Customer Reviews

Bloodring (Thorn St. Croix, Book 1)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

From the beginning, you are literally plunged into Bloodring, and are forced to play catch-up, or fall behind. Oddly enough, I like that in a book, it forces me to actually think- something the majority of books today fail to do.

Perhaps I was forced to think a little too much. When I did finally catch up with the plot (end of world that didn't quite go off as expected), it started throwing me curve balls. The "heat" the heroine goes into when contaminated by anyone with seraph genes was too reminiscent of Anita Blake and her "Ardeur", and now Karen Moning with her new "Dark" series and Fae that make the heroine crawl on her knees with skirt up, panties down. Sex lust, dogs in heat, mindless mating fever, ick, ick, blech. It has become a tasteless plot device that can so easily distract from what otherwise is a fairly fascinating story. The blind hatred by humans against mages also gave me pause. Humans will fight alongside the Mage against the dark, they call on the Mages for magical help, but if they catch one they will debase, rape, torture and murder them? Why? Never clearly explained, even though that blind hatred was a major portion of the book, and the reason the heroine was hiding out in the first place.

The world building is good, the dark and cold scenery was perfectly described (enough to have you grabbing for a sweater), the character's personalities (when not insane with hate or animal lust) were excellent. The villains were truly dark, the friendships were strong yet fragile enough to feel real. The characters who were standing on the fence showed natural insecurities and kept you guessing. Very impressive. Thorn's abilities with stones, both working with them professionally and as a warrior was incredibly well done.

Despite the curveballs described previously, I will read this author again, and have put the sequel of this book, "Seraphs" on my wishlist.

Faith Hunters' debut novel Bloodring is set in a post-apocalyptic earth and tells the story of neomage Thorn St. Croix. An effective blend of fantasy tinged with romance, the story kicks off in the midst of events. Rather than a lengthy bit of exposition in the beginning, Hunter chooses to parcel out information throughout the novel. While some readers may find this an annoyance, I didn't. It kept the plot moving and provided an opportunity to become acquainted with Thorn and her way of life.


The main events center on Thorn's special abilities and the abduction of Thorns ex-husband, Lucas Stanhope - first, what makes our protagonist unique. Approximately 150 years ago, seraphs descended to earth bringing plagues and God's judgment on the human race. Nuclear war ensued, wiping out the majority of the population and plunging the planet into a new ice age. Seraphs formed a new government and insinuated themselves into everyday life. In the decades since the apocalypse, new races have emerged, as a result of human and seraph couplings. As a stone mage, Thorn has the ability to bend leftover creation energy to her will, or in laymen's terms, the ability to bond with the elements of nature and perform magic. This newfound ability comes with high costs, specifically human hostility and a life of seclusion in a compound.


Due to events that aren't completely made clear, Thorn can't live among her own kind. At the age of fourteen, she went into hiding in a small town nestled in the Appalachians. There, Thorn has managed to take up a trade, build a business and create a decent life making her living as a jewelry designer and one of three partners in a jewelry business. She's also been married and happily helped raise her stepdaughter, Ciana. All seems well until her ex-husband's kidnapping forces her into action. From that point on Thorn increasingly relies on her instincts, friends and innate mage abilities.


There is much to enjoy in Bloodring. Hunter's descriptions of life in a small town are dead on; down to the small dating pool and the fear of encouraging the wrath of a church elder (minister, preacher, what have you). The secondary characters are multidimensional; with everyone from the mule train master to the evil minions of darkness having a distinct personality. They also tend to talk and act like real people with real frailties. Even though Thorn feels alienated by her secret, she lives in a functional, supportive environment. Hunter effortlessly blends the biblical into elements of high fantasy. The easy integration of religion, theology and magic into the every day are reminiscent of Sharon Shinn's Samaria books and Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. Yet, Hunter has endowed Bloodring with its own unique twist.


There are a few places where Hunter's vision falters a bit, especially when it comes to the romantic aspects of the plot. Thorn's primary object of romantic interest appeals to her mostly because of his genetic makeup. When a mage and an angelic being are in close proximity they both experience an overwhelming desire to have sex - "mage-heat". The concept is brought up repeatedly; hindering the flow of the story. The idea of "mage-heat" seems to borrow shamelessly from Laurell K. Hamilton's concept of the "ardeur". It's a device that Hamilton has used over and over in her recent work to cover radically inconsistent behavior in her main character, Anita Blake. Hopefully, Hunter will avoid falling into that same trap.


There are also inconsistencies in the world Hunter has built. For instance, horses are the most common form of transportation, but cell phones and television still exist. People rely on trading and salvaging to get basic necessities but the internet is still a flourishing avenue for trade. Also, the human's incendiary reaction to mages doesn't completely ring true. Thorn is in constant fear of being discovered, and if captured expects to be raped and tortured before meeting a grizzly demise. That doesn't seem consistent with a world trying to rebuild itself after cataclysmic events, but then again that might be too idealistic.

Nevertheless, the world Hunter has wrought is an intriguing one. Deft characterizations, realistic dialogue, and excellent plot pacing combine to create a story that is both gripping and believable.

This is an entertaining, but rather flawed and derivative, new entry in the modern craze of lusted-up supernatural thrillers from the rising crop of adventurous women writers. Faith Hunter doesn't stray too far from the well-established methods already done to death by the Harrison/Hamilton/Banks triumvirate (making the glowing endorsements from Kim Harrison rather curious) and this novel's trite and corny title doesn't bode too well for readers looking for something new. In short, there's been an apocalypse and supernatural creatures have reclaimed their place on Earth, with a lot of forbidden passion and magic rituals. This has all been done ad nauseam in the past decade or so - though Hunter does try a few new things here, such as an extra focus on obscure biblical passages and very detailed descriptions of the protagonist Thorn's witchcraft (mage) rituals, but these don't really fuel the story very much. Meanwhile, Thorn's constant states of unrequited carnal heat get tiresome real fast and become merely a stereotype of the already badly overdone forbidden-passion-of-supernatural-creatures motif.

There is also real trouble with the world building in this story, though Faith Hunter gets some points for at least trying to create a robust future landscape. In a very under-explained fashion, we learn that the story takes place about 100 years after the aforementioned apocalypse, which killed 99% of the human population and instituted a new seraphic regime, while also badly altering the earth's climate. Oddly, human society is largely unchanged (particularly in business and commerce) and after a mere century several new supernatural and semi-supernatural races have developed full histories and complete understanding of their new powers. Granted, this novel is pretty entertaining and you'll like the few characters that are actually given the chance to rise above the vague or stereotypical, and Faith Hunter manages to make this a mostly self-contained story with a pretty good cliffhanger at the end, thus avoiding the most common weakness of books that are written in series. However, the rest of the series will only be of interest to readers who don't mind books that unabashedly jump on a currently hot bandwagon. [~doomsdayer520~]

This book is a quagmire. A quagmire or bog where you slowly keep sinking until you are up to your nose and then you drown.

If you want to read about 300 pages of Thorn St. Croix (our heroine) lusting (being "in heat" - mentioned several times in each chapter) after another person but instead of doing something about it, just writhes around on the floor due to her heat, then all means go ahead and read this piece of trash.

Perhaps I would even excuse her being "in heat" (are you tired of me mentioning this yet? because if you are you will never make it through the book), if she actually jumped the guy and did the deed. Some sex might have pumped this book up in terms of actually being interesting! That might have actually given me something interesting to read about instead of this dry, boring story of a woman in a post-apocalyptic world where her magic makes her a target.

The world building was incomplete and haphazard. After the Seraphs smited humanity, killing off a huge number of us, we then teamed up with them to wage war against the nasty things living underground.

Just knowing human behavior, there would be a huge simmering resentment underneath of humans waiting to kill any Seraph at all. Personally, if the author had gone that route, with an underground movement to kill Seraphs, I could have bought it. Instead, us humans are just cringing under the wings of our Seraph masters wondering when they will emerge from their holy places and smite some more of us dead.

There are a lot of bland religious swearing about the devil and hell etc... but of course it's so bland that it doesn't attach itself to any religious group, though obviously Christian in nature (as compared to say, Buddhism). Either the author just didn't want to do any research (lazy) or was worried she would alienate Christian readers (wish-washy), but for whatever reason the entire world comes off colorless and not the in-depth, complex worlds I generally read and enjoy.

Instead this is a sample of what you get:

Chapter 1 - On a cross country trip, Thorn stumbles across a nasty thing in the wood. Okay this grabbed me but instead of going into this aspect of a journeyman gemologist we are sent back to the city where she...

Chapter 2 - writhes about the floor being in heat for a law enforcement officer named Thadd (a kylen);

Chapter 3 - mysterious disappearance of ex-husband. Unrealistic and sterotypical character of step-daughter and hateful former wife of ex are introduced. This author has no talent in writing about pre-teens/teens; it would be best if she limits these characters in her future books. I would also suspect that the author bears a grudge against an ex somewhere in her personal history;

Chapter 4 - Thorn is in heat for Thadd. Introduce business partners.

Chapter 5 and 6 - Thorn behaves like a stupid nicompoop over a box of stones; this gave me the lowest expectation of her magical abilities (let alone her squirming about due to her heat). Pretend that the business partners have no inkling that she is a mage.

Chapter 7 - Thorn is in heat for Thadd (or you as sick of reading about this crap as I was by this time?). Talk about mysterious stones and how they were sent over by a hick grandma.

Chapter 8 - Thorn worries that someone might figure out she is a Neomage.

Chapter 9 - have a small battle with something that might/not be a thing called a Daywalker which may/may not be evil. Have business partner see what you did...

Chapter 10 - ...only to discover he's known all along you were a Neomage.

etc... etc... And that is pretty much the scope of how this book moves along: simply nothing happens.

Lots and lots of Thorn being in heat, squirming in her pants for Thadd (who we know pretty much nothing about except he is a Kylen), a couple of business partners who *yawn* I found uninteresting (insert required gay couple that all fantasy seems to be writing about so readers will see they are cool and up to date), and a depressing, post-Apolcalyptic world that might or might not be governed by Seraphs, that might or might not be directed by a God, that might or might not be based upon the Christian Bible.

Personally, this book goes absolutely nowhere. It would have been more forgiveable if it had become just a mage and half-Seraph, humping each other, but we are denied even that entertainment. Instead you get 300 page so of ho-hum for $7.99.

Bloodring starts in the middle of everything. While this tends to be a good formula for most novels, it didn't quite work as well here. I had to spend much of the first half of the novel trying to figure out what was going on and what the mechanics of the world were. The plot was also excruciating slow and I found myself frequently getting lost between what was going on and what the rules of the world are -not to mention what exists in it. Finally, about half way through the plot started to get going and I was finally able to figure out enough about the Bloodring universe to follow it more closely.

Bloodring takes place in a post-apocalyptic type universe where neomages are real and the world is being ruled by a type of seraph-led theocracy. Enter one Thorn St. Croix, divorced stone mage, living among humans. Thorn is accused of kidnapping her ex-husband, and she must use all of her abilities to clear her name, ranging from magic to amulet-making, while trying to deal with the strange lustful "heat" that consumes her when she's around anyone with seraph genes.

While an interesting (though somewhat clichéd) premise that gained steam as the story went on, Bloodring just left something to be desired. It was entertaining and kept me reading up until the end, but I wasn't left with a burning need to find out what happens next. I was mostly left with a sense of confusion, like I was being overwhelmed by all of the elements going on in the universe. Sadly, that sense of "it's too much" stuck with me and I was afraid that if I picked up the sequel, I wouldn't have been able to digest the entire book. Some readers may find Bloodring enjoyable, but it just didn't leave me excited.

Sometimes when I am looking for something new to read, I look at the ratings and pick something that most people seem to like, on the premise that it's likely that I will like it as well. That's the theory. In practice, it only works about two thirds of the time. This is one of the other third.

I didnt like this book. To me, it was dull and boring. The main character constantly overthinks and spends a lot of her time trying resisting her desires, as if to make sure the reader understands that women have sexual urges too. I felt it was boring and repetitious.


But what I noticed, was that the style of this book is very similar to that of two other female writers I have read: Rachel Caine and Laurell K. Hamilton. They also have a female lead, who constantly overthinks and spends most of their trying to overcome their sexual desires.


Then I went back to the reviews of this book. Most of the people who wrote reviews and gave it 4 or 5 stars were women.


So basically this is a book written by women for women, or at least written in a way that women can connect with.


Next time I skim the ratings and reviews, I'm going to have to take note of the sex of both the author and the reviewers, before I choose. It's not something I'd considered before this book.


Would I recommend this book?

If you are female, then yes. If you are a guy, I'd say maybe.

ps: I meant to rate it 2 stars, not 3, but when I tried to edit it, it wouldnt let me.

God...if the author says "flesh" one more time, I gonna nut up and go postal. The book/plot had some interesting features, but I hated the prose. Yuck! Sounds like a lot more people liked it on amazon...so you might too! I didn't!

Bloodring is a dark fantasy set one hundred years after three plagues have decimated mankind. The Earth is now in an ice-age, and seraphs and demons fight a never-ending battle. Meanwhile, the surviving humans are caught up in religious strife - as the apocalypse was preceded by the appearance of the seraphs. In this world Thorn St. Croix hides among the humans. A Neomage; she should be living with the rest of her kind in one of the Enclaves. Instead she chooses to live as a fugitive. When her ex-husband Lucas is kidnapped, she'll risk everything to find him, knowing that the price of discovery is death.

As well as Thorne, we meet her ex brother-in-law Rupert, and his lover Audric (I think my favourite characters). Thadd - a policeman who is convinced Thorne knows more than she's letting on, and who has secrets of his own. Various townspeople with their own agendas, and of course the seraphs.

There was a lot I enjoyed about the book. It's filled with a subtle eroticism, that crests and wanes as you're reading.
"I dragged my thoughts away from his muscled back and what it might look like naked if he lifted a bale of hay overhead. In summer. After a hard workout."
:) Okay, some of it's not so subtle. But there's this slow burn as you're reading it, that let's you experience Thorn's frustration as she's unable to fulfill her desire.

Faith Hunter 'draws' characters very well. She can paint a picture with words, which fixes them in your head very quickly. She has a wonderful way of expressing herself - I can't remember the last time I read the word 'pellucid' or 'susurration' in a novel. It adds to the sensuality of the storyline.

One of my concerns before reading the book was the religious content, I'm pleased that the seraphs in this world haven't validated any religion. And that there are some groups that believe the seraphs aren't angelic but alien in origin. I like the fact that we're given more than one possibility and no definite solution.

My main problem with the book was that there was a lot I was confused about or didn't understand. I get the main thrust of what's going on, but I think some of the subtleties of the plot are lost on me, which is frustrating. Though conversely when you finally work something out, it's rewarding. Yes, I want to have my cake and eat it too.

I didn't completely understand why Neomages risk execution for living outside an Enclave. There is some clarification later on in the story - to do with the part they played following the apocalypse. But I think perhaps there are still some gaps to be filled in. Maybe it's because the world has gone mad, and you can't look for logic or sense there, you can't look for reason in a fundamentalist world - but I think in a story there has to be some consistency.

Having said all of that. I don't necessarily think that not completely understanding what's going on in the first book of a trilogy/series is a bad thing. As long as these complications are clarified in a later book. My problem is that I don't know whether they will be. So my fingers are crossed that a) this is the case and b) by the time I've read the next book I'll be keeping track of who is what, and what that means.

Bloodring is told from the perspective of Thorn St. Croix. Thorn is a stone mage, the only one of her kind who is not confined to a mage community called Enclave. On the run, she must keep her identity a secret for fear of her life. If she is found by the Seraphs, who are angel-like beings, she will be sent back to the enclave where she faces certain insanity for she has a "gift" of mind reading her own kind, and thousands of minds get a little noisy. However, if she is discovered by the humans she hides amongst she faces death by stoning. When a temptingly attractive police officer named Thaddeus knocks on her door in the middle of the night to tell Thorn her ex-husband has been kidnapped, she must risk using her powers to find him, even with the fear of discovery looming over her.

I found the first half of this book to be a very frustrating read. I did not have much of a clue what was going on in the novel, and just when things started to become clear new revelations would be made, further confusing Thorn's identity. I enjoy a little mystery to a character, but this book could have used just a little more back story sooner for everything to make more sense. The book loosely follows biblical aspects, and at root is a war between good and evil. Thorn is on the side of "light" and makes stands against the evil "darkness" that tries to hurt the ones she loves. She is a very strong character, and when she sets out to do something she perseveres, not matter the risk to herself. One aspect I didn't care for was the "mage-heat," it is portrayed as this all consuming desire, but never seems to serve a true purpose in the book other than to "throw a wrench" into things for Thorn, possibly in future books it will have more meaning, but for this book I just didn't feel it was necessary. Poor Thorn had enough thrown at her without it. Thorn's personality, her "voice," is great and her world is interesting, however the story was hard to follow at times. The ending resolution was only a partial one, and the peace Thorn gains seems tentative at best. With how the ending played out, there is definite potential for this series, and I think as more about Thorn's true identity and past are revealed, the better it will get.

I picked up Bloodring by a friend's recommendation, and boy am I glad I did. The world Ms. Hunter has created is very unique, and the combination of storyline and complex characters had me burning through the pages like a demon. For those interested in romance, there is not much here. But the story will sweep you up into Thorn's reality. The series gets better and better as it progresses, and I can't wait for more.