Summary: Another great entry in what's quickly become one of my favorite series, The change in format may frustrating fans of the first book however,
Audio book: Stephen Brand is once again a great narrator that could stand to have his volume boosted, He does an excellent job with voices and inflections, but can be frustratingly quiet in places,
Full
How do you follow up a debut novel that seems to be almost universally loved by those who have read it By writing a book that may be even better in my opinion.
My opinion may not be shared by everyone who loved sitelinkBlood Song, This is definitely a different book from that,
Instead of a single narrative about Vaelin told in the form of a flashback, we are instead given three new point of view characters in addition to Vaelin and the interludes from the perspective of the chronicler.
Two of the characters, Frentis and Lyrna will be instantly familiar from the first novel, The fourth, Riva, was probably my favorite, As a new character she probably got the most character development of the four, I think having two male POVs and two female ones gave the novel a good balance,
I found Lyrna's story to start a bit slow, but I was quickly grabbed by the book as a whole and eventually sucked into her narrative as well.
Much like sitelinkBlood Song this is one of those books that grabbed hold and didn't let go, I hated to put it down and loved to pick it back up,
I'm glad for the format change as I think Mr, Ryan was able to tell a much larger story as a result, There were parts of the story where the various POV's overlapped, but there were also a lot of things that would have gone otherwise unmentioned if he stuck with just Vaelin's story.
We are once again given some excellent action scenes, though probably fewer overall than the first, While the first book was more a hero's journey, this book is more epic fantasy with larger implications to the realm as a whole.
We get answers to many of the big questions I had from the first novel too, Often times it seems like authors jealously guard all their Tower Lord's secrets and wait until the last possible minute to reveal them, Not so with this series, I felt there were several big reveals in partsandthat other authors might have held back,
There is plenty of new questions to take the place of those that are answered that kept me wanting to keep listening and find out what would happen next.
Mr. Ryan has put himself in a precarious position of writing two really excellent novels in what I believe is supposed to be a trilogy.
Now the expectations are that much higher for the finale of what has quickly become one of my favorite series,
If you haven't read this book yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up, And if you haven't read/heard of this series you should check out sitelinkBlood Song as soon as you can, In Blood Song, Anthony Ryan introduced readers to “a fascinating world of conflicting religions and the wars fought in the name of those faiths” Library Journal.
Now Ryans epic tale continues as Vaelin Al Sorna discovers that there is no escape from the call of destiny
“The bloodsong rose with an unexpected tune, a warm hum mingling recognition with an impression of safety.
He had a sense it was welcoming him home, ”
Vaelin Al Sorna, warrior of the Sixth Order, called Darkblade, called Hope Killer, The greatest warrior of his day, and witness to the greatest defeat of his nation: King Januss vision of a Greater Unified Realm drowned in the blood of brave men fighting for a cause Vaelin alone knows was forged from a lie.
Sick at heart, he comes home, determined to kill no more, Named Tower Lord of the Northern Reaches by King Januss grateful heir, he can perhaps find peace in a colder, more remote land far from the intrigues of a troubled Realm.
But those gifted with the bloodsong are never destined to live a quiet life, Many died in King Januss wars, but many survived, and Vaelin is a target, not just for those seeking revenge but for those who know what he can do.
The Faith has been sundered, and many have no doubt who their leader should be, The new King is weak, but his sister is strong, The bloodsong is powerful, rich in warning and guidance in times of trouble, but is only a fraction of the power available to others who understand more of its mysteries.
Something moves against the Realm, something that commands mighty forces, and Vaelin will find to his great regret that when faced with annihilation, even the most reluctant hand must eventually draw
a sword.
Was not sure if this was aor a, but as I loved it despite, it gets a.
First half of the book felt a bit slow, lots of catching up and setting up, even though it is a necessity.
Only other complaint regards the lack of more Vaelin, I did not know that this would be a multiple POV book as opposed to the focus on Vaelin's POV in thest book, so that might be the reason this bothered me, as I was not prepared.
Enjoyed the other characters and didn't really have any I disliked, but lets face it The Raven's Shadow series is the Vaelin Al Sorna show.
And this fan wanted more, Luckily, the second half really picks up the pace and finishes on a high,
Tower Lord stands on its own as a great book, Yes, it did not have that unputdownable quality that Blood Song had for me, but I would still recommended it in a heartbeat as it is without a doubt a fantastic entry in this series.
Well done Mr, Ryan.
Two years ago, I called Blood Song the best fantasy debut Ive read in a long, long time, I probably should have curbed my enthusiasm a little, because I find myself today struggling to explain why I was disappointed in the second volume, even as I admit it is probably just as well written, as epic in scope and as fast paced as the first book.
The answer lays most probably in unreasonably high expectations, I wanted to recapture the wow, the thrills of exploring a fresh secondary world, the edge of the seat page turning rush to find out how my hero Vaelin AlSorna will get out of a tricky spot.
I have instead just an excelent middle of the story installment that greatly expands the worlbuilding and raises the stakes of the conflict from a personal quest for identity to another Evil Overlord bent on world domination, sending his secret minions and supernumerary armies to conquer country after country.
The novel remains well above the norm of current fantasy offerings I could name Sanderson, Weeks and a few others, but I feel it made too many safe choices and abandoned originality and nuanced characterization in favor of spectacular battles and wholesale slaughter, a move toward fashionable grimdark.
Blood Song was character driven and focused mostly on Vaelin, the small boy who goes to War School and becomes, thanks to native talent and magic superpowers, the best fighter in the land.
He is still the focus in Tower Lord, but he shares the spotlight with three other POV characters : Princess Lyrna, who was at one time his intended fiancee his former school mate Frentis who was captured in an overseas war and made a sort of gladiator slave and Reva the newcomer, a girl trained as an assassin and unleashed against Vaelin Al Sorna by a secretive sect.
I have noticed some reviewers complained about the rotating point of view but this is actually one of the authors succesful choices for me, as it allowed for more diversity and complexity in the worldbuilding and in the plot development.
The balance between the four perspectives was rather well kept, with Vaelin taking a more passive role until the final confrontation, Frentis struggling to escape both physical and magical bonds that make him an unwilling instrument in the hands of the yet unrevealed Evil Overlord, Lyrna going out of her comfort zone of books and palace manipulations to explore savage lands and to learn the ruling game literally from the bottom up Why couldnt I have been more interested in physical pursuits she grumbled, feeling every step of Verkas hooves on the rough ground.
One hour away from my books wouldnt have killed me, But this bloody horse might, , Reva freeing herself of years of brainwashing to become a fabled freedom fighter in her Cumbrael home city, Reva is actually the least credible character in her abrupt transformation from brat to wise teenage leader and accomplished swordmanship, the most cardboard of the four POVs, yet her storyline was the most engaging in the whole book, which probably tells something about my predilection in epic fantasy for young baker boys or orphaned heroines with a destiny for greatness.
I should probably have been more emotionally involved with Lyrnas tragic struggle or with Frentis doomed love affair with his jailer, but for some reason I kept myself at a distance and simply followed the twists and turns of the plot with a cold eye.
About Vaelin I have even less to say, as he is stagnant in development for the second book from start to finish, even as he travels with companions from one end of the continent to the other.
A surprisingly interesting accolade was provided by the chronicler who introduces every major event in the story with his own account of being captured by the adversary and forced to rewrite history from the perspective of the winner.
I dont have any quotes from the book, surprisingly because, as I already mentioned, I think it is very well written considering Ryan is still a newcomer on the scene.
I have though bookmarkerd a couple of things that really ticked me off:
Reva simply finds a legendary bow of Cumbrael by the side of the road, without any explanation whatsoever what this super rare weapon was doing there in the first place.
Frentis, and some of the others, are surprisingly adept at using torture as a fast means of extracting information from prisoners
I think I prefer life without prophecy exclaims one Master Monk towards the end of the volume, and I sort of agree with the feeling for the whole series.
Vaelin, Reva and even Lyrna have their destiny already foretold and expressed in gnomic utterances Diana Wynne Jones TM, I could do with a little more free will and chance in my epic fare,
I dont want to end my review on a sour note, Some of my complaints may be a signal of my preferences shifting from epic battles to a more intimate and subtle form of fantasy Im reading now Patricia McKillip and love it unreservedly.
I may have read the book too fast and missed some very simple explanations for the choices of characters and for the fortuitous presence of magic weapons.
And regarding ethics, I probably was supposed to be discomforted and angry at war crimes and easy ways out, Ill give the last word to Reva:
I have done things here, In defending this city I have done things, . . I thought them right and just as I did them, now I dont know, Now I wonder if I mistook rage for right and murder for justice,
I plan to read the third Ravens Shadow book, and it is possible, with my expectations lowered, to once again enjoy it unreservedly and put it in the top spot of my fantasy reads.
I have to say that book two in this series did not live up to my expectation, I would rate this about the same as I rated sitelinkThe Emperor's Blades, About,but expectation plays a lot in determining to use theorstar rating, This is like a Wall St mystery, Company A makesbillion profit after expecting to makebillion and its share price plummets by, Company B makes amillion loss instead ofmillion loss and its share prices increase by,
Well, my expectation for this book was much higher than Emperor's blades because was already invested in the story and characters and knew what I would be getting myself into.
In reality I got something different, I am being a little harsh on Anthony Ryan with this, because really, it is still a great story and he used book two to develop the characters and the intrigue and the whole world story.
All this info that was wonderful and relevant, The problem is/was, book one was like getting a ride in a racing car and book two felt like catching the numberbus, stopping all stops.
So in a nut shell, the dramatic change in pace through me, it struggled to keep my attention at times as events seemed to drag out.
I have to say that it finished very strongly and the last quarter had me remembering what I like so much about Ryan's writing.
He also has me looking forward to book, but overall I am still a little disappointed with this one, .