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Title:
Blood Song
Series: A Raven’s Shadow
#1
Author: Anthony Ryan
Rating: 4 of 5
Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
570
Words: 222K
Publish: 2012
When
I read this back in 2014, the biggest thing I noticed was how long
this was and that took up the bulk of my review. This time around,
that wasn’t an issue at all. I was feeling good and I just sat
back and enjoyed the ride. There WAS a lot going on but I felt like
Ryan handled things well in that regards. Each episode in the main
character’s story (Vaelin) didn’t overshadow the other parts and
added a necessary piece to the puzzle.
There is a lot of violence in this book. It’s not graphic, per se, but it is relentless. The story starts with Vaelin being dumped at the gates of the Sixth Order by his father and in his “class” there are 12-15 boys. By the time they graduate in 3-4 years, there are only 6 left. Most don’t leave in failure, they leave in body bags. Once Vaelin becomes a full Brother of the Sixth Order, he is sent out on missions to kill, hunt and destroy. He is very good at it too.
There is also a lot of intriguing going on. From the King of the Realm to the princess to Vaelin’s own father to a group that might be the Seventh Order (that was supposedly destroyed hundreds of years ago) to supernatural beings which are manipulating the religion that Vaelin belongs to. A lot of time is spent revealing and setting up these various intrigues and we never quite get the whole picture. I think this is why I couldn’t give it more than 4stars, the payoff wasn’t big enough for the amount of time spent on the intriguing. Now, maybe the author is setting things up for the next two books in the trilogy but honestly, it just felt like he was throwing things in to keep us interested.
This is a trilogy, but Ryan has written a sequel duology that I plan on reading as well. Why authors use the same characters in the same kingdoms but use different series names is beyond me. It makes it wicked hard for readers to keep track of what order to read these books in. It’s almost like authors don’t care about their fans and are only thinking of themselves. Huh, what a novel (hahahaha!) thought, a self-absorbed, selfish author, whoda thunkit?
★★★★☆
From Fandom.com
The framing device follows the Hope-Killer, as Vaelin is known, who is an adult prisoner of war of the southern nation, being transported to a duel at the behest of his captors. A duel to the death everyone believes he will lose. He is being transported alongside a historian who begins to chronicle his life story.
Vaelin is unceremoniously dumped by his father on the steps of the Sixth Order when he is ten and his beloved mother has just died of an illness. He endures some of the most brutal training in warfare imaginable to become a warrior monk. He must survive seven years and seven deadly tests that weed out the weak and the morally unfit to become a full Brother. Even as a novice, he survives assassination attempts, foils the attempt to murder one of the leaders of another order, falls in love with a Sister in the healing order, befriends a heretic with magical powers, and fights a crime lord with less pleasant magical powers. These trials forge Vaelin and the novices in his group into true brothers-in-arms.
Eventually, he falls under the sway of the brilliant but ruthless King, who schemes to pass on a stable and economically secure realm to his well meaning but seemingly ineffectual heir. As a Brother, he must go on campaigns against some rebellious heretics and a usurping Lord, during which he learns that he may have a magical gift himself, something that is explicitly against the national religion. That gift, the titular Blood Song, will guide him to his righteous fate if he learns to control it.
Before long the King turns his envious gaze on the rich southern nations. In the heat of battle, Vaelin kills the heir to the nation, a man known as The Hope; giving Vaelin the unwanted title of Hope-Killer for the rest of his life. He takes one of the enemy's cities and holds it, even while the rest of the realm’s forces are driven back. During this time he deals with an outbreak of a lethal plague and tries to develop his gift. At the end of the war, he surrenders the city and himself under the condition that his people, including the woman that he loves, are allowed to leave.
Throughout all this, he is confronted with two great mysteries. Does there exist a Seventh Order of their Faith, and is it good or evil? What are the malevolent spirits that throughout his life have tried to kill him? Malevolent spirits that can possess the bodies of the living, even one of his closest friends.
Returning to the framing story, the duel is being fought by the champion of the country that Vaelin's father waged a brutal war against. If Vaelin wins, a southern noble will be returned. After so many years in solitary confinement, can he really win this duel? Yes and so blindingly fast that it's hard to count the seconds. Vaelin walks away to freedom.
