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kathydavie's review against another edition
5.0
First in the Rogue Mage apocalyptic paranormal alternative history science fiction series (a.k.a., Thorn St. Croix) and revolving around, well, Thorn St. Croix, a mage on the run, currently living in Mineral City, Carolina, in the Appalachian Mountains.
My Take
This is a fascinating world Hunter has created. It's so detailed, and despite it being so dang cold, it's a cozy world that still has too many terrors everywhere. Swearing and blasphemy is punishable with branding. Rock-and-roll has only recently come off the banned list. Religious worship in different faiths is allowed only as long as there is no violence. The overall arc is the challenge of a mage living illegally, in hiding, outside an Enclave and keeping out of the sight of seraphs and humans.
Bloodring is primarily from a first-person point-of-view, Thorn's, with the occasional touch of simple third-person subjective. As for the conflict…holy cats! I'm not sure if Hunter left any out, actually, there are two that didn't slide in, lol. For the rest, it's character vs character, character vs fate, character vs God, character vs nature, and character vs society with all those subplots going on: the mage-heat Thorn battles, the fate the seraphs dangle before her, the threats to Thorn for who she is from the seraphs and the town, saving the town (or not), the threats to the Stanhope brothers, Ciana's danger, and what the daywalker wants. Phew…
Hunter folds in the backstory nicely, although she does confuse me quite frequently. There's plenty of foreshadowing for upcoming events in this story — and in the next two stories in the series! As for the eucatastrophe at the end, it was a pip. That sudden switch in the attitude of the townspeople toward Thorn still confuses the heck out of me. I don't know if it was intended as a purposeful negative turnabout or what, but it did not make any sense. I'd've thought that being blessed by a seraph would convey a holy aura around someone…?
I love reading about the work Thorn, Jacey, and Rupert create for their shop. The support they give each other, the love.
Thorn does annoy me in that she never bothered to learn to deal with her abilities. It also took me awhile to figure out what was going on with the Mistress and the daywalker.
Hunter keeps the action going and the tension up throughout. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's horrifying, but it's never boring.
The Story
It's been eighty-seven years since the last great battle, since the last plague set loose by the seraphs. As a result the world is suffering a mini-ice age where demons roam and seraphs rule — where government gave way to strict rule by kirk elders. To eliminate violence.
Now Lucas has been attacked. His latest wife is begging for seraph help, and when a cop shows up, accusing Thorn St. Croix of kidnapping her ex-husband, the threat to Thorn intensifies.
For a seraph will know that Thorn is a mage. She'll be tortured cruelly. To death. A slow death.
The Characters
Thorn St. Croix, a stone neomage, is in hiding. To earn a living she works with gems, creating jewelry that is in demand through the business, Thorn's Gems, she shares with two friends. Homer is her horse. Rose had been Thorn's twin sister, a licensed mage. Lemuel Hastings, a rock hound, had been Thorn's foster father. The gay Rupert Stanhope with his thespian style is the second partner in the shop and is in love with Audric, a salvage miner and a mule, a crossbreed, who came from the Seattle Enclave. Jacey, the third partner, is married to Zedikiah "Big Zed", Sr., and they have nine children total. Zeddy is the oldest stepson; Sissy is nine.
Detective Thaddeus Bartholomew is with the Carolina State Law Enforcement and is a Hand of the Law. He is also, unknowingly, a child of the seraph Baraqyal, a kylen, as well as cousin to the Stanhope brothers. Lucas Stanhope is Thorn's ex-husband, a woman-chasing cheat. Ciana is his eight-year-old daughter by a previous marriage. Marla is Lucas' nasty first wife. Jane Hilton is Lucas' third wife. Rupert and Jason are Lucas' brothers. Their great-grandfather, Benaiah Stanhope, was also known as the Mole Man, a revered warrior who went underground with the seraphs. Gramma is the Stanhope paternal grandmother.
Law Enforcement Center (LEC)
Thorn and Audric report the attacks to Officer Litton. Captain Durbarge is an Administration of the ArchSeraph Investigator (AASI, assey). Richards is Durbarge's toady.
Mineral City, Carolina, is…
…in the Appalachian Mountains. Polly is wife to Elder Jasper, the youngest elder. Sennabel Schwartz, the librarian, is Jasper's mother. Derek Culpepper's family is powerful, wealthy, and influential; the patriarch is an Elder. Shamus and Do'rise Waldroup are bakers, and his family has been part of Mineral City for over a hundred and seventy years. Esmeralda Boyles; Fergus Yardley, a geologist; Randall Prentice, the moneyman behind the plans; and, Eli Walker, who has a feldspar mine and does some tracking for the kirk and cops, are at the town meeting. Doc Hampford is the town veterinarian.
Fazelle and Nova Henderson own the Henderson Shielded Mine. Hoop Marks is one of the guides; Hoop, Jr., is his second-in-command. Malcolm Stone is a customer.
Oliver Winston is an SNN reporter-at-large. Tom Snead is an SNN anchor. Emmanuelle Beasley is the newest female action star.
Enclaves are…
…reservations, both prison and safe zone to which neomages are restricted, allowed out only with seraph permission. Lolo is the head priestess of the New Orleans Enclave and had been a friend of Thorn's mother. Stone, earth, metal, and sea mages can twist leftover creation energy to their will and can only breed if they are in heat. Second-unforeseen children are half-breeds, half-seraph and half-human.
Earth Invasion Heretics (EIH) is…
…an organization that believes seraphs are aliens who came to invade our world.
Seraphs are…
…terrifying angels, winged warriors, who live in the Realms of Light; Manhattan is one of them. The Seraphic High Host is the seraph ruling council, which declared mages are soulless, and therefore lesser. Michael is the ArchSeraph. Chamuel is a seraph who bought a piece of Thorn's jewelry. Other seraphs include Uriel; Zaldkiel, the seraph of solace and gentleness; Raziel, the revealer of the rock and a ruling prince, chief of the supreme mysteries; and, Adonal, the angel of punishment. Azrael is a death seraph who brought plague to Paris; 1,000 lived. Twin seraphs, Mordad and Murdad, destroyed Jerusalem and Mecca. Metatron destroyed Washington D.C. They were only a few of the many cities destroyed in the first plague.
The Mistress Amethyst, Holy Amethyst, is a Being of Light, a Power of Light, a member of the High Host, and similar to a seraph. The navcone is the navigation nosecone of her ship, using the energy of creation.
Mages and kylen have an almost instant, undeniable sexual attraction — think "going into heat"! Such a mating is forbidden.
The Dark is…
…evil, demons and spawn that roam the dark, hunting people. Dragons are Major Powers who battled the seraphs. Daywalkers are spawn who claim humans for sex or food. Malashe-el is the spawn who kidnapped Lucas. A rogue mage is one who has gone over to the Dark. A blood-demon is a Dark spirit who uses human bodies, moving through bloodlines.
The Cover and Title
The cover is vivid in its green battle of a background with a vibrant Thorn in profile, wearing black leather, carrying a gun with a sword sheathed on her back, and a swirl of red around her. The title is in white and spans the center of the cover with the author's name, also in white, at the bottom.
The title is a recurrence, a thick ring of bloody red encircling the moon, a Bloodring, an omen.
My Take
This is a fascinating world Hunter has created. It's so detailed, and despite it being so dang cold, it's a cozy world that still has too many terrors everywhere. Swearing and blasphemy is punishable with branding. Rock-and-roll has only recently come off the banned list. Religious worship in different faiths is allowed only as long as there is no violence. The overall arc is the challenge of a mage living illegally, in hiding, outside an Enclave and keeping out of the sight of seraphs and humans.
Bloodring is primarily from a first-person point-of-view, Thorn's, with the occasional touch of simple third-person subjective. As for the conflict…holy cats! I'm not sure if Hunter left any out, actually, there are two that didn't slide in, lol. For the rest, it's character vs character, character vs fate, character vs God, character vs nature, and character vs society with all those subplots going on: the mage-heat Thorn battles, the fate the seraphs dangle before her, the threats to Thorn for who she is from the seraphs and the town, saving the town (or not), the threats to the Stanhope brothers, Ciana's danger, and what the daywalker wants. Phew…
Hunter folds in the backstory nicely, although she does confuse me quite frequently. There's plenty of foreshadowing for upcoming events in this story — and in the next two stories in the series! As for the eucatastrophe at the end, it was a pip. That sudden switch in the attitude of the townspeople toward Thorn still confuses the heck out of me. I don't know if it was intended as a purposeful negative turnabout or what, but it did not make any sense. I'd've thought that being blessed by a seraph would convey a holy aura around someone…?
I love reading about the work Thorn, Jacey, and Rupert create for their shop. The support they give each other, the love.
Thorn does annoy me in that she never bothered to learn to deal with her abilities. It also took me awhile to figure out what was going on with the Mistress and the daywalker.
Hunter keeps the action going and the tension up throughout. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's horrifying, but it's never boring.
The Story
It's been eighty-seven years since the last great battle, since the last plague set loose by the seraphs. As a result the world is suffering a mini-ice age where demons roam and seraphs rule — where government gave way to strict rule by kirk elders. To eliminate violence.
Now Lucas has been attacked. His latest wife is begging for seraph help, and when a cop shows up, accusing Thorn St. Croix of kidnapping her ex-husband, the threat to Thorn intensifies.
For a seraph will know that Thorn is a mage. She'll be tortured cruelly. To death. A slow death.
The Characters
Thorn St. Croix, a stone neomage, is in hiding. To earn a living she works with gems, creating jewelry that is in demand through the business, Thorn's Gems, she shares with two friends. Homer is her horse. Rose had been Thorn's twin sister, a licensed mage. Lemuel Hastings, a rock hound, had been Thorn's foster father. The gay Rupert Stanhope with his thespian style is the second partner in the shop and is in love with Audric, a salvage miner and a mule, a crossbreed, who came from the Seattle Enclave. Jacey, the third partner, is married to Zedikiah "Big Zed", Sr., and they have nine children total. Zeddy is the oldest stepson; Sissy is nine.
Detective Thaddeus Bartholomew is with the Carolina State Law Enforcement and is a Hand of the Law. He is also, unknowingly, a child of the seraph Baraqyal, a kylen, as well as cousin to the Stanhope brothers. Lucas Stanhope is Thorn's ex-husband, a woman-chasing cheat. Ciana is his eight-year-old daughter by a previous marriage. Marla is Lucas' nasty first wife. Jane Hilton is Lucas' third wife. Rupert and Jason are Lucas' brothers. Their great-grandfather, Benaiah Stanhope, was also known as the Mole Man, a revered warrior who went underground with the seraphs. Gramma is the Stanhope paternal grandmother.
Law Enforcement Center (LEC)
Thorn and Audric report the attacks to Officer Litton. Captain Durbarge is an Administration of the ArchSeraph Investigator (AASI, assey). Richards is Durbarge's toady.
Mineral City, Carolina, is…
…in the Appalachian Mountains. Polly is wife to Elder Jasper, the youngest elder. Sennabel Schwartz, the librarian, is Jasper's mother. Derek Culpepper's family is powerful, wealthy, and influential; the patriarch is an Elder. Shamus and Do'rise Waldroup are bakers, and his family has been part of Mineral City for over a hundred and seventy years. Esmeralda Boyles; Fergus Yardley, a geologist; Randall Prentice, the moneyman behind the plans; and, Eli Walker, who has a feldspar mine and does some tracking for the kirk and cops, are at the town meeting. Doc Hampford is the town veterinarian.
Fazelle and Nova Henderson own the Henderson Shielded Mine. Hoop Marks is one of the guides; Hoop, Jr., is his second-in-command. Malcolm Stone is a customer.
Oliver Winston is an SNN reporter-at-large. Tom Snead is an SNN anchor. Emmanuelle Beasley is the newest female action star.
Enclaves are…
…reservations, both prison and safe zone to which neomages are restricted, allowed out only with seraph permission. Lolo is the head priestess of the New Orleans Enclave and had been a friend of Thorn's mother. Stone, earth, metal, and sea mages can twist leftover creation energy to their will and can only breed if they are in heat. Second-unforeseen children are half-breeds, half-seraph and half-human.
Earth Invasion Heretics (EIH) is…
…an organization that believes seraphs are aliens who came to invade our world.
Seraphs are…
…terrifying angels, winged warriors, who live in the Realms of Light; Manhattan is one of them. The Seraphic High Host is the seraph ruling council, which declared mages are soulless, and therefore lesser. Michael is the ArchSeraph. Chamuel is a seraph who bought a piece of Thorn's jewelry. Other seraphs include Uriel; Zaldkiel, the seraph of solace and gentleness; Raziel, the revealer of the rock and a ruling prince, chief of the supreme mysteries; and, Adonal, the angel of punishment. Azrael is a death seraph who brought plague to Paris; 1,000 lived. Twin seraphs, Mordad and Murdad, destroyed Jerusalem and Mecca. Metatron destroyed Washington D.C. They were only a few of the many cities destroyed in the first plague.
The Mistress Amethyst, Holy Amethyst, is a Being of Light, a Power of Light, a member of the High Host, and similar to a seraph. The navcone is the navigation nosecone of her ship, using the energy of creation.
Mages and kylen have an almost instant, undeniable sexual attraction — think "going into heat"! Such a mating is forbidden.
The Dark is…
…evil, demons and spawn that roam the dark, hunting people. Dragons are Major Powers who battled the seraphs. Daywalkers are spawn who claim humans for sex or food. Malashe-el is the spawn who kidnapped Lucas. A rogue mage is one who has gone over to the Dark. A blood-demon is a Dark spirit who uses human bodies, moving through bloodlines.
The Cover and Title
The cover is vivid in its green battle of a background with a vibrant Thorn in profile, wearing black leather, carrying a gun with a sword sheathed on her back, and a swirl of red around her. The title is in white and spans the center of the cover with the author's name, also in white, at the bottom.
The title is a recurrence, a thick ring of bloody red encircling the moon, a Bloodring, an omen.
embereye's review
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
Spoiler
Ciana 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
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.