- Title:
- Blood Song (Raven’s Shadow, #1)
- By:
- Anthony Ryan
- Pages:
- 591
- Rating:
- 5
“The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm.”
Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of ten when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order. The Brothers of the Sixth Order are devoted to battle, and Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate, and dangerous life of a Warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.
Vaelin’s father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the unified realm. Vaelin’s rage at being deprived of his birthright and dropped at the doorstep of the Sixth Order like a foundling knows no bounds. He cherishes the memory of his mother, and what he will come to learn of her at the Order will confound him. His father, too, has motives that Vaelin will come to understand. But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the realm, but the world.
Nortah looked at his men, his haunted eyes distant, no doubt picturing them in battle, hacked and bloodied. “They’ll fight,” he said eventually. “Poor bastards. They’ll fight all right.”
This is an extraordinary work, and as I read I really couldn’t but help draw parallels to Hobb and Rothfuss. It’s not that Vaelin is a Kvothe or a Fitz, but something about the atmosphere and Ryan’s writing is very compelling and certainly on a par with these figures. I really need to reread to fully appreciate the subtleties, but a fine title and a brilliant way to start a series.