In which I derped and read book 2 of a duology thinking it was book one and did not notice until I wanted to get started on book 2. 

So, to paraphrase a well known reviewer, this isn’t a review of what it’s like to read Dragon Blood as it was intended, this is a review of what it’s like to read it like a huge derp. 

I’d written up this next part before the truth dawned on me, there’s some irony in there: 

I picked the Hurog duology up for bingo final book in a series published more than 10 years ago without having a lot of faith in it. It’s just one of the squares I’ve been struggling with and said fine I’ll just read whatever and be done with it. The old school covers did nothing to increase my enthusiasm. 

But now at the end of book one you can call me smitten. 

I was pretty put off by the beginning, there’s a lot of torture to start and the narration is pretty flat. But soon enough I was grabbed by the story. 

One of my favorite things about Dragon Bones (yeah cause I thought I was reading Dragon Bones at this point) is how well established the characters and the world are. It reminds me of a sort of condensed Game of Thrones, and in some ways of Tigana. There’s a lot of context. The main character is already a known hero due to his past victories, there are pre existing relationships between almost all the characters, a former rebellion gets mentioned often. It was a bit tough keeping track of who’s who at first, but afterwards I was impressed with the rich world. (should that have been a clue? Maybeee. .. but I powered through the confusion) 

I also liked the magic, it started off looking as thought it would be low magic and then more layers kept being added. Magic that is believed to be a myth turning out to be real is one of my favorite tropes.

I wasn’t sold of Ward at first. Big buff dude with magic powers from the part of the kingdom generally considered barbarians, meh. But he really grew on me. He’s pretty sly underneath his gruff exterior.

Back to present, wiser Dia 

Another thing I really liked was how the main relationship went. Whenever a man thinks to himself “I’m gonna pursue her but if she wants me to back off I will” I get very happy. I’m all for funding this. It’s not entirely that clear cut, she does object but it’s more “I’m not ready for a relationship yet, I’m not princessy enough for you”, and the reader can tell she’s got the hots for him. 

Overall it kinda reminded me most of Conan, even the narration was a bit similar, and there are only so many books I’ve read about big strong barbarians, but I liked it so much more. Ward turns out to such a nicely rounded character, I just liked him so much by the end. There’s a lot of action and sort of similar mysterious and dangerous settings, a sense of a big world with unknown and powerful magic. 

Of course I can’t speak for book 1, or how this would be if read as intended, but I do recommend this to people looking for a darker sword and sorcery with a lot of action and mystery. CW for torture and mentions of rape. 

Bingo squares: final books of a series (hard), audiobook