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vailynst's review against another edition
4.0
Mini-Review:
I should rate this book 3.5 stars but I will leave it at 4 because it is better than many of the other books I've read recently.
The POV for the trilogy never really grew on me. I did grow to like Arky but I wasn't a fan of his viewpoint. I felt that it stifled the story in many ways. I know many people love this trilogy but I feel like the whole thing set me up to yearn for answers that won't be answered any time soon. There's so much detail given on various aspects of the series and yet I still don't have a clear idea of the magic system, the history of the lands on either side of the veil or why a man like Braylar would become a dedicated soldier of the Empire.
The series is called Bloodsounder's Arc. What do I know about Bloodsounder? Not a lot. The story tried to keep a steady pace of scene, Arky's contemplation and action but there was too sharp a contrast between the information that was given vs the ones held back. All of the questions I have about the story, plot and characters are barely touched in the series.
The sex scene was subpar. There's no point in going into detail about sex if it's not going to be engaging in some manner. It was funny in the mean kind of way and just as awkward as the first sex scene in book one. Though the one in the first book made more sense in setting up the world & characters than this one.
I should rate this book 3.5 stars but I will leave it at 4 because it is better than many of the other books I've read recently.
The POV for the trilogy never really grew on me. I did grow to like Arky but I wasn't a fan of his viewpoint. I felt that it stifled the story in many ways. I know many people love this trilogy but I feel like the whole thing set me up to yearn for answers that won't be answered any time soon. There's so much detail given on various aspects of the series and yet I still don't have a clear idea of the magic system, the history of the lands on either side of the veil or why a man like Braylar would become a dedicated soldier of the Empire.
The series is called Bloodsounder's Arc. What do I know about Bloodsounder? Not a lot. The story tried to keep a steady pace of scene, Arky's contemplation and action but there was too sharp a contrast between the information that was given vs the ones held back. All of the questions I have about the story, plot and characters are barely touched in the series.
The sex scene was subpar. There's no point in going into detail about sex if it's not going to be engaging in some manner. It was funny in the mean kind of way and just as awkward as the first sex scene in book one. Though the one in the first book made more sense in setting up the world & characters than this one.
vinayvasan's review
4.0
How does one end a gritty, realist (for a fantasy series), military fantasy - with obviously a collection of bodies, some old fashioned swearing, blood and tears and of course, the bittersweetness. As he has done right through the series, Salyards sticks to while at the same time defies convention, often in the same line.
Secrecy has been the watchword through the series. Hidden agendas, shrouded pasts and dark mysteries have surrounded the characters as well as the world they live in through the 1st 2 books and with this concluding volume, Salyards lifts the veil (pun intended) slowly and surely. We get to see more of the world including what lies on the other side of dreaded and feared Godveil and discover why there's a reason no one comes back passing through it, setting the stage for discovery and a climatic (albeit rushed) showdown
Having the archivist as the narrator though which we see the world was a bold choice and the choice rewards the reader in spades as he serves as the window to the world and as things get more and more clear, the reader is rewarded. Arki (as the narrator) gets his share of character development, moving from the inept bumbling hardly practical adventurer to a less inept, able to manage a weapon, cynical traveler that would fit in well with Captain Braylar's bunch of warriors, which brings us to the lead character. Captain Braylar Killcoin is the character we are meant to root for and yet there are instances over the books (esp seen through Arki's viewpoint) where we find it difficult to. Book 3 adds more layers to this complex character, his motivations and his past, guiding his actions in the present. Truly an outstanding character. His character arc is extremely compelling and the end point of the arc is truly inevitable (even if a bit rushed and anti-climatic in the context)
The supporting characters are wonderfully fleshed out as well. Muldoos is as profane as ever, while Verdurro is calm, rational and has a soft spot for Arki. Soffjian is the female counterpoint to her brother, Braylar and offers the same complexity.
It took me a while to get used to Salyards' writing and book 1 was a slog in that regards especially with all the secret. Having gotten used to that as well as a testament to how his writing has improved, book 3 flows rather smoothly, the fast paced plot punctuated with brutal gritty moments of bloodletting and betrayals
Wonderfully gritty, this is a rather satisfying (if unexpectedly) hopeful end to a very good trilogy
Secrecy has been the watchword through the series. Hidden agendas, shrouded pasts and dark mysteries have surrounded the characters as well as the world they live in through the 1st 2 books and with this concluding volume, Salyards lifts the veil (pun intended) slowly and surely. We get to see more of the world including what lies on the other side of dreaded and feared Godveil and discover why there's a reason no one comes back passing through it, setting the stage for discovery and a climatic (albeit rushed) showdown
Having the archivist as the narrator though which we see the world was a bold choice and the choice rewards the reader in spades as he serves as the window to the world and as things get more and more clear, the reader is rewarded. Arki (as the narrator) gets his share of character development, moving from the inept bumbling hardly practical adventurer to a less inept, able to manage a weapon, cynical traveler that would fit in well with Captain Braylar's bunch of warriors, which brings us to the lead character. Captain Braylar Killcoin is the character we are meant to root for and yet there are instances over the books (esp seen through Arki's viewpoint) where we find it difficult to. Book 3 adds more layers to this complex character, his motivations and his past, guiding his actions in the present. Truly an outstanding character. His character arc is extremely compelling and the end point of the arc is truly inevitable (even if a bit rushed and anti-climatic in the context)
The supporting characters are wonderfully fleshed out as well. Muldoos is as profane as ever, while Verdurro is calm, rational and has a soft spot for Arki. Soffjian is the female counterpoint to her brother, Braylar and offers the same complexity.
It took me a while to get used to Salyards' writing and book 1 was a slog in that regards especially with all the secret. Having gotten used to that as well as a testament to how his writing has improved, book 3 flows rather smoothly, the fast paced plot punctuated with brutal gritty moments of bloodletting and betrayals
Wonderfully gritty, this is a rather satisfying (if unexpectedly) hopeful end to a very good trilogy
tomunro's review
5.0
Jeff Salyards has conjured up a remarkable world in his debut series. I was delighted that my unsubtle badgering yielded an ARC of the final instalment of the "Bloodsounder's Arc" trilogy. While this review will eschew spoilers for Chains of Heretic, the whole work is such an interlocked series that there will inevitably be spoilers to the preceding two volumes. So, if you have not yet met Braylar Killcoin and his band of cussed and cursing warriors then look away now. Or still better, look at my reviews of the preceding books.
However, those like me - who have lived and travelled in the head of Arkamondos scribe to Captain Killcoin's ferocious Syldoon company through two gripping books - you gentle reader may read on - though bewarned any gentleness in this book begins and ends with the reader.
At the end of Veil of the Deserters it had all pretty much gone to hell in a handcart, as Braylar's argumentative Lieutenant Muldoos would say. Or at least as he would have said if his thinking and speech had not been slurred into incomprehensibility by a memoridon's attack.
Fighting their way out of their home city of Sunwrack, the coup masters of the Jackal tower had been out-coup-ed by the emperor they thought to overthrow and Braylar's already depleted company heads out on a desperate mission to find the previous emperor Thumman lurking in exile. Arkamondos, never especially lucky where women were concerned, was reeling from being betrayed by a kiss. Such concerns of the heart (or - as Muldoos would consider it - somewhat lower than that) are swiftly shown to be of small consequence against far greater threats.
In war one must be able to outrun whatever one cannot outfight. But Arki and the Syldoon find their foes are legion and disinclined to give them a simple and accessible choice of fight or flight. It is hard to imagine a more friendless band than the one Braylar Killcoin led out of Sunwrack, and along a tortuous path they find not only more enemies, but a climate of distrust amongst even those friends who should hold each other most dear.
The previous books had set up an array of plot threads.
What is the mysterious Godsveil - that shimmering thousand year old curtain dividing the world in half with the power to drive any who approach it insane - who created it, and how and why?
Where does the flail Bloodsounder draw its power and what is its purpose, beyond its ability to steal the memories of those it slays and torture its wielder with them
What caused the deep-seated antipathy between siblings Braylar the warrior and Sofjian the memoridon, a mutual distaste which makes Liam and Noel Gallagher look like the Osmonds.
How can the crisis at the heart of the Syldoon Empire be resolved now that the Emperor Cynead has destroyed the delicate balance of power between the Towers and the throne.
These questions carry an implicit demand for Salyards to weave them into a satisfying conclusion as Braylar wends a twisted and arduous path through political and military perils,
But they are not small questions and answering them requires new people in fresh environments as the circle of Arki's vision and Salyards' world expands still more widely. Salyards also shows again his vivid creativity, with whole new settings that stretch the envelope of his innovation. There is an originality to his world building, to the creatures he populates it with and to the system of magic that he uses, which - for me at least - defies any comparison.
After all the casualties of the first two books the brief stopover in Sunwrack gave Braylar a chance to replenish his company and we get to meet Rugdi a female sergeant and an ogrish lieutenant more belligerent even than Muldoos. But for all these intriguing characters, it is the sparring between Soffjian and Braylar that still drew my attention most. The warring siblings who seemed to hate each other almost as much as I - as reader - loved them both. Brother and sister circle each other, tongues as sharp as swords, conveying a bitter and weary disappointment which still does not mask the respect they hold for each other's powers. Soffjian's journey is more tortuous than her brother's, her perils more grievous her desires more complex. Braylar takes his greatest chances on the battlefield driven by an unswerving loyalty to the orders of his Tower Commander and to the welfare of his soldiers.
The great strength of Salyards' writing continues to be his description of battles all seen from the near ground level of the cowering Arki. To be fair the scribe makes efforts to extend his contribution beyond penmanship to some semblance of swordcraft and even gets tuition from an unanticipated quarter. There may have been an element of luck in the survival of so useless an unarmoured civilian through the hard fought battles of the first two books. But it is dangerous to taunt fate for so long and Arki - the progressively more embedded war correspondent - dons gambeson and helmet as well as strapping on a blade.
Over the course of the trilogy it is Arki's arc that shows the clearest development. At the start we had the awkward, bookish civilian in company with soldiers so coarse their funniest story concerned the death of a colleague beneath the mountainous prostitute whose suffocating favours were his particular predilection. By the last few pages Arki has grown into a far more worldly and resourceful individual prepared to take up arms and brave any danger alongside the soldiers whose grudging respect he has earned. Still nervous and squeamish - he nonetheless has learnt that mercy has consequences and does not flinch when it is his turn to stick the knife in. I am reminded, as Arki is, of how miserable and barren his life had really been before he fell in with Braylar. Life without companionship is more a matter of existence than living and there is no companionship quite like that of soldiers facing the most desperate of circumstances, knit together into a corporate being by discipline, training and such loyalty that they will lay down their lives for their comrades.
Salyards paints a vivid picture of the crude coarse camaraderie of fighting men, of a military spirit buckled to the point of breaking by the sledgehammer blows of adversity, and of an unlikely hero who finds his place, indeed his family, in the middle of a battlefield where far more than the Syldoon Empire is at stake. It was with a certain serendipity that my favourite iPhone playlist (The one titled "Sad shit that I like") tripped round to play Dire Strait's "Brothers in Arms" just as I reached a crucial rain filled point in the perils that beset Braylar, Arki et al.
The trilogy is called Bloodsounder's arc and it is only as I write this that I see the meaning of that title. For it is not just the flail that carries the name Bloodsounder! The story may be told by Arki, but this is the story of Braylar Killcoin, one time son, brother, nephew, but above all else he is Syldoon.
However, those like me - who have lived and travelled in the head of Arkamondos scribe to Captain Killcoin's ferocious Syldoon company through two gripping books - you gentle reader may read on - though bewarned any gentleness in this book begins and ends with the reader.
At the end of Veil of the Deserters it had all pretty much gone to hell in a handcart, as Braylar's argumentative Lieutenant Muldoos would say. Or at least as he would have said if his thinking and speech had not been slurred into incomprehensibility by a memoridon's attack.
Fighting their way out of their home city of Sunwrack, the coup masters of the Jackal tower had been out-coup-ed by the emperor they thought to overthrow and Braylar's already depleted company heads out on a desperate mission to find the previous emperor Thumman lurking in exile. Arkamondos, never especially lucky where women were concerned, was reeling from being betrayed by a kiss. Such concerns of the heart (or - as Muldoos would consider it - somewhat lower than that) are swiftly shown to be of small consequence against far greater threats.
In war one must be able to outrun whatever one cannot outfight. But Arki and the Syldoon find their foes are legion and disinclined to give them a simple and accessible choice of fight or flight. It is hard to imagine a more friendless band than the one Braylar Killcoin led out of Sunwrack, and along a tortuous path they find not only more enemies, but a climate of distrust amongst even those friends who should hold each other most dear.
The previous books had set up an array of plot threads.
What is the mysterious Godsveil - that shimmering thousand year old curtain dividing the world in half with the power to drive any who approach it insane - who created it, and how and why?
Where does the flail Bloodsounder draw its power and what is its purpose, beyond its ability to steal the memories of those it slays and torture its wielder with them
What caused the deep-seated antipathy between siblings Braylar the warrior and Sofjian the memoridon, a mutual distaste which makes Liam and Noel Gallagher look like the Osmonds.
How can the crisis at the heart of the Syldoon Empire be resolved now that the Emperor Cynead has destroyed the delicate balance of power between the Towers and the throne.
These questions carry an implicit demand for Salyards to weave them into a satisfying conclusion as Braylar wends a twisted and arduous path through political and military perils,
But they are not small questions and answering them requires new people in fresh environments as the circle of Arki's vision and Salyards' world expands still more widely. Salyards also shows again his vivid creativity, with whole new settings that stretch the envelope of his innovation. There is an originality to his world building, to the creatures he populates it with and to the system of magic that he uses, which - for me at least - defies any comparison.
After all the casualties of the first two books the brief stopover in Sunwrack gave Braylar a chance to replenish his company and we get to meet Rugdi a female sergeant and an ogrish lieutenant more belligerent even than Muldoos. But for all these intriguing characters, it is the sparring between Soffjian and Braylar that still drew my attention most. The warring siblings who seemed to hate each other almost as much as I - as reader - loved them both. Brother and sister circle each other, tongues as sharp as swords, conveying a bitter and weary disappointment which still does not mask the respect they hold for each other's powers. Soffjian's journey is more tortuous than her brother's, her perils more grievous her desires more complex. Braylar takes his greatest chances on the battlefield driven by an unswerving loyalty to the orders of his Tower Commander and to the welfare of his soldiers.
The great strength of Salyards' writing continues to be his description of battles all seen from the near ground level of the cowering Arki. To be fair the scribe makes efforts to extend his contribution beyond penmanship to some semblance of swordcraft and even gets tuition from an unanticipated quarter. There may have been an element of luck in the survival of so useless an unarmoured civilian through the hard fought battles of the first two books. But it is dangerous to taunt fate for so long and Arki - the progressively more embedded war correspondent - dons gambeson and helmet as well as strapping on a blade.
Over the course of the trilogy it is Arki's arc that shows the clearest development. At the start we had the awkward, bookish civilian in company with soldiers so coarse their funniest story concerned the death of a colleague beneath the mountainous prostitute whose suffocating favours were his particular predilection. By the last few pages Arki has grown into a far more worldly and resourceful individual prepared to take up arms and brave any danger alongside the soldiers whose grudging respect he has earned. Still nervous and squeamish - he nonetheless has learnt that mercy has consequences and does not flinch when it is his turn to stick the knife in. I am reminded, as Arki is, of how miserable and barren his life had really been before he fell in with Braylar. Life without companionship is more a matter of existence than living and there is no companionship quite like that of soldiers facing the most desperate of circumstances, knit together into a corporate being by discipline, training and such loyalty that they will lay down their lives for their comrades.
Salyards paints a vivid picture of the crude coarse camaraderie of fighting men, of a military spirit buckled to the point of breaking by the sledgehammer blows of adversity, and of an unlikely hero who finds his place, indeed his family, in the middle of a battlefield where far more than the Syldoon Empire is at stake. It was with a certain serendipity that my favourite iPhone playlist (The one titled "Sad shit that I like") tripped round to play Dire Strait's "Brothers in Arms" just as I reached a crucial rain filled point in the perils that beset Braylar, Arki et al.
The trilogy is called Bloodsounder's arc and it is only as I write this that I see the meaning of that title. For it is not just the flail that carries the name Bloodsounder! The story may be told by Arki, but this is the story of Braylar Killcoin, one time son, brother, nephew, but above all else he is Syldoon.
michaelrfletcher's review
5.0
I've been keeping a list in my head of the best books I've read (regardless of publication year) in 2016. I've read a bunch of great books this year but these are books that really left a mark. Up until now I've had [a:D.G. Valdron|15163747|D.G. Valdron|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b:The Mermaid's Tale|29851828|The Mermaid's Tale|D.G. Valdron|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1460075980s/29851828.jpg|50213495], and [a:Anthony Ryan|5804101|Anthony Ryan|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1361298283p2/5804101.jpg]'s [b:The Waking Fire|25972177|The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1)|Anthony Ryan|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1456221270s/25972177.jpg|45880091] on that very short list. I have now added a third book. Actually, an entire series (I think I read all of 'em in 2016).
It is a good day for crossbows, Syldoon. A very good day.
It is a good day for crossbows, Syldoon. A very good day.
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