Title: The Eagle's Flight
Author: quill
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Political
Status: Complete, sequal In-Progress
Library Category: Original Fiction
Summary: The king is dead; his heir is too young to assume the throne. Jarl Vale wants to become Lord Protector, spurred by his ambitious brother Konstans. Jarl Isarn likewise seeks this power; he is aided – or thwarted – by the return of his brother, the knight and war hero Athelstan, whose squire, Brand, hopes to restore his family’s fortunes, cost what it may. Through all of this, an enigmatic traveller makes plans with jarls, scribes, and priests for his own purpose. Abroad, powerful forces sense division in the realms of Adalmearc and make their own plans. It is only a matter of time before schemes clash, plots collide, and conflict erupts. War is on the horizon..
Link: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/9500/the-eagles-flight


Don't think ive seen this up here. I'd be curious what people on here thought of this fic. Im not 100% sure it belongs in the library but I think it is worth reviewing. Well. It probably belongs in the library but its not perfect (but then what is).

So what is this? IT is a *sweeping* political and adventure story with a complex plot, an amazingly detailed world, and a huge cast of characters.

That is both its strength and its weakness. What this fic does well, is it is clearly planned *meticulously*. The plotting is well done, the agency of the different characters is well done, and the world building is *superb*. If you like fantasy politics and maneuvering and world building, this is for you.

The biggest weakness is also that it is so complicated! I had a feeling I would like this based on reviews and recs but it took me a while to start because the first two chapters was just confusing. The author could have benefited from making the names of his supporting cast not so similar. Or some sort of list of dramatic persons. While a few of the main characters (Brand, Quill, etc) stood out easily most of them were a jumbled mess early on. It didn't help that while realistic from a world building perspective all the similar names (due to regional similarities) and tittles made me go 'blah!'

The author also throws you into the deep end which is both good and bad.

I basically had to trust the author was consistent and throw myself into it and just assume I would pick things up. Which definitely lead early on to some chapters where I was like "ok this guy is who again?" "And which one is the lord and which is the brother again?" and so forth.

Eventually you get the hang of the cast. There's still a bunch of marshals etc I cant keep straight but ive got most of the cast down.

And I should temper the above in saying that the world was clearly consistent and detailed. It was more just being thrown into the whole giant tapestry that I had a hard time adjusting to. Someone better with that sort of thing might like it more.

So TLDR: This fic had a high learning curve for figuring out all the interconnecting relations. Which is the main reason I could see folks not liking it and not getting into the library.


The actual story, world, plot, depth, etc I started to really enjoy. And it actually has some of the best political intrigue ive seen in any web serial or fanfiction.

I'm very curious what DLP will think of this. Just do be aware the "your just thrown into a world with hundreds of characters and nameS" bit at the start. IF you like super complex webs of characters and worlds that probably wont phase you.

But its very clearly NOT a "one person adventure" its 'focus' is the entire world.


Edit to add: What this actually reminded me of as I think of it, is in some ways the web serial combination of Malazan and GRRM. Obviously not as good as GRRM and its more low fantasy elements than Malazan. But I think it reminds me of it because it has the political maneuvering and gray characters of GRRM and the obsessivly complex world structure of malazan that sometimes overshadows things.

 

I'll just update this to say that now that ive nearly finished all the content out there my rating goes much much higher. The biggest downside of the confusion faded as I read on and then it just turned into a very good complex fantasty/military/political story thats well crafted. And even some genuine mysteries ive not figured out yet (Anyone else who read this and has some guesses on goodfrey id like to compare notes and see if mine are correct).

Also some solid not falling into trope patterns. A lot of times where im like "ohh of course they are setting X up for Y" only for something completely different to happen?

Very good. Would love to hear the thoughts of others

 

So I've read the first chapter and honestly, it's looking pretty rough.

The story starts out by unloading a massive amount of information about the setting which was... Not very engaging.

We're about 12 paragraphs in before we get to the first of many POV characters, the Quill, who is the King's official scribe. I can't describe him any better than that because there's nothing memorable about him.

There are a dozen named characters introduced in this chapter alone (I almost definitely missed a few), and about half of them get a POV.

The story is told in 3rd person omniscient POV, which made it even harder to connect to any of the characters. The author also has this awkward way of shifting POV characters where character A walks past character B and then 1 paragraph later we're following character B. Also we get another couple of paragraphs describing the street that they're both walking on.

There appears to be some sort of plot in there somewhere, but it's buried underneath all the explanations about the setting.

Personally I think that the story is in dire need of some trimming. It's possible to create a detailed setting with multiple interweaving plot lines and many POV characters... But not like this.

I've not rated it since I only read 1 chapter, but if I find the time I'll see about reading further and dropping another review.