{"id":4292,"date":"2017-10-22T20:03:31","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T18:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=4292"},"modified":"2020-05-30T22:33:07","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T20:33:07","slug":"das-lied-des-blutes-anthony-ryan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2017\/10\/blood-song-anthony-ryan\/","title":{"rendered":"Blood Song \u2022 Anthony Ryan"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Fantasy novels are always a lovely change of pace and keep finding their way onto my ever-growing TBR pile. My bar is pretty high these days, and the Hobbit Press program from Klett-Cotta is my absolute favorite. From Tad Williams to Tolkien, they publish the big titles, and this time I read a book from their list again. Blood Song<\/em> has been heavily promoted and has received consistently strong reviews. It\u2019s the first volume of the Raven\u2019s Shadow<\/em> trilogy, and whether it\u2019s worth reading\u2014and whether volumes two and three are already on my shelf\u2014you\u2019ll find out in the lines below.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Blood Song<\/em> had to wait quite a while on my TBR stack. I wanted to save it for when I was really in the mood for fantasy\u2014which reliably happens from time to time. Naturally, I went for the hardcover, even though there\u2019s now a cheaper trade paperback. Sadly, there\u2019s no ribbon bookmark and it\u2019s glued rather than thread-sewn, but I still love Klett-Cotta hardcovers. They have a satisfyingly chunky form factor, the colors are well chosen, and the covers always tempt with very stylish illustrations.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The story is recounted retrospectively by Vaelin Al Sorna, a famous warrior who, at the outset, is in captivity on his way to a final duel. To the imperial historian he narrates his life starting from his youth: how his father, the King\u2019s Battle Lord, delivers him to the Sixth Order, where he has to prove himself\u2014an almost monastic order in which elite warriors are trained for the Faith by fairly rough methods. But the first volume carries on beyond that period, and we learn how Vaelin achieves fame and glory and ends up in the situation with which the story begins.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After just a few pages it\u2019s clear you\u2019re getting a classic high fantasy tale. Ryan treads safe paths and offers a world and storyline built almost entirely from well-worn elements. On the one hand, that\u2019s wonderful\u2014that\u2019s exactly what you want from a fantasy novel of this sort. On the other hand, a fresh idea here and there would have been nice. But the genre has been so thoroughly mined that it\u2019s hard to pull something truly new out of the hat.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Ryan uses a few narrative devices that reliably work. At the beginning, for example, there\u2019s that school\/academy setup. It worked brilliantly for Harry Potter<\/em>, for Trudi Canavan\u2019s The Black Magician<\/em> trilogy (the \u201cSonea\u201d series in German), or for Rothfuss\u2019s Kvothe in The Kingkiller Chronicle<\/em>\u2014which makes sense, because everyone can easily relate to a protagonist in a school-like environment. We meet Vaelin as a child, and Ryan naturally taps into the Bildungsroman vein; by now every last publisher and author knows how well that kind of self-discovery arc lands with readers. Of course, the fantasy-typical battles are here, as is a Norse-tinged world. What\u2019s more, his protagonist Vaelin is a Jean Valjean<\/a> type: practically an unbeatable fighter\u2014brave, strong, steadfast, morally upright\u2014who handles almost every situation with poise and confidence. Much like Rothfuss does with Kvothe, this caters to a certain narcissism, since readers usually identify with the main character. The foreknowledge that the opponent is about to get thoroughly trounced is a device that film and TV have already chewed to death.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

If you take this package of rather old and often-used devices and mix in a hearty dose of fantasy, you get a book that\u2019s genuinely exciting and entertaining. His descriptions have a cinematic quality, and the scenes play vividly before the mind\u2019s eye. So yes, this is full-on head-cinema. The book also moves at a good clip; it\u2019s never boring and the story keeps pushing forward. The reader is often kept in the dark about key information that Vaelin uncovers bit by bit, which adds to the suspense. I was a little disappointed by the sparse descriptions of the world\u2014and of the characters, too, which are often rather thin. That can be an advantage\u2014your imagination can roam\u2014but the landscapes I still remember from Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn<\/a> had a strong atmospheric density that\u2019s somewhat missing here. I\u2019ve just read too many travelogues and beautifully rendered depictions of nature, fauna, and flora in literature for me not to expect them in truly outstanding books. As a result, his world is only moderately brought to life. Authors like Tad Williams<\/a> and, of course, Tolkien<\/a> are miles ahead on that front.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What really works in this book is the action. You get your money\u2019s worth, and compared to moving pictures, Blood Song<\/em> definitely lines up with action films. There are numerous skirmishes, battles, fights, duels\u2014blood flies, and the protagonist\u2019s path is littered with corpses. It\u2019s great stuff, and combined with that cinematic feel, it\u2019s highly entertaining.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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Quite different, however, are the characters and dialogues, which are very often rather one-dimensional. You run into a fair number of stereotypes here, and none of the figures truly grew dear to me\u2014not even Vaelin, who, in temperament and intellect, isn\u2019t exactly a revelation. He keeps managing to pull things off decision-wise, but he\u2019s a fairly rough fellow\u2014which is consistent enough, since he\u2019s a swordsman. The dialogue didn\u2019t grip me. It\u2019s quite flat, has little depth, often feels stereotypical, and could have been lifted from any low-budget movie. The sentences and language are about average for today\u2019s genre fiction, which makes the book an easy, fluent read. It\u2019s ideal for relaxed evening hours, and despite its nearly 800 pages, I finished it fairly quickly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Conclusion:<\/strong> As the opener of the Raven\u2019s Shadow<\/em> trilogy, Blood Song<\/em> offers little that\u2019s new, but it shines with its action, brisk pace, and steady suspense. Ryan knows how to conjure clear images of his scenes in the reader\u2019s mind and delivers a well-made fantasy world that doesn\u2019t surprise but does entertain. The characters often feel one-dimensional, the dialogues are pretty simply hewn, and the world isn\u2019t as finely realized as with other major fantasy authors. Even so, I had a lot of fun with it, and I\u2019ll definitely be reading the other two volumes. It\u2019s very much an action-driven book, designed with all its devices to keep readers thoroughly entertained\u2014especially at the start, where it works consistently well. If you like high fantasy, enjoy being swept up by rapid-fire battles, and appreciate a classic story in this genre, I can highly recommend it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Book information:<\/strong> Blood Song: Raven\u2019s Shadow 1<\/em> \u2022 Anthony Ryan \u2022 Klett-Cotta \u2022 274 pages \u2022 ISBN 9783608939255<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fantasy novels are always a lovely change of pace and keep finding their way onto my ever-growing TBR pile. My bar is pretty high these days, and the Hobbit Press program from Klett-Cotta is my absolute favorite. From Tad Williams to Tolkien, they publish the big titles, and this time I read a book from … <\/p>\n

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