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A review by barnstormingbooks
Bloodsworn by Scott Reintgen
3.0
The first Ashlord book introduced some interesting characters and elements into a Hunger Games-esk fantasy. The Ashlords have ruled heavily through the interventions of their brutal Gods over the Divinians who are treated as serfs at best. The Longhands are former Ashlords who denied the Gods and paid a blood price for their choice. During the annual races Imelda (Divinian) (an excellently written female protagonist) defies the Ashlords by jumping the fences and running into the mountains stealing the magic horse and all the gear provided to her. She joins up with a group of rebels and immediately joins the guerilla war. Adrian (Longhand) (a threadbare male protagonist who seems to be 90% man-candy and 10% sentient being) loses the race in the last lengths to a dirty trick of the Gods, launching the war his Daddy (not kidding that's the only way the man is referred to) has been planning all along against the Ashlords.
Blood Sworn drops us into the middle of that war... And this is when I almost checked out. I'm over the fantasy war epic. Good vs Evil is an overplayed and ridiculous troupe. If I wanted that I would watch any of the 900 Marvel or DC movies. But I stuck it out. The Ashlord Race Champion turned General starts to have some interesting misgivings when the Gods gift her enslaved magic soldiers. This turns the tide of the book, as the protagonists start to look hard at why they are at war, and who it benefits. Spoiler - IT'S THE GODS! Through a number of interesting twists Imelda, Pippa and Adrian end up in the underworld fighting to remake their own world.
The battle scenes still tend to make me yawn. I'm not that into action for action's sake and this book gets a little indulgent in those scenes. I do like that some defeats come at the strategic genius of the female leads. The utopian ending attempts at a full socialism that seems to be a little far fetched given the societies it is replacing, but it does end the duology with a YA level hopeful future. There is also a lack of balance between the male characters who tend to be very one dimensional and the rich female characters... which is a nice surprise from a CIS male author.
Overall this is a fun duology. I'm glad Oregon Battle of the Books put them on my radar. However, I was disappointed that the use of the phoenix horses was pretty minimal in the second book, especially when Blood Sworn was the name of the alchemy for the horses.
Blood Sworn drops us into the middle of that war... And this is when I almost checked out. I'm over the fantasy war epic. Good vs Evil is an overplayed and ridiculous troupe. If I wanted that I would watch any of the 900 Marvel or DC movies. But I stuck it out. The Ashlord Race Champion turned General starts to have some interesting misgivings when the Gods gift her enslaved magic soldiers. This turns the tide of the book, as the protagonists start to look hard at why they are at war, and who it benefits. Spoiler - IT'S THE GODS! Through a number of interesting twists Imelda, Pippa and Adrian end up in the underworld fighting to remake their own world.
The battle scenes still tend to make me yawn. I'm not that into action for action's sake and this book gets a little indulgent in those scenes. I do like that some defeats come at the strategic genius of the female leads. The utopian ending attempts at a full socialism that seems to be a little far fetched given the societies it is replacing, but it does end the duology with a YA level hopeful future. There is also a lack of balance between the male characters who tend to be very one dimensional and the rich female characters... which is a nice surprise from a CIS male author.
Overall this is a fun duology. I'm glad Oregon Battle of the Books put them on my radar. However, I was disappointed that the use of the phoenix horses was pretty minimal in the second book, especially when Blood Sworn was the name of the alchemy for the horses.