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Shae Ford

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Harbinger (Fate's Forsaken Book 1) Kindle Edition

by Shae Ford (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 1,357 ratings

Book 1 of 4: Fate's Forsaken

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Seventeen years ago, a long and bloody rebellion wracked the six united regions of the Kingdom. Now the new King wields the vast and unvanquished army of Midlan with his right hand, and with his left has granted a small group of thugs — the nobles he calls his Sovereign Five — unbridled rule over the other regions. As if this weren’t bad enough, the King has also outlawed the practice of whispering — which is a problem for Kael.

It’s not like he asked to be born a whisperer: he didn’t ask for his strange healing powers anymore than he asked to be the village runt. And when he rescues a wounded girl from the perils of the Unforgivable Mountains, his luck only gets worse. She couldn’t have been just any girl: she had to be Kyleigh —the sword-wielding renegade knight with all of Midlan on her trail. Then one miserable, snowy evening, things go from bad to worse, and Kael is left with no choice but to follow Kyleigh down the mountains and into the tumultuous lowlands. She leads him on one mad quest after the next — eventually pulling off an act of such mischievous proportions that it threatens to change the Kingdom as they know it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Shae Ford is a USA Today bestselling author from Ft. Worth, Texas. Her debut fantasy quartet, Fate's Forsaken, follows the story of Kael: a young man who is gifted with extraordinary powers, but plagued by rotten bad luck. To learn more about the author or the series, please visit www.FatesForsaken.com.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B008RCI29Y
Publisher ‏ : ‎ (July 30, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 30, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2428 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 459 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #9,399 Free in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #145 in Epic Fantasy (Kindle Store)
- #210 in Sword & Sorcery Fantasy eBooks
- #496 in Teen & Young Adult eBooks

Customer Reviews:
4.4 1,357 ratings

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Shae Ford

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Shae Ford is a USA Today bestselling author from a not-so-small town outside of Ft. Worth, Texas. She comes from a long line of storytellers, and has spent countless hours seated at the kitchen table: listening to the fisherman's tales, passionate political rants, and sidesplitting antics of her often-mischievous extended family. Her mother, who could always find room in the budget for a new book, has been the unwitting accomplice to several of Shae's minor classroom crimes -- from excessive doodling in the margins, to concealing the latest "Harry Potter" book beneath the pages of her algebra assignment.

She has yet to be charged.

Shae's debut series, "Fate's Forsaken," follows the story of a young man who is gifted with extraordinary powers, but plagued by rotten bad luck. Having the chance to share his many (mis)adventures with readers all over the world has been the opportunity of a lifetime, and a journey she'll never forget.

To learn more about the Fate's Forsaken series, contact the author, or sign up for her newsletter, please visit www.ShaeFord.com.

Fate's Forsaken Series:

Book 1: Harbinger

Book 2: Slight and Shadow

Book 3: Dragonsbane

Book 4: Daybreak

Also from the author:

Charlie the Anomaly

The Anomaly Cycle

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5

1,357 global ratings

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Bekah Terrell

An exceedingly engaging read!

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2014

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Harbinger is perhaps one of the best books I have read. While it's not quite of the epic scale as the Inheritance Cycle or other fantasy series, I would put it on par with the How to Train Your Dragon films or The Legend of Eli Monpress series by Rachel Aaron. It's relatable, I think, to young and old audiences alike. While it is wholesome enough for kids to enjoy, it is also clever, entertaining, and thoughtful in a way that is appealing to me as an adult.

Every sentence is jammed with whit, personality, and charm. The characters are delightful and relatable, maintaining a balance between quirky and realistic. The tone of the novel is overall light--a fun ride--but at times left me aching with sympathy for Kael's plight. Shea Ford has skillfully portrayed the awkward, caring, book-loving mind of our hero, as well as the minds of other, lesser characters as their perspectives appear; even those who only narrate no more than one or two chapters feel fully fleshed out, like they could have stories of their own.

The settings, like everything else, are beautifully described. Shea does a remarkable job playing upon all senses when describing a scene, allowing the reader full immersion into the action. And again, it is all skillfully written within the parameters of what the point of view character--Kael or whoever--would feel or notice. Just another testament to Shea's ability as a storyteller and a writer.

The magic system is well developed, though I would have enjoyed reading more of how this particular, unique form of magic FEELS: the sensations and mental processes that accompany each different encounter. This is explained in beautiful detail, true, at the beginning of the story, but I found it fascinating enough to want to read it again for other situations. I also appreciate how the various forms of magic are not explained in lectures. So often, the inevitable lectures drag on, and are tactless and tedious. But in Harbinger, magic in it's various forms unfolds very naturally. It is introduced in a way that is immediately intriguing, while not surpassing the character's own understanding of it. The "time of teaching" was also enjoyable, I found, not dwelling on the subject too long, while still expanding our knowledge of the powers at play. I am excited to see what wonders are wrought in future books!
(See what I did there? Pun intended;))

Again, an excellent read! Well written in all aspects, with an endearing cast, picturesque descriptions, and a poetic yet easy voice. I would definitely say Harbinger (Fate's Forsaken: Book 1) is well worth your time! I look forward to following Kael, Kyleigh, and the rest of the characters' journeys through the remaining three books.

Happy reading!
-Bekah Terrell

3 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Very good first novel!! Pleasantly surprised

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2015

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This book sat, sadly collecting electronic dust in my kindle, for nearly a year after I bought it. It was a cheap book with an intriguing plot, but I had little hope it would be worth my time. I finally got around to it and was wonderfully surprised! There is room for improvement, but for a first book, I am genuinely impressed! The writing is good -- blissfully sound grammatically, and the story flowed smoothly, with a good combination of character/plot development vs action. The writer has style which I am sure will only improve with experience. The plot was predictable at times, but not always, and inviting regardless.
A lot of the poor reviews seem to focus on the main character being childish, which he is (at times). But he is true to character. He is 17 years old (I know I had still had some fairly childish moments at 17) and has been raised basically feeling unloved and worthless, so he has trouble believing in himself. I think his development is realistic and I felt his motivations were clearly implied. He has a good heart, which makes him loveable even when you wish he could see past his biases to what's really going on around him.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed it and can't wait to read the next one. It was a very good first novel for someone and I am looking forward to watching her develop.

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Christopher Potvin

Amazing New Author! Great 1st book!

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2012

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I had a ball reading this book! There was such interesting Characters and the whole Whisperer thing was Great! I really really enjoyed Kael! All the Character were interesting and fun, but I really liked Kael! I love when an Author makes a Character work for his power or his strengths. He just doesn't get everything in one or 2 chapters(like this other book I'm reading where 3 or 4 chapters in, the Hero has already gotten his powers, achieved his lifes dream and has been adopted into the royal family as one of their own,,,,,why even bother to finish the book now, Jesus :P)There was nice pace throughout the book with only a few slow spots. The Cast went through multiple scenes and Shae did a great job in fleshing them out and I had no problem envisioning them. The Bad guys,,,were bad(In a good way) and there was an interesting fight with a Witch who had cursed one of the Party members. I won't go into it, but it was a good fight, one of many in this book.

The only bitch I had was the ending,,but in a good way! Something didn't happen the way I wanted to in THIS book LOL! But Shae did a great job in setting up for the second and I cannot wait to read more of her work!

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Just Fix It

Amazon categorization for this book is misleading. It is a good book, but...

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2013

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I am rating this book as fairly as I can. I absolutely support the budding authors and their works that I find on Amazon for Kindle books. I buy a goodly number of them. I love to read and I truly love to read fantasy. I purchased this particular book due to it's high ratings given by other readers. Most people who read these books, I have found, understand that these are not professionally edited books and most are new works by neophyte authors so I tend to trust the majority and how they rate the books. I am rating this a four star because, for what it is, it is good. A good story, good characters, nice tidy plots...but it should be listed as young adult, if not children's book. It is written in the style of a fairy tale, and while I have no objections to fairy tales, they certainly serve a purpose in all societies, I feel misled if not betrayed by the genre purported to be this book's niche. It is certainly not written for anyone over the age of twelve (I may be stretching it) in my opinion. The author is worthy, the story is worthy, the category is not.

41 people found this helpful

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Richard D

Very enjoyable and fluffy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2022

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I have been an avid fantasy reader for many years (I even read Lord of the Rings to my daughter as a bedtime story and she is now also a fantasy fan!). Also a Brandon Sanderson and Terry Goodkind fan. I often trawl through the "free" books on Kindle knowing that if you like the book you will have to pay for books 2,3 4 etc. This I only do if the first book sparks my interest and this doesn't happen very often. I really enjoyed Harbinger, the storyline was engaging and amusing and I could relate to all the characters albeit there was a certain predictability to the relationships. Great read and one of the rare occasions that I will purchase the next books in the series

Nick Badger

A fun read to contrast the sometimes overly serious high fantasy

Reviewed in Germany on April 2, 2018

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Let me say first that I've read this series over and over again, in fact this is more often than not the series I return to when I get bored and just want to read something fun.

In short, should you get this book? Well, it depends, of course, on your taste, but if you're willing to go along with one or two minor plot contrivances with some fun characters the go ahead.

The two things this book does well, in my opinion, is world building and characters. I've read some reviews that complain about the characters being too simple. I guess they might have a point, though to me, this isn't really a bad thing. The characters are simple, yes, but not excessively so. If anything, the large cast greatly benefits from having each character be clearly defined. Which is not to say these characters are simply boring, no sir. In fact, if I had to pick one aspect of these books that was my favourite, it would be the liveliness of the characters. They banter, they talk about their hopes and dreams, they cry and they laugh. When a character dies (is that a spoiler? Well, spoiler, a few people die) I'm as sad as the rest of the characters are.
The two main characters, Kael and Kyleigh are especially fun in their banter, and combined with a couple of other colourful folks (the fiddlers is my personal favourite) they make for a fun read.

Secondly, however, it would be a shame to miss talking about the world that this is set in. Yes, from the opening poem about the world's creation, the story is very deeply rooted in the the surroundings. The different realms with their different cultures and landscapes. From the pirates of the high seas to the giants of the plains, the world is bursting with life and colour.

In conclusion, this is a fun book. The entire series has a more overheated feel to it, although it is not afraid to get serious every once in a while. This can cause some minor tone issues, although I find them completely negligible.
I love this book and the entire series, and I would highly recommend giving it a read.

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William Henry

I almost like the bad guy's attitude better

Reviewed in Canada on November 1, 2014

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Main character overdone. I almost like the bad guy's attitude better.

thomas postlethwaite

truly amazing

Reviewed in Australia on September 12, 2015

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This is without a doubt the best series i have read so far from amazon, on par with series like Christopher Paolini's Eragon and the King Killer Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss.
Can't wait for the fourth book!

RF Burns

An interesting adventure story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2016

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A young man brought up by his grandfather in a small mountain village struggles to be accepted, and begins to regret not taking the easy option of keeping his head down. He seems to be ambitious but unfortunately inept and clueless ,
However a chain of events that started before his birth will soon throw his life upside down.
An interesting adventure story