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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
Blood Song is the first book in the Raven's Shadow series by Anthony Ryan. Because of this book I want to read more in the series. The story is one of the life of masterful warrior, Vaelin Al Sorna, and his training at the Sixth Order, his commanding of troops at various battles, and his encounters with mysterious magic. The Blood Song is a magical gift Vaelyn possesses. In the world of this book, religion is illegal and magic is referred to as an evil known as "the Dark." It is revealed fairly early that Vaelyn is relaying his story to a historian while on a voyage to a place where he is to be killed. This is one of the ways that Ryan makes this story unique from other fantasy books. The story also takes place over many years, shows main characters dying and losing battles, and focuses more on various mysteries at times. Blood Song is a totally unique fantasy story. I would recommend this to any fan of fantasy, definitely high school age or older, or to people who have had trouble getting into the magic-heavy bravado that is many fantasy stories.
Absolutely amazing story telling, character development, plot twists, action & vivid fantasy imagery. One of the best books I've read over the years.
*** SPOILER, STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T READ ***
I'm only writing this to justify my 4 stars instead of 5
I would have given it 5 in a heartbeat except for the BULLSHIT dog sacrifice at the end. Full disclosure or whatever: I hate almost all storytelling that kills off the pet; But that's just because 99% of the time it's unearned, totally uncalled for, heavy handed blatant cheap emotional jerk sort of thing.
Anyways, sure enough, that's what happened here. He completely throws the dog away. It was like nothing, to the character and to the author. Out of the blue, happened all of the sudden in one page, and then dismissed and forgotten in that same page never spoken of again. His companion for the entire story, thrown away like just another one of his fucking throwing knives.
Oh, ok, so he needed to not have his sword on him to lure the dude into talking to him. Fine, whatever. First of all, that fight scene wasn't written that great (compare it to the LEGENDARY description of his duel in the chapter before); From what I could tell, the dog didn't end up mattering that much in this fight, just bit the arm and then it came down to wrestling around like a million other times in the book.
Again, whatever. Write better. Lay a fancier trap. Do something cool with the song. The way he tossed away the dog was... rawr
Anyways, that's just my rant on why I took off a star. The rest of the book was ahhh maaaa zinggg. Really a 5 star book or possibly better. I will be all over the next one
I'm only writing this to justify my 4 stars instead of 5
I would have given it 5 in a heartbeat except for the BULLSHIT dog sacrifice at the end. Full disclosure or whatever: I hate almost all storytelling that kills off the pet; But that's just because 99% of the time it's unearned, totally uncalled for, heavy handed blatant cheap emotional jerk sort of thing.
Anyways, sure enough, that's what happened here. He completely throws the dog away. It was like nothing, to the character and to the author. Out of the blue, happened all of the sudden in one page, and then dismissed and forgotten in that same page never spoken of again. His companion for the entire story, thrown away like just another one of his fucking throwing knives.
Oh, ok, so he needed to not have his sword on him to lure the dude into talking to him. Fine, whatever. First of all, that fight scene wasn't written that great (compare it to the LEGENDARY description of his duel in the chapter before); From what I could tell, the dog didn't end up mattering that much in this fight, just bit the arm and then it came down to wrestling around like a million other times in the book.
Again, whatever. Write better. Lay a fancier trap. Do something cool with the song. The way he tossed away the dog was... rawr
Anyways, that's just my rant on why I took off a star. The rest of the book was ahhh maaaa zinggg. Really a 5 star book or possibly better. I will be all over the next one
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
J'ai vraiment laissé toutes les chances à ce livre. Je suis capable d'apprécier un bon livre fantastique, mais tout ce que je peux affirmer c'est que je n'ai apprécié que quelques moments durant cet énorme livre...déçue après avoir constatée la superbe moyenne sur Goodreads et les bons commentaires.
I would probably give this more of a 3.5 instead of 4, but rounded up because at no point did I want to just stop reading the book. I wasn't too enthralled with the characters - and the main character felt like a blank slate to me. I liked the world and am intrigued by the plot line, and the hint of the magic in the world I saw was enough for me to be interested in it. I haven't decided yet if I'll read the next book or not.
Anfangs konnte ich mich an die Stimme nicht so recht gewöhnen, mit der Zeit ging es dann besser.
Die Geschichte ist gut aufgebaut, ich bin ihr gerne gefolgt.
Die Geschichte ist gut aufgebaut, ich bin ihr gerne gefolgt.
A very episodic plot which quickly became predictable. I couldn't relate to the characters, either. Very disappointing.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
adventurous
fast-paced