Title: Of Blood and Fire
Author: Ryan Cahill
Series: The Bound and the Broken #1
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 2/5 stars
The Overview: Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the south squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North. In the remote villages of southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving—a test of courage and skill that not all survive. But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war that has been raging for centuries. There is no prophecy. His coming was not foretold.
He bleeds like any man, and bleed he will. -Goodreads
The Review:
If classic fantasy is your main jam, you’re primed to like this a little more than I did.
My experience with this was rough. I started the book with a lot of enthusiasm, finding it easy to get into the flow of the story. It was fairly typical classic fantasy with overly drawn-out beginning chapters reminiscent of WoT. I kept waiting for it to sweep me away on that rolling hype train… but it never quite got there. Add to that several blatant deus ex machinas early on (which effectively removed all the high stakes from the story), and I found my enthusiasm waning. It eventually became a struggle to finish.
Great care was taken early on to highlight people and things that had no bearing on the rest of the book. Meanwhile, the important stuff (a mf DRAGON) was often brushed over so quickly that I kept having to backtrack to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. Several scenes were vague and felt more like afterthoughts than fleshed-out scenes. I had more of a moment with the description of a townswoman early on than I did with the (mf) DRAGON. I look to the storyteller to show me what to focus on, but here it seemed as though many things were included for the sake of being there rather than because they added value.
While the pacing of the story had a nice flow, I finished the book feeling like I didn’t get enough substance out of book to justify the page count. There weren’t a lot of plot points and the ones that were there didn’t stick with me much.
Overall I wish I’d liked it more.
Recommendations: Pick this up for a classic fantasy kick and the promise that the series gets better with each book. I’m not sure I’m going to make it that far, but those who have seem to love it. Incidentally, once I finished writing my review I scanned through a handful of people I follow on GR and all the ones I saw loved the book more than me. All of them. Alrighty – take my review with a grain of salt. :)
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