Review: Bloodheir by Brian Ruckley

I was a big fan of Winterbirth when i read it last year (review), so i was really looking forward to the sequel, Bloodheir. Having finished it, I am still having trouble forming my overall opinion. It seemed to take forever for me to read...close to 10 days. In fact, i almost put it down a few times to give myself a break. Each time i almost decided to put it down, i quickly changed my mind and forged ahead. Its hard to put a finger on why i had so much trouble with the book at times, which I am sure will also translate into a sloppy review. But, I will try to do the best I can.

Although the book starts with a "What Has Gone Before" section, i still had a hard time remembering some of the events from Winterbirth. Even with the cast of characters, I also had a hard time remembering which Thanes were friends of each other, and which were enemies. This is probably just a short coming on my part that affected my enjoyment of the early portions of the book. I will say, however, that like I mentioned in my review of Winterbirth, I felt the pacing in Bloodheir was a bit uneven. There continued to be large sections where not much happened, then a bunch of stuff happens at once, then it calmed down for awhile, then bamm!, a bunch of stuff happens. Of course, the "bunch of stuff" usually revolved around the battles, of which there were only a few which were pretty spaced out. For me, the first 40% of the book seemed to be mostly character conflict which I had a hard time getting into (these were the points where i almost put it down for a day or two). The second half of the book was mostly strong, and made up for the slowness of the early half.

Bloodheir continues the battle of the True Bloods against the Black Road. A lot of the focus of this book is on Aeglyss (both directly via his viewpoint, and indirectly via other characters reacting to him). The contradictions within Aeglyss continue to grow and evolve, turning him into a pretty complex character. While he becomes increasing cruel, he does have moments where you understand the motives behind his actions (though you still wont find yourself rooting for him..he is still definitely the bad guy of bad guys). In fact, in Winterbirth, it seemed that The True Bloods were supposed to be the good, and the Black Road was bad. In Bloodheir, you start to sympathize with some of the Black Road, especially Kanin...which is a big switch from how i felt about him in Winterbirth.

I think the authors overall writing continues to improve. The world in which the trilogy takes place continues to feel more real, and has an almost physical (as in you can feel/see it) presence. I will also go on record as saying, that after 2 books now, I think Ruckley writes the best battle scenes in Fantasy. They just evoke a raw, gritty, almost theatrical feel.In fact, the clarity of the battles and just the overall feeling of the world are the biggest things i like about the series so far, and what I think push it above average. The plot itself i wouldnt classify as a strength or weakness.

The biggest complaint I will make, other then the erratic pacing, was the multiple viewpoints. I am all for seeing the story from different sets of eyes, but does every fantasy book nowadays need 543 viewpoint characters? Thats obviously an exaggeration, but I wish the cast of characters (viewpoint chars) would get trimmed down. I find it harder and harder to relate with characters in most stories nowadays, since I dont seem to get to spend enough time with them before I am taken to another character. Then it often takes so long to get back to a character, I have lost that sense of "cant wait to get back to them"..and in fact, I often forget exactly what trouble they were in the middle of when i last left them. This is a general complaint against current fantasy..which Bloodheir does fall prey to at times (for me).

Overall, I think I still liked the book, but it fell short of Winterbirth for me by just a bit. If I had read Winterbirth and Bloodheir back-to-back, I bet I would have had a higher enjoyment level. If you are able to remember all the family history among the different Thanes, this might not be a problem for you. I will still be anxiously waiting for book 3, and think that book 3 has the potential to be absolutely outstanding (possibly carrying the series as a whole to the next level). In fact, I bet this series has a bigger impact on the reader if they are read together, though the final verdict on that will wait until book 3 comes out.

As for a recommendation, that is actually pretty simple. If you liked Winterbirth, you will enjoy Bloodheir. If you did not like Winterbirth, you probably wont have an interest in Bloodheir. While the writing is stronger in the sequel, the rest of the story is similiar enough that there is really nothing new (which isnt the negative comment that appears to be. Sometimes the sequel is so different from the first book that they seem like they were written by a different author..which hurts continuity).

Grade: 8.0 out of 10.0

The Sequel To Soarer's Choice? Really?

Check out the SF & F section of the Borders site, here .
Apparently they are claiming that The Elysium Commission is a sequel to Soarer's Choice. That is pretty interesting considering The Elysium Commission is actually a standalone SF novel that has nothing to do with the Corean world. (Like the Borders copywriter, I havent read The Elysium Commission, so maybe I am wrong. But from all the amazon reviews and other info I can find, the Elysium book has nothing to do with the Corean Chronicles). I assume what the Borders site meant to say was that it was Modessit's next published book after Soarer's Choice. Using "sequel" is definitely wrong, though (i hope, otherwise i look like a total idiot :) ).

Back from Vacation

We are back from vacation and all went well. Our 5 month old was practically perfect on the trip..way better than we could have hoped.

On the review front...STILL reading Bloodheir..i have been reading it for 10 days now and its really bogging down my reading. I hope to finish and have a review up thursday. Not really sure what i think of it..definitely dont like it as much as Winterbith, which i really liked. just seems to be large sections of not much happening throughout book 2.

I am also trying to catch up on all the blogs in my google reader acct..so later this evening i should have indexed all the reviews published while i was gone.