A review by sjeckert
The Battle of Blood and Ink: A Fable of the Flying City by Jared Axelrod

3.0

It was an okay read, but I didn't really connect with much of the story. I don't know if I'm missing something, but it just felt too superficial and out-of-nowhere. I might have been able to forgive it if the art was more engaging, but even the art style was just meh and difficult to follow. I had a lot of trouble figuring out what was actually happening from the drawing style. Writing-wise, Ashe could have been more interesting, but there wasn't much to her other than "ooo, tough girl! who's a journalist!" So? I didn't understand her relationships and her motivations were not fleshed out very well. There's a lot more that could have been done. I understand there may not have been room in this novel, but then maybe it shouldn't be just this novel. Maybe it should have been two. Or maybe it should have been longer. I really would have liked it to be a bit longer if it could just have strengthened the characters to something that made more sense. Don't get me wrong, parts of the story were entertaining, and I was really interested in what was going on with the Provost and Ashe...actually, that's the story I wanted. This one was a bit dull and what I really wanted to know was what actually happened in those flashbacks. TL;DR: was an okay read, but nothing to get too excited about.