Fae - The Wild Hunt cover art

Fae - The Wild Hunt

Riven Wyrde Saga, Book 1

 Preview

Get 30 days of Standard free

£5.99/mo after trial. Cancel monthly.
Try for £0.00
More purchase options

Fae - The Wild Hunt

By: Graham Austin-King
Narrated by: Jonny McPherson
Try for £0.00

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £15.85

Buy Now for £15.85

Summary

Fairies. The Fae. The stuff of bedtime stories and fables. But sometimes the fairy tales are true. Sometimes they are a warning.

For a hundred generations the Fae have been locked away from the world, in the cold, the Outside. They have faded out of sight and mind into myth and folklore, but now the barriers are weakening and they push against the tattered remnants of the wyrde as they seek a way to return.

As a new religion spreads across the world, sweeping the old ways and beliefs away before it, a warlike people look across the frozen ocean towards the shores of Anlan, hungry for new lands. War is coming, even as the wyrde of the droos is fading.

Only by realizing the truth lost in a child's tale will the world hope to withstand the wild hunt.

©2014 Graham Austin-King (P)2025 Graham Austin-King Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Fiction
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_c
All stars
Most relevant
I enjoyed this book, the narrator is amazing and the story was engaging but I definitely feel like the purpose of this book was to set the stage for the other books in the series.
I will definitely be looking for further titles from this author.

Great Narrator for a good book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Loved the diverse and interesting characters that you really start to care about. Each is a mix of good and bad, reason and emotion, and you end up rooting for them all against the far. The world building for islanders, mainlanders and far is spot on, the rationale between the magic systems coherent. The writing is lyrical and flowing, great descriptions and details that brings everything alive. The narration is also very good, although some of the women’s voices came over as too whiney.

Fabulous storytelling in a realistic fantasy world.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
this appeared as a facebook advert and as I wasnt much in the mood for anything else I thought I would have a listen. the story is gripping and the narrator is among the best I have heard, I listened to it in 3 sittings. cant wair to listen to the next one.

couldn't stop listening

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Disclaimer: I was gifted a copy of this audio book by the author with no string attached. This review is as genuine as I can make it.

This is as spoiler free as I can make it.

I was sold this as a "[…] tale of the return of the fae to a world which has utterly forgotten them. They were banished hundreds of years ago, and are understandably rather miffed about this. This return takes place against the backdrop of an invasion by Bjornmen raiders who are abandoning their coastal raids for outright invasion." While it is utterly accurate, it sells the book short.

What I got was not a simplistic adventure yarn full of evil raiders and weird supernatural monsters. Oh no, what I got was great characters, a solid world building, and points of view that made the many sides of the conflict sympathetic.

Many a time I was left thinking I knew where the plot was heading, just to be surprised by a natural change of events. Time flows by and many years pass between some chapters. It is hard to know if the line lines are concurrent or not but that matters not. All the stories are interesting in their own right and when they interact, the time line makes sense.

The book is split between Anlan, where most of the plot takes place, the land being invaded and the Barren Isles where the Bjornmen live. We follow the stories of two children and a newly wed duchess as they grow up, make friends, and slowly become heroes of their own tales. The rest of the cast is full of memorable and interesting characters, all well fleshed out and multidimensional. We see their culture through their eyes, slowly but surely fleshing a vibrant world. The fae are left as a mystery, yet the few point of views we get point at much deeper and more tragic than meet the eyes. I strongly suspect that subsequent books will have more on that.

The new religion sweeping the lands is probably the weakest part of the book. Whereas all other sides have some good, some bad, and mostly some grey in them, the Church is clearly evil™. We know they are. They try to stop people believing in fae and trash all the "superstition" of the old way. Just how evil remains to be seen. They could just be felony stupid, although I seriously doubt that.

There is plenty of adventure and excitement of raids, bandits, and hopeless fights again supernatural foe. None of it is forced and death (including of main characters) does happen remarkably often. The effects of violence are to be seen, impact all those taking part.

Since this an audio book, I should mention the reader: Jonny McPherson. He does a stunning job of making the characters come to life. One slight annoyance is he actually whispers when characters do so. Since I listen to books on my commute, I do miss some dialogue which is just too quiet for ambient noise. Otherwise, his narration is spot on and very enjoyable.

Since then, I have picked books two and three. I am about a third through book two and am still enjoying it very much.

Note that this review appeared first on /r/fantasy.

A tale of multiple invasions

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Firstly, as per the title the narrator was awesome. He puts his own spin on all the characters from different lands and he does it with such enthusiasm. Frankly brilliant!

The story comes from two different lands. The barbarians struggling to survive on their bleak islands and how they raid the mainland to get by, eventually invading to settle permanently.

The mainlanders have their own story, fending off the raiders with increasingly tight defences. The main pov’s are a boy from each culture, and the duchess who rules on the mainland.

Folklore and myths aplenty, there is a third race, the Fae, waking up as a new religion sweeps amongst the townsfolk.

This is reminiscent of the celts invading the british isles and is clearly written to set the scene for what will come in the following books. But the prose is great, its really well structured and i devoured it in two days. Thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend it.

Amazing narration - loved this!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews