Blood of Requiem (Song of Dragons #1)

May 08, 2012 Stephanie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-lending-library-book, fantasy

I wasn't going to write a review because I dont really like leaving bad ones... but the reviews here on GoodReads totally led me astray this time and I want to help prevent somebody else from doing the same as me! The product description on Amazon invites comparison to GRR Martin's A Game of Thrones, so I will a little too.

The only similarities I could see: both fantasy novels, both have dragons, and both have multiple perspectives on the story. The similarities, for me, end there.

What delight...more

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Jun 04, 2011 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

The vivid image on the cover drew me to this novel, and I am happy I have read it.

Blood of Requiem is a well-crafted novel, with strong, flowing prose, well-developed characters and a fast moving plot that keeps the reader engaged. The story follows the struggles of a few survivors of the Vis Requis to evade the evil King Dies Irae, who hunts these dragon people he calls weredragons mercilessly, aided by a host of griffins.

The plot is quite straightforward, with a few minor subplots. It allows...more

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May 28, 2011 Ken Badertscher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011

Lyrical but tedious

The first thing that struck me about Blood of Requiem was the majestic prose. It catches you right from the start and grabs your attention. There’s some powerful wordcraft at work here. Unfortunately the characters and story don’t fulfill the promise made by the strong prologue. The flow of Daniel Arenson’s writing is wonderful, and his descriptions are solid, but most of the characters in Blood of Requiem cling to a single defining idea and don’t show the range of emotion or...more Lyrical but tedious

The first thing that struck me about Blood of Requiem was the majestic prose. It catches you right from the start and grabs your attention. There’s some powerful wordcraft at work here. Unfortunately the characters and story don’t fulfill the promise made by the strong prologue. The flow of Daniel Arenson’s writing is wonderful, and his descriptions are solid, but most of the characters in Blood of Requiem cling to a single defining idea and don’t show the range of emotion or nuance you’d expect from a real personality. There are a few exceptions; the young Vir Requis (weredragons) Kyrie Eleison and Agnus Dei have a bit more depth to them. For the rest, a word or two is sufficient to encapsulate the whole of the character. Dies Irae lives up to his name: angry. Benedictus is gruff and noble. Gloriae is arrogant and cruel. Lacrimosa is pretty and weak.

This brings me to another point: the distracting nature of the nomenclature in this novel. All the main characters are named after phrases from Christian rites or hymns – or maybe just cribbed from Mozart’s Requiem mass, I’m not sure. Even the place names are derived from Latin or Greek. Requiem – mass for the dead – is the destroyed realm of the Vir Requis. Fort Sanctus – holy – is the destroyed seaside tower where Kyrie grew up. Confutatis – silence (of the damned) – is the capital city of the cruel leader Dies Irae – day of wrath. Dies Irae’s griffin mount is Volucris – Latin for flying creature. The leader of the “real” dragons is Nehushtan – a term for a sacred Hebrew relic in the form of a snake. These are interesting choices, and they provide shades of meaning for readers in the know. The problem I have with it is that these are powerful words and phrases in themselves, drawn from the history of Christendom, and they impart more than just shades of meaning. I found it a huge distraction to be thinking about the parts of a Requiem mass, or the prayers of an ancient Christian liturgy while trying to read a fantasy work. I would have been a lot more comfortable with less impactful character and place names.

The world of Blood of Requiem is broad and imaginative. Arenson’s biggest strength is the power of his descriptions, and he uses that to good effect describing the various lands and settings through which his characters move. The seaside tower of Fort Sanctus, early in the novel, is particularly vivid. The descriptions of combat are intense. The physical descriptions of characters are detailed. But… (you knew there was going to be a but here, didn’t you) that’s really all there is to the novel. The plot is weak, involving nothing much more gripping than a long, long, long long long chase around the world. The descriptions of dragons soaring over seas and mountains and meadows and forests are gorgeous, but eventually they get repetitive. There is very little tension or layered conflict built in to the story.

This lack of rising and falling in the plot leads to another weakness of the novel, and that is the repetitive internal monologue and reactions of characters to each other. Because there is nothing much really going on, there’s a lot of space to fill, and when Arenson isn’t filling it with his outstanding descriptions, he fills it with characters pondering about one thing or another. After a while, I grew very weary of the mooning of the Vir Requis and their yearning for the majesty of their splendorous past. I wanted to strangle Lacrimosa after the tenth or twelfth time she broke into tears over some minor setback. And I really got the fact that Dies Irae’s childhood trauma turned him into a monster, after the first couple times I read it – the continuous reminders were unnecessary.

Overall, the novel is a good read, but the lack of variety in the characters and the aimless narrative prevent me from giving it a very hearty recommendation. The book’s redemption is its outstanding description and strong action sequences. The book is very strong technically as well: it’s one of the cleanest indie novels I’ve read, in terms of layout and editing. Anne Victory (credited as copy editor in the acknowledgements) is a huge reason for why the book is as good as it is. I salute Arenson for taking the time and effort to polish Blood of Requiem, and I am curious to see what he does with the rest of the series, because there’s a lot of potential here.(less)

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May 24, 2011 Blodeuedd Finland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

My thoughts:
I do not read e-books that often since I only have my borrowed reader from the library. But when I got an email from Arenson I knew I had to read this book. Because I got a taste of his writing in the anthology Kiss Me, Kill Me and it was good.

This is the first book in a planned trilogy and I like the world building. The Reqiem were humans who could transform into dragons, but then they were killed and hunted to extinction. It was bloody and it was horrible. The man who did it was a...more My thoughts:
I do not read e-books that often since I only have my borrowed reader from the library. But when I got an email from Arenson I knew I had to read this book. Because I got a taste of his writing in the anthology Kiss Me, Kill Me and it was good.

This is the first book in a planned trilogy and I like the world building. The Reqiem were humans who could transform into dragons, but then they were killed and hunted to extinction. It was bloody and it was horrible. The man who did it was a prince who was meant to rule the land but he could not shift so he grew angry. This book then takes place 10 years later and there are survivors, but the future is bleak.

First I must say that this book has a bad guy that I just wanted to strangle. She was so evil! I have not read about such an evil character in quite some time. Her name is Gloriae and she is the daughter of Dies Irae (who in his turn is an evil bastard too), but I was mostly angry with Gloriae. Because she was actually good and was kidnapped by him. She was the daughter of the Requiem King Benedictus and his wife (bit does not know it). Sure if a person is raised evil she can turn evil but I wished she had seen the error of her way. Her father rapes a women, kills a peasant and she laughs? She should think for herself and see it's wrong. There you have it, the evil duo. Remarkable done since it was those two that had me wanting to read more and more, wishing they would die.

I spent enough time talking about the bad guys, but they just brought forward a lot of emotions. The good guys are Benedictus, poor man and Kyrie who is a young reqiuem and…, oh I will save some secrets. I liked Kyrie, he really wanted to fight back even though they had no force at all. But he was angry and who could blame him.

One more thing. People are blind and stupid. The dragons never did any harm, but Dies came with his lies and people believed and now the dragons are thought of as monsters. That is what one wicked cruel man can do with words. And those that spoke down were hunted down. I still hope they will see right from wrong.

The book isn't that dark, but at the same time it is very bleak, because how can I have hope when there is no way they can survive or fight back? I really need to know what happens next.

Conclusion:
This book had me turning page after page to see what happens. It's exciting and good with fleshed out characters that will make you scream. I want to read more of this series and I would recommend this fantasy author to others.

Rating:
Page-turner
(less)

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Jan 05, 2013 Read2review rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-for-read-2-review

I read Blood of Requiem by Daniel Arenson for this week’s review. It is about a race, the Vir Requis, of humans who have the magic to transform into dragons at will. Their prince, who did not possess the magic, destroyed almost the entire race of Vir Requis. His jealousy and shame drove him to unspeakable acts of cruelty as he usurped the power of the Kings and the land and turned his hometown to ruin.

Honestly, I’m not really sure how I feel about this novel. I want to really like it because the...more I read Blood of Requiem by Daniel Arenson for this week’s review. It is about a race, the Vir Requis, of humans who have the magic to transform into dragons at will. Their prince, who did not possess the magic, destroyed almost the entire race of Vir Requis. His jealousy and shame drove him to unspeakable acts of cruelty as he usurped the power of the Kings and the land and turned his hometown to ruin.

Honestly, I’m not really sure how I feel about this novel. I want to really like it because the writing is absolutely beautiful. The style and usage of wording is something that should be studied by aspiring writers. I also want to like this novel because the plot, the settings, the suspense at times and the overall theme of the story were also very well done and highly thought out. I can appreciate the amount of work that went into writing a book like this.

However, I do not, by any means, recommend this book for anyone of young age nor do I recommend this book for feminists or men with strong views about violence against women. The acts of cruelty can be very graphic and, to be frank, unnecessary at times when it came to timing within the book. The women, if they weren’t weak were portrayed reckless or naïve. If they were weak, which all of them were except for two characters in which one was reckless and the other was naïve, they were all sexually assaulted at some point or another. Some women even died in the process.

The ending was a little disappointing to me. Not because the problems were not resolved leaving room for a new book. But because it was painfully obvious that the author wrote the characters to do very stupid things, which were completely out of their normal characteristics, in order to make way for a second book. After experiencing such beautiful and thought out writing in the whole book to end with a flurry of clichés and thoughtless plot twists just left me feeling extremely annoyed when I put the book down for the last time. I may read the next two books just to see how the story ends, but it’s not high on my personal list.

I give this book a 3.75/5 for the beautiful writing and overall plot.(less)

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Oct 17, 2012 Melody rated it 2 of 5 stars

Read this book out loud on the 15 hour drive home from vacation, I thought it would be something my son and my partner might enjoy over something I might've picked for myself. It was an ok book, not great, not horrible. Its characters were a bit shallow, it was fairly repetitive and somewhat predictable. Honestly this genre isnt something I often read so Im probably not the best one to be reviewing it, but I do have a few books that seem comparative to this one on my list of to read books (Game...more

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Aug 03, 2012 Juli Rahel rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. As Arenson did in The Gods of Dream he spends a lot of time on the surroundings of his characters. Castles and landscapes are described in such a form that I could see them before me while reading. I have noticed that this is missing in a lot of literature, where an author simply leaves it to the reader to fill the gaps. Thanksfully Arenson does create atmosphere and setting.

I am a huge fantasy fan, but a lot of books that call themselves fantasy are not what I would...more I really enjoyed this book. As Arenson did in The Gods of Dream he spends a lot of time on the surroundings of his characters. Castles and landscapes are described in such a form that I could see them before me while reading. I have noticed that this is missing in a lot of literature, where an author simply leaves it to the reader to fill the gaps. Thanksfully Arenson does create atmosphere and setting.

I am a huge fantasy fan, but a lot of books that call themselves fantasy are not what I would call fantasy. A fantasy book is so much more than just a story with magic in it or something paranormal. All the vampire books are not fantasy and definitely not literature. 'The Lord of the Rings' is fantasy, because an author has spend time to build a story, create characters and present everyday struggles and morals in a way that we can read and aspire to them. Arenson achieves this at times in 'Blood of Requim', 'Flaming Dove' and 'Gods of Dreams'. In a fantasy world his characters go through betrayal, love, friendship and confusion.
At the centre of the book is Kyrie Eleison, a young Vir Requis, one of the few who have remained after the Great Battle. He wants to find Benedictus, the former king of the Requis, in order to revenge his dead parents and friends on Dies Irae, now king and brother of Benedictus. Kyrie is a great as a character because he is sometimes unstopable in his youthful enthousiasm. Benedictus is a great opposite to this and together they make the perfect master-student couple.

Arenson made the decision to write each chapter from a different character's perspective. Especially in a story like this, where there are two sides fighting each other, it allows the reader to be able to judge by themselves and not blindly follow what the main character thinks. I also really enjoyed the chapters from Gloriae's point of view. Gloriae is Dies Irae's daughter, however Benedictus beliefs she is his daughter. Gloriae knows none of this and has been raised to hate Vir Requis and her story is one of the most interesting ones in the book.

As you may have notices, all the characters have Latin, often religious names. Arenson did the same in 'Flaming Dove'. It shows extra consideration for his characters on the author's side. All the names tell us something about the characters. Benedictus' wife is called Lacrimosa, which means tears in Latin. She does have a lot to cry about, since her life has not exactly been easy. By doing this the characters gain extra depth and it shows the author's commitment.

I have enjoyed all of Arenson's books and I can't wait for the sequel to this one. Although this book can be read alone, I think it is almost impossible not to be wanting to read the sequels.(less)

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Jun 17, 2012 Jedidiah Behe rated it 4 of 5 stars

I stumbled across this book and loved the cover art so I read the summary and it grabbed my interest. I am so happy now that I picked it up because I absolutely devoured it.

The Vir Requis are a race of men that have the magic of dragonblood flowing through them and they have the ability to shift into dragons at will. The story starts out with a great battle that would be the last stand of the Vir Requis against the humans who hate them. The story follows a young Vir Requis that barely survives t...more

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Apr 14, 2012 Connie Jasperson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Published to Kindle in May of 2011, Blood of Requiem , the first book in the Song of Dragons trilogy is a compelling novel of love, power and family dysfunction. Based around the rift in a royal family that has destroyed a country and decimated a people, this story is frequently violent, sometimes heart-breaking, and always entertaining. Love runs deep in this tale, making a complex tale of humanity and inhumanity.

Author Daniel Arenson has written several other books which now lurk within my Kin...more Published to Kindle in May of 2011, Blood of Requiem , the first book in the Song of Dragons trilogy is a compelling novel of love, power and family dysfunction. Based around the rift in a royal family that has destroyed a country and decimated a people, this story is frequently violent, sometimes heart-breaking, and always entertaining. Love runs deep in this tale, making a complex tale of humanity and inhumanity.

Author Daniel Arenson has written several other books which now lurk within my Kindle, awaiting my reading pleasure.

In Blood of Requiem Daniel Arenson has created an immersive and real world that takes what we thought we knew about dragons, griffins and were-people and twists it into a truly original tale. One of the things that struck me immediately was his use of Latin-sounding names for people and places, a touch which lends a sense of familiarity to his world. The reader immediately identifies the importance of each main character and place as they are introduced, because their names have strong historic and religious roots within our own society.

The Vir Requis are Weredragons, humans born with the ability to shift to draconic shape. The story opens with the final battle between two brothers, in which the young King of Requiem, Benedictus is the last of his kind, the Vir Requis to left alive. He manages to bite off the arm of his brother, the completely mad Dies Irae, and in the chaos he is able to flee to safety. Dies Irae survives and usurps the crown.

Dies Irae was not born with the ability to shift to dragon-form. This is seen as a defect by his autocratic father and as such he could not inherit the crown of Requiem. His younger brother Benedictus is instead made heir to the throne. Dies Irae later kidnaps Benedictus' daughter Gloriae, claiming her for his own, and takes the throne of Requiem by murdering his father. Griffins are bound to serve the ruler of Requiem by virtue of a sacred object, the Griffin Heart. Dies Irae steals that object, thus launching a war between those who can shape shift to dragonform and those who cannot, with himself as their new King. With the nearly invincible griffins in thrall to him, he succeeds in his genocide, leaving only a remnant of survivors. There is a rich, multi-layered backstory that is revealed in tantalizing bits as the story progresses

Hidden in the world are a few survivors of the Vir Requis, one of whom is Kyrie Eleison, a young boy weredragon who was found on the battlefield and taken into the home of a survivor, Mirum who raises him as her own. One day Dies Irae appears, and Mirum knows that Kyrie is in danger. She gives her life to allow him to escape, and he flees only to end up wounded and near death. Grief stricken, he determines to find the mythical black dragon, King Benedictus, and with his assistance Kyrie hopes take back Requiem from Dies Irae and his cruel daughter Gloriae.

Kyrie finds a man that he believes is Benedictus, who is going by the name Rex Tremendae. He forces his company on the old recluse and through a series of events he is proven right, Rex is none other than Benedictus. Kyrie forces Benedictus to face things that the old man would rather forget.

Benedictus' wife Lacrimosa and their daughter Agnus Dei still live, hidden away. There are many secrets and layers to the love story of Benedictus and Lacrimosa. She is a white weredragon, and Agnus Dei is a red weredragon. Kyrie is a green weredragon, and each color has strengths that are particular to that color that they can bring to any battle.

The many dimensions and rich backstory kept me reading, and turning the pages as fast as I could. I am impressed with the tapestry that Arenson weaves..Just when you think you have seen it all, there is more to see. I heartily recommend this engrossing tale to all who love dragons and truly enjoy epic fantasy.

All three of the books in this series are available for the Kindle and as paperbooks. They are also available in a just released, beautifully put together omnibus called Song of Dragons, which is available through Amazon as a paperbook.

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Jan 08, 2012 Mirjam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: dragons

Blood of Requiem is the devastating tale of a proud race of weredragons hunted down to near extinction by a man with an unquenchable thirst for revenge. The Vir Requis lived in their glorious kingdom called Requiem, a country ruled by a king. A country that was shattered when the old king is murdered and a tyrant called Dies Irae rises with an army of griffins bent on the destruction of the Vir Requis. Many years later only a few weredragons remain, forever hunted down. Their fate is told in Blo...more

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Jan 11, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars

Blood of Requiem is the first novel in the Song of Dragons, a epic fantasy series. The basis for the book, as with most fantasy of this style, is the struggle between good and evil. Very clear lines were drawn between good and evil, and the heroes and villains were also very clearly delineated. As a rule, I generally like more grayness in my fantasy, rather than such clear lines as in the typical fantasy formula, or framework. However, the flow and pace of the story and the details that filled i...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Misty Baker rated it 3 of 5 stars

**A 3.5 Review**

Ladies and gentlemen… it’s that time again.

The time in which I bore you to death with my over-analytical mind and unabashed love for treks through the woods. That’s right… it’s a fantasy novel!!!! *does a somewhat retarded looking leg kick*

It has been a while since I read a good “you destroyed my family now I must take vengeance on you” novel and since Daniel (you might as well get used to that… there’s no way in hell I’m calling him Mr. Arenson) pretty much guaranteed me his sou...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was drawn to thjs book by the cover art at first, what an amazing looking dragon!
What I didn't expect was a world where a human could turn into a dragon! And griffins fly in the sky as well.
What Daniel Arenson has done is recreate a genre of books for me to read. The way he tells the story is amazing, not long winded paragraphs about the land and such. Butwhathe does describe, he describes in a way that makes you feel as if you are in the story with the dragons.
As a very new twist in boomsfor...more

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Sep 28, 2011 Jackie Miller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Feuding brothers, humans that can shift into dragons, armys of men riding griffins, love, hate, jealousy and forgiveness. Blood of Requiem pulls all these elements together and makes this original fantasy world come to life.

Benedictus is king of Requiem. He is also Vir Requis, which means he can shift into dragon form. Many of the people of Requiem are able to do this. Dies Irae, older brother of Benedictus, can't shift. This is why his younger brother is king instead of him. The story starts of...more

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Jun 08, 2011 Terry Simpson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good read. Threat of genocide, attempting to survive at the edge of extinction and what one would do when faced with such dilemmas. Characters that you could feel their pain and struggles. A rich world that I look forward to learning more about in Book 2. One of the things that stuck out for me was Arenson's style. The prose was delivered in a rich way that made you easily see the world and what drove each character.

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Jul 15, 2012 Austin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: dragons

Blood of Requiem is a fantasy story about the last Vir Requis (Humans who can turn into dragons/weredragons) trying to survive the wrath of an evil lord.

This book is your typical good guy versus bad, with a couple twists in it. Full of action, from dragons fighting griffins to person vs person, this book has it all. A very interesting storyline backs up the action with different characters that a simple, but not boring.

A couple of thing I didn't like, was out of all the action, nothing would h...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Bill rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fun read. A bit simplistic, but adventurous and entertaining.

The basic points of the plot are engaging enough, but extremely straightforward and a bit predictable. There are no twists; everything is what it seems. The themes, however, are pretty universal. The people and motives are comfortable and familiar, like reading a fairy tale or watching a cartoon.

Detail is sparse. Missed opportunities abound in that regard. The writing is... immature? That's the way it felt, anyway: like how a grade-s...more

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Jan 31, 2013 Sheri rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Blood of Requiem (Song of Dragons #1)(Daniel Arenson

In The land of Requiem, Dies Irae and his army of griffins destroy the kingdom. Dies Irae's brother Benedictus is one of the last Vir Requis, a human that can turn into a dragon. Dies Irae does not hold this power and a sibling rivalry begins.

With the aide of Kyrie, one of the few remaining Vir Requis, Benedictus' wife Lacrimosa and daughter Agnus Dei, they are on a quest to find Dies Irae and reclaim and rebuild the Kingdom of Requiem. They f...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Joshua Simon rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I just could not get into this book despite my best efforts and did not finish it.

Pros:
- Good idea of pitting Dragons and Griffens against each other.
- Prologue was intense and probably the best written part of what I read.
- Good description.
- other decent ideas sprinkled throughout about the world itself.
- Great looking cover.

Cons:
- Extremely cliched characters which wouldn't be that big of a deal except I felt they were very underdeveloped.
- Really dumb character decisions made simply b...more

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Oct 29, 2011 Keryl Raist rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: indie-book-review, didn-t-finish

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really, really wanted to like Blood of Requiem. Really. I respect Daniel Arenson and sort of know him through different online indie writer communities. His books have gorgeous cover art, and from his comments, I know he's a consummate professional.

Burt, beyond that, Blood of Requiem has weredragons. Seriously, how cool is that?

So, I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it really wasn't my cup of tea. I prefer character driven novels with a certain realism to them. That wasn't Blood...more I really, really wanted to like Blood of Requiem. Really. I respect Daniel Arenson and sort of know him through different online indie writer communities. His books have gorgeous cover art, and from his comments, I know he's a consummate professional.

Burt, beyond that, Blood of Requiem has weredragons. Seriously, how cool is that?

So, I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it really wasn't my cup of tea. I prefer character driven novels with a certain realism to them. That wasn't Blood of Requiem.

There's a lot of action in Blood of Requiem. I got about sixty percent of the way through it, and I'm going to guess seventy percent of that is a battle, a chase, or the lead bad guy remembering raping/torturing or actually raping/torturing someone. Character and plot development are rather thin on the ground.

The lead bad guy, Dies Irae, is EVIL! And in case we didn't get the idea when we found out he's personally responsible for the almost eradication of an entire species, he's also a serial raping sadist. And we get to spend some time in his head, enjoying the rape and torture of innocents. They are distinctly uncomfortable scenes. Very well written scenes, evocative of pure evil, but not exactly comfortable reading. Not to say that they are especially graphic, this isn't The Human Centipede, but it's still a lot more rape than I want to deal with in my fiction.

I like my bad guys at least vaguely realistic. In the case of evil overlords, that means the evil overlord has to provide some level of value to his people, or else he doesn't get to be the evil overlord for very long. Absolute psychopaths can only rule by fear alone for so long (history seems to indicate this is about three years) before someone kills them. Dies Irae has been ruling for ten years, and it doesn't look like he's going anywhere anytime soon.

Put more plainly: if you want to maintain control, you've got to keep the nobles happy. Keeping them so afraid that they won't look you in the eye for fear of being eaten alive by baby griffins (No, that's not hyperbole; that scene is in the book.) is unlikely to produce happy nobles. What it's likely to produce is poison in your cup, a troop of 'loyal' soldiers who put blades in your back, and if that doesn't work, outright insurrection.

Irae came to power through a civil war, which begs another question: how bad were things before? The 'good guys' were the previous rulers. They, for obvious reasons, have a very romantic view of their past life, but still, part of running a successful coup involves making sure that your nobles are better off now than they were before. With constant rape, indiscriminate torture, and years of bloody war, unless things were really bad before, I'm not seeing the nobles going along with this.

I also like it when the characters don't heal up like Wile E. Coyote. With all the action in this book, obviously people get hurt: often and badly. But, within a matter of minutes (occasionally hours) they're back up and fighting. And while I can understand that once or twice in extreme circumstances, this happens over and over. Maybe, at some point in the book after I stopped reading, we learn that there's a horde of clerics casting healing spells, but as of the point where I stopped, I had to assume that everyone involved had Wolverine-level healing powers, but no one mentions it as out of the ordinary. The main characters are all Vir Requis (weredragons) so maybe the super healing speed is part of that, but since all but these six Vir Requis were slaughtered in combat, apparently super speedy healing is not a race trait.

So, Blood of Requiem didn't do it for me. It's well written in a visual sense. If you want to know what everything looks like, this is a great book. If you love action-packed books with absolutely despicable villains, this one might be for you. But by half-way in, I had to give up. I didn't want to spend anymore time in Dies Irae's head. It's too dark, too painful a place. I didn't want to go on another chase. I'd already been on more than I could count. I didn't want to watch another rape. One would have been more than enough, and I was way past one by sixty percent in. I skimmed ahead to the end, reading bits and pieces, and saw that the book wasn't going to change. It wasn't suddenly going to become character driven or realistic. So, I put it aside. (less)

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Jan 20, 2012 Carroline rated it 3 of 5 stars

Honestly, this book hasn't grabbed me like other books have, but, I have to finish the series now that I have started so I hope that it gets better.
The book is too predictable and it feels like I have read this book before.

It has all the things needed to make a book interesting, dragons, griffons, good guys and bad, and don't forget the romance lol.

I think this book would be good for the young and shouldn't be read if you are currently reading or have read the Eragon series.
Once you have read...more

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Nov 09, 2011 Googie rated it 2 of 5 stars

As indicated by the stars, it was ok but not great. I found myself predicting what was going to happen next(not a good thing), didn't care for the lack f action in killing the psychotic villain, and that two people, who just met, already fall in love with each other (no build up or blossoming of love that would have made they're relationship more interesting). Also, the lack of smarts during a battle (you'd think that a dragon king, tough he be old, would learn how to dodge most lance attacks)....more

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Nov 09, 2011 Scott rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: blog-reviews

Blood of Requiem by Daniel Arenson tells the story of the Vir Requis or weredragons. When the first son, Dies Irae, of the royal family lacked the shape changing gift that would have made him the next King his inheritance was given to his younger brother Benedictus. This made Dies Irae upset in a way there really aren't words for. He killed his father and stole a magical amulet that allowed him to control all the griffins of the world. With that Dies Irae began his quest to annihilate the Vir Re...more Blood of Requiem by Daniel Arenson tells the story of the Vir Requis or weredragons. When the first son, Dies Irae, of the royal family lacked the shape changing gift that would have made him the next King his inheritance was given to his younger brother Benedictus. This made Dies Irae upset in a way there really aren't words for. He killed his father and stole a magical amulet that allowed him to control all the griffins of the world. With that Dies Irae began his quest to annihilate the Vir Requis. Early in the book we are shown the the battle that amounts to the final stand of the Vir Requis, with them being led by Benedictus and the humans and Griffins following Dies Irae. The battle is long and bloody with the weredragons being on the losing side. When Benedictus gets a chance to kill his brother, he cannot do it and flies away to hide. As the story progresses you are shown that a very small number of the Vir Requis did survive by living in hiding.

This book has one of the strongest starts of any book I have read this year. Daniel is a master of description and he can truly bring the images from the book to life. The deeper into the book I got however, the less into the book I became. The characters that showed such promise in the beginning began to be a bit flat. The descriptions of the environments and the battles remained top notch, but I found myself wanting to understand the characters a bit better. They seemed to be stuck in a repetitive cycle of fight, lose, flee. There was a little bit of a twist thrown in dealing with the girl Dies Irae claims as a daughter, but she has shown herself to be a terrible person so I was not as interested in her character.

This book has many positive aspects to appeal to a variety of readers. As I mentioned earlier Daniel is truly gifted in sharing his vision of the world he has created. The Vir Requis is an outstanding race with some wonderful abilities and can draw in many fantasy fans. Dies Irae is a truly evil villain and his daughter looks to be following in his footsteps. The cover art is also absolutely amazing. I just wish the characters had been a bit more dynamic and the fight sequences had a bit more variety.

I will probably pick up the second book in the series to see where the story goes.

Review copy provided by author.(less)

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May 26, 2011 Robert Duperre rated it 5 of 5 stars

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

When I like an author, I read books by that author. Sound like a simple statement? Well, it’s not as easy as it sounds, especially when you have a review blog to run. There are many books out there, by many different talented (and some not-so talented) writers, and you want to believe that, as a reader, they each deserve equal time under your eyes.

Well, the truth is, I have my favorite authors, but sometimes I feel the need to push aside the books these fine scribes send me i...more

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Feb 27, 2012 Z S rated it 1 of 5 stars

This is a very tedious read with no real character development and very poor dialogue. The main characters are magically fine hours after intense battles and although the plot moves quickly, the characters are one-note. I don't understand the character names either - as a theologian I get what the names actually mean, but they are oddly used as character names and make the book feel forced in any message the author is trying to convey.

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Oct 13, 2012 Dan rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bought the ebook trilogy because of good reviews, but was barely able to make it through the first book. I will not read the final two. This is one of those poorly written fantasies where everything comes easy to the hero. Poorly developed and barely edited. Only bother with these books if you get them for free - I really wish that I could get my money back.

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Dec 27, 2012 Judi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, kindle

I don't know, the story was decent, but not great.

I also was a bit irritated by the adult calling the younger one 'kid' over and over in one section and also the use of the phrase 'old man'. Not a deal breaker, but when I'm reading fantasy I usually don't like to read those sorts of colloquialisms.

Even though I rated this a three I still have an odd compulsion to see where this story goes. Though, I probably already know...

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Jan 16, 2013 Heather McCorkle rated it 5 of 5 stars

From the first pulse-pounding page to the last, this book seized my attention and refused to let it go. While gritty and bold, it still manages to bestow a vulnerability that makes it's characters corporeal and sympathetic. This novels brings dragons back into the spotlight in a brilliant way. Mr. Arenson has made a fan out of me, which is no easy feat. I can hardly wait to read the next novel.

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Dec 25, 2012 Ky rated it 2 of 5 stars

The story and idea of the weredragons really interested me, and had a lot of potential, but I couldn't stand the author's writing. It pulled me out of the story more often than not. Repetitive both in word use and story elements, generally poor descriptions especially during action sequences, and bad character development. Will not be looking to finish the series.

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Jun 26, 2012 Fred rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Hmmmmm this is a hard book to review in some ways. I think that's because it's really hard for me to put my finger on why it wasn't a four star book. The characters were likable and definitely had unique personalities. The plot was driven and moved along fast. Maybe too fast. I feel like it was a series of action scenes thrown together. I'm not sure that there was any character growth throughout. Maybe that's what is missing for me.

The writer does get some points for a unique plot and world bui...more

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Blood of Requiem (Song of Dragons #1)

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