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4.29 AVERAGE
4.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
4 stars. Mostly because i'm a sucker for the whole 'promising young kid learns and trains to become a badass' story-line, and this definitely delivered.
This is no "Name of the Wind," and as I write, I struggle comprehending how so many praised the novel's characterization and prose. Vaelin al Sorna is a morally grey character, who makes strange, often illogical, decisions and reluctantly, but deftly, fights battles. The females in the book, Lyrna and Sherrin, were particularly insufferable, stereotypical characters that received perhaps one page of development behind their personalities and actions. The novel guides the reader through various realms, but fails to describe and characterize the regions to make the world-building remotely interesting. Finally, the plot is not very original. "Blood Song" offers nothing new to the fantasy genre-- it is but another troubled main protagonist with abandonment issues and an "honorable" personality in a coming of age tale.
The thing with this book is, you have too like both magic and war, and although I’m crazy for book with magic, the fighting aspect of it is not for me.
The universe itself is amazing, the author makes sure to inform you of every detail of the lore but for me, the plot got kinda lost along the book.
The universe itself is amazing, the author makes sure to inform you of every detail of the lore but for me, the plot got kinda lost along the book.
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
**Blood Song** is the start of the **Raven's Shadow** series by *Anthony Ryan*. It was a bit hard to make up my mind about this book – it changed a lot over the course of the story.
We start off with a young protagonist who is given by his family to an order of warrior monks to be trained. And while the worldbuilding (which is only hinted at at this point) is solid, we basically get a third of a book's worth of a mix of brutal Hogwarts and training sequences. This isn't bad per se, but I started to see this book as one of those guilty pleasure fantasy reads: I'm a sucker for training stories, and I know it, and that's fine.
But then our protagonist grows up, and joins the wider world, and has to contest with larger issues than just learning and fighting and dealing with the occasional attempt on his life. This part tends to skip long stretches of time, years at times, and only shows us the highlights of our protagonist's experiences in his adult life. And then, the last part of the book follows him into battle, and has him face (and eventually follow) his moral qualms. All the while the worldbuilding is growing wider and deeper. The content of this book could have easily made a trilogy in the current state of Fantasy, so I'm very happy to see this amount of storytelling. Going from a young boy in training, via a young adult struggling with the world, to an adult who stands up for his convictions is no new story by far – but Ryan presents it without making it feel stale. Part of that is that the protagonist isn't always right – he's certainly capable, and not stupid by far, but he does make mistakes, and not only ones that spell "I'm only a mistake to advance the plot".
So, yes, if you're into fantasy that makes use of known tropes without being stale or boring, you should definitely check this one out!
We start off with a young protagonist who is given by his family to an order of warrior monks to be trained. And while the worldbuilding (which is only hinted at at this point) is solid, we basically get a third of a book's worth of a mix of brutal Hogwarts and training sequences. This isn't bad per se, but I started to see this book as one of those guilty pleasure fantasy reads: I'm a sucker for training stories, and I know it, and that's fine.
But then our protagonist grows up, and joins the wider world, and has to contest with larger issues than just learning and fighting and dealing with the occasional attempt on his life. This part tends to skip long stretches of time, years at times, and only shows us the highlights of our protagonist's experiences in his adult life. And then, the last part of the book follows him into battle, and has him face (and eventually follow) his moral qualms. All the while the worldbuilding is growing wider and deeper. The content of this book could have easily made a trilogy in the current state of Fantasy, so I'm very happy to see this amount of storytelling. Going from a young boy in training, via a young adult struggling with the world, to an adult who stands up for his convictions is no new story by far – but Ryan presents it without making it feel stale. Part of that is that the protagonist isn't always right – he's certainly capable, and not stupid by far, but he does make mistakes, and not only ones that spell "I'm only a mistake to advance the plot".
So, yes, if you're into fantasy that makes use of known tropes without being stale or boring, you should definitely check this one out!
adventurous
dark
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Jeden z dalších příběhů, které jsem si musela zamilovat a teď jsem dost nesvá, že ještě není v češtině další díl. Uvažuji o originále, ale zas mám strach, že si to tak moc neužiju.
Píseň krve je skvělá, příběh je velmi čtivý a napínavý. Vélin je naprosto úžasný. Miluji příběhy, kde sledujeme postavu od dětství a můžeme s ní vyrůstat a prožívat všechny slasti a strasti. Konec mě dost překvapil a jsem zvědavá, jak to bude dál.
Kniha okamžitě putuje do oblíbených a budu se k ní ráda vracet!
Píseň krve je skvělá, příběh je velmi čtivý a napínavý. Vélin je naprosto úžasný. Miluji příběhy, kde sledujeme postavu od dětství a můžeme s ní vyrůstat a prožívat všechny slasti a strasti. Konec mě dost překvapil a jsem zvědavá, jak to bude dál.
Kniha okamžitě putuje do oblíbených a budu se k ní ráda vracet!