Scan barcode
A review by justjoel
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
5.0
I am so glad I picked up this book when I did. I had started and DNFed three or four books in a row (unusual for me) and was getting more than a little irritated trying to find something that didn't make me want to pitch it across the room after 25 pages.
This book is familiar in a lot of ways. If you have read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, there will be some recognizable elements to the opening novel of this fantasy trilogy.
Vaelin al-Sorna is the young son of a realm's battle-lord who is entrusted to the "care" of, for lack of a better term, battle monks who train young boys in the Faith of the realm, and to become loyal soldiers.
There is a "school" element to the training and the brothers who teach the boys, so fans of fantasy school settings should be appeased. There are a lot of mysteries to be solved here. It begins simply enough: with Vaelin feeling abandoned and not understanding why his father left him. But as time wears on and Vaelin begins discovering truths about his family, other mysteries with far wider implications are revealed and begin to slowly unfurl.
I always enjoy when an author manages to surprise me, and that happened a couple of times in these pages. I was positive I had a major plot twist figured out, but was horribly wrong and was okay with that because the reveal made sense.
While it didn't bother me, people who have issues with UK spelling might be put off by this book.
All in all, it was a better-than-average fantasy coming-of-age tale with a fair amount of sword and sorcery, but heavier on the sword. I'll definitely be continuing this series at some point.
This book is familiar in a lot of ways. If you have read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss or Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, there will be some recognizable elements to the opening novel of this fantasy trilogy.
Vaelin al-Sorna is the young son of a realm's battle-lord who is entrusted to the "care" of, for lack of a better term, battle monks who train young boys in the Faith of the realm, and to become loyal soldiers.
There is a "school" element to the training and the brothers who teach the boys, so fans of fantasy school settings should be appeased. There are a lot of mysteries to be solved here. It begins simply enough: with Vaelin feeling abandoned and not understanding why his father left him. But as time wears on and Vaelin begins discovering truths about his family, other mysteries with far wider implications are revealed and begin to slowly unfurl.
I always enjoy when an author manages to surprise me, and that happened a couple of times in these pages. I was positive I had a major plot twist figured out, but was horribly wrong and was okay with that because the reveal made sense.
While it didn't bother me, people who have issues with UK spelling might be put off by this book.
All in all, it was a better-than-average fantasy coming-of-age tale with a fair amount of sword and sorcery, but heavier on the sword. I'll definitely be continuing this series at some point.