Karsa Orlong

I seem to remember finding they got very bogged down in the politics, which was what slowed me down a lot when I was reading them. I'd probably find them a lot more interesting now.

Book #38: Blood Song by Anthony Ryan From Amazon: We have fought battles that left more than a hundred corpses on the ground, and not a word of it has ever been set down. The Order fights, but often it fights in shadow, without glory or reward. We have no banners. Vaelin Al Sorna's life changes for ever the day his father abandons him at the gates of the Sixth Order, a secretive military arm of the Faith. Together with his fellow initiates, Vaelin undertakes a brutal training regime - where the price of failure is often death. Under the tutelage of the Order's masters, he learns how to forge a blade, survive the wilds and kill a man quickly and quietly. Now his new skills will be put to the test. War is coming. Vaelin is the Sixth Order's deadliest weapon and the Realm's only hope. He must draw upon the very essence of his strength and cunning if he is to survive the coming conflict. Yet as the world teeters on the edge of chaos, Vaelin will learn that the truth can cut deeper than any sword. Thoughts: The blurb above makes it sound like just the sort of generic fantasy I tend to run a mile from these days. And the cover art is quite awful, which doesn't help. In many respects, this is a very traditional fantasy novel: young boy with mysterious heritage left on the doorstep of the equally mysterious Sixth Order, then going through apprenticeship, learning and honing skills, bonding with fellow apprentices etc etc yadda yadda yadda. Yet, out of 99 reviews on Amazon, it has 86 five star reviews and an average rating of 4.62 out of over three thousand reviews on goodreads. Eh? What's that about, then? Of course, similar could be said of Sanderson's The Way of Kings, and look where that got me . . . Vaelin Al Sorna is ten years old when his father leaves him at the gates of the Sixth Order and rides away into the mist, leaving him to a future of incessant training and brutal tests, of murder and war. But that's not quite how the story starts. Cleverly, Ryan begins at the end, introducing us to a much older Vaelin, as a scribe relates their first meeting: "He had many names. Although yet to reach his thirtieth year history had seen fit to garner him with titles aplenty: Sword of the Realm to the mad king who sent him to plague us, the Young Hawk to the men who followed him through the trials of war, Darkblade to his Cumbraelin enemies and, as I was to learn much later, Beral Shak Ur to the enigmatic tribes of the Great Northern Forest - the Shadow of the Raven. But my people knew him by but one name and it was this that sang in my head continually the morning they brought him to the docks: Hope Killer. Soon you will die and I will see it. Hope Killer." What Anthony Ryan has done with such a standard set up is somehow quite amazing. At nearly 600 pages long, Blood Song never felt to me like it dragged at any point. I think the biggest compliment I can pay it is that it felt to me like I was reading a David Gemmell novel. It has the feeling of a story that has been crafted and honed almost to perfection. There is always something happening to hold the interest, and the characters are so well developed that you genuinely start to care for them. There's no angst here, no shadow of evil in the east (or north or west or wherever it is today), no quest, no mystical trinket to be found before the enemy gets to it, no pages of boring description to bog it down, no magic system to distract from story or character. It's lean and tight, with all the extraneous crap stripped away and, although it starts with Vaelin as a boy, it quickly moves beyond that period. The story covers many years, so you won't reach the end of this book and find he's only 11 years old. And I have to note that even thought this is the first in a series (called 'Raven's Shadow'), Blood Song stands very well on its own, concluding its own tale whilst leaving open avenues for further stories. The framework may be generic, but Ryan turns that around with a pervading sense of wrongness, that there's something not quite right about Vaelin, the lessons he's being taught, or the actions he's ordered to take. There are as many shades of grey here as there are in a Dulux catalogue. It's full of twists and turns, love and death, and - whilst there is little in the way of prophecy or magic - there is a sense of destiny and how much control one can have over it. There is violence but it's not particularly graphic, there are a couple of instances of the 'f' word but, apart from that, any swearing is mild. I'm really glad that I took a punt on this book. Apart from Joe Abercrombie, heroic fantasy seems to have become somewhat lost since David Gemmell left us. It's quite exciting to find a new voice in the genre. Anthony Ryan is one to be watched, I reckon, and Blood Song is very, very good indeed. 9/10

Oh for sure, and I think you could also lay some of the blame on supermarkets, charity shops, secondhand bookshops, ebay, people who lend books etc etc

Obviously, cos my mum likes the same sort of rubbish you like

Aren't all paperbacks discounted on Amazon as well? Nice try, though Hee, I don't need to buy it, I'm going to borrow my mum's copy

Well this is vexing. I was going to get Caliban's War, the sequel to Leviathan Wakes, for Kindle (as I have LW on Kindle), but it's £9.65 when the full-price paperback's only £8.99 (or £5.93 on Amazon). Guess I'll wait a bit longer

Yes. Yes, it should 450 pages into Blood Song now. Was too tired to read much last night

Talking of the media, I see John Inverdale landed himself in hot water for his comments about Marion Bartoli. Twit.

That, plus I'd need a bigger house, cos obviously I'd have to buy the whole set

Some of the artwork from the upcoming Subterranean Press edition of Memories of Ice - not that I'll be buying it at $150

I'm about 350 pages into Anthony Ryan's Blood Song and so far it's Blood-y Good!

I've got a Baldacci sitting on my TBR pile (well, it's sitting in the Kindle, really). I'll have to move it up

And I'll add Something Wicked This Way Comes

Can't help you there, I haven't read Rook

Never in doubt Well done to Djokovic, too, for his grace in defeat

I've got more faith in him winning it this year than I had last year

Me neither! I read them many years ago and remember finding them quite hard going, but I did read the trilogy right the way through (never read the book of short stories, though). I wonder if I'd get more out of them now?

Well that was difficult to watch Well done to Bartoli, though.

The Djokovic/Del Potro semi was the best match I've seen for a loooong time. ETA: They should take the footage of how the losers acted in both semis and stick them in front of Radwanska

Crikey, is this a test?

I'm still having an "eh?" moment about that one

Sorry to hear you're not enjoying TGH, Tim. I felt the same way about it, but I wouldn't wish that on anyone else A) I know exactly what you mean! and B) looking forward to hearing what you think about the Ketty Jay book, as I've only read the first one to date

Castle 5x16 - daft but brilliant

Not sure how it works on the Paperwhite, Athena, but on the Kindle Keyboard you call up the menu, click 'go to' and then select 'cover'. Is there a menu you can call up?

Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel - finished 13/06/13 Emperor: The Gates of Rome by Conn Iggulden Prophecy by S. J. Parris - finished 18/06/13 The Mauritius Command by Patrick O'Brian The Black Dahlia by James Ellroy - finished 27/06/13 The Odyssey by Homer Something by David Gemmell, to be decided (probably either Hero in the Shadows or The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend) A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge The Technician by Neal Asher - finished 04/07/13 Pompeii by Robert Harris The Silver Spike by Glen Cook - finished 22/06/13 The one no-one saw coming: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee I'm going off plan again I'm diving straight into Blood Song. Just couldn't wait