Gryphon Insurrection Boxed Set One

Eyrie, Ashen Weald, and Starling (Gryphon Insurrection Boxed Sets, Book 1)

By: K. Vale Nagle

Narrated by: James Scott Spaid

A bloody massacre. A looming civil war. Can two opposed gryphons work together to save their kind?

Zeph thrills at the wind in his wings and the hunt for wild parrot. As a simple forest gryphon, he never thought much about his sophisticated city-dwelling cousins living in the lofty eyrie at the edge of the woods. But his carefree life turns upside down when he comes across a young city gryphon stunned by her discovery of a field littered with slaughtered animals.

Kia always has her beak in a book. But when her best friend goes missing, she flies down to the woodland and gets tangled up with a wild country gryphon and a shocking conspiracy. With food in short supply and war on the horizon, Kia must choose between forsaking her own or allowing Zeph’s people to be wiped off the map.

Forced to overcome their prejudice and misconceptions, the unlikely pair races against time to prevent an apocalypse.

Can Zeph and Kia unite their species before a fiery conflict destroys them all?

Eyrie is the first book in the high-flying Gryphon Insurrection epic fantasy series. If you like mythical creatures, graphic battles, and moral dilemmas, then you’ll love K. Vale Nagle’s darkly compassionate tale. Buy Eyrie to soar into action today!

©2019 STET Publishing, LLC (P)2022 STET Publishing, LLC

A Wonderful Tale of Fur and Feathers!

Proving that the best stories are self-published, Vale and James bring us the first of 3 action packed books of fantasy fun! What starts as a simple hunter journeying with a scholar soon turns into not just a fight for their territory, but the entire continent itself! Full of twists, turns, and daring deed the plethora of fantastic characters are faced with both danger and difficult choices to make. Can the gryphons and opinici ever live in peace with one another? Well, there's only one way to find out!

Review for Book 1 (Eyrie) ONLY

Here we have a fantasy novel that kicks off a series and is about non-human characters (gryphons! and opinicis (oh-pin-ih-kiss) to be specific) is typically one that I would enjoy. I really enjoy books with gryphons, and have read at least 3 different books with gryphons as characters so far this year. I mention this to point out that this was a book that I was primed to enjoy, and I started reading it fully expecting to love it.

So to say this book was a letdown would be an understatement.

The problems began almost immediately with the introduction of so many characters that I had no time to get to know any of them. Not only do we have a lot of characters to learn immediately, but they are on different sides of a conflict. That added yet another dynamic that I had to try and keep straight, and there just wasn't enough time to do so. What I can tell you is that Zeph and Kai are main characters. Unfortunately, I was nearly 60% of the way through the book before I really got a grip on even that. There were several times that I nearly set the book aside and moved on to something new, but I kept going because I had heard so many good things about the book and I *wanted* to enjoy it. So I kept going, waiting for it to get better - to grab ahold of me. But it never did.

Plot-wise, I have no idea what happened or what was important to keep track of. I know that there was some sort of war between different sides of gryphons, and that it was kicked off by Kai discovering a field filled with animals that had been slaughtered. Beyond that, though, I don't know. There was so much going on that every time I was just starting to get a handle on something, the author had already moved on to some new action and some new problem. There was no time to absorb anything. So, by the time we get to a character dying, I don't have any connection with them to care about their death. Was I supposed to care? I feel like I was from the writing around the character's death. But without any connection, it was like seeing a news story about a dead body being discovered. Sad, but it had no impact on me.

For this book, I was listening to the audiobook, which was narrated by James Scott Spaid. Spaid's performance was fine, in that there was nothing technically wrong with it. My attention kept wandering, so I would have to relisten to various sections, but I suspect that was due more to the writing and not having any idea as to what was going on than to Spaid's performance. I can't say that for certain, as I haven't listened to him narrate any other novels, but I feel pretty certain that that is the case.

I've seen quite a few reviews from those who have read the entire series that book 2 is where the series finds its stride, and I do have books 2 and 3 because I have this omnibus edition with books 1-3, so I might give book 2 a try and see if those reviews are accurate. I won't necessarily be in any hurry to do that though.