Blood Song by Anthony Ryan (showing 1-12 of 12)

[Michael comment history]

I first ran across Anthony Ryan's book because it was gaining huge numbers of positive reviews and was highly ranked on the Amazon Bestselling Epic Fantasy a list (which I watch regularly). I read the sample chapter, was hooked, and picked up the book for a bargain price of $1.50.

I loved it and was overjoyed that Anthony was recently approached by Ace(fantasy imprint of Penguin). I even gave him the following blurb to add to his marketing materials:

"Anthony Ryan is a new fantasy author destined to make his mark on the genre. His debut novel, Blood Song, certainly has it all: great coming of age tale, compelling character, and a fast-paced plot. If his first book is any indication of things to come, then all fantasy readers should rejoice as a new master storyteller has hit the scene." -- Michael J. Sullivan, author of The Riyria Revelations

I noticed that Anthony doesn't seem to be "into" goodreads, so if you are fans of his books and want to share/talk with others - this would be a great place to do so.

[Kristin comment history]

Michael wrote: "I first ran across Anthony Ryan's book because it was gaining huge numbers of positive reviews and was highly ranked on the Amazon Bestselling Epic Fantasy a list (which I watch regularly). I read ..."

Hi Michael,

I picked up the ebook via the Reddit fantasy recommendation (and your post on it). I look forward to talking about it!

Kristin

[Michael comment history]

Wooho glad to have you here. I think one of the things that most impresses me about Ryan and his book is he avoids the rookie mistakes of giving too much information too soon. He doles things out at a good pace and has me making mental notes of things that I know are going to come back up in the future, or that I want to know more about.

How about you?

[Kristin comment history]

I'm really enjoying it so far. I like the hints that think will come back in the future. I'm getting a lot of the Rothfuss style framing story from it and I'm hoping that there will be a more fulfilling conclusion than at the end of Name of the Wind.

I'm just going to "spoiler" tag the rest of this just in case.
(view spoiler)[
So far I'm having trouble correlating the boy pre-Order to the boy post-Order. I think he seems a lot younger up to the moment when he enters the House with his exuberance to be riding the horse with his father but then he suddenly matures within a span of 2 pages. I found it a little jarring but it's not really that big of a deal.

I'm also having some trouble with keeping track of his age. With the flow of the book and how much he is supposed to have progressed I can't help but feel like the time frame should be going by faster than it's reported. Some of this is also because since it's an e-book it's not easy to flip back into the pages to see when the age was last recorded. I've been finding myself surprised whenever the age is mentioned though.

I'm enjoying the internal conflict that he's going through between believing himself to be disappointing his mother and how he thinks there's something wrong with him for not feeling anything from killing. I think this is done very well without getting overly angsty and without pressuring the reader too much with it but still having it there in the background.

All in all, so far it's been a good, solid read. I'm hoping that the girl who can't touch him doesn't turn out to be a Confessor. (hide spoiler)]

I'm hoping to finish up by this weekend!

[Brandon comment history]

I really enjoyed this book, here's a link to a review I wrote of it: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2DLWPSN...

It's also on my goodreads reviews, but I'm not sure how to link it.

[Michael comment history]

@Kristen - I didn't have a problem with the (view spoiler)[pre-Order / post-Order aspect. As to the keeping track of his age...Ryan doesn't have a lot of description - it may be part of his style or something just because he is new...I think some of that will be "beefed up" in the Ace published version.

I liked the mother thread, nice little twist there. (hide spoiler)]

[Michael comment history]

I also saw a lot of correlations to Rothfuss, but I think I read somewhere that he's not read that. I get the same thing with my work and Lieber's Fahrd and the Grey Mouser (which I still haven't read).

I also saw some Game of Thrones stuff. Like when he got his dog (which reminds me of the Stark's wolves) and I laughed out loud at the reference to "Crows" for the guards in town.

I always say there is nothing 100% original and everything has bits and pieces from stuff that has gone before. To me it is the quality of the execution that matters and I think Ryan does a very nice job with that.

[Michael comment history]

@Brandon - yeah the cover is not the best (although not the wost either). I personally would have done a better cover and raised the price and few would know he was self-published. Still, that may be some of the attraction. At the time I was self-published no one really knew it (I had an imprint). It was only after I sold to Orbit that this particular aspect of my books started being talked about more.

[Kristin comment history]

Finished it last night. I thought it was good but not as mind-breakingly awesome as the reddit guy was saying. I had a few questions though, spoiler-ed out below.

(view spoiler)[
1) What was the point of the framing story? It was my impression that writers often used the "telling the story" style of framing to give the reader more information on the character's mindset or more outside information whereas Ryan seems to have used it in the complete opposite manner, using it to show that he's hiding information from the outside. Also, I found it a bit strange that the entire framing story seemed pretty pointless. The main event that the framing story is based around (killing of the Hope) seems to have been just a very minor event. I was also confused about the Hope going into battle anyway since he was represented as an intelligent character that had very little training in the sword arts. Based on that, what was the point of his army basically directly leading him to the best fighter of the opposing army and letting him get killed?* And the final climax of the framing story was pretty anti-climactic and seems to have only served the point of showing that Vaelin is still not "free" of his fate. I feel like this point could have been achieved in a much simpler way and that the framing story almost detracted from the narration.
2) Why was the sculptors shop set on fire? Was it merely because Barkus/One Who Waits realized that the stone was going to show that his face? Was that what was being shown in the stone anyway?
3) Why didn't the Emperor choose to attack the city that Vaelin was in first, as was theorized. Though there is some merit to doing exactly the opposite of what the opposition expects, the implied rage of the entire country would have meant that going after the "Hope Killer" was the only realy choice.
4) In the end of the book, there is a woman who writes a letter in the north welcoming her brother home and then crying. Is she the princess? Why is she crying? Is this supposed to imply that she loves Vaelin for being the one person who does not lie to her?

*I actually really can't get over the Hope. If he meants so much, why did he go out in the first place. Not only was he an obvious target (wearing white) but his soliders practically directed him to the most dangerous place to be. He could not even sit his horse correctly, what was he doing there? I understand the honor in being part of combat mentality but seriously? And the shock that seems to fall over the army seems pretty odd given these facts. Especially the one soldier who commits suicide.

(hide spoiler)]

Overall, I thought the writing was fluid and the characterizations were great. It was a good debut novel and as Ryan's career progresses, I have a good feeling about his growth as a writer. Is Blood Song intended to be the first in a trilogy? Quartet? Or a more extended epic?

edit: one more thought
(view spoiler)[
Why did Vaelin feel the need to go after Notah anyway? Yes he let him go in the end but through his trek there, he was convinced that he'd have to kill him. Why?
(hide spoiler)]

edit2: still thinking about it
(view spoiler)[
Who do you think Caenis is? He has this fanatic devotion to the king and there's one line where Vaelin says that if he knew whether Caenis had sighed or laughed, it would have helped for the future. What was that an indicator of? Since we now have the timeline up to the present, (after fighting the Shield) it implies that we are current with what Vaelin knows so what does that mean about Caenis? Unless it's a misplaced bit of foreshadowing for future books? (hide spoiler)]

[Evgeny comment history]

First of all I need to say this is most probably the best indie fantasy I read; definitely worth the money. Having said that, I feel it is somewhat on the slow side, one has to suffer first half of the book before things start getting really interesting.

[LeeAnna comment history]

I haven't heard anything about the next book tho? Will their be one?

[Michael comment history]

@Kristen - I'm busy with some rewrites at the present time but will try to get back to this with answers in a bit.

@Evgeny - I thought the school stuff was essential for building the character. There is a bit of a lull midway (I thought) but all in all a job well done.

@Leeanna - I believe there is a planned trilogy. Anthony Ryan was "picked up" by a big press so that will probably slow down the process a bit.