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jester_reviews 's review for:
The Bladed Faith
by David Dalglish
Like Empire of Exiles, I had many doubts about this book during the opening chapters. I wasn't connecting with any of the characters; the world seemed too big, and I thought it would be another DNF. But like the aforementioned book, I decided to persist and was rewarded with an experience I absolutely do not regret at all.
The Bladed Faith is ultimately a story about colonization, the erasure of other people's faiths, and the price of revenge. Now, I am always down for a good revenge story. I love talking about its intricacies and how it affects everyone. This book delivered tenfold. So many raw lines made me stop and think, "oh yeah, I never thought about it that way. That's good." Cyrus' journey from brat prince seeing his nation fall to the head of a rebellion topossible man-made god???? WHAT is incredible. It's great, it's fun, and I was rooting for him the whole damn way.
This is incredibly petty, but I still need to point it out. For those who don't know, I recently read Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu. In said review, this was one of my chief complaints:
The Bladed Faith is ultimately a story about colonization, the erasure of other people's faiths, and the price of revenge. Now, I am always down for a good revenge story. I love talking about its intricacies and how it affects everyone. This book delivered tenfold. So many raw lines made me stop and think, "oh yeah, I never thought about it that way. That's good." Cyrus' journey from brat prince seeing his nation fall to the head of a rebellion to
This is incredibly petty, but I still need to point it out. For those who don't know, I recently read Dragon Rider by Taran Matharu. In said review, this was one of my chief complaints:
Something about the book that made me raise my eyebrows was other parts of the worldbuilding. For one thing, why the Sabines kidnap the Steppemen royals and force them into indentured servitude is completely ridiculous. Typically, empires will kill enemy royals in a show of power, or they will take the royals as political prisoners. Enemy royals are typically confined to the castle/grounds, watched continuously, and offered little privacy or ways to escape. Forcing them to work is how you breed resentment and hatred, and especially when you let one of them sleep in the same room as powerful political figures. That is how you end up with an assassination. I understand why this had to happen but that doesn't mean it makes sense.
I don't know who was listening, or maybe this was just divine intervention, but this book quite literally had an INCREDIBLY similar setup with Cyrus being taken in as a ward by the Everlorn Empire. I was about to get all mad again, but I realized that at least this time...this dude was actually a prisoner. He was paraded around in his empire as a sort of "beacon of hope"; he was essentially trapped within the castle and was watched over by the regent, and most importantly, didn't even sleep in the same room as any of the new royals. So congrats, Dalglish. You actually got that right.
I saw many people complain in reviews that the first 100 or so pages of this novel is essentially training. Yeah, that's true. I understand how that can put off some people. But it's good training. I personally don't think it overstayed its welcome. A good training arc is necessary when your fantasy protagonist is essentially starting from square one, and even during that time, a lot of world-building and character-building was littered throughout those pages. Things were still happening, but it wasn't Cyrus taking the lead. And once that training arc did end, it was fun.
What bothered me the most was the weird, uneven POV jumping. Usually in books like this, there would be a set cycle (character 1, character 2, character 3, then back to 1), or at least a mostly even amount of POV chapters. Here there were about...8? Cyrus, Mari, Stasia, Sinshei, Magus, Rayan, Soma, Arn, and the Vagrant (who is just Cyrus). Arn doesn't even appear as a character until about midway through the book, and most of the villains don't get too many POV chapters. This was interesting and I'd never really seen a book do this (or if I did, it was so long ago I don't remember it), but some characters got a little left behind because of it.
I know this is a story about colonization and killing culture (thus represented with the literal slaying of gods. I know real Gods aren't original in High Fantasy, but the way this book crafts them, damn, it's good), but the Everlorn Empire feels...very cookie cutter, which is fine! They're the big, bad, evil colonizer empire that wants to take over the world and spread their religion everywhere. Hell, even their homophobia and transphobia is shown to have a negative effect (i wish this book actually had prominent transgender or "crossed/twice-born" characters, but hopefully, we'll see them in the next two books). On the one hand, I like them as villains; they work well, etc. My one thing is that...why even bother with Thanet? I never really got that. It didn't feel like there was any other reason to conquer them other than "we gotta do it." Thanet didn't seem to have any other resources or interesting people with powers. It was just another check box to them, which is fine! I would have just liked to see more because colonization also tends to come with one powerful nation wanting other resources. Colonization just for the sake of colonization and murdering all the natives feels very mustache twirly/OTT level vilainy.
Onto the characters!
In terms of functionality, Cyrus is a good character. His lines and thought process about revenge and faith and anger were poignant yet thought-provoking. I rooted for him throughout his trials, and I gasped at the end when there were many revelations which...ho boy! That's gonna be a lot to unpack in the next book! But I couldn't really connect with him all that much. I know for a fact this is 100% a me thing because as I said before, he's good for his function, but there's a certain je ne sais quoi (or as I put it: QUAH!) that prevents me from falling in love with him. I'll meditate on this, but hopefully I can become more attached in the next book.
Do you know how hard I screamed when I realized we actually got a butch/femme relationship in a fantasy book???? Because by god, I knew I had to give this book props where so many others faltered. And to top it all off, Stasia is a beast of a character!!! She's got muscles!! She's tall!!! She's not feminine at ALL and that's not a character flaw!!! I am here for her and her journey, and I love her and Clarissa. An established relationship is always a plus for me because we actually get to see the couple BE a couple, and they're not shunted off to the side at all! Plus her relationship with her sister is SO CUTE!!! I want more of her.
AND this book has a plus-size character who is badass in her own way??? I didn't expect to like Mari at all, thinking she was going to be Cyrus's love interest and put in the background, but I was SO wrong, and I'm extremely happy about it. She mostly stayed in the background, and I really hope she gets more of a spotlight in the next book, but I loved her little storyline about not being able to connect to her homeland due to her being the younger sister. I hope she gets more attention in the next book.
Rayan was fine. He served his purpose, but the storyline surrounding his faith gripped me. And honestly, sort of the plot implications surrounding his storyline interested me way more than himself.
Arn showed up VERY late in the game as our bruiser and...he kinda didn't do much? He was extra support during battles, and his status as an ex-paragon who possibly killed a god is interesting...but I supposed Dalglish is saving that for book two. I'll have to wait and see.
Our villains range from extremely interesting to one-note cool guys that are meant to be taken down. Magus is the prime example of the latter, who is all power-hungry and brute strength and not subtle at all. Very OTT, but I was still cheering when his very predictable end was met. Goldleaf could have been a way more compelling character, especially concerning his relationship with Cyrus, but we didn't really...get that? It was mostly told to us and I wish we got to see a little more of how they interacted. Sinshei, I will say, is probably the most interesting villain. She's very much giving Prince Zuko in that she's a baddie against the baddies, but I don't think she's meant to be redeemed. She's still an awful person who fully believes in her colonization goal. She very much has her own ambitions and is constantly thwarted by men physically stronger than her, but her alliance with the incredibly mysterious and OP Soma is saving her ass. Extremely compelling.
I initially compared this to Empire of Exiles, but this is WAY more approachable for people who aren't so into fantasy. I highly recommend it and can't wait to see what happens next.