Author: K.A.Riley
Fallen is the book 4 in the Cure book series. When blogging about book 3, I said it was slow and soppy and that I hope that book 4 picks up the story again (read the blog here). The book 4 delivered on this expectation with an entirely different story than in the previous three books.
As per the ending of book 3, Ashen goes to New York to help Finn find his young brother Merit, where they are greeted with a different dystopia of even more surveillance with even more advanced technology. New York is controlled by a man called Bishop who has an inexplicable charm that makes people trust him and love or like him even when they know they shouldn’t. His secret power is that he can read people, but there is something off about him, with Ashen sometimes wondering whether he is AI. The city is a warzone overshadowed by Behemoth, a different type of Arcology run by Bishop. People are not allowed entry and those who gain entry are not allowed to leave. An aristocracy does not have a free card and has to fight to the death to get a place in Behemoth, including the Duchess who fights for her and her family to get in. Ashen knows this presents an obstacle for her because if Finn gets in, she might never see him again.
Ashen manages to get through Bishop who quickly discovers who she really is. She builds a good relationship with Bishop and helps him gain the trust of the NY Dregs and her community back home in what used to be Colorado. She and Finn get fascinated by advanced medical research being conducted in Behemoth and decide to help Bishop only to find out he has used them to gain power in their Arcology back home. What is more, one of Bishop’s creations are clones and Ash finds herself captured whilst a cloned version goes back home with Finn to establish a new order and support Bishop on his deceitful quest to save humanity, as Finn believes, but gaining wider control…
Fallen is a more dynamic story from book three, and it seems that the author knew she exhausted the story of Arcology and the fight between the wealthy and the poor in Colorado, so she went on to a story of what happened in New York when society fell apart after biological warfare was introduced. The story is thus different, and it reads well. There is also less soppiness even though Ashen refuses to leave and insists on saving Finn, but it is done better this time. The advanced technology is also different here and people have different powers. These powers are what bothers me the most. I would have preferred it if it was just a story of dystopia without this element, but I understand that without introducing the special powers, Ashen would have never managed to fight the powerful, so I see where the author was coming from. However, I feel the story could have been better if there was no book three because the story seems very long. Fallen ends on a cliffhanger because Ashen has to find a way to enter Arcology in Colorado, find Finn and convince him she is the real Ashen and the one he is with is a clone or a Replik as the clones are called…
Thank you for reading!