Conor's Reviews > Blood Song
Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)
by
by
4.5
Blood song by Anthony Ryan is a great new work of epic fantasy. It was released independently a few years ago and since then has built up a huge amount of buzz, made all the more impressive by it's lack of support. Because of this background I really wanted to like this book. Conveniently the complex characters and intriguing plot made liking it easy. Also the gratuitous violence. FTW.
The main character of this book is Vaelin Al Sorna who at the beginning of the story we see as a captive on his way to a duel which will likely end in his death. His captors fear and revile him as 'Hope killer'. Vaelin narrates his life story to his historian and jailor who gradually becomes more and more enthralled. His story starts when he is 10, abandoned at the door of the training ground of the 6th order, Secretive and deadly warrior priests. From here we chart his journey from abandoned boy to legendary hero.
Vaelin dominates this book both in his POV chapters and in the few chapters from his biographer. Because of this the book is largely dependant on how sympathetic and interesting he is. I found Vaelin to be a really cool and likable character. He is pretty much a straightforward fantasy protagonist albeit with a few shades of moral ambiguity thrown in. One of my favourite aspects about war films or anything that deals with people who regularly operate in violent, dangerous situations is the camaraderie that develops between these guys. As a result Vaelin's interactions with his 'brothers' were easily some of my favourite parts of this book. I also liked how we saw Vaelin's skills gradually improve over long years of intense training rather than miraculously appear over a short period of time as sometimes happens in fantasy. Instead of a quickly glossed over Rocky-style training montage Ryan masterfully brings to life the exhausting, painful process that turns a young boy into a deadly warrior.
On the downside I never really felt that Vaelin's voice as a character developed from when he was 10 to in his mid 20's. Even as a kid Vaelin sounded like an adult. I also thought it was kind of weird that throughout the series Vaelin hardly acknowledges the fact that as a warrior-priest he is apparently banned from having sex. I mean loads of the plot occurs while he is a teenager and a young man and yet he only ever mentions sex in passing, usually while with a beautiful woman. You'd think that as a testosterone fuelled killing machine banned from sex his interactions with women would be limited to blurting out 'boobies!' at the start of every conversation.
The cast of character's is dominated by Vaelin's brothers. Unlike Vaelin many of them (especially Nortah) underwent a good bit of character development. I especially liked the way they begin to manifest combat skills that compliment Vaelin's. Instead of always being best at everything Vaelin is shown to excel as a swordsman and leader while his friends are better in other ways. The way their backstories are slowly revealed is pretty cool as well. Sister Sherin played an important role as Vaelin's love interest and the contrast between healing and killing it produced was interesting. Another standout was King Janus. Despite being a ruthless, manipulative, war-mongering wanker he is also shown to be a great king. This ambiguity made him a really interesting antagonist. I really hope he isn't revealed to be some pawn of the forces of evil as this would turn him into a completely stereotypical evil king rather than an illustration of the necessary evils required to rule a kingdom in a realistic setting. (view spoiler).
The plot was for the most part interesting and well written. Vaelin's brutal training was engaging and showed us how he developed into a deadly warrior and instigated much of his character growth and personal contemplation, however I thought the extra-curricular adventures he got into at every opportunity seemed kind of forced. I mean over 5 years he leaves the academy like 3 times and each time he meets important characters and/or gets involved in events that have a profound effect on his outlook and shape world politics. Also for a novel that emphasises war and violence I thought the sword-fights and battles were diasappointing. Every fight Vaelin gets in he wins quickly and easily. (view spoiler)
The hints of dark forces at work were really cool and added an intriguing sense of mystery. I also liked how the book dealt with both the physical and psychological horrors of war in an intelligent and uncompromising way without being preachy. Perhaps my favourite plot point in this whole book was the invasion of the Alpiran empire. This was a really cool subversion of a typical fantasy storyline with the 'good guy' nation launching an unprovoked war of conquest against a peaceful neighbour. Janus' motivations, which he revealed to Vaelin to try and persuade him to take part in the war, added a further layer of political and moral complexity that made the situation even more compelling.
(view spoiler)
Overall this was an exciting, well-paced debut by a really promising author. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of his work.
Blood song by Anthony Ryan is a great new work of epic fantasy. It was released independently a few years ago and since then has built up a huge amount of buzz, made all the more impressive by it's lack of support. Because of this background I really wanted to like this book. Conveniently the complex characters and intriguing plot made liking it easy. Also the gratuitous violence. FTW.
The main character of this book is Vaelin Al Sorna who at the beginning of the story we see as a captive on his way to a duel which will likely end in his death. His captors fear and revile him as 'Hope killer'. Vaelin narrates his life story to his historian and jailor who gradually becomes more and more enthralled. His story starts when he is 10, abandoned at the door of the training ground of the 6th order, Secretive and deadly warrior priests. From here we chart his journey from abandoned boy to legendary hero.
Vaelin dominates this book both in his POV chapters and in the few chapters from his biographer. Because of this the book is largely dependant on how sympathetic and interesting he is. I found Vaelin to be a really cool and likable character. He is pretty much a straightforward fantasy protagonist albeit with a few shades of moral ambiguity thrown in. One of my favourite aspects about war films or anything that deals with people who regularly operate in violent, dangerous situations is the camaraderie that develops between these guys. As a result Vaelin's interactions with his 'brothers' were easily some of my favourite parts of this book. I also liked how we saw Vaelin's skills gradually improve over long years of intense training rather than miraculously appear over a short period of time as sometimes happens in fantasy. Instead of a quickly glossed over Rocky-style training montage Ryan masterfully brings to life the exhausting, painful process that turns a young boy into a deadly warrior.
On the downside I never really felt that Vaelin's voice as a character developed from when he was 10 to in his mid 20's. Even as a kid Vaelin sounded like an adult. I also thought it was kind of weird that throughout the series Vaelin hardly acknowledges the fact that as a warrior-priest he is apparently banned from having sex. I mean loads of the plot occurs while he is a teenager and a young man and yet he only ever mentions sex in passing, usually while with a beautiful woman. You'd think that as a testosterone fuelled killing machine banned from sex his interactions with women would be limited to blurting out 'boobies!' at the start of every conversation.
The cast of character's is dominated by Vaelin's brothers. Unlike Vaelin many of them (especially Nortah) underwent a good bit of character development. I especially liked the way they begin to manifest combat skills that compliment Vaelin's. Instead of always being best at everything Vaelin is shown to excel as a swordsman and leader while his friends are better in other ways. The way their backstories are slowly revealed is pretty cool as well. Sister Sherin played an important role as Vaelin's love interest and the contrast between healing and killing it produced was interesting. Another standout was King Janus. Despite being a ruthless, manipulative, war-mongering wanker he is also shown to be a great king. This ambiguity made him a really interesting antagonist. I really hope he isn't revealed to be some pawn of the forces of evil as this would turn him into a completely stereotypical evil king rather than an illustration of the necessary evils required to rule a kingdom in a realistic setting. (view spoiler).
The plot was for the most part interesting and well written. Vaelin's brutal training was engaging and showed us how he developed into a deadly warrior and instigated much of his character growth and personal contemplation, however I thought the extra-curricular adventures he got into at every opportunity seemed kind of forced. I mean over 5 years he leaves the academy like 3 times and each time he meets important characters and/or gets involved in events that have a profound effect on his outlook and shape world politics. Also for a novel that emphasises war and violence I thought the sword-fights and battles were diasappointing. Every fight Vaelin gets in he wins quickly and easily. (view spoiler)
The hints of dark forces at work were really cool and added an intriguing sense of mystery. I also liked how the book dealt with both the physical and psychological horrors of war in an intelligent and uncompromising way without being preachy. Perhaps my favourite plot point in this whole book was the invasion of the Alpiran empire. This was a really cool subversion of a typical fantasy storyline with the 'good guy' nation launching an unprovoked war of conquest against a peaceful neighbour. Janus' motivations, which he revealed to Vaelin to try and persuade him to take part in the war, added a further layer of political and moral complexity that made the situation even more compelling.
(view spoiler)
Overall this was an exciting, well-paced debut by a really promising author. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of his work.
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Reading Progress
May 2, 2014
–
Started Reading
May 2, 2014
– Shelved
Finished Reading
May 9, 2014
– Shelved as:
fantasy
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by
Mark
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rated it 5 stars
Jun 09, 2014 09:38PM
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Mark: I really enjoyed book 2. A lot of people were disappointed with it but I consider it to be as good as this one (which is saying a lot).
David: I try :D And thanks bro.
Hope this response was worth the wait (yeah, I didn't really think so).
I sure do love me some moral ambiguity. Seriously, crazy and morally complex situations are half the fun of reading. Never tire of them. Ever.
Lol, I know how you feel. My TBR is crazy long atm and I have about a dozen books on my 'must read now' list.
I feel your pain Eddie, and I just started way of kings. I'll be lucky if I finish by the end of August.Curse my job and reading time stealing family.
Sally: Glad you enjoyed it :)
Thanks!
I didn't find it much of an issue in the following 2 books but yeah I remember it was kind of weird how Vaelin thought and acted pretty much the same between 10 and 25. In Ryan's defense it's really difficult to write convincingly from the perspective of a 10, 15 and 20 year old all in 1 book, especially when that 1 character is the focus of the whole plot.
If you're interested Kushiel's Scion by Jacqueline Carey does a brilliant job of following a 10 year old boy through his coming of age. It's kind of dark at times but the character development is handled really deftly.