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leelah 's review for:
Blood Song
by Anthony Ryan
4,5 stars
I didn't get to reread Blood Song before release of book #2 even though I planned it, so I decided to plan better this year and crack open my shiny paperbacks. Hence, the reread before release of final book in trilogy and my first read of revised edition.
****
It is not rare to see word 'traditional' thrown in as something less than favorable or flawing about fantasy book. I am not blind to linear and constant, even rigid, rules of world-building and characterization established in well-known great works of genre, but I also think that traditional doesn't always have to mean that book is bad or that you can't enjoy it.
That being said, [b:Blood Song|13569581|Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1)|Anthony Ryan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421573407s/13569581.jpg|19148922] is a heroic fantasy with traditional vibe and somewhat predictable plot.
And I enjoyed the hell out of it.
From the first sentence Ryan is making it clear what kind of book you're getting into. There is kind of a "Once upon a time.." and "Let me tell you a story..." feel to it that calls for sitting by the fire images and make me think about Peter Falk in The Princess Bride - it's a just one of those stories. You know, the one about hero saving the day. ;)
And that's it- Blood Song is very straightforward that way in its delivery. It opens with a first person pov from character who is taking our hero to his trial test that will quite possibly result in his death and whose purpose it to be witness and write his story. We get back to him before every part in book, but the meat (and the bones) is the real account we get to read as Vaelin remembers how he got to that point.
Vaelin Al Sorna in his thirties is already a legendary hero, a warrior and vital figure of Unified Realm's war against Alpirian Empire. He is so feared they often attribute some kind of unnatural powers to him; he is so hated that entire nation is willing to forgive a senseless war for a chance to judge him and kill him. The story opens with the scene of him joining the Sixth Order (elite warrior order of Unified Realm) and we become aware from the very start that great things are expected of him. His father is a Battle Lord and almost as (in)famous as Vaelin himself so he comes with the baggage- you are thinking he is trying because he has to live up to his father's reputation, only to see Vaelin has to live up to predestined path. Big chunk (3/4) of the book is dealing with Vaelin's training and becoming the skilled Brother of the Sixth Order. He has adventures, trouble often finds him, he escapes death and saves lives, he endures all the tests and he is shaping into legend we are promised at the beginning. On the surface, he is too perfect, too noble, too everything, but the more I read the more I realized his life was already directed to play in certain way by more powerful beings, Gods and like. Author actually made a point of telling us that he is the best swordsman in his group, but he is only passable rider, bowman, tracker... He doesn't see things right away, for he lacks the cunning for majority of novel, which is ok- he learns on his mistakes, but it's hard to think about choices he made as his own- he is right where he supposed to be, dong right what he's meant to do.
Vaelin is checking all the boxes on traditional fantasy hero trope, which doesn't mean that story isn't compelling. I personally liked the fact that following one person, a key player, we actually get to see the bigger picture of events happening in Realm and surrounding lands. Vaelin doesn't dwell much on figuring why something is the way it is- he accepts it the way it is which assured me that I am getting pretty much unfiltered account of events. So, when you think about it, it's very easy to see that king he's fighting for is very wrong, that battles are futile and illogical and that Fate Sixth Order is practicing religiously is bunch of bullshit. It makes you question whether is he a hero or a fool several times. It's a nice pondering piece and one development I liked very much.
Side characters are good- big thing about warrior books is the sense of camaraderie and I feel that Ryan managed to create that with Vaelin and his fellow brothers of the Sixth Order: Dentos, Northa, Frentis, Brackus and Caenis. All of them were distinctive and had some kind of backstory I wanted to know more about.
The reason for my rating comes from the fact hat I felt that narrative and pace changed too much (or too late, depending how you see it). We got every little thing that happened during his training described in details only for end events and battles to be a little rushed and with some loose ends that demand for next book to be picked up right away.