
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Fae - The Wild Hunt
Narrated by:
Jonny McPherson
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Narrated by:
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Jonny McPherson
About this listen
Fairies. The Fae. The stuff of bedtime stories and fables. But sometimes the fairy tales are true. Sometimes they are a warning.
For a hundred generations the Fae have been locked away from the world, in the cold, the Outside. They have faded out of sight and mind into myth and folklore, but now the barriers are weakening and they push against the tattered remnants of the wyrde as they seek a way to return.
As a new religion spreads across the world, sweeping the old ways and beliefs away before it, a warlike people look across the frozen ocean towards the shores of Anlan, hungry for new lands. War is coming, even as the wyrde of the droos is fading.
Only by realizing the truth lost in a child's tale will the world hope to withstand the wild hunt.
©2014 Graham Austin-King (P)2025 Graham Austin-KingListeners also enjoyed...
I very much enjoyed it.
Great story on to book two
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couldn't stop listening
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Excellent story & narration
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I will definitely be looking for further titles from this author.
Great Narrator for a good book
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Fae: The Wild Hunt starts out pretty interestingly. Devin and his mom have to get on the road to get away from Devin’s abusive and violent alcoholic dad. But their caravan gets attacked and they are forced to hide in the forest, where strange things are lurking in the shadows. Devin’s introducing chapter sets the atmosphere quite nicely. You have this sense of foreboding right from the beginning. And you don’t have to wait too long for it to pay off.
The story is told from four POVs: Devin, Klöss (sorry if I misspell his name, that’s the downside of listening to the audiobook), Selena a duchess and a mysterious old man. The different plotlines come together slowly, and generally the whole book feels like a slow build up to the later books in the series. Kloss and Devin’s plotlines get about the same amount of time and we get a look into their lives and different backgrounds and lifestyles. The old man and Selena has supporting POVs to show us what is going on in the wilder world outside of Devin and Klöss’ quite narrow world. While Devin is confined to the village and the forest around it, and caught up in the affairs of its people, Klöss, against his father’s wishes joins the reavers and becomes an oarsman. He belongs to the people whom the islanders call Bjornmen. It’s quite intriguing to see the brewing conflict from the POV of both sides.
I might be wrong, but I had the feel that this story was partly inspired by the Vikings invading Britain, even if that explicitly wasn’t said out. Another interesting aspect was the clash of the new religion (New Days, which has the characteristics of Christianity) and the old religion which faded into superstitions and only a very few people still believes in the Fae, who are getting ever stronger and waiting in the shadows for the right time to claim their glory. And they are far from the joyful, friendly creatures you might know from the Disney movies.
I think I was hoping for something more folketale-y in regard to the setting and overall feel. While I admire Austin-King‘s worldbuilding and the way he waves the life of his characters together, Fae: The Wild Hunt lacked the charm to sway me off my feet. I really couldn’t get invested in any of the characters and eventually that affected my enjoyment. But if you are into some dark atmospheric epic fantasy which doesn’t shy away from some bloodletting, then you definitely should give Fae: The Wild Hunt a try.
I admire Austin-King's worldbuilding
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The story comes from two different lands. The barbarians struggling to survive on their bleak islands and how they raid the mainland to get by, eventually invading to settle permanently.
The mainlanders have their own story, fending off the raiders with increasingly tight defences. The main pov’s are a boy from each culture, and the duchess who rules on the mainland.
Folklore and myths aplenty, there is a third race, the Fae, waking up as a new religion sweeps amongst the townsfolk.
This is reminiscent of the celts invading the british isles and is clearly written to set the scene for what will come in the following books. But the prose is great, its really well structured and i devoured it in two days. Thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend it.
Amazing narration - loved this!
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Fabulous storytelling in a realistic fantasy world.
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It follows a number of different story arcs, which coverge in an exciting finale.
I found all of the POV characters interesting and am looking forward to seeing how the storylines continue in the next book.
Great listen!
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This is as spoiler free as I can make it.
I was sold this as a "[…] tale of the return of the fae to a world which has utterly forgotten them. They were banished hundreds of years ago, and are understandably rather miffed about this. This return takes place against the backdrop of an invasion by Bjornmen raiders who are abandoning their coastal raids for outright invasion." While it is utterly accurate, it sells the book short.
What I got was not a simplistic adventure yarn full of evil raiders and weird supernatural monsters. Oh no, what I got was great characters, a solid world building, and points of view that made the many sides of the conflict sympathetic.
Many a time I was left thinking I knew where the plot was heading, just to be surprised by a natural change of events. Time flows by and many years pass between some chapters. It is hard to know if the line lines are concurrent or not but that matters not. All the stories are interesting in their own right and when they interact, the time line makes sense.
The book is split between Anlan, where most of the plot takes place, the land being invaded and the Barren Isles where the Bjornmen live. We follow the stories of two children and a newly wed duchess as they grow up, make friends, and slowly become heroes of their own tales. The rest of the cast is full of memorable and interesting characters, all well fleshed out and multidimensional. We see their culture through their eyes, slowly but surely fleshing a vibrant world. The fae are left as a mystery, yet the few point of views we get point at much deeper and more tragic than meet the eyes. I strongly suspect that subsequent books will have more on that.
The new religion sweeping the lands is probably the weakest part of the book. Whereas all other sides have some good, some bad, and mostly some grey in them, the Church is clearly evil™. We know they are. They try to stop people believing in fae and trash all the "superstition" of the old way. Just how evil remains to be seen. They could just be felony stupid, although I seriously doubt that.
There is plenty of adventure and excitement of raids, bandits, and hopeless fights again supernatural foe. None of it is forced and death (including of main characters) does happen remarkably often. The effects of violence are to be seen, impact all those taking part.
Since this an audio book, I should mention the reader: Jonny McPherson. He does a stunning job of making the characters come to life. One slight annoyance is he actually whispers when characters do so. Since I listen to books on my commute, I do miss some dialogue which is just too quiet for ambient noise. Otherwise, his narration is spot on and very enjoyable.
Since then, I have picked books two and three. I am about a third through book two and am still enjoying it very much.
Note that this review appeared first on /r/fantasy.
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