The Fall of the Hour

Knights of the Hour, Book 1

By: Graeme J. Greenan

Narrated by: Andrew McDermott

For centuries, the kingdoms of Grunald and Helven have enjoyed a fragile peace, overseen by a mysterious order known as the Knights of the Hour, after a long war with men lost to the world and their demonic allies.

In the court of Oakhaven, capital city of Grunald, news of the order’s destruction throws the peace into uncertainty, giving rise to factions within the nobility to see their ambitions realized.

Lord Kerr, last Knight of the Hour, finds himself in an impossible position. Caught between the kingdom’s eagerness for war and the search for answers with regard to his order’s fate, he walks a treacherous line in which all options seem to lead to danger, and mortal peril.

Within the depths of the Great Forest, tragedy throws Lana into the sights of two men. One hell-bent on watching the world burn. The other, a mysterious exile returned to prevent it.

Amidst the search for truth, dark forces await the perfect moment to strike and descend the world into war and bloodshed once more.

©2018 Graeme John Greenan (P)2019 Graeme John Greenan

Not a bad start...

The book starts pretty quickly and keeps up a decent pace. The writing was pretty good, but a bit repetitive. This seems like a good beginning to a fantasy series, and I am excited to see the characters develop. It's obvious that Mr. Greenan is a new author and has some kinks to work out.
The reading by Andrew McDermott was enjoyable and pretty well done. Overall, I'm glad I gave it a listen and find myself disappointed that book 2 isn't available yet!

Good start to a dark fantasy epic

Full disclosure: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

The Fall of the Hour is a dark fantasy where the majority of the great defenders of the realm, the Knights of the Hour, have fallen. The Knights are the neutral peacekeepers of the realm and are the only ones that can stop the dark entity as they were the ones that stopped the dark entity in the past. Said dark entity is a great evil that was defeated in the past, but now seeks to rise again. The difference is this time, one of the kingdoms the peacekeeper guards have become corrupt and rejoice in the news the Knight's order has been attacked and their temple, their headquarters, has been decimated.

There are several characters introduced and some seem to have a larger part to play in future books and other characters are hard to determine if they are only supporting characters or will also have a larger part to play as the tales unfold. My gripe here is that the characters could have a little more story to tie them together more. There is a farm boy that dreams of being more and I was waiting for him to be picked up and trained and it seems like there are hints he will be trained, but that doesn't happen in this book. His training doesn't even start and it didn't seem like it will.
There are several antagonists in the book, with some being more minor than others. They show their corruption easily, but it would have been nice to know what drove them more. For example, one of the lords of a land was always drinking and only taking actions to benefit himself. This is hard to believe that the land he ruled over didn't fall into decline. If he is drinking all the time and is focused on his greed, why hasn't his land fallen into disrepair? Why do people still follow him? Competent people were not mentioned to help him so its hard to believe the lord could manage his lands efficiently. The antagonists are shown to have their own agenda or are only hinted at. As I mentioned with the corrupt lord, it just seems like there should have been more. This book focused on one kingdom, while this land had two kingdoms; the other kingdom was only mentioned. The Knights of the Hour appear to only have one centralized base of operations at the Temple. Seems like there should have been more locations or outposts for the Knights, otherwise the world for this book appears very small with only the two kingdoms and one Temple for locations. Perhaps more explanations will be offered in book 2.
Overall, I did still enjoy the book. It is a very good first book.

The narrator did a good job and allowed me to envision a European style setting and brought life to the characters.

Where’s the next book

Cannot wait to read the next book. Very enjoyable. Good characters & story line. Thanks Graeme.

Fine Dark Fantasy Series Start

This was pretty interesting, with some roots in dark fantasy and others that felt more like the beginning of a more epic fantasy. The author does a pretty good job of setting up a couple of different characters and the factions that exist within this world. A world, which had peace for quite a while but probably won't have it much longer. The Hour in the title is a group of knights who helped keep the peace between two kingdoms, and well you can probably assume they're generally in for a bad time. The characters are alright, with a few like Gren and Kerr and Lana being fleshed out, but some of the others being pretty 2 dimensional evil and greedy. With it being the first in a series I understand that, but I would've appreciated a little more backstory to flesh it out. There's also the ubiquitous 'evil' side which is making moves to make it's stake for the lands, and they are creepy and something I would really enjoy exploring a little further beyond just the men who do their bidding. It's set up to be kind of a religious thing where one faction is having a rebirth after being silenced for many years. That's a pretty good start, and there are a good number of dark and awful things that happen in here towards those goals definitely setting things up. There is a bit of fighting, and that's done pretty well in a fairly exciting manner which definitely aids the story on its way forward.

At the end I guess I felt this was more like a prequel than a first entry, and it might've been a little more minimalistic than I'd rather. However it did set up a world and some characters and some factions that I'd be interested in exploring further, so as a first novel in a series it did fulfill that part of it. And, I really enjoyed the effect that the narrator's accent had on the work as a whole. It's there, but understandable and like is fairly common in fantasy movies and whatnot gives that little bit of a nod to the fact that they're inspired by Europe during the middle ages and medieval time. It gives the work a little more flavor for listening to.

I received the review code for this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this honest review.

this book was given to me at my request for review

I enjoyed listening to this book but I had a hard time listening to the narrator. he sounded like a robot with no emotion in his voice.

OMG OMG

Absolutely amazing and such an engrossing story. It doesn't exactly end on a cliffhanger but definitely leaves you wanting more

Mysterious tale

The narrator does have an accent but I had no trouble following the story. We are thrown into the story in which a group of “knights” known as the hour are being hunted down and killed. This then throws a peace in the land into question. It is a slower pace than most fast paced easy read books, but I think it is a good pace because it builds the suspense and reflects the impact of what the fall will ultimately mean. I liked it and will recommend it.

Slow, hard to understand narrater.

I could not get past chapter 2. The book seemed very slow going, and despite that, I had difficulty understanding the narrated due to the accent.