Fate of the Fallen, Review

Fate of the Fallen, The Shroud of Prophecy book 1, by Kel Kade

"Everyone has a role to play. Even if that role is to be the fool who keeps walking when all hope is lost."

I’ve read four books in Kel Kade’s King’s Dark Tidings series, and at the time that was all there was. Now there’s a fifth, with a sixth on the way, but that’s another story. The point is, I’ve never read a book from Kel Kade that I didn’t enjoy. I know that’s a bold statement. And sure, most long-running series have their slumps. You can’t tell me The Wheel of Time didn’t hit a three-book drag somewhere around book seven or eight. But that doesn’t mean those books were bad. They just weren’t written to stand alone, and that’s okay.

All of that is a long road to this: I enjoy Kel Kade’s writing. I enjoy her storytelling. Her worldbuilding has depth, her lore has weight, and her characters always bring something interesting to the table.

Fate of the Fallen is no exception. The setup is a classic epic fantasy twist. The world is doomed, the gods have foretold it, and everyone has basically accepted their fate. The end is coming, and no one wants to waste energy fighting it. Why would they? You don’t argue with gods.

Except one person does: Aaslo.

He’s not a chosen one. He’s not a hero. He’s not even particularly skilled in any of the ways we usually expect from fantasy protagonists. But when push comes to shove, Aaslo refuses to lie down and accept the end. The world is on the brink of crumbling, and with the “death” of his best friend, he decides to step into the role no one else will. And I say “death” because either Aaslo is insane or he really is having full-blown conversations with his best friend’s severed head for most of the book. Yes, the same head he had to cut off and carry with him the entirerty of the book.

"Talking to your best friend’s decapitated head isn’t the weirdest thing you’ve done this week, and that’s saying something."

What makes Aaslo compelling isn’t power, it’s stubbornness. He doesn’t know what he’s doing, and honestly, he’s not even sure why he’s doing it. But that might be exactly what the world needs. Someone who isn’t tangled in prophecy, who doesn’t care what the gods say, and who acts because it feels right, not because it was foretold.

"Sometimes all it takes to change the world is one person too stubborn to give up."

This book has a lot to say about free will, fatalism, and what happens when the “heroes” are no longer available. There’s humor, there’s heart, and there’s an undercurrent of defiance that sets it apart from other chosen-one subversions. The world feels alive with hidden rules and forgotten lore, and the pacing balances quiet character moments with sudden bursts of action or absurdity.

"He wasn't brave. He was just too mad at the world to sit still and watch it burn."