Reign of the Fallen: Volume 1

Sarah Glenn Marsh

Jan 2018 · Reign of the Fallen Book 1 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

"This edgy fantasy doesn't just blur boundaries of genre, of gender, of past and present, life and death--it explodes them." --Cinda Williams Chima, New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Realms and The Shattered Realms

Without the dead, she'd be no one.

Odessa is one of Karthia's master necromancers, catering to the kingdom's ruling Dead. Whenever a noble dies, it's Odessa's job to raise them by retrieving their soul from a dreamy and dangerous shadow world called the Deadlands. But there is a cost to being raised: the Dead must remain shrouded. If even a hint of flesh is exposed, a grotesque transformation begins, turning the Dead into terrifying, bloodthirsty Shades.

A dramatic uptick in Shade attacks raises suspicions and fears around the kingdom. Soon, a crushing loss of one of her closest companions leaves Odessa shattered, and reveals a disturbing conspiracy in Karthia: Someone is intentionally creating Shades by tearing shrouds from the Dead--and training them to attack. Odessa is forced to contemplate a terrifying question: What if her magic is the weapon that brings the kingdom to its knees?

Fighting alongside her fellow mages--and a powerful girl as enthralling as she is infuriating--Odessa must untangle the gruesome plot to destroy Karthia before the Shades take everything she loves.

Perfect for fans of Three Dark Crowns and Red Queen, Reign of the Fallen is a gutsy, unpredictable read with a surprising and breathtaking LGBT romance at its core.

Ratings and reviews

Reign of the Fallen WAS AN LGBT NECROMANCER FILLED DARK FANTASY NOVEL with the added bonus of zombies (!), stabbing (!), the Dead (!) and SO MUCH MAYHEM that I fell in love within the first thirty pages and I NEED MORE. I’d been hearing the hype for Reign of the Fallen for a WHILE before I requested it and the lovely folks at PRH International sent it to me. It took me a while to pick it up from my overflowing TBR Pile but now that I did, I am completely in AWE of this STUNNING, BADASS novel and world. Let’s break it down: 1. Reign of the Fallen OFFICIALLY holds the record for Book that Made Me Fall In Love The Quickest (EVER) because within thirty pages I’d already connected with Evander and Odessa and ALREADY fallen in love with them as individuals and together. 2. THIS BOOK BROKE MY HEART. I fell in love and then a third into the book, it managed to break my heart as well. This book had such a powerful representation of grief, depression and that black pit of hopelessness and Sarah Glenn Marsh’s writing really made you feel it all. 3. A HUGE YES FOR SOME BRILLIANT BI REP, and a world where loving WHOMEVER you wanted was accepted as the norm. We rarely ever see this in fantasy novels but I LOVED IT SO MUCH. Yes for inclusive worlds and a bigger yes for accepting characters. 4. The supporting cast in this book were all SUCH fun to get to know. I loved Jax, Simeon, Meredy, Valoria and everyone else and I honestly wish that we had MORE of them. 5. THE MAGIC IN THIS BOOK WAS STUNNING. There were so many kinds of mages including Weather mages, mages with Sight over animals and of course, Necromancers. I loved the politics and magic that were so prevalent in this book, especially the debate of whether the Dead should be brought back and I loved every second of it. Reign of the Fallen is a brilliant, dark, inclusive diverse book with different magic, zombies, the living Dead and everything you’ve been looking for in a fantasy.

About the author

Sarah Glenn Marsh has been an avid fantasy reader from the day her dad handed her a copy of The Hobbit and promised it would change her life; she's been making up words and worlds ever since. When she's not writing, Sarah enjoys painting, ghost hunting, traveling, and all things nerdy.

She lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and their menagerie: four rescued sighthounds, a bird, and many fish. She is the author of Fear the Drowning Deep and Reign of the Fallen.