Blood King Review

SF Site reviews Gail Z. Martin's The Blood King.

The Blood King is the sequel to The Summoner, continuing the saga of an exiled prince and his companions as they struggle to survive in a world filled with spirits and chaos. Gail Z. Martin paints a bleak picture of lands caught in a web of madness and oppression, as she chronicles the various journeys and paths taken by Tris and his assorted allies, making for a fairly dark story, the only real points of light being found in brief moments of hope and the growing relationships between some of the characters. It's an interesting world, with the dead playing a huge part, not just in the current action, but in all aspects of life. It's clear that the living and the dead are intertwined, with the vampiric vayash moru falling somewhere in the middle, and thanks to Tris' powers and role as the Summoner, we see just how these pieces all fit together.

This is a fairly complex story, with a whole lot going on between the different characters and their various missions, but Gail Z. Martin is pretty good at keeping things from getting out of hand. The characters are all different enough, and their voices strong enough, that it's easy to remember who's who, and what's what.