Rise of a Hero

The Farsala Trilogy #2

by Hilari Bell

Ages 12 and up

Legend has it that when Farsala most needs a warrior to lead it, Sorahb will be restored by the god Azura. That time has come. After a devastating loss to the army of the Hrum, Farsala has all but fallen. Only the walled city of Mazad and a few of the more uninhabitable regions remain free of Hrum rule, and they seem destined to fall as well. Farsala needs a champion now.

Three young people are waging battle as best they can. Soraya, Jiaan, and Kavi, their lives devastated by the Hrum, are each in a personal fight against their common enemy.

Apart, their chances are slim, as none of them are Sorahb reborn. United, perhaps they can succeed. But only Time's Wheel can bring them together—if it turns the right way. If it doesn't, Farsala is surely doomed.

In the sequel to the critically acclaimed Fall of a Kingdom (formerly entitled Flame), the first book of the Farsala Trilogy, Hilari Bell draws readers deeper into the mythical land of Farsala and weaves an epic tale of destiny and danger.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Fiction, High Fantasy, Young Adult Fantasy, Magic, Adventure

592 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 26, 2005

About the author

As far as writing is concerned, I call myself the poster child for persistence. Songs of Power, the first novel I sold, was the 5th novel I'd written. When it sold I was working on novel #13. The next to sell, Navohar, was #12, and the next, A Matter of Profit, was #9. The Goblin Wood was #6, and the first Sorahb book, Flame (later renamed Farsala: Fall of a Kingdom), will be #15. You get the picture.

My reviews: Mea culpa! I got onto Goodreads years ago, and haven't been reviewing--but I now mean to start! I should add that as writer, I tend to read a bit more critically. Or at least, when I think a book is going off the rails I usually see technical, writer problems with it. In short, any time a book stops working for me, that author becomes an honorary member of my writing critique group--whether they want to or not! So I apologize in advance for any technical critiques my fellow writers may recieve.

Biography: My personal life? I was born in Denver in 1958—you can do the math. I'm single and live with my mother, brother and sister-in-law. I used to be a part time reference librarian for a mid-sized public library, but in the beginning of ’05 I achieved a writer’s dream and quit the day job. Librarian turned writer is a very schizophrenic state—when I try to urge people to buy my books, I have to beat down a lifetime of professional reflexes demanding that I tell them to check them out at the library instead.

I enjoy board gaming and fantasy gaming, both table top and live. But my favorite thing to do is the decadent version of camping my mom and I practice. We have a pop-up trailer with a fridge, a sink, a stove and (if electrical hookups are available) a space heater, heating pads and a toaster. Our motto is "No unnecessary work." We don't cook, we don't wash dishes, we don't...you name it. What we do is spend all day, every day, reading and hiking and reading some more. Camping is the only time I can get in enough reading. Well, I take that back—when it comes to reading, there's no such thing as enough.

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

April 2020: The point in this book when Kavi gets caught by the city guard and tells his side of the story, just before he figures out how to smuggle in a shipment of food under the noses of the Hrum - that’s the exact point this series goes from good to great for me. There’s something about this that is so profoundly human amid the political fantasy landscape it creates. Bell is so good at giving everyone a past, a complexity that shades everything they do, a sense of place in their world that means they inhabit it. It lives.

I’d call this YA, because it’s the coming of age of its point-of-view characters and of its kingdom. There’s no central romance, though; this is political fantasy at its clever, history-making best.

Hilari Bell is one of those authors I pulled off the library shelf. (...In the Young Adult section, now that I think about it. The first book in this series had been - let’s say creatively adorned - by a previous patron. The things you remember.) By the time Forging the Sword came out, I was preordering. I don’t have many of these success stories, these authors I found by chance and whose books I bought and still read. I wish she was still writing.

August 2014: Series review here.

[Whitley Birks · Rating 3 out of 5]

See more reviews on my blog.

This book totally missed the mark for me with its villain, and I just couldn’t get past that.

I know what it was trying to do, create this kind of grey morals thing and ask “but is it worth it” by making the invading army pretty awesome, except for a few things that they do. It wanted to make both the characters and the readers waffle around going “but, but, but.” Well, I never butted. I’m 100% pro-Hrum. I was in the last book and I am in this book, too.

Plus, one of the villain-izing aspects of the Hrum was instituting a 5-year mandatory service draft, which everyone absolutely flipped their shit over. I mean, I’m on board with them flipping, because the idea of everyone having equal abilities and opportunities is upending their worldview, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to actually think it’s bad. And I lol-ed forever when their response to “no, we’re not going to fight in the army” was “we’re going to fight in this other army instead! That’ll solve the problem of…not wanting to fight in an army…”

Having said that, I am glad I stuck with this series like everyone suggested. I think a lot of the problems I had were in trying to see good and bad sides, but about halfway through I slipped into thinking of everyone as…just people, instead of protagonists and antagonists. Sloppy, mess people with slopped, messy motivations and we’re just watching them slop along. And it that light, it was pretty fun. I do like these kind of war/rebellion stories, and this book delivers on that. It’s smart and know what it’s doing with tactics. And even though I’m rooting for everyone to loose, I still like the characters. All three of the main Farsalan’s are tenacious and proactive, and I really do enjoy them.

I don’t know, it’s not like I can’t get behind the idea of rebels standing up to the juggernaut invading army. Of course that’s a classic story. And by the end (after they’d gone through a dozen other motivations like they were trying on costumes), they did settle on a justification that I could jive with. That made the rest of the book far more enjoyable. But most of this book and the last one (again, until they settled at the end) basically read like “OMG, you keep slaves? Well, at least our degans didn’t do that! I mean, they had free reign to murder us, take all of our stuff, work us into crushing oblivion, and mistreat us in every conceivable way until we’re slaves in everything but name, but at least we’re not called slaves, and that matters for some reason. Also, fuck the draft, how dare you give me fair laws and ample opportunity and awesome civil projects and education and basically everything that a person of my time period could want and then expect me to do something in return. The utter gall!”

Not everyone’s going to read it that way, obviously, but that’s what was playing on repeat for me.

The highlight of this book, though, was the title concept. The way the book played with the legend of Sorhab really tickled me, both in the comparisons to the ‘myth’ and watching how the characters themselves used the legend for tactical advantage. Kavi is such an awesome little sneaky devil.

[Férial · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 and a half stars actually. I gave 3 stars to book 1 and I liked this one more. So.

An enjoyable read and the way Soraya's and Kavi's character evolve is very interesting (I hope it'll be Jiaan's turn in book 3). I thought I'd forever hate Kavi for what he did in book 1. I was wrong...even if it is still difficult to forgive him.

Let's see what The Forging of the Sword will bring.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still very hmm on the politics here and the mystical desert people as a concept but I am also having fun so. It evens out I guess ????

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sad I lost interest in this trilogy. It was ok. I wanted to read book 2 to give it a chance and some of the plot was interesting, however it’s not enough to keep me interested.

2.5/5 stars ⭐️

[~Cyanide Latte~ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was about high time that the second book in this trilogy was also due for a reread, and I am nothing short of satisfied, having finished it again. For those interested in my review of the first book, you can find it here.

I think the thing that makes this book stand out fantastically from the first is that we see character evolution occurring in all three protagonists. We had a bit of that happening before, but it's especially prominent in this book, while all three are taking action during this time of hardship while the Hrum are still trying to overtake Farsala. Expect any thoughts or feelings you previously held about any of the three to shift and shake during this book, especially if you were not overly fond of Soraya in the first book.

Perhaps this will make me sound like a broken record, but this series is absolutely fantastic and I highly recommend it for everyone to read, for a number of reasons. This second installment really does everything it can to show the issues regarding the gap between social classes, and it brings into question the differing moralities of two warring nations, as well as every individual swept up in the atmosphere of war. It is subtle and written in a simplistically lyrical way, but it is written well and all the better for it, because it's easy to find yourself mulling over the questions the narrative poses through the characters.

Ah, Sorahb? You may be wondering about that, since the narrative inserts in book one told about the legend, and there are more narrative inserts detailing what Sorahb is doing now that Farsala is in its time of greatest need. I'm not going to tell you who Sorahb is though! You'd be better to read and puzzle that out for yourself!

[Aelvana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Farsala has fallen: the mighty deghan warriors are no more, and the Hrum are confident they've won. But Kavi, Soraya, and Jiaan are not as ready to admit defeat. Soraya joins the Hrum camp as a kitchen worker, searching for records that will tell her where her mother and brother have been sold as slaves. Jiaan gathers a peasant army. Kavi sparks off a war of sabotage, spying, and subterfuge. Farsala has fallen, but it is far from conquered.

Although the three stories are separate for most of the book, they mingle enough that the book is a cohesive whole. Soraya loses much of her edge as she finally learns what it means to work; she encounters much that makes her question her own treatment of her servants. Jiaan, conversely, has to learn to take a leadership role, one that becomes increasingly difficult as he wrestles with decisions that cost the lives of those who follow him. Kavi plays the loyalties of both sides, but his need for vengeance fades as his desire to see Farsala free of the Hrum grows.

Of the three, I liked Kavi the best. He makes no excuses for his own faults, he's got a brilliant mind, and of the three his power seems the smallest. All he can do is offer a word here, a slight push there . . . and it is on these small things that the larger are built.

As with the first book, the regular chapters are interwoven between the story of Sorahb. The first book told the legend of the original Sorahb; this book retells current events as a part of the continuing legend. This book isn't as interesting as the first, but what is interesting is being able to see how the activities of Kavi, Soraya, and Jiaan mesh to become one legend about one man.

As with all Bell's books, the enemies have considerable depth as well. The Hrum are not one faceless evil army. Instead, Kavi and Soraya get to know several of the commanders. Some, like Patrius, have honorable motives. Some, like Garren, the lead commander, do not. Above all the Hrum are people. They might be people with a goal very contrary to the three protagonists, but they are still people.

I'm a bit sorry it took me so long to get around to this. I remember reading Flame (now titled Fall of a Kingdom) last summer and liking it immensely. The sequel is just as good, and it was nice to see the characters grow and change. Highly Recommended.

[Aurora Dimitre · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read April 2015, rated 5/5 stars
So, this is probably going to be as rambly as my 'review' as the first one, because god to I love these books and god do I have a hard time not just... SPEWING OUT THE LOVE (THE POSSIBLY SPOILER-Y LOVE) IN REVIEWS LIKE THIS. So I might be keeping it short.

BUT LET'S TALK CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, MAN. Our obvious super-development comes from Soraya, because, wow but also Fasal, who I've accepted is probably my favorite character in this trilogy, gets a lot of it. I love his relationship with Jiaan. It's something that I think works well, even if Fasal is still sort of a spoiled deghan youth, and I think that they get along well. They work well together. I love them. It's like, I like their partnership as much as I like Michael & Fisk, and also I sort of ship them, and also I'm really dreading " I am Sorahb!" in book three.

ALSO, learning more about all of these people. Like, especially the swamp rats. I love Shir, and I really wish we could go more in-depth about their deal they have going on? Like, I want more. Petition for Bell to revisit this world to give us a series the length of Knight & Rogue about the swamp rats, please.

But just - this is such a good series. And I love it so much. And I'm just. So sad right now.

I've read this book a lot of times. So many times. So we'll leave it at that.

[Ithlilian · Rating 1 out of 5]

As I said in my review for book one in this series, I sided more with the conquering army than the home team. In Rise of a Hero we discover that the bad guys have conquered the land, and our heroes are trying to do whatever is needed to take back what was once theirs. That means heavy travelling and fighting, both things that I don't like. This may be more a matter of taste than a critique of writing ability, but I found this novel to be awfully slow. I didn't like the characters enough, or care about their plights enough, to enjoy this book.

[Channah · Rating 4 out of 5]




I love this series.

[D.L. Morrese · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hrun (think Romans) have invaded Farsala (like the Persian Empire...maybe). They destroyed Farsala's elite Army in their first attack and are now establishing control over the roads and cities. Because of a Hrun policy intended to avoid prolonged wars that impoverish both winner and loser, they have only one year to pacify Farsala. If they can't do that, they'll leave. Although the Hrun bring, or at least promise, a relatively just system of law and governance, many Farsalans, even peasants who were oppressed under Farsala's former aristocracy, rise up against the Hrun, hoping to prevent them from gaining the kind of control they need in the year they are allowed. From an outside perspective, this seems absurd. The Hrun may not be perfect, but they offer Farsala a system that seems objectively better than it had before--better for everyone other than the ruling elite , that is. But that elite is gone now, either dead on the battlefield or captured and on their way to other lands as slaves. Like I said, not perfect. And this is one of the ways in which I think the Farsala trilogy rises above much, if not most, other high fantasy. There is no GOOD side. There is no BAD side. Not from the outside, anyway. But from the inside, the invaders are, well, invaders. The Hrun, arguably, have freed the vast majority of Farsalans from oppression, but they're still invaders. They're outsiders. They're not "us." Tribalism, nationalism, patriotism, and distrust of the unfamiliar conspire to motivate Farsalans to work against their own best interest and oust an invader who might otherwise be seen as a liberator. It's an interesting (and frighteningly realistic) look at human motivations.

[Jjohn_galt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second entry in the Farsala Trilogy maintains the strengths and weaknesses of the first. The plots of the three protagonists remain largely separate, only coming together at the end of the book. Two of the heroes (reluctant general Jiaan and peddler-turned-sabateur Kavi) are working to delay the Hrum's conquest of Farsala, while former noblewoman Soraya tries to track down her mother and brother. The book focuses more on Soraya than the others, so her character arc moves the furthest.

As with the first book, this book's main limitation is the anachronistic views on society and morality. Farsalan civilization is basically medieval Arabian, and yet the idea of keeping slaves is somehow anathema to all the Farsalans - to the point that this forms the sole motivation for one of the protagonists. A society where the nobility treat commoners as little better than animals is not one where scruples about slavery are likely. Without providing some plausible in-world reason for this distaste, the reader's suspension of disbelief is severely strained.

Language: PG
Violence: PG
Sexuality: PG

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

This trilogy was a hidden gem I am so glad I found. So far, the story has been gripping. I love the interwoven perspectives and how you can sense as a reader the threads of each story coming closer together to create this colorful overview of the epic of this little kingdom fighting an invasion. The characters are real, they have flaws, and the growth they experience throughout is interesting to observe. Excited to read the next one!

[Laurie B · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I'm definitely invested in this story now. I need to know how everything turns out. The world and characters are quite interesting. The motivations are complicated and the lines between good and bad are not clear-cut. The opposing forces here have their good points, and the characters acknowledge it. All three of the main characters are flawed, and yet likable in their own ways. I've really been enjoying learning more about them and seeing them grow and develop.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book built on the story from the first book in the series. It was more fully developed because the world building was already completed, and that helped the plot to move along much more smoothly as well as increasing the pacing to a more captivating amount. I would have given the book five stars if it was possible to enjoy it without having read the first novel, but I do not believe it has the power to stand alone.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very exciting book - hard to put down. I enjoyed seeing the characters evolve - learning through hate, mistrust, hurt to work together to save their beloved country against an enemy that has invaded and almost taken over. We learn that it is more important to work together to save what you love than trying to do it alone or through hate and anger.

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely." It seems neither the deghans nor the Hrum can be fair governors to the people. I am caught up in the conflict. The three main characters are brave and resourceful. I am concerned with their enmity towards each other. Of course, I will pursue their story in volume three of the series.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This trilogy just gets better and better. The story is so captivating you don't want to put it down. I love the arcs of the three main characters and I am on the edge of my seat to see where it will all lead. I cannot wait to start the third book

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent second volume. I am really enjoying watching the three main characters evolve. I also really love how much of an effect Soraya and Jiaan's father, with his wisdom and compassion and ideals, continues to have on the story.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paperback owned - not keeping. Better than book one, but not so much that I fell in love with the series. If I had read them at a younger age, that might have been different. It had good character growth and more interesting action than book one. I’ll still read book three just to see how it goes.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying this series. This book picks up where the last book left off and follows the three characters from the first book while they find their own ways to try to thwart the invaders.

I would recommend this for older YA readers. Definitely going to read the next in the trilogy.

[Laurel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though the fantasy setting slides in to much more "generic medieval meets Americana" than anything particularly Middle Eastern or Persian, the plot and characters have clearly hit their stride. I love a little guerilla warfare. The next and final book promises to be very juicy indeed.

[Caleb Haley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn't put this book down! The stories of Sorhabh are really well written and I every character is written impeccably.

[Bushra · Rating 3 out of 5]

loved reading jiaan's part and may be some of Soraya.
Still dont like kavi, may never like reading his story

[Erin Grunke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good character development and a solid story throughout.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Soraya, Kavi and Jiann continue to resist the Hrum invasion.

[Nathan Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written for a YA novel

[Jacob Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 - Brilliant. Hilari Bell is quickly becoming one of my favourite writers.

[Kelsie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read. Enjoying the trilogy so far. The character growth has been really satisfying to witness. Looking forward to reading the last book.

[Genna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh, this series is fine.