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Raven's Shadow: Blood Song


Corvinus85

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I finished this book a couple of days ago. First off, for a debut novel, it's fantastic. I liked that the author basically embraced the idea that his hero was going to be a badass and was going to act like it. He's definitely trying to write "heroic" fantasy, and that's fine.



That said, there are a few problems. First, the entire novel is basically told through a single POV and 580+ pages of that kind of drags and doesn't leave a whole heck of a lot of room for character growth at this point. I also thought that the King Janus character was a bit of a cartoon. I don't want to give anything away, but the King's motivations for this big thing that happens is never really made clear. In fact, it just seems dumb. Maybe the next book will fix that though. Also, the world doesn't quite seem real. I don't get the sense of deep history, of stories untold. To be fair though, some of that may be purposeful and not necessarily a limitation of the author.



But, it's a good book overall. Anthony Ryan is definitely on my list of up and coming fantasy authors.


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How good is this book compared to ASOIAF?

I mean, how do you compare them? They're different. This is a well written fantasy book about a warrior monk basically. It's excellent at what it sets out to do. It doesn't reinvent the wheel though and it certainly isn't as epic as ASOIAF. Well worth the read. I loved it.

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It really isn't comparable to ASOIAF, except for the fact that they both take place in made up worlds where people have swords and there's magic and stuff.



ASOIAF is epic high fantasy. Blood Song is more ground-level militaristic heroic fantasy.


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It really isn't comparable to ASOIAF, except for the fact that they both take place in made up worlds where people have swords and there's magic and stuff.

ASOIAF is epic high fantasy. Blood Song is more ground-level militaristic heroic fantasy.

Blood Song is nowhere near as polished. It's got plot holes and jagged edges everywhere. I also thought a specific fact about the ending strained credulity. That said, it is highly enjoyable.

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Blood Song is nowhere near as polished. It's got plot holes and jagged edges everywhere. I also thought a specific fact about the ending strained credulity. That said, it is highly enjoyable.

If you're talking about the big reveal, I'm totally with you on that.

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Having just read it, I can assure that it is indeed very good. At the same time, it is not the seconding coming of A Song of Ice and Fire, if that is the metric we are using. And, if that is the goal here, I can only say that the wait will be very long.



That said, I compare Blood Song very favorably to other celebrated fantasy literature from the past decade or so, especially as the first book in a series. It definitely sits comfortably with The Name of the Wind, The Blade Itself, Gardens of the Moon, The Lies of Locke Lamora, and so on.


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It's a good read. It feels like Batman Begins crossed with The Name of the Wind, with all the positives and negatives implied in that.

I'm very impressed that the author self-published, found a significant audience, got a book deal and editor and is now publishing the second volume. That all sounds harder than any of the tests of the sixth order.

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  • 3 months later...

One more month until Tower Lord comes out.

It's surprised me that I've not been able to find a single advance review for the book so far.

comes out the same day as the new Abercrombie, that's a tough call.

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I guess I don't remember the book well enough to recall the ragged edges and plot holes. Anyone care to fill me in? In spoiler tags maybe.

There was apparently a big difference between the first ebook and the actual hardcopy version. I only read the hardcover, but there are reviews around that talk about it.

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