Quick Take
- Narration: Jamie du Pont MacKenzie captures the adventure-forward energy of E.G. Foley’s Victorian fantasy world with good range across the ensemble cast, making the fourteen-hour runtime feel fleet.
- Themes: found family and loyalty, magical coming-of-age, tradition versus progress in a Victorian magical world
- Mood: Rollicking and warm, with genuine stakes
- Verdict: A fourth installment that delivers everything fans of the Gryphon Chronicles are listening for, and a surprisingly accessible entry point for newcomers to the series.
I have a particular fondness for middle-grade fantasy that refuses to condescend. The best of it, Roald Dahl at his sharpest, Susan Cooper at her most mythic, Diana Wynne Jones at her most inventive, treats its young readers as people capable of handling genuine complexity, moral ambiguity, and real emotional stakes. E.G. Foley’s Gryphon Chronicles sits in this tradition, and Rise of Allies, the fourth book in the series, is a confident expansion of a world that has clearly been built with care across multiple volumes.
The setup at Merlin Hall is wonderfully realized. The aristocratic magical families of Victorian England gather each spring for the Fey Parliament and the dreaded Assessments, where young people with supernatural abilities are tested and sorted. Jake Everton, the rascally boy Earl of Griffon, wants to qualify for the elite Lightrider program. A mysterious junior witch arrives with secrets and danger following her. Dark forces are in motion. If this sounds familiar in its broad outlines, that is partly the point, Foley has described the series as taking a dash of Harry Potter and a splash of Oliver Twist, adding a pinch of steampunk and a sprinkle of Victorian fairy lore, but the execution has enough originality to justify the comparison rather than simply trading on it.
What the Victorian Magical Setting Allows
The genius of setting this world in Victorian England rather than a generic secondary fantasy world is that it gives Foley a rich cultural vocabulary to work with. The class structures, the parliamentary procedure, the tension between aristocratic tradition and modernizing forces, all of it maps onto the magical community in ways that feel organic rather than grafted. The Fey Parliament is not just a plot device; it is an institution with its own politics, its own factions, and its own capacity for corruption and intrigue.
For readers coming from a literary tradition that tends to flatten historical setting into mere atmosphere, this is notable. Foley actually uses the period. The Assessments, where gifted youths must prove their supernatural abilities to the Elders, draw on the Victorian obsession with classification and merit in ways that give the fantasy world genuine cultural texture. The mysterious junior witch who arrives at Merlin Hall with secrets in her eyes and danger at her heels is not dropped into a neutral fantasy backdrop. She arrives into a specific social world with specific expectations and rules, which makes the disruption she brings feel meaningful.
Jake, Dani, and the Ensemble That Makes It Work
One reviewer who has followed the series closely noted being surprised by a significant character shift in this particular book, which without spoilers suggests that Foley is not merely repeating a formula. The ensemble, Jake, Dani, Archie, Isabelle, has the chemistry of characters who have spent three books building trust, and the arrival of a new character who disrupts the existing dynamics is handled with plotting craft that distinguishes series fiction that is actually going somewhere from series fiction that is merely extending itself.
The mysterious junior witch is not simply a new love interest or a convenient plot mechanism. She has her own history and her own threat attached to her presence. A parent reviewer noted that their six and ten year old both engaged with the books equally, which speaks to the series’ genuine multi-generational appeal. Another reviewer who stayed up too late to find out what would happen next is probably the most honest recommendation an audiobook can receive. That quality, the compulsive forward motion of a story that has earned your investment, is difficult to manufacture and easy to recognize.
Jamie du Pont MacKenzie and the Audio Experience
At fourteen and a half hours, this is a substantial listen. MacKenzie maintains the energy and the narrative clarity necessary to carry that length without the pacing feeling padded or rushed. The ensemble requires distinct voices, and he differentiates the characters with enough consistency that listeners who have spent time with the previous books will recognize returning characters while the new arrivals are established cleanly.
Who This Series Rewards Most
For parents or educators looking for fantasy fiction that earns its comparisons to the classic British children’s tradition, not just in marketing copy but in actual execution, the Gryphon Chronicles consistently delivers. The Victorian setting allows Foley to engage with questions of class, inheritance, and obligation that the generic secondary-world fantasy typically cannot access. Jake’s position as a boy earl who is also a rascal, navigating both aristocratic expectation and the merit-based world of magical assessment, gives the series a social texture that makes it more interesting than its adventure-story surface suggests. That depth rewards the longer investment, and Rise of Allies is where that investment starts to pay the most significant dividends of the series so far.
The Victorian setting allows for pleasurable verbal texture, the formal speech of the magical aristocracy against the more vernacular voices of Jake and Dani, and MacKenzie plays that contrast well. New listeners to the series will follow this book without significant confusion, but the emotional weight of the ensemble relationships is considerably richer with the prior three books as foundation. The series is designed with the kind of cumulative payoff that makes each volume more rewarding than the last. Rise of Allies is a particularly good advertisement for what patient investment in this kind of series can deliver.
The audio format specifically suits this series well. MacKenzie’s fourteen-plus-hour performance demonstrates the kind of consistency that extended fantasy series demand: characters cannot shift their vocal texture between installments or within a single long book without creating confusion. The fact that returning characters remain immediately recognizable while new arrivals are established clearly speaks to careful character preparation. Listeners who prefer to experience fantasy series in audio from the beginning will find this a reliable and rewarding production across the full runtime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Rise of Allies accessible to listeners who have not read the first three Gryphon Chronicles books, or is it essential to start from book one?
Series readers consistently describe this as richer with prior context, but several reviewers came to book four first or took long gaps between installments and found it approachable. The world is complex enough that starting from the beginning provides a more complete experience, but Foley writes with enough implicit orientation that newcomers can follow the central story.
What age range is the Gryphon Chronicles aimed at, and is Rise of Allies appropriate for younger readers in that range?
The series is generally shelved for middle grade, roughly ages 8 to 12, with strong crossover appeal for teens and adults. One reviewer reports reading these aloud to a 6 and 10 year old with equal engagement from both. The stakes are real and some scenes carry genuine tension, but the tone remains age-appropriate throughout.
How does the Victorian steampunk setting work alongside the magical elements, does the technology feel forced, or is it organic to the world?
Organic. Foley integrates the steampunk elements into a world where magic and technology coexist in Victorian England without either dominating. The Fey Parliament and Assessment systems give the magical community its own institutional logic, and the Victorian class structures map onto the magical hierarchy in ways that feel thought-through rather than decorative.
Does Rise of Allies end on a cliffhanger, or does it provide a satisfying conclusion for the story arcs introduced in this volume?
The main plot of this volume resolves satisfyingly, in keeping with the series’ approach of delivering complete adventure arcs within each book while advancing the larger narrative. Readers who have been following Jake and Dani from the beginning will find meaningful development of ongoing threads without being left in an unresolved cliffhanger.
