Reviews

Bloodring by Faith Hunter

embereye's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

This is one of those books that are strangely compelling. I'm not sure about something about the writing style... it might be that there are moments where the author is telling every little thing that happens and the every action of the main character. I couldn't decide if that was absolutely necessary, but ultimately I'm hooked and want to find out what happens next... and what happened before as it's a post-apocalyptic story and although there was a bit of info-dumping done... there's still a lot of mystery about what exactly happened before.

rvmama's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

I love Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock series. To my disappointment, I struggled with this book. It took me about half the book to engage with the story and the characters. The world she has created is very confusing, and I didn't understand much of it. Am going to try the second book to see if better understanding of the world and further character development improves the situation. I hope it does.

jesslynh's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I'm currently re-reading the series to see if I feel the same way.

This series struck me as different from all the other Urban (post-apocalyptic) Fantasy that I've ever read. I must have started it 4 or 5 times before I got past the 1st page, and felt pretty stupid when I finally did.

Most folks probably know Ms. Hunter from her Jane Yellowrock books (HUGE kudos for not whitewashing the latest cover). I started with the Rogue Mage books and moved on from there. I really wish we could get more on this character. There is some odd RPG stuff going on with a book? for that, but nothing on the novel front for this series.

Despite this, the current trilogy of books is WELL worth a look. I recommend them for any UF fan although they are apocalyptic fantasy. Also, ignore the horrible synopsis on Goodreads/Amazon.

mamap's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

after reading jane yellowrock i thought i would try this one .. not that great ... sex .. and a cliff-hanger and you know how i love that ...

papidoc's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Not quite as good as her other series', but still quite entertaining. Looking forward to the other two in the series.

cjay1957's review against another edition

Go to review page

1.0

Having just come off of reading the entire Jane Yellowrock series including all the .5's and completing the Soulwood series, I was hoping for another adventurous romp with this series.

Alas, it was not to be. I'm not a big fan of post-apocalyptic stories anyway (unless it's Mad Max and then it was all about the visual) and this story was no exception. And I was confused. Again, I felt like I missed the 1st book in the series where all would have been explained prior to jumping into this, what should have been Book 2.

Anyway, I'm shelving it for now. I may come back to it but I doubt it. I was heartened to see I wasn't the only fan of Jane and Nell who also couldn't get into this series.

blodeuedd's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I am torn over this one. It was good, but audio...it worked it just that if I did something else for a second then I got confused. I am sure I missed a ton of things in this book.

But the premise was so cool. Angels came down, killed humans and destroyed shit. Then suddenly they fought alongside humans cos evil spawns came forth. But the cool thing was, were they really angels, or aliens? Ohhh.

What was left was a post apocalyptic world in an ice age. So the world was truly good.

Thorn, the heroine is a neo mage...would have wanted more stuff there. Anyway, she always seemed to be in heat. People showed up, ugh this is why I need short audios! I know 12 is not long, but too long for me.

I would rather read the next book than listen.

claire_loves_books's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

This was a really frustrating book. The magic in it was trippy and didn't really make sense. Beyond saying Thorn got her power from stones they wasn't much explanation. She quotes from scripture but it's not really explained- the whole religious aspect of this book doesn't make a huge amount of sense. The things that she does with magic are really hard to understand/visualise
Spoiler An amethyst ship the size of a football pitch with eyes- what?


Thorn is really flippant about using magic, she's supposedly terrified of being caught out and executed but she doesn't think much about when she uses it- she repeatedly makes what she admits are stupid mistakes do magic at the wrong time/in the wrong way. She knows that she doesn't have the skill to use a spell- she never bothered to do the basic foundation section in her book, she just uses the odd complicated spell that she doesn't understand, guessing and hoping that it will work.

I don't understand the darkness- is it an entity (at times it's referred to as the Darkness while other times dark seems to be used instead of evil).

I wasn't a fan of the mage heat thing- I'm so bored of female characters being defined by their sexuality. She spent so much of the book either being turned on by the mage heat, thinking about the mage heat or avoiding the mage heat.

Most the characters were pretty bland- and the few with personalities seemed to be arbitrarily unpleasant or stupid.
SpoilerCiana thinking demonspawn are "way cool" was just so annoying, there's nothing mentioned about her being under their control in any way so I'm assuming she's just the sort of person who thinks that evil beings who've kidnapped her father could come under the category of cool.


You'll notice I haven't mentioned the plot so far that's because it was kind of all over the place- I'm still not sure what the whole point of the book was, it felt like there was lots of dead weight plot lines that could have been lost.

eastofthesunwestofthemoon's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

3 1/2 stars. This is a winter world post apocalyptic fantasy with an unusual cast of otherworld beings. It was a bit slow, particularly the first half, but improved in the second. I was looking for urban fantasy rather than post apocalyptic, so I'm not sure if I'll continue the series, but it was a pretty decent read.

git_r_read's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I do love Faith Hunter and have had this and it's follow-on, SERAPHS, on Mt Git'r'Read for some time. Not sure why though. I bought them both at the same time intending to immediately dive in. And then didn't. always at the top of the stack on the top shelf, but I never felt completely in the mood to start reading.
Until the other day....
And now I want to go home and the get the second one and plunge in ASAP.
A fine fantasy mixture of post-apocalypse, angels and magic, the story moves pretty fast. I really admire the main character, Thorn. She is a mage in hiding. She left the safety of the Enclave where mages are revered and kept, but something happened to Thorn and she had to leave. She's found serenity in a small mountain town, but she has to keep her magic hidden. The rest of the world fears, even reviles, mages. They revere the angels.
It's an interesting look at what can take place at any time and any place.
Action and magic and angels....really cannot wait to see what happens next.
Definite recommend.