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benj_78 's review for:
Bloodchild
by Anna Stephens
Honestly, I got worn down with the POVs very early and basically skipped to the end of this book to "complete" the trilogy. It's not fair to said I read it, however, I feel like I got enough of an ending to the story to be satisfied.
Aside from the POVs, which never let me settle into the story well, this series is just too dark for me. Much like the "Dark Age" installment of the Red Rising series, there's just too much despair and suffering for me to enjoy myself while reading. I read books to escape from reality and entertain myself. Rather than escaping, I found myself constantly trying to understand why anybody would follow these red gods. We spend about half of the runtime with these evil bastards, so we should understand them a little bit. But it's just ludicrous that anybody would pray for torture and bloodshed on this scale.
I think back to another series, "The Emperor's Blades", that also had some unsavory gods in it. But that author spent a fair amount of time explaining how the Skullsworn's respect for death is what propelled them to truly savor life. They didn't worship death directly; rather they saw death as a release, a gift of completing a life lived to the fullest. Sick and twisted, for sure, but also rings a bit of truth. Just enough that I bought that devotion. This series doesn't bother explaining why Corvus' "feet are on the path". They just are and he wants them to stay firmly planted. OK...
All that being said, I did, obviously, want to stick this out for as long as I could and find out how the story ended. Ms. Stephens has a gift for writing. It's definitely a unique series, to say the least.
Aside from the POVs, which never let me settle into the story well, this series is just too dark for me. Much like the "Dark Age" installment of the Red Rising series, there's just too much despair and suffering for me to enjoy myself while reading. I read books to escape from reality and entertain myself. Rather than escaping, I found myself constantly trying to understand why anybody would follow these red gods. We spend about half of the runtime with these evil bastards, so we should understand them a little bit. But it's just ludicrous that anybody would pray for torture and bloodshed on this scale.
I think back to another series, "The Emperor's Blades", that also had some unsavory gods in it. But that author spent a fair amount of time explaining how the Skullsworn's respect for death is what propelled them to truly savor life. They didn't worship death directly; rather they saw death as a release, a gift of completing a life lived to the fullest. Sick and twisted, for sure, but also rings a bit of truth. Just enough that I bought that devotion. This series doesn't bother explaining why Corvus' "feet are on the path". They just are and he wants them to stay firmly planted. OK...
All that being said, I did, obviously, want to stick this out for as long as I could and find out how the story ended. Ms. Stephens has a gift for writing. It's definitely a unique series, to say the least.