Scan barcode
A review by fantasyfunk
Scourge of the Betrayer: Bloodsounder's ARC Book One by Jeff Salyards
3.0
So I had a hard time with this book. On the one hand, the writing is excellent, it's grimdark, and I always love some snarky characters. On the other, I just couldn't seem to get into the story. I will say I'm always scared to read books where I've read a lot of great reviews beforehand. Sometimes i think my expectations are just too high going in.
I don't have a problem being thrown straight into a book and taking time to have the story and the world revealed to me. I have read Malazan after all. =) In Scourge, however, I really felt like it took almost until the last 15% of the book to get any sense of the story at all, but I think that's the fault of the narration style. The book is told from the viewpoint of Arki, a scribe hired by Captain Braylar to chronicle the actions of him and his men. Since Arki is kept in the dark about the master plan as a new recruit, so are we. This seemed to work for a lot of other people, but I guess I just wish that we'd gotten more pieces of the puzzle before the end. There are certainly moments where you know all is not as it seems, but they didn't seem connected enough to me to hint about where we're going. I will say this slow burn definitely picks up and I read the second half of the book much faster even if it was only the last 15% or so where I was excited to finally see the point of everything coming to fruition. I just didn't like having to think "Oh so that's what we're doing here" at the end of the book rather than "AH-HA! I guessed it!" or "OH SHIT! That makes sense."
Even if I didn't connect with the story, there were lots of of good things in this book. The combat is fantastic and I really appreciated the realism. Warhorses are trained to fight too and they can do a lot of damage. It's always refreshing to me when an author actually has soldiers get hurt in battle and act accordingly. Not every shot or stab can be a kill shot.
The characters are also great. Arki is a great narrator and we're privy to his awkward beginning interactions with the group and continual disbelief that he signed up for this ride. Captain Braylar and his men are typical grimdark characters - crude and blunt yet charismatic. We don't get a ton of time with the whole group and I really liked Lloi, the lone woman amongst the men. She is one of the characters we get to see the most so I don't know how much that affected her being my favorite character.
I would recommend this book just with a caveat that it definitely takes some time to get to the meat. I just really wish I had fallen more for the slow burn than I did. I will say, however, that I'm going to pick up Book 2 and 3. Partly because so many people love this series so I have hope and partly because I did start to enjoy it more especially at the end. I think if Scourge had maybe been a little longer I might have even been willing to give it 3.5 or 4 stars.
I don't have a problem being thrown straight into a book and taking time to have the story and the world revealed to me. I have read Malazan after all. =) In Scourge, however, I really felt like it took almost until the last 15% of the book to get any sense of the story at all, but I think that's the fault of the narration style. The book is told from the viewpoint of Arki, a scribe hired by Captain Braylar to chronicle the actions of him and his men. Since Arki is kept in the dark about the master plan as a new recruit, so are we. This seemed to work for a lot of other people, but I guess I just wish that we'd gotten more pieces of the puzzle before the end. There are certainly moments where you know all is not as it seems, but they didn't seem connected enough to me to hint about where we're going. I will say this slow burn definitely picks up and I read the second half of the book much faster even if it was only the last 15% or so where I was excited to finally see the point of everything coming to fruition. I just didn't like having to think "Oh so that's what we're doing here" at the end of the book rather than "AH-HA! I guessed it!" or "OH SHIT! That makes sense."
Even if I didn't connect with the story, there were lots of of good things in this book. The combat is fantastic and I really appreciated the realism. Warhorses are trained to fight too and they can do a lot of damage. It's always refreshing to me when an author actually has soldiers get hurt in battle and act accordingly. Not every shot or stab can be a kill shot.
The characters are also great. Arki is a great narrator and we're privy to his awkward beginning interactions with the group and continual disbelief that he signed up for this ride. Captain Braylar and his men are typical grimdark characters - crude and blunt yet charismatic. We don't get a ton of time with the whole group and I really liked Lloi, the lone woman amongst the men. She is one of the characters we get to see the most so I don't know how much that affected her being my favorite character.
I would recommend this book just with a caveat that it definitely takes some time to get to the meat. I just really wish I had fallen more for the slow burn than I did. I will say, however, that I'm going to pick up Book 2 and 3. Partly because so many people love this series so I have hope and partly because I did start to enjoy it more especially at the end. I think if Scourge had maybe been a little longer I might have even been willing to give it 3.5 or 4 stars.