Author: Jennifer Fallon
ISBN: 978-073-229-0849
RRP: $32.99
Jennifer Fallon is an extremely talented Australian fantasy/science fiction writer living in New Zealand. I was fortunate enough to be given the chance to read Book One of her new Rift Runners series – the Undivided.
The Rift Runners series is set across parallel realities where time is the same and the origins are the same but the realities have turned into very different places due to the different courses of action taken at key points in history. The two realities The Undivided take place in are the modern world we are all familiar with and a reality in which the Romans failed to stamp out the Druids.
The event that shaped both realities was the Roman takeover. In our reality it began the downfall of paganism and the slow leaching of magic from our world because the Romans could not be stopped. In the other reality the Romans were overpowered by the Celts because of an arrangement drawn up between the Celts, the Druids and the faerie folk. The Druids remained powerful with the magic of the faerie folk being filtered to the druids through The Undivided, a set of psychic twins that are the basis of the treaty.
These are only two of the countless realities that exist and each of them are home to alternate versions of the people. These alternate versions may not be able to recognise themselves and not everyone will recognise them but they are just different versions of the same person, they react in the same ways and they feel familiar even if its something inexplicable.
Ronan and Darragh are the current Undivided, except they have been divided. Ronan was hurled through a rift at 3yrs old because someone didn’t like the future they foresaw if these Undivided were allowed to mature and rule together. Over the next 15 years there has been no way of knowing where to start the search, until one of the traitors involved makes a deathbed confession about the rift he sent him through.
Ren has led rather an eventful life after being rescued from drowning on a movie set and being adopted by the star. There seem to have been some adjustment issues and some behavioural problems in his upbringing, a lot of which are due to the fact that he has no idea where he has come from or explanation for the some of the strange occurrences around him.
Darragh has spent every day trying to think of a way to bring Ronan home, always aware of the hole in his life, and increasingly aware of the danger to his life, and ultimately his brother’s, if his brother isn’t returned safely home soon.
The Undivided is well written and extremely easy to read. The characters are very easy to relate to, the modern day world ones anyway.
Jennifer Fallon has managed to make a world where progress ceased in the time of the Druids and the world was ripe with magic. The lack of technology hasn’t left the people lacking for anything and their use of magic means that they can achieve some things with much greater ease and simplicity than we could with all of our technology and gadgets.
An exciting read which I found to be quite a page turner even though it’s not the sort of thing I usually read. Fallon’s imagery is breath-taking and I eagerly await Book 2 to see how the divided twins manage to overcome the challenges ahead of them.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!