Blood Song

This book falls into a category that I particularly despise, which I describe as ‘the ordinary life of an extraordinary guy'. It starts by describing how incredible famous and bad ass the protagonist is in the first 1-2 pages, and it proceeds by telling how he came to be that way through the rest of the book.

And being a typical fantasy book, there is usually no much creativity in that aspect: the hero went to an isolated fighting/magic/assassin school when we was still a boy, and there he trained every hour of every day. And his teachers were cruel. And nobody liked him. And he hated that place. But slowly he began to understand the teachers better, make some friends and overall, liking the place.

Still, I really made an effort and the story did have some interesting events along the way. The problem is it's SO TERRIBLY SLOW! I can get past reading about how he put his shoes one foot at a time, then washes his face, then have breakfast, and every other insignificant detail of his everyday life. Just DON'T MAKE IT TAKE PAGES TO DESCRIBE THAT! REALLY!

I stopped reading soon after have read a few pages regarding how they learned how to make weapons.

Read 5:34/23:08 24%

First off, I highly enjoyed this. It is another coming of age tale, so fits with a lot of the fantasy tropes, but it is told in such an engaging way with such good world building that any derivation in the story fades into the background. Our protagonist has been sent to join some martial order, and we follow his progression through the school and eventual appointment by the king to lead his armies.

There are some really clever and unusual literary stylisations here. The chronicler style of story telling is increasingly popular in speculative fiction. Blood Song opens with that chronicle style - we meet our narrator and get him introduced to our protagonist. Blood Song however subverts this. You begin to realize that although there is an apparent narrator, the voice telling the story is actually the protagonist, and the narrator himself is only hearing part of what is being written. An interestingly meta situation where we now have an unreliable narrator, yet the story is being told is complete. This is the first book in a trilogy and yet feels remarkably complete - all the plot items alluded to in the chronicle do come to pass in this first book. It will be interesting to see how this is continued in the second book.

This story falls into the Grimdark category by my reckoning. There is a large degree of moral ambiguity and a lot of violence. The politics portrayed here are interesting - the Machiavellian manipulations of the political actors are well thought through.

A very promising first book. I have read several of Anthony Ryan's short stories before but this is the first of his full novels. I look forward to the rest of the series!

Review to come.

Executive Summary: I really loved this book, and I highly recommend it.Audio book: I'm a little torn on the narration. Steven Brand is a pretty good narrator. He does accents and inflections to really add something to the story. However, he's so DAMN QUIET. It seemed like he was whispering half the time. I'm not sure if it's him or simply the quality of the production, but it seems like it's just the way he reads.I listen to audiobooks on my phone. Sometimes with headphones, sometimes with the speaker, sometimes plugged into my car. I find audiobooks to be too quiet in general, but this was a real struggle in places.To me he's more of the type of person I'd love to listen to tell me a story around a campfire than over an audiobook. Yet he's still better than a lot of readers out there and I'll likely continue going the audiobook route with this series despite the volume issue.Full ReviewWriting reviews for books I love goes one of two ways: They either come gushing out of me because I'm so excited to share my love with everyone, or I struggle to put my thoughts into words, afraid of not doing the book justice. I worry this will be more of the latter than the former.I generally don't give out 5 star ratings. I like to save them for books I really love so it's a sign that “hey Rob must have really liked this one”. I don't exactly have a metric for what pushes a 4/4.5 star book to 5 star rating. It just sort of by feel.The easiest way for me to quantify it though is that it's a book that I hate to stop and can't wait to pick up again. This book was easily that. It was also an easy add to my favorites shelf.This book didn't grab me immediately, but pretty close. Once it did it never let go. It's hard to say why I loved it so much. It's a typical chosen one story. It's also got a bit of the school trope to it, though that's only part of the book.At first it reminds me a lot of [b:The Name of the Wind 186074 The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) Patrick Rothfuss https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1270352123s/186074.jpg 2502879]. Our main protagonist is an infamous man whose collected numerous names over the years, and is recounting his life story to a chronicler as a flashback, with occasional interludes back to present day. Sound Familiar?However this basic structure is really where the similarity ends for me. Vaelin is a paladin (or maybe warrior monk?), where Kvothe is a bard (at least in my mind). He's far from perfect, and was instantly more likable to me.I think what really hooked me in the story is the mystery and lore. There is a lot to discover in both the history of the Order that Vaelin is now a member, but also surrounding magic, regarded with superstition, anger and fear and referred to by most as “The Dark”. The magic is sort of not that prevalent for most of the book, nor all that well explained, but I enjoyed how Mr. Ryan incorporated it into the story.The other thing I really enjoyed is all the politics and religion. Religion and politics are tightly coupled and “The Faith” of the Order is embedded in the rule of the Unified Realm. Like the real world arguments over religion and politics lead to conflict and war.King Janus is determined to leave a legacy for his son, and will use Vaelin how he sees fit to accomplish it.The cast of characters felt well developed and balanced. Coming from different backgrounds and parts of the realm, Vaelin and his brothers make for an interesting group, each excelling at certain skills honed through training rather than just excelling at EVERYTHING. We also have a few strong female characters, although they don't really take center stage in this book.Overall I think this book just put a lot of my favorites parts of fantasy tropes together in a way that just hits my buttons in the right way and made it a great read for me. The writing seems really polished for a first novel. I'm sure there are things that can be picked apart about the story or the writing, but I just don't want to hear them. I will end my ramblings hoping that I have I have convinced you to check out this series. I had people telling me over a year ago to pick this book up, and I wish I had listened. It took getting a review copy of [b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1382486392s/18138189.jpg 25481154] to finally pick it up and I've eagerly jumped right into that book.You made it through my ramblings? Why are you still reading this review? You should be reading the book instead. Seriously. Go now.

On a certain forum I spend quite a bit of time and a fellow member offered to buy me some books as a present. This was one, by beloved baby [b:The Aeronaut's Windlass 24876258 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1) Jim Butcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425415066s/24876258.jpg 24239884] the other. So all in all, it was a really nice experience and quite touching. Seriously. Now to me actually talking about the book and not just blabbering about my life. Vaelin is the son of the Battle Lord of the king, which usually means he is that annoying little jerk who thinks he can do whatever. Which doesn't happen, as at age 10 he gets handed over to this religious order, the warrior-making part of it. His role in life will be being a badass. At this point we turn this into a coming of age story of young boys growing up to become brothers in arms, tough as nails through regular lessons and daily beatings if you mess up. Plus some chllenges where you can die. I want more friendship stories. Or ones about siblings, comrades, masters and apprentices, parents and children, cousins, whatever that is not just one more stupid romance novel. I am tired of every meaningful relationship being more or less ignored, but everyone going nuts when it comes to romance. I mean normal human beings have all kinds of meaningful relationships. (Sure, there is some romance in this, but it's not stupid, not too much and not the only defining relationship in here.) From that angle this book was already a win to me. Not everyone is going to love it, I know, some people dislike little kids doing random stuff to grow up to fulfil whatever role the author wants them to have, but this was genuinely cool. The different children are distinct voices, they are not boring and you will care about them. You will learn to love even the one who looks like a little dick at first. Prepare for heartbreak, though. Beloved children with greaaaaat prospects are not sent to be beaten silly every day if they don't run fast enough or fight good enough. They all have their issues, which makes their friendship feel even nicer, especially knowing they are not going to have a safe life even after finishing training. This is a fantasy book, though. You know that much, but it's one of those ones where magic in any kind is rare. It's not beloved by the people, normal life is spent without “pfft, I just magic it better”. Later on magic gets more of a role in the story as Vaelin sees more of the word and realises there are underlying secrets out there, but the characters are not just equipped with some magic stuff and no other real skills. Fantasy is my thing for sure, but it's so easy to make the mistake of all of the plot being centred around it and have not much when it comes to just good old people-doing-people-stuff. It can have its charm, sure, I just like my fantasy to not be solely held up by magic. In some way this makes things feel more serious; you know the characters can't just miracle themselves out of everything. Reading this I realised something, though. Authors, please give up on trying to make the princesses sound like the biggest victims, especially in darker stories. Like once again, we are expected to feel the princess is a victim for having to marry (which she isn't forced to do to someone random, more like “hey, pick from the inner circle”), while the protagonist and his friends are given away to a monastery at age 10, get beaten daily, are expected to sacrifice themselves even if they survive the potentially deathly “exams”, like being left in a forest in a snowstorm for like a week all alone at age 12. The ones who freeze to death, crying after their mother, not even really understanding the ideas behind this provoke a bit more sympathy. All in all, I loved this book. Then again, Mr. Ryan's Draconis Memoria series is a favourite of mine, so I am content. Apparently the rest of the series is less satisfying, so I'll keep that in mind, but I'll most likely give it a go and I'm definitely reading the next Draconis Memoria, coming out this summer. Good night and let me sing you the song of my people!

I enjoyed this one a lot! The main character is a bit of a can-do-everything type, but I didn't mind so much. The plot was engaging, and there were several twists that I didn't see coming. It's been a while since I've read fantasy that I enjoyed as much as this one.

I really liked this one - flew through it. Good story, good writing, good pacing. I guess I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could; it's not perfect. Still, a good read, and recommended. Especially for $5 on Amazon. Looking forward to the next one.

Amazing. I haven't been so enthralled by a fantasy for many years - perhaps “Name of the wind” is a better book (it is), but nothing fits my inner expectations better than Blood Song.

This book has been on my tbr for years! I have been missing out! I am so glad I finally read this. I loved it. Fantastic characters. I'm excited to continue the series.

My fears that this would prove to be yet another turgid fantasy were unfounded. This is a well-placed, action-filled romp that has left me keen to get my hands on the next in the series.

Just when you begin wondering if Brandon Sanderson is the only one holding up a torch for fantasy fiction you bump into Anthony Ryan. Anthony's style is all his own and the best thing about it is the narration style which would have been pretty difficult to handle but he pulls it off with ease. It just takes a while for the story to kick off but when it does its so superbly crafted that you cannot get of the ride whenever you feel like. The world is well crafted and there is plenty of scope for the future and interestingly the central character in not the best at everything and relies quite on lot on his team. The ending is well thought out and it does leave one longing for more and boy there is more to come. I only wish the war strategies had been more imaginative but you can't be the master of everything right? Highly recommended!

This was the oldest fantasy book on my TBR (around 9 years!) so I'm glad I read it, unfortunately it wasn't a new fave for me BUT I do have this authors new series so I know I'll enjoy the writing in that.

I found the first 300 or so pages of this so compelling, it really gave me the same vibes as The Will of the Many (obviously written much earlier) due to the academy setting and the brotherhood amongst the boys.

Once they were outside of this, it started to lose my interest a bit. It just didn't have enough going on to keep the plot plotting so felt a bit flat and sloggy.

I don't think I'll be continuing in this series, as I've heard pretty much universally that the rest of the series hasn't been liked as much, but I will be trying his newer series.

Ben je suis sur le cul, comme d'hab petit retour en bullet point
les + :
La plume est à la fois riche et fluide
L'histoire est badass sameyre-enshort !
Le personnage principal Vaelin est attachant, et charismatique
Les perso féminins sont BIEN écrits
Worldbuilding très bien fait, un poil perdue les 50 premières pages mais après ça avance nickel
Possible de lire que ce tome, mais on sent un gros potentiel pour les prochains
Des religions et une mythologie qui tient vraiment bien et ajoute de la profondeur

les - :
Une petite longueur à 70-80% du livre mais la plume et le WB font qu'on a quand meme envie de lire
Pas mal de politique et de noms très typé fantasy et donc parfois dur de suivre qui est qui (mais j'ai suivi une bonne partie en audio, je crois que ça aide pas !)

Oh et malgré un nom très “sanglant”... comment dire, alors c'est adulte et c'est pas le monde des bisounours mais c'est pas affreusement gore. Y'a évidemment des triggers habituel à la Dark Fantasy mais avec ce titre je m'attandais à du découpage de bonhomme en pagaille. (PS : oui le titre a une esxplication dans le livre)

As far as the fantasy genre is concerned, I have had a few bad experiences as of late. The last fantasy book I read, A Dance with Dragons, was not so much a book I disliked, as a book I was extremely disappointed with, because it seemed to stretch out a 500 page story into double that length. Blood Song, however, does not suffer from this problem. In fact, couple interesting action, with a hero's journey, and this novel reminded me that fantasy does not have to be about Kings and Queens to be fun and exciting. Yet, there are still some problems that keep this book from being a 4 to 5 star book for me, and I'll be interested to see what the author does to remedy the problems I had in the next book.

The best strength of Blood Song is the main character, Vaelin Al Sorna. He is only a young boy when his father drops him off at the gates of the sixth order and does not come back. The Sixth Order is devoted to the faith of Vaelin's country, and they fight to protect it. Now, Vaelin will be trained to become a warrior, and work to earn his keep amongst his Brothers. But as he joins the world of blood, sweat, and death, he will also be brought into a political and magical plot much bigger than himself, and Vaelin will be left wondering if fighting for the Sixth Order is all he was meant to do, or if he was meant for something more.

Vaelin himself was an excellent character, simply by the virtue of being not good enough. In many stories like this, one sees the main protagonist as being good at everything from swordplay and archery to sitting on a stool. Yet, Vaelin, thankfully, has some flaws. One of which being his inability to do archery very well, and he is even worse when shooting from a galloping horse. He also struggles as a blacksmith and with survival in the forest. It was extremely refreshing to see someone who had weaknesses with his fighting style, and who was not a perfect warrior. This makes the instances where we see Vaelin fight someone with a sword, and others are amazed what he can do, we the reader know that this is because it is his strength, and he is not perfect at everything, making many fights all the more believable.


The fights themselves are also fun and exciting, especially coming off of a series like Game of Thrones, which had little action overall. These fights not only are against interesting people, but also take place in interesting locations. They fight in open plains, the docks of harbors, and even heavily wooded forests. The fight scenes also vary in terms of length, with people who you think would have video game boss levels of epicness tied to them being over in a few seconds because Vaelin himself knows how to defeat them. This makes for fun fight scenes that help to make the book exciting and fun to read. I never found them to be too gruesome for the level of writing, nor too frequent to become tedious.

Yet, this book does have some problems that keep it from being a four or five star book for me. One of these is the fact that the side characters are just not as strongly written as the author thinks they are. Many of them tend to boil down to a person who can do X thing really well, and that is it. Often times, when these side characters die, I can tell that the author wants us to care, but I found myself asking “Wait, who was that again?” This is not a good sign. They simply are not as developed as they could be, and so they have little impact on the reader when they die or are written out of the story.

Next, there is the time jumps. We first meet Vaelin when he is telling his story to a scribe who is from an enemy country. The scribe has his own biases, and we can see that at certain points in the book, when the narrative jumps out of Vaelin's story at his training, and then back into Vaelin talking to the scribe as an adult. The only problem is that the author uses these opportunities to jump through time, and we have no idea how much time has passed, or even when exactly we are in the story of Vaelin's life between where we last were, and the adult Vaelin. This gets especially messy towards the end of the book, when things occur, and someone has to die, and it is supposed to be really dramatic, but I am just sitting there wondering when exactly this took place, because it doesn't make sense and I AM VERY CONFUSED!!

This means that Blood Song had a good opening, but just didn't manage to stick the landing. I'm still going to read the next book, and, for all I know, the third, despite it's worryingly low rating, but I'm still going to give this book a three out of five. I just hope that the next song is more enjoyable to listen to.