The Undivided

Jennifer Fallon

Rift Runners, book 1

Harper Voyager (2011)

ISBN: 9780732290849

Reviewed by Tehani Wessely

I had a very bad experience at the end of Jennifer Fallon’s last series (the Tide Lords) and was very reluctant to take on her new book, because of my extreme disappointment with how that quartet was finished. However, fellow ASif! reviewer Lorraine Cormack expressed her enjoyment of this new series, and I trust her judgment, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Psychic twins Rónán and Darragh were separated as small children by a rogue Druid – Rónán was thrown through a rift in reality to a world that appears to be pretty much modern day Earth as we know it, while Darragh was left behind to try to hold his rightful place as the Undivided, without his twin.

The Undivided

Jennifer Fallon

Rift Runners, Book One

ISBN: 978-0-7322-9084-9

Harper Voyager (2011)

Reviewed by Lorraine Cormack

DISCLAIMER:   Lorraine Cormack is a judge for the Aurealis Awards. This review is the personal opinion of the writer, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of any judging panel, the judging coordinator or the Aurealis Awards management team.

The Undivided is book one of the Rift Runners, and it left me keen to read book two. I really want to know what happens to these characters, and how the plot plays out.

Jennifer Fallon is not an author I automatically look out for. I’ve enjoyed some of her books before, but can’t remember being particularly impressed by any. However, this one really caught my attention and kept me turning the pages with enthusiasm. Although I imagine it should please many of her existing fans, it should also win her some new readers.

The Undivided

Jennifer Fallon

Riftrunners, Book 1

Harper Voyager (2011)

ISBN: 978-0-7322-9084-9

Reviewed by Mitenae

The Undivided is the latest offering in a new series from fantasy author Jennifer Fallon. It tells the tale of Darragh and Rónán, psychically linked twins who have been separated since they were young.

Rónán, now known as Ren, grows up in Dublin, the adopted son of actress Kiva Kavanaugh. He wakes up one night with a mysterious cut caused through no fault of his own, again, yet no one believes him. Darragh grows up in a world of magic, one that was never taken over by the Romans, well aware that his brother is missing and that together they are the Undivided. While others plot to end a two thousand year old treaty, Darragh searches for his brother in order to bring him back to Eire (Ireland) and reunite the Undivided.

It took a while for me to warm to this book and it was only several chapters in, once Ren’s story was underway, that I began to enjoy it. I found the lack of timeframe in the initial chapters annoying, especially due to the use of the name Amergin, which I know to be the name of poets from Irish mythology. For me, the story could have done with including the dates at the beginning of these initial set up chapters to help understand that it is the present rather than a thousand or more years ago. There is a timeline, but it’s in the back of the book and provided no real reference until I had some knowledge of what is happening in the story.

The Undivided

Jennifer Fallon

Rift Runners

Harper Voyager (2011)

ISBN: 9780732290849

Reviewed by Ben Julien

The first of a new series by Jennifer Fallon, I’m sure this novel will please her fans and has enough drama, magic and romance in it to satisfy fantasy fans in general.

The premise is an alternate reality or realities where history’s course has run differently to ours. The alternative universe in which much of the action takes place is one where the Romans were driven from Britain after the Sidhe (pronounced “shee”) or the wild spirits or faeries of Celtic Britain gifted their magic to the druids. Their intention was to create a ready army of magic-wielding defenders to keep the invaders at bay. The druids succeeded and subsequently became a world power following the Roman decline.