Title: Blood Song
Author: Anthony Ryan
Published: February 24th 2014 (Originally 2011)
Publisher: Orbit
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 728 pages
Source: Paperback gifted by boyfriend
Book Blurb (Goodreads):
We have fought battles that left more than a hundred corpses on the ground and not a word of it has ever been set down. The Order fights, but often it fights in shadow, without glory or reward. We have no banners.
Vaelin Al Sorna is the Sixth Order’s newest recruit. Under their brutal training regime, he learns how to forge a blade, survive the wilds and kill a man quickly and quietly – all in the name of protecting the Realm and the Faith.
Now his skills will be put to the test. War is coming. Vaelin must draw upon the very essence of his strength and cunning if he is to survive the coming conflict. Yet as the world teeters on the edge of chaos, Vaelin will learn that the truth can cut deeper than any sword.
My Thoughts
This is one of those books that my boyfriend bought for me in the early days of our relationship and I just never got around to reading because there was always a review book that I had to read first. Even though I’m still trying to work through a ton of books for review, I’m learning to take the time to read just for pleasure too and with that in mind, I picked up this beast of a book so that I could lose myself in it completely. I know that any book Tim recommends to me I’ll probably end up loving because he knows the kind of books that I really fall in love with and so it’ll come as no surprise that I loved this book and am dying to pick up the rest of the books in the series.
This book is a behemoth at 700+ pages but it doesn’t feel like a slog when you’re reading it. With the ensemble cast and the periodic time jumps, there’s never a dull moment and it’s exciting to see what will happen when you turn the page – exactly what you want from an epic fantasy series. It was a little difficult to keep track of who was who at times and I often thought one character had died early on when it was actually another, but by the time I was halfway through I was in love with those that remained and I wanted to shield them from all the bad things that I inevitably knew would be coming.
This is a great first book to a series – I believe it’s a trilogy – in that it introduces you to the characters, the world, the lore, etc. without throwing it in your face as an info dump kind of thing. It progressed at a good pace and didn’t just use flashbacks to tell their background but actually showed us. It’s a brutal story, don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of violence and death – even when they’re as young as early teens – so this might not be the book for everyone but the story itself is fantastic.
Instantly gripping and a masterpiece of world crafting, I was hooked from the first page and couldn’t put it down. This is definitely a series I’ll be continuing because I physically need to find out what happens next.
Buy Links!
Amazon UK | Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Blackwell’s | Book Depository | Book People | Foyles | Waterstones
About the Author
Website | Twitter | Goodreads
Anthony Ryan was born in Scotland in 1970 but spent much of his adult life living and working in London. After a long career in the British Civil Service he took up writing full time after the success of his first novel Blood Song, Book One of the Raven’s Shadow trilogy. He has a degree in history, and his interests include art, science and the unending quest for the perfect pint of real ale.
*Picture and Biography from Goodreads
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