This got a bad review on FanLit, but the premise and fact that the series is complete makes me want to read it.

The first book in the series. In this world, griffins and griffin riders rule from their mountaintop city. Unfortunately for me, this felt way too much like Eragon. Replace dragon with griffin and many things are the same. The attitudes of the riders, the fact that they rule just by being griffin riders. The only difference and it is a small one, is that griffins have magic and riders do not.
Arren Cardockson is an outsider from a northern barbarian family. Normally northeners wouldn't be griffin riders at all, but Arren is. A conspiracy against him sets the events of this book in motion. Not bad, just not that good either. ( )

Quickly caught up in story, characters and world building -- but honestly, although well written so I knew I would finish the book, the first few chapters left me with no clue what book/series was going to be. The character points of view swinging from adult griffin (possibly headed toward a Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom type of special, lol), to infant griffin to the protagonist Arren gsve no hint as to how good the book became once it mostly settled on Arren and the events in his home city. What a find in the SF/Fantasy new releases buried in all the horror/paranormal/urban-whatever I am so tired of seeing.
[bc:The Dark Griffin|9069880|The Dark Griffin (The Fallen Moon, #1)|K.J. Taylor|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311703473s/9069880.jpg|6886047] [bc:The Griffin's Flight|8509220|The Griffin's Flight (The Fallen Moon, #2)|K.J. Taylor|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311703484s/8509220.jpg|13375398] [bc:The Griffin's War|9306559|The Griffin's War (The Fallen Moon #3)|K.J. Taylor|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1284508856s/9306559.jpg|14189538] ( )

Not bad. It's never fun when the main character gets his entire life messed up by those scheming around him and all he gets is the bad end of the deal... but it's leading into the next book in the series! I'm interested to see where it goes.

( )

One thing I find lacking in most other books of the same genre are richly written details of the world in which the story unfolds. I'm not actually comparing this book to Lord of the Rings, but (for me) that is one book that fills in so much history and detail of the world and history that the story seems real/plausible. Taylor did just that with her detail and understanding of her world making me feel as though this world did exist (or could). She obviously put much thought into this aspect of the story. Another facet that I found interesting and a nice change of pace is the 'hero'. He isn't some obscure, little figure that rises to hero status and is expected to save the world. Arren discovers that the world in which he lives and all notions of right and wrong are not what he first believed. His character's journey was very well written (sorry, I don't want to spoil the story with more details) - giving the reader insight and understanding into Arren and his world. I would most definitely recommend this book to others and I look forward to reading more from Taylor. ( )