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lightningtiger77 's review for:
Blood Song
by Anthony Ryan
Early into my exploration of possible epic fantasy to read, I came across this one. What caught my eye the most was the average rating. Needless to say, there's very few debut novels that have that kind of well reception that don't immediately have some kind of backlash. There was a backlash, eventually, however, this was mostly due to the later books not being viewed in such high esteem. The other two books will no doubt warrant their own discussion in the future, but I think the reputation of the series is worth bringing up because what made Blood Song work so much might have to do with how long the story took to complete, while the rest of the trilogy was completed in a much shorter time span.
This book reads like a passion product, having so much detail that a reread is almost certainly needed if you want to catch all the details in the plot and setting. And while this might not be the most interesting world, by constructing it so careful, we get an environment that feels real. Not only that, but this book walks a very book line of being both a standalone story and feeling like the part of something larger. So many try to do either or, but I really enjoyed Anthony Ryan's approach to this series.
However, structure can only go so far in this type of thing. In a lot of ways, Blood Song mirrors the Name of the Wind, in the sense that we are learning about a important historical figure that is primarily responsible for the current climate of their world. So this kind of set up can only go so far, unless we have an interesting lead. Vaelin al Sorna is that lead.
At first, you might be tempted to think him a valiant do gooder that everyone loves unconditionally because he can do no wrong, this isn't exactly the case. For someone with such a strong moral center and surefooted in his beliefs, Ryan does the smart thing of constantly putting Vaelin at odds with this. Also, while he may be a capable leader and good with the sword, we see that he is not the best at everything, often needing to rely on his brothers in Faith to help him accomplish his goals. His morals and beliefs also make him a primary target for those around him that wish to use his strengths in their games of power. So often he will try to do the right thing, only for him to be forced to do something awful in exchange of that. Then Vaelin will try to steer from this path, only to forced into it and really delve into what that means for him.
For my tastes, it was a good mixture. I'll admit, sometimes his stubbornness became a little grating, particularly when it came to his Faith, self sacrifice, and self righteousness, but it was kept in check often enough and there were consequences to his actions, so I didn't mind so much.
Blood Song also features a really good cast. Starting with the members of the Sixth Order, the people Vaelin had to grow up with in his training really stood out to me. If there wasn't anything particularly interesting going on with Vaelin, we could rely on the author's ability to fall back on the strengths of their backstories. Two of my favorites of this story had to be Barkus and Nortah. The rest were just as fun, and it was interesting to watch them bounce off each other with their different personalities.
The rest of the cast that belong to the orders are a bit hit and miss. I really liked the leaders and veterans of the Sixth Order, but for the rest, particularly the romantic interest of the main character, I just didn't care. The fulfilled their given roles just fine, but didn't do much outside of that.
If it wasn't for Syrna, I don't think I'd say this book had any female characters that weren't just passable. That being said, Syrna, our resident princess, was probably the second most interesting person to have Vaelin interact with, to the point of which I really wish she had been the love interest over who we got. Now, the most interesting side-character for me had to be the king, Janus Al Nieren. From how he is built up during the course of the book, you expect a mad king, but end up with someone you almost find yourself siding with the first time Vaelin meets him. This is the type of person who seems reasonable, that will make you want to do a favor for him in exchange for him helping you out. Janus will ruthlessly have someone killed for seemingly meaningless offenses, but the more you talk to him, the more you doubt yourself. While not a straight up villain, Janus certainly was an ally and antagonist that Vaelin could never truly stand against. And I loved that.
There's a lot to like here aside from that. The action for one flows very nicely and Ryan has a habit of making even the most insignificant of battles feel grand. We don't learn a ton about all the different magics there are out there, but the ones we do go into are able to feel grounded in how they work but also otherworldly and mysterious. This can also be said for the religions as well, especially the Faith, which the author does a good job in building up what this is before crashing it down by the end. The people of this book really felt like they couldn't be divorced from their backgrounds in this world, which is always a plus in my opinion. These beliefs may feel similar, but stand out enough that it doesn't feel like the Faith has an exact equivalent in the our world.
Overall, I think Blood Song is an incredibly epic fantasy that I can see why a lot of people fell in love with. However, I don't think it resonated with me as much as other people. I'm not entirely sure why, maybe the structure took a lot of the tension out of the scenes for me or the love interest doing absolutely nothing for me. I'll have to go through it again to be sure, but for now I'll say that this was an experience I'm glad I had and while I'm wary of the next installments of this series, I do definitely want to check out more of Anthony Ryan's books. So while I'm going to put off Tower Lord for a while, right now I'm going to give Blood Song an 8/10. If you like stories about great figures telling their stories, this is definitely one to check out.
This book reads like a passion product, having so much detail that a reread is almost certainly needed if you want to catch all the details in the plot and setting. And while this might not be the most interesting world, by constructing it so careful, we get an environment that feels real. Not only that, but this book walks a very book line of being both a standalone story and feeling like the part of something larger. So many try to do either or, but I really enjoyed Anthony Ryan's approach to this series.
However, structure can only go so far in this type of thing. In a lot of ways, Blood Song mirrors the Name of the Wind, in the sense that we are learning about a important historical figure that is primarily responsible for the current climate of their world. So this kind of set up can only go so far, unless we have an interesting lead. Vaelin al Sorna is that lead.
At first, you might be tempted to think him a valiant do gooder that everyone loves unconditionally because he can do no wrong, this isn't exactly the case. For someone with such a strong moral center and surefooted in his beliefs, Ryan does the smart thing of constantly putting Vaelin at odds with this. Also, while he may be a capable leader and good with the sword, we see that he is not the best at everything, often needing to rely on his brothers in Faith to help him accomplish his goals. His morals and beliefs also make him a primary target for those around him that wish to use his strengths in their games of power. So often he will try to do the right thing, only for him to be forced to do something awful in exchange of that. Then Vaelin will try to steer from this path, only to forced into it and really delve into what that means for him.
For my tastes, it was a good mixture. I'll admit, sometimes his stubbornness became a little grating, particularly when it came to his Faith, self sacrifice, and self righteousness, but it was kept in check often enough and there were consequences to his actions, so I didn't mind so much.
Blood Song also features a really good cast. Starting with the members of the Sixth Order, the people Vaelin had to grow up with in his training really stood out to me. If there wasn't anything particularly interesting going on with Vaelin, we could rely on the author's ability to fall back on the strengths of their backstories. Two of my favorites of this story had to be Barkus and Nortah. The rest were just as fun, and it was interesting to watch them bounce off each other with their different personalities.
The rest of the cast that belong to the orders are a bit hit and miss. I really liked the leaders and veterans of the Sixth Order, but for the rest, particularly the romantic interest of the main character, I just didn't care. The fulfilled their given roles just fine, but didn't do much outside of that.
If it wasn't for Syrna, I don't think I'd say this book had any female characters that weren't just passable. That being said, Syrna, our resident princess, was probably the second most interesting person to have Vaelin interact with, to the point of which I really wish she had been the love interest over who we got. Now, the most interesting side-character for me had to be the king, Janus Al Nieren. From how he is built up during the course of the book, you expect a mad king, but end up with someone you almost find yourself siding with the first time Vaelin meets him. This is the type of person who seems reasonable, that will make you want to do a favor for him in exchange for him helping you out. Janus will ruthlessly have someone killed for seemingly meaningless offenses, but the more you talk to him, the more you doubt yourself. While not a straight up villain, Janus certainly was an ally and antagonist that Vaelin could never truly stand against. And I loved that.
There's a lot to like here aside from that. The action for one flows very nicely and Ryan has a habit of making even the most insignificant of battles feel grand. We don't learn a ton about all the different magics there are out there, but the ones we do go into are able to feel grounded in how they work but also otherworldly and mysterious. This can also be said for the religions as well, especially the Faith, which the author does a good job in building up what this is before crashing it down by the end. The people of this book really felt like they couldn't be divorced from their backgrounds in this world, which is always a plus in my opinion. These beliefs may feel similar, but stand out enough that it doesn't feel like the Faith has an exact equivalent in the our world.
Overall, I think Blood Song is an incredibly epic fantasy that I can see why a lot of people fell in love with. However, I don't think it resonated with me as much as other people. I'm not entirely sure why, maybe the structure took a lot of the tension out of the scenes for me or the love interest doing absolutely nothing for me. I'll have to go through it again to be sure, but for now I'll say that this was an experience I'm glad I had and while I'm wary of the next installments of this series, I do definitely want to check out more of Anthony Ryan's books. So while I'm going to put off Tower Lord for a while, right now I'm going to give Blood Song an 8/10. If you like stories about great figures telling their stories, this is definitely one to check out.