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Blood Song
Anthony Ryan
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BS: Part 5
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Mod
And how awesome was that fight? Vaelin barely had to try. Hilarious.
We find out the historian and the man (Hope) Vaelin killed were lovers. Or at least that's the implication I took.
It also seems we got many details the historian did not. It's a minor complaint, but he didn't do a very good job indicating that during the story.
The two main questions I have moving forward are:
Is Lyrna evil? Vaelin thinks her power hungry, but I wonder. Shanon thinks her lonely. And she seems to be upset to trade him for her brother.
The other is:
Who did he focus his song on at the end. The young thief? Frankis or whatever. The burning scars make me think so. Did one eye bring him close enough to death to allow him to be taken?
I liked that the story he told the historian and the story that we got were slightly different. I was definitely wondering how he was able to just give these secrets away... until it became obvious that he wasn't giving them away. It was nice to know that we at least had a reliable narrator, as opposed to someone like Kvothe, who clearly exaggerates (which is why I was able to forgive his apparent lack of faults in his story). The fight at the end was pretty much exactly what I expected and certainly didn't disappoint... and speaking of the fight, what were your thoughts on the blood song itself?
My personal feelings were that it felt just a tad too much like authorly cheating, but maybe that's just because he didn't really face anyone else who could use it. I'm definitely looking forward to how it's expanded on, and hope that it doesn't just become a crutch (Vaelin has a problem with no solution. Don't worry, the
Mod
And when I say taken, i mean by the demons or whatever had Barkus, One Eye and the Usurper. Whoever he focused on looked around in fear. If it is Frentis, I worry he's possessed as well.
Also. Barkus killing the Usurper was a nice touch. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now we see the real person was breaking through. Maybe that means there is hope for Frentis if he is possessed.
Mod
We've already seen him overpowered despite it too. He was powerless against one eye.
I think it was fine, but I'm not an author. I'd agree there is a danger of it becoming a crutch if he's not careful.
Mod
In fact I know so because he had both the Usurper and Barkus at the same time. He had complete control over the Usurper at the time that Vaelin found him, but he told Vaelin at the fire he had taken Barkus during their first trial.
I think when he lost control of the Usurper he took complete control of Barkus to kill him before he said too much.
I think he has influence over many people at once, but only complete control over one? So Frentis could be under his influence since being taken by one eye,
Kaleb wrote: "I don't think Lyrna is evil to the core. I just believe she has become hardened after being ridiculed by her father and her ambition to rule. But even with that she definitely has a soft side. The ..." I really liked Lyrna in this, way more than Vaelin's official romantic interest (whose name I can't even remember). So yeah, I'm definitely #teamlyrna. Of course I also thought Janus was an awesome character. A great study in the ruthlessness needed to rule a nation, especially one as divided and threatened as the one in this book.
I wish the morality of Janus decisions/the war had been explored more in this one. Janus explains to Vaelin that the kingdom is in desperate need of resources and if they don't get them the whole nation will fall apart in civil war. The empire they're fighting seems pretty stable, with a long tradition of centralised rule and the contested ports don't seem anywhere near as important to them. But Vaelin's all like 'meh'. Then Janus has to pull out some dastardly villain schtick with the whole 'I have your family' bit so that Vaelin isn't forced to make a complicated moral and philosophical decision.
I was also kind of disappointed with the way the war was handled. Vaelin's army was pretty much a paragon of virtue throughout and Vaelin never had to resort to anything ruthless or drastic to keep the campaign running smoothly. Even after taking a hostile city by storm his army didn't rape or pillage, something pretty much unheard of in warfare in that kind of society. I felt it kind of whitewashed the horrors of war and made the whole thing kind of unbelievable, although I guess this is traditional fantasy rather than grimdark so I'm probably over-reacting. It also made all the Alpirans trolling Vaelin even more ridiculous given his honourable (to the point of being unrealistic) conduct.
Mod
You bring up some valid points though. There was rape elsewhere. In fact most of the horrors of war seemed to occur elsewhere. That's why the Rusted Knight joined them for stopping a rape.
I took it as a contrast between Vaelin and the battlelord. They feared and respected Vaelin, so they were more disciplined. A bit of a stretch, but didn't seem like a huge one to me.
I found this book a lot of fun and hard to put down. That's what made it an easy 5 star book for me.
Overall this was a great book and I'm really psyched to start book 2 sometime. I was just disappointed given that such an important concept in this book is war and the effect it has on people. I thought it missed a great opportunity to explore the grim necessities of keeping a war going, how even good men are forced to do bad things. Good point Rob about the horrors of war being present elsewhere but not in Vaelin's army btw. I just thought that these were only cursory mentions to show how ruthless the 'Blood Rose' (awesome name btw) is, while Vaelin's remains heroic. Vaelin being forced to make some of these difficult decisions would have both been more realistic and would have been an interesting study of the theme of war.
But yeah, these were meant to be more observations and opinions than complaints. I was personally disappointed by the stuff I mentioned above but I appreciate that these were thematic decisions rather than flaws. This book would have still been 5 (or at least 4.5) stars if it hadn't been for that Barkus reveal at the end.
Double post, because this angry rant was too much for just one post :D. I rate on a bell-curve and rarely give 5 star ratings. However this book was a 5 or at least 4.5 for me prior to the Barkus reveal at the end. The dark lord of all evil(a fantasy trope I really don't like and was hoping would be avoided) has been controlling one of Vaelin's closest friends pretty much all along. They've fought, eaten, slept and hung out together pretty much 24/7 for about 15 years by this point and yet in all this time no one has noticed something is off with Barkus. That was especially disappointing to me as one of the things I most loved about this book was the brotherhood between the characters. Barkus being possessed by an evil being all along without anyone noticing made all of that trust and camaraderie seem hollow.
Also in all those 15 years together Evil Barkus hasn't had the opportunity to kill or bodysnatch(which is apparently super easy and I suspect may have been carried out on 'Black rose's' surviving son who's name I can't remember) Vaelin who is going to be the champion of goodness? I choose to believe that a) Barkus was only controlled some of the time and unaware of the evil the rest( or something like that. You guys have already made some cool, and better worded, points about this on the thread) and/or b) Vaelin has some role to play in the evil thing's scheme.
If the next book deals with this in a satisfactory way, I'll come back and increase my rating. I really want to give this one 5 stars as this was a great book (although pretty much all I've done on this thread is complain about it:D), but unless the Barkus thing is resolved I don't feel that I can.
Mod
How I decide between a 4 and a 5 is entirely by feel. It's not necessarily the best written, most original stories that get 5 for me. The real metric is how much I hate stopping and look forward to starting again. It's the books I hate to put down that generally earn a 5 star from me.
If you look at my favorites shelf I'm sure it would be easy to find faults with if not all of the books there.
Again you make some good points about flaws in this, but I just don't care. lol. It was a lot of fun and just seemed to hit my buttons the right way.
I feel like Barkus was likely influenced but rarely controlled during the course of the book. This demon parasite for lack of a better term could further his agenda better by focusing on others more. At least that's my theory on it. We have no idea the extent of his influence. I'd suspect it's going to be fairly widespread. In this setting, being brought near death seems likely to occur frequently to me. My guess is that Barkus was merely an observer for the most part, and only at key moments (death of the Usurper, at the time of his death) was he completely controlled.
I'd also bet that someone like One Eye would require less controlling as he was more likely to go along with whatever plans the evil has so long as it improves his station.
My guess is that it lied to Vaelin about it's control, as Vaelin was able to note about the Usurper breaking his control at the end. But it's just a guess.
My rating system is pretty similar to yours actually, especially for 5 star reviews. A 5 star book for me is generally a book that blows my mind, leaving me unable to put it down and/or a book that changes my outlook on the world. I blitzed through Blood Song in 2 or 3 days and absolutely loved it up until the end. It had a load of awesome features going for it (I've kind of dwelled on my few complaints with the book on this thread but I've outlined why I thought this book was so great on part 1 of this discussion and in my review) and it would have been an easy 5 stars. But as you've probably noticed from my previous post the Barkus reveal annoyed me a bit. For 5 star ratings I generally rate on feeling rather than any scientific method. I'm still too disappointed with that reveal, and how it undermined so much other stuff I loved in this book, to give it 5 stars though. You guys have made some really cool points about Barkus' possession in this thread. If Ryan implements these in book 2, or explanations that are similarly well thought-out I'll probably come back and give this book the 5 stars it's awesomeness deserves.
To address Rob and Kaleb's post I didn't think Frentis was taken by the evil entity I just thought he was physically taken and Vaelin was saying he was going to find him, as in save him, but I now see I could be wrong. I hope not because Frentis and Caenis are my favorite characters, save maybe poor scratch.
Mod
Oh. That's a good theory. I hadn't even thought of that. What happened to him at the end of this book? Didn't he get on one the ships with the rest of the wolves? Or did he disappear at some point before that?
He got captured on a raid. Vaelin could tell he was a prisoner but his captors were afraid of him. I guess we will find out. I also thought he would have a badass dog around him more becuase he raised Scatches litter haha.
I also think the Wolf is really curious. Is it a God or a spirit animal or what?
Mod
Oh. How did I miss that?
On an unrelated note, predictions on the evil queen whose prophesized to ensnare the Dark Blade? Lyrna? The bad touch runaway? The other blood singer that the mason met? Someone we haven't met yet?
Oh yeah I was curious about that too. I was thinking Lyrna but I just can't figure her out.
I always thought Frentis was physically taken prisoner as well. Although Frentis being possessed would explain why his ‘captors’ were afraid of him, which kind of confused me before. Even if it meant they both became evil and tried to destroy the world I’d probably still ship Vaelin-Lyrna tbh :D I never viewed Lyrna as ‘evil’ though just ruthless and ambitious.
So Barkus is possessed by the centuries old spirit of the bastard son in the old fairy story of the witch and the blacksmith. Ironic that he now possesses a blacksmith like the father he hated.Barkus also keeps saying "we" - so does that mean there are other entities like him possessing people? Or is the one who waits the demon who sent him - if that's what it is?
I wonder how much stock we can place in Barkus' account of "the beyond." According to him it's just a dod eat dog hell - or is that just one part of the beyond.
I missed that Frentis had been captured. I thought he was just brooding over having left Vaelin - but listening to it again it seems he has been captured and Vaelin promises to find him. It hadn't occurred to me that maybe he might have been possessed when One Eye took him - But did he come close to death? He seemed to have enough energy left over to go berserk on one-eye's corpse.
Vaelin also sees Lyrna greeting her brother and reporting King Janus' death. Did she have a hand in it?
And he sees Sherrin/Sharon/Serrin/Margaret - she's very angry with how he drugged her and sent her off. I bet she doesn't believe for a minute he's dead.
The fight at the end was awesome. I see the guy(with the unspellable name) Vaelin gave the Blue stone to is filthy rich, and he seems to be on his side, making sure everyone sticks to the rules and lets Vaelin go.
And I agree with you Rob - the historian and the Hope were lovers.
I loved this book. I loved how the Blood Song was executed. I don't think Vaelin became too overpowered - but now he's getting a handle on his magic, it will be interesting to see how this is handled next book.
Jake wrote: "I also think the Wolf is really curious. Is it a God or a spirit animal or what?"I always thought through the book that this was a manifestation of his mother. Now knowing what we do, maybe it's his mother possessing a wolf?
Mod
That's a good point. But we don't really know how close to death one has to be, and he could have simply been riding adrenaline. Though you're probably right that he may not have been close enough to be taken possession.
Mod
I always thought through the book that this was a manifestation of his mother. Now knowing what we do, maybe it's his mother possessing a wolf? "
Somehow I missed this comment from Jake. I'm not really sure what the wolf is, other than magical. The familiar of a god? A powerful wizard? His mother is an interesting guess though too.
David Sven wrote: "Jake wrote: "I also think the Wolf is really curious. Is it a God or a spirit animal or what?"I always thought through the book that this was a manifestation of his mother. Now knowing what we do..."
That's a cool theory bro. The only thing's I really remember about the wolf from when I read it are 1) The wolf is protecting Vaelin 2) Magical wolves are badass.
I'm obviously in the minority here but I thought the fight at the end was disappointing. After being hyped since the very start of the book and throughout all of Vernier's chapters it was over comically quickly. Vaelin's duel with the 3 guys as his last test before joining the order was similarly abrupt. After Vaelin spent several paragraphs describing how good his 3rd opponent (the former 6th order guy) was he still dispatched him as quickly as the random rapist and murderer. I'm not sure if Ryan wrote fight scenes like that to show that Vaelin is incredibly skilled or just because he couldn't be bothered to stretch them out a bit.
Vaelins journey to baddassdom had enough fleshed out fights early on that I didn't really miss long drawn out one on ones later on. The later parts of the book his journey is more about discovering his Blood Song and I enjoyed that process of discovery as much as his process of becoming a warrior.
What a great story. It was very hard to put down. I'll have to re-read the last chapter, I was listening to it in audio on the drive in to work.I am a bit confused about The One Who Waits - was it really Barkus, or was it the "He" in the Beyond that Barkus referred to and told Vaelin he'd meet soon? If Barkus was the One Who Waits, then that was a really lame reason for the Arlyn agree to go to war, if anyone close to death can be taken so easily, then it seems you gain very little finding out who he currently inhabits. If it was not Barkus, then did Vaelin fail the mission Aspect Arlyn gave to him, or was the prophecy not fulfilled? Or am I missing something?
All interesting thoughts about Frentis...I was wracking my brain thinking who he was seeing on the boat w/ the burning scars. Makes sense.
On to Tower Lord, I know little about it except I heard that people who went straight from BS liked it a lot more than people that read BS years ago and had to wait, and that TL has more POVs than BS.
Is going to be a trilogy?
I think the one who waits is the "He" in the beyond as you say. I think he also punishes failure of those working for him?
David Sven wrote: "I think the one who waits is the "He" in the beyond as you say. I think he also punishes failure of those working for him?"That was my impression as well. So if the One Who Waits is the "He" in the Beyond, then I guess little was gained beyond learning of his existence?
Mod
And I know Mr. Ryan got a 3 book deal. Not sure if that means it will be a trilogy or not.
Rob wrote: "Yeah, I'm not really sure what was gained by this war. I guess exposing someone in their organization as working for the adversary.And I know Mr. Ryan got a 3 book deal. Not sure if that means it..."
But if people can be taken so easily as it seemed (requiring only to be close to death w/ malice in their heart) then tracking down a single person would be futile, given the number of brothers that die during training and at war. There would always be another.
I guess I am not missing anything then...Small details! On to TL!
Okaym I need to gloat for a brief moment. Although I wasn't aware of the implications, I had the feeling that Barkus had eaten Jennis and that it changed him. He was always on my "look out for" list, although I missed that he was the one finding the letter on Black Arrow.And -up until now- I was totally wrong about Nortah sarificing himself in a battle against Caenis, but that might still happen. I can't really believe that Ryan established Nortah and Sella just to drop them in book 1. I think we'll see them again.
And I agree with the theory that the brother he reached out to at the end was Frentis and that he told him that he was coming for him to free him. I have a theory regarding this end sequence which is technically a mild spoiler for Tower Lord I guess, so I put it in a spoiler tag, but it isn't anything serious.
(view spoiler)
Two things I found interesting:
First, the theme of loyalty really is all over the book and is imo the dominant motivation and struggle for Vaelin.
His loyalty to his family, his loyalty to the Faith and his Order, his loyalty to his brothers, to Sherin and to his own personal believes.
And conflict always comes up, whe two of his loyalties collide.
So, in the end his family's words "Loyalty is our Strength" are only a half-truth, cause they are also his weaknesses.
The second thing I really liked was Ryan's emphasis on displaying the Alpirans and their culture as equal and in many ways more civilized than the northeners. I think it is important in our time to show that conflict is often created by very few fanatic and power hungry individuals on both sides and a lot of decent common people are dragged into it.
Mod
Mpauli: Totally agree with you about the Alpiran empire bro. It's really common in fantasy to make any nation opposing the 'good guy' country into an 'evil empire' rather than have to deal with the moral and political complexity of a realistic war. One of my favourite things about this entire book was how Ryan made the Alpiran empire realistic and sympathetic. Incidentally I was really disappointed by the Volarian Empire in Tower Lord. I don't want to go into spoiler territory here (and I think I've covered the reasons why I dislike them in a post in the Tower lord thread anyway) but suffice it to say the Volarians were one of the most unrealistic, clichéd 'evil empires' I've read and they were a big, sucky bunch of losers.
Just summing up: The novel was ok for me - specifics in my review. I might even give it 3 stars, because the last part was good and promising - far better than the first 80%.
Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of the chapters of Part 5.
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