Of Blood and Fire tells the story of a kingdom divided by an ongoing war, where magical creatures are slowly disappearing while new dangers suDNF 78%
Of Blood and Fire tells the story of a kingdom divided by an ongoing war, where magical creatures are slowly disappearing while new dangers surface. In an isolated town away from trouble, Calen and his two best friends are preparing themselves for The Proving, a test that will make them men if they manage to survive. But soon, they will discover that something more deadly than wolves and bears is waiting for them in the forest…
Ryan Cahill masterfully balances the beginning by giving the perfect amount of information, characters and action, which is something very rare to find. He manages to tell what’s going on -which is not little-, without paragraphs of info-dump, while introducing you to the characters, who are never sitting still. The writing is direct and concise, which may be a problem for someone who prefers beautiful storytelling. Even for someone like me, who prefers simple ones, it feels rather rigid sometimes and it took me a bit to get used to.
You are our family. Maybe not by blood, but water becomes just as thick as blood if you go through enough shit together.
The action didn’t take long to start. There was a scene at 18% where I was shaking with fear of what was going to happen with the characters, following scenes that started as scary and kept increasing until becoming terrifying. My heart was there with them, racing as the danger moved before my eyes, unable to stop to rest because I needed them to get away alive.
What went downhill? Two big problems around 50-60%
1) The characters. Don’t get me wrong, I liked them, but the more I read, the more I felt they didn’t have a lot of depth. Not only could you predict some of their movements/dialogues, some actions also felt a bit out of character. Until something happened, when they had to prove something you'd been told since the beginning, and they completely failed the test. It was like seeing tiny cracks on their surface that make you suspicious and, suddenly, a hole is unveiled. It was obvious they were doing exactly what the author needed to move the plot as he wanted to, instead of doing what they would have done, which it’s something I despise.
2) The dragons -yes, there are dragons!!- reminded me too much of Eragon. Although if you are someone who hasn’t read Eragon or don’t mind that the dragon part of the equation was rather similar, I don’t think you’ll have a problem with this one.
Overall, I can see why so many people loved this -damn, I loved this until 50%-, but I’m very picky when it comes to characters. Even a black hole in the plot doesn’t bother me as much as characters being puppets of the authors. I just couldn’t see anything behind the anger and frustration, couldn’t care about the characters anymore and for that, I decided I might as well say goodbye to the adventure.
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