Blood Song
Anthony Ryan
Abandoned at the gates of the Sixth Order, Vaelin Al Sorna will be trained as a deadly warrior devoted to the Faith and his Realm. His skills with the sword are unsurpassed and he drinks in the teachings of his Order effortlessly. But is there a larger game afoot? Who is the mastermind or even the enemy?
I’m sorry. I tried to love this novel because someone I knew recommended it as superior to a Sanderson novel. My problem was that the protagonist just wasn’t very smart and the story not that gripping. It’s a pretty typical male-focused fantasy with only a token female or two. I’m used to variety in my fantasy now, so this was unlikely to meet my expectations.
I needed the Blood Song to be more apparent. In fact, it was so minor that I didn’t think that Vaelin even needed it. Sure, he trusted it some of the time, but most of the time he seemed to do what was against it regardless. Not to mention his ‘training’ is not really training with how to use it. I felt like Vaelin would be better off collecting an entourage of people he owed than bending to the will of the King.
I found myself very frustrated by the ending. I didn’t fully understand why the framing was used through the story at any point. It meant that there were no surprises or suspense for Vaelin surviving unharmed. I can hardly believe that there are two more books about him! I’m not even sure I’m motivated to read the wiki pages to see what the final ending is.
It’s not a bad novel, it’s just indifferent for me. I perhaps enjoyed the training part of the novel (that somehow takes up the first half of the novel before any action happens) most, because the real ‘action’ wasn’t really action. The ending was a real letdown. 3 stars from me.
