This was a middle-of-the-road read for me. While I liked a lot of aspects, there were some things I disliked, and overall, I just didn't feel strongly enough about the book to really warrant adding an in-depth review to the blog.

In this new epic fantasy series a world has been created full of enemies that have opposed each other for hundreds of years. The Draegora and Esharii drew sides against each other long ago, but even amongst themselves they have competing factions vying for power.

Thoughts:
In Lies of Descent, one of my lasting impressions after reading is how the path the main characters were on changed course more than once, which frustrated me even while I enjoyed reading it. Just as I got settled into a story path the direction of it would shift and I would have to relook at where I thought it was heading, only to have it shift again. However, it is well known that epic fantasy and science fiction can at times require a lot of world building and in order to explain what the true story or issue at stake is all these different directions needed to be taken. So while I am not surprised in how some of the story lines changed, I was a bit surprised by how often it occurred. There is a great deal of world building done within this book, not only do you learn the world in general, but characters, politics, and how the fallen gods are involved. Keeping up with who the fallen gods were and how their history pertained to the present day was at times a bit confusing and I found myself having to go back and re-read sections again to make sure I had everything straight.

Lies of Descent has two main characters – Riam and Nola – although Riam does feel like the primary main character. At the age of 12 every child must be tested to see if they have Draegoran blood. Gairen, a Warden of the Owl clan, has been searching for quite a while for a specific descendant when he discovers Riam. In finding Riam, he hopes he can change his father’s mind about accepting new recruits into his clan for training. Since the Owl clan stopped taking new recruits several years back, other clans have been able to become more powerful. Other clans that are more corrupt and more power hungry. To Gairen, balance amongst the clans must be kept. It is by following Riam we learn the Draegoran structure and politics as Gairen and Master Iwynd take time to explain and show it to him. Overall, I found Riam to be very likeable and an easy character to root for.

Nola, the other main character, was one of the two children Gairen found when performing the Draegoran descendant test. However, due to an unexpected turn of events, Nola takes a different path than Riam and ends up with the Escharii tribesman instead of the Draegoran. It is through her and a couple of other Escharii that the reader is allowed to see into Escharii, their past, and their current political situation. Because of the path Nola finds herself on, I felt that I didn’t quite get to know her as well as I expect readers will in future books. I don’t dislike her by any means, I just don’t feel like I know her as well as I know Riam.

From what I understand, this new epic fantasy series will be a trilogy. Due to the amount and type of information we learn in Lies of Descent, the novel does a lot of plot setup and world building explanation that one might expect from the first book. It is entertaining and engaging and I believe fans of epic fantasy will want to be sure to try this one out.

Rating: 4 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advanced reader copy and opportunity to provide an honest review.

This one is one of the smartest, most compelling books I have read this year and it will definitely be making my favorites list! I suspect this one is going to be a big hit and I'm really glad I was encouraged to pick it up.

The story follows Riem and Nola, two young children who may be descendants of fallen gods. The writing style in this novel also conveyed the author’s ability to both develop his characters, deliver decent banter and expose world-building information, without ever boring his readers to sleep. In fact, the way the story is constructed presents the reader with a linear mission with several obstacles that force the protagonists into compromising in order to move forward and achieve his one and only goal. Fortunately for us, Troy Carrol Bucher writes some very cinematic and deadly action sequences to spice up the adventure and depict the character’s perception of war throughout the story with the right amount of breathtaking action sequences & curative dialogue to an engaging plot with an exciting series of events, and from well-crafted and fascinating characters to a masterfully established world with its many characteristics such as magic system, lore, cosmology and geography, as well as the world's many human inhabitants, their societies and their cultures, Lies of Descent is everything a fantasy fan could ever wish for.

Lies of Descent by Troy Carrol Bucher is the 1st book The Fallen Gods War trilogy. As stated in the description above, The Fallen Gods war drove a victorious army across the ocean for a new homeland, but a thousand years later, Draegora has fallen apart and two factions, Draegoriana and Eshari are still determined to destroy each other .

We meet our young hero, Riam, who after watching his hated father get killed, is taken away by a Draegoran warrior to begin training to be able to fight Eshari tribesmen, as he has the ‘blood’. Which means that he has ties to other Draegoran descendants, and has possible powers.

Riam will meet a young girl, Nola, who has also been violently taken from her family. She too has the blood, and will also go to training. However, in a short time they are attacked by Eshari warriors, and though Riam escaped, Nola is taken.

What follows is a slow and at times exciting journey, with POV’s between Riam and Nola, as they both go difficult and separate directions. Both Dragegoran and Eshari see in the Riam or Nola their abilities that could help either group fight and win the war. This is a difficult review to write, as this world building at times is confusing, and telling too much would be spoilers. I did like Riam and Nola, and found it interesting in the different roads they each travelled.

Lies of Descent was well written by Bucher, as it was an epic fantasy about fallen gods, magic in dark violent world. If you like epic fantasies, I suggest you read Lies of Descent.