Hello Fellow Journeyers,
We have another Amazon author that's been creating quite a bit of buzz on Goodreads lately in Ryan Cahill and his new epic fantasy series starting with Of Blood and Fire.
What's the story about: Of Blood and Fire is a coming of age story of a young man discovering a destiny unbeknownst to him early on to take down an empire that has ruled for many oppressive years. There are a couple of other multiple perspectives that are told here and there, but for the most part they still revolve around the main character of Calen.
In the beginning, one noticeable aspect to Of Blood and Fire is the easy, fast-flowing reading Cahill employs. Being a mix of classic fantasy with aspects of modern storytelling, it reads in a way that brings you in gently and takes its time developing your desire to enjoy the characters and slow developing plot. I enjoyed this as a refreshing approach to more modern tactics of action to get the reader's attention; so many fantasy books either world build with endless detail or begin hastily with said intense action that you don't really get to know the characters and their motivations. Because of this, I appreciated the classic hero's journey approach.
The next aspect that stuck out in this book was how long it took the main plot to get going. This is a debate that can be had until the end of time, but when it gets closer to 30-40% before the plot develops, I find it a little annoying. While this was a detractor, it does develop enough to take the first act and move quickly into the second fairly seamlessly. The second act is where most of the interest really gets rolling and that's when I noticed how invested I had become. Bringing up the progression again, Cahill's talent for writing with urgency and a desire to know what happens next is probably the strongest area this tale has going for it. It's just fun to enjoy and see what happens next and the plot is always accessible without being too predictable or boring. There were moments of surprise, wonder, and even a little heartache that added just enough to enjoy the story a little more.
The last thing I'll mention about Of Blood and Fire's writing is that the dialogue read a little corny and melodramatic throughout; but just the dialogue and not the rest of the writing. I found this to be surprising since I rarely notice dialogue issues as an avid fantasy reader but it bothered me for most of the entirety of the book. It just read a little more juvenile than I would've thought for how meticulous the rest of the writing was. The descriptions were often very poetic, read distinctly and with enough detail, but what characters said often felt quite tropey and a little cliché. Overall, this took away quite a bit of the enjoyment for me as it didn't seem like the story itself had as much substance as it tried to portray. It may sound overly critical, but Cahill seemed like he could've done better and his writing in other areas showed that he was up to the task.
Finally, the reason this book went from being a 3 star to a 3.5 star in the end was the conclusion. For being a story that takes awhile to get going, I was worried that the conclusion wasn't going to be satisfying because there hadn't been enough time to develop some of the aspects to make it such. But I was mostly wrong! There were elements of satisfaction of seeing this story reach a climax, seeing the overall plot converge, action, some tragedy, it was all handled well and really made for a quite satisfying end overall. And does a good job setting up what's to come in the future of the series.
★★★★ 3.5 Stars - Of Blood and Fire is a worthy first story in The Bound and The Broken series. With traces of Eragon heavily on display here and there, this feels like what Eragon could have been, but wasn't. It's a fresh take on classic fantasy with some hiccups because of heavily expositional and clunky dialogue, but overall, Cahill's storytelling is worthwhile to read and find yourself getting swept up in. It's a splendid story that will hopefully become better with the sequel, Of Darkness and Light.