This is my church

Week 46: Blood Song – Anthony Ryan
Recommended by: Peter Gee

As I'm fairly sure I've already mentioned in at least one blog, while I do love the fantasy genre, there are a couple of things that do bug me a bit. First, while I enjoy immersing myself in the world, strapping on my armour and going frolicking with the ogres, I do wish that books in the genre weren't regularly a minimum of 500 pages. Second, while I also understand the desire on the part of both authors and readers to revisit favourite worlds and characters and to develop them further, series which run and run can both be exhausting when each tome is a brick, as well as potentially running out of steam as the series continues, stretched out out too far by publisher or author. I like series and trilogies and they are the mainstay of the genre but sometimes I just crave a good stand-alone.

Bearing this in mind, I was entirely unsurprised to find that Blood Song is both a doorstopper and the first of a trilogy. It follows Vaelin Al Sorna through his coming of age as he joins the Sixth Order, the military arm of the faith. So far, so standard. But if there are seven basic plots and probably fewer within the genre, it's often not about the premise. The world building and the characterisation are ultimately what most fantasy books will live or die by and fortunately Blood Song holds its own here.

Vaelin is an interesting, well-rounded character. Sure, he's special and not just because he's the protagonist, but he's not perfect, there's a journey of discovery and his colleagues are noticeably better at some things than him. Plus given the training the Order has to go through just to survive, it's not a surprise that anybody who makes it that far is going to be pretty formidable. There can be a relatively fine line between a Mary Sue (I've never liked the phrase Marty Stu for a male character, it's just not as catchy and sounds a bit, well, dumb) and a heroic character and not everyone is going to be Joe Average. I also like the fact that Vaelin isn't really described physically, allowing you to fill in the blanks yourself.

The United Realm is a classical setting at a critical juncture, held together by force of will and faith but with obvious cracks that are barely papered over. In today's geopolitical climate you can, if you choose, read a lot into the portrayal of religion. You have an all-encompassing faith that doesn't allow for non-believers, within which there is the full gamut of intolerant fanaticism to tolerance. There are also plenty of politics, with the church as an arm of the government (or is it the other way round?), asking questions of the role of religion in the executive and the long-running debate over the separation of church and state that each country has, each with its own unique slant on the matter.

Alternatively, you can choose not to think too deeply about this and simply accept it as an enjoyable story, which is perfectly fine. For ultimately, that's what this is and I have no doubt that I'll end up picking up the second and third volumes.