Customer Reviews

Bound in Blood (Seeker)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Some readers of fantasy were swept away by Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind in 2007 and now chafe because there is no publication date yet for the sequel. Others prefer the grim world of A Song of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin and are vexed about that A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 and the next novel is nowhere near done. Pah! What do they know?

In 1982 I was entranced by the most wonderful novel Godstalk, the first book in the saga of Jamethiel Priestbane and the Kencyrath. Little did I suspect how long I would be waiting! The sequel, Dark of the Moon, did not arrive until 1985. Even though Seeker's Mask was completed about the same time, Ms. Hodgell lost her publisher. Hypatia Press released the third book in 1994. Alas our torments were just beginning. Hypatia Press folded, and Ms. Hodgell was concentrating on her doctorate and her teaching career. Finally, Meisha Merlin produced a beautiful hardcover of a new novel, To Ride a Rathorn in 2006. Shortly after that, Meisha Merlin folded! Arrgghh! Well, now Ms. Hodgell has retired from teaching and devoted herself to writing and the result is before you, a 5th novel, Bound in Blood, from Baen Publishing. Goodness me it was worth the wait but I don't know if my ticker can take much more!

Other reviews have discussed the plot. I will restrict myself to some other comments.

First, there is no way anyone can come to Bound in Blood de novo and possibly sort it out. Ms. Hodgell's story telling is layered, and everything that happens depends heavily on everything that came before. Fortunately, omnibus editions of the preceding novels have been released also by Baen, so they are readily available for the interested fantasy fan. I urge you to try her world building, starting with The Godstalker Chronicles.

Next, the cover art by Clyde Caldwell is very dramatic and depicts a scene from the novel quite well (although Jame often describes herself as flat chested, but maybe that wouldn't sell many books...). For me, the depiction of Jame on the roofs of Tai Tastigon in the original publication of Godstalk is how I will always envision her.

Finally, I am always struck by how consistent Ms. Hodgell's prose has been, crafting an absorbing story, mingling scenes of humor and horror with great power. One of the things I find so fascinating is the varied, odd and sometimes unspeakable powers wielded unwillingly by the Shanir of the Kencyrath, very unique in fantasy worlds.

If something has changed over the years, I think there has been a softening of Torisen's view of his twin sister; originally I was under the impression that he and Jame would come into mortal conflict for the souls of their people, but now it seems they need each other to accomplish that very thing.

I believe Ms. Hodgell is now rather far along with her next novel so we won't have to wait four more years. She has a wonderful and evocative voice in the genre. You owe it to yourself to immerse yourself in her world. I do wish there had been a hardcover edition. I cherish my leather bound books from Hypatia Press and the lovely edition of To Ride a Rathorn. Maybe strong sales will encourage Baen to take the plunge.

If you've been reading the Kencyrath novels, don't stop now! And if you haven't been, why not? Start at once! (But definitely don't read this book until you've read the other books first, except for "Blood and Ivory", which contains "spoilers" for "Bound in Blood" and the previous book, "To Ride a Rathorn".) The world and characters created by P.C. Hodgell get more and more interesting with every book. It's not just "Yet Another Generic Fantasy Saga" (which the cover might have you believe). It's the opposite of generic, though you may not notice immediately because the books are just so much fun to read. It took awhile before I realized how astonishingly creative it all is in its detail, complexity, and unpredictability.

Anyway, our unfallen Darkling heroine continues her training at Tentir, and it's an ongoing question of whether Jame will survive Tentir, or whether Tentir will survive Jame... along with a number of field trips back to her family's hall to remember the dead and to the hills to participate in odd but vital native rituals (She gets notes asking "Do you /want/ the world to end?") And the dead continue to not quite be dead, as everyone seems to talk to ghosts. But most of the Kencyrath are masters of the art of Denial, and it's an uphill fight to get any of them to face the unpleasant truth of their situation. And the more we see of them, the scarier the Shanir powers get...

Minor quibbles:
* This book felt a bit rushed at times. A lot happens in a short number of pages.
* As I'd read "Blood and Ivory" first, which contained a number of "outtakes" from other points of view, I knew things as a reader that Jame and Tori didn't know yet, and it was a bit of a spoiler for me. It would have been nice to discover things together with Jame. However, there were still surprises about Greshan in this book! Luckily, "Blood and Ivory" mainly dealt with the past, so not many spoilers about the younger generation.
* The Kencyr play a lot of mind games. It's frustrating to have Jame learn something, then lose her memory of it. Especially when she goes around thinking "I've forgotten something..." *headdesks* I suppose that means Hodgell's done a good job conveying what it would be like to have a leaky memory, but still!
* Jame and Tori (and Kindrie and...everyone, basically) have so many Issues (and more keep piling on top of them with every book) that at times I felt I was in an IEP meeting and going through one of those interminable checklists for whether my kid had met the educational goals... ("Objective 1: Tori overcomes his hatred of Shanir and accepts that he is one himself. Progress Report 5: Progress Code: [] achieved, [x] Making sufficient progress to meet goal, [] Not making sufficient progress to meet goal (Team needs to address insufficient progress), [] Not yet introduced...") Luckily, they DO indeed make progress, and it's not one of those annoying series where you feel the characters go around and around in circles never getting anywhere. No, no, no, here, you feel they ARE getting somewhere...into a bunch of new problems!

In short: I loved it. Now eagerly awaiting the next book!

I pre-ordered this (as I imagine all of Hodgell/Kencyrath/Jame fans did) and started reading it immediately. This isn't one of those books one can read sporadically - it's a miss lunch, dinner, & a night's sleep book.

The story continues Jame's adventures in a warriors' school (I'll use normal English here & not Kencyrath terminology) as her brother's heir. Jame is a marvelous invention - she is interesting, has flaws, but is indomitable. She also has powers which are unique and wholly believable within the paradigm of the series. Hodgell has created a wonderful cast of characters, and a marvelous, unusual world (the lexicon at the end of the book is a huge help - esp. since these books started in 1982, thus it's easy to forget things like, say Tai-tastigon, when it's mentioned in this book).

This novel is not one to begin reading this series - it is a continuation, and a new reader would be completely lost, since Hodgell is not one of those authors who spend an inordinate number of pages doing a data dump of what went one before (and bless her for that). Besides, the idea that one would miss out on the wonder of the prior books in this series is just sad. Start with "God Stalk" and "Dark of the Moon" (or the compilation "The God Stalker Chronicles"), continue with "Seeker's Mask" & "To Ride a Rathorn" (or the compilation "Seeker's Bane") and then this novel will make sense.

For me, this novel was one that followed a series motif - it has sort of a cliff hanger ending, thus making one anxious for the next book.

As an ardent fan, I'm torn between wanting to know what the heck is going to happen, and hoping that the end never comes. It's one of THOSE types of series.

I was overjoyed to discover that PC Hodgell's books were back in print and she had even added new installments! I came across the first two volumes at my local library when I was 12 and always wondered what happened to Jame. I'm a voracious reader and 22 years old now, so that shows you how memorable Hodgell's stories are!

While I enjoyed this book immensely, it just wasn't up to my expectations. After having gone so in depth in the previous books, Hodgell seems to have slowed up the momentum and the two or three major issues that have to be resolved feel like they are unnecessarily delayed. Jame, who was stubborn but so tenacious and resourceful before, seems to have gotten lazy as it takes her until the final chapters to deal with a problem that is immediately evident to the reader. This is even more frustrating because the book spans only a little over a season, as compared to at least half a year in the first four books. Torisen's adventures are at times much more engrossing than Jame's, and I wish this book had focused a little more on him.

However, given that this is the 5th book in the series it's understandable that it fell prey to a bit of sequel-itis. Fans of the series won't regret reading this. I am still eagerly awaiting the next volume in hopes that the story will pick up once again.

I've read all of Hodgell's Jame of the Kencyrath books and they remain steadfast favorites of mine. I enjoyed this one, but readers should be warned it's not a stand alone book. If you're a new reader to the series, you're going to be hopelessly lost because this novel is mainly devoted to adding detail to minor mysteries (such as the Death Banners, Kindrie's birth, Ganth haunting Torison) and filling in other details from the previous books (Jame's role as the Earthwife's favorite, the fate of Aerulan's banner, Gorbel's foot problem). Fans of Bane will be disappointed that he is not directly mentioned in this one. Jame is also rather less deferential to her brother, in this novel she returns to being a strong character, where as her previous encounters with her brother brought out a mix of awe, light taunting, evasiveness, and apology in her.

There is one part of the book that bothers me. It reads like it was laid out in rough draft and never fleshed out into a final draft: the part where Jame ride up into the hills and encounters two youngsters of the Merikit. That part is raw with the young teenagers offering way to much information to an outsider.

Jame dealing with dear old long-departed uncle Greshan and Graykin didn't get as much as exploration as I expected it to. It was a bit abrupt, but then Greshan was a thoroughly nasty man and it would be detrimental to the story to spend too much time dwelling the evil doings of his life. Still...I would have like to know more about what he was doing while dead.

Bound in Blood left me wanting more and I hope we will see the next book and more of Jame's story in the next year or two.

Of course, like the other reviewers I'd suggest that if you haven't read this series yet to first start by reading the 'God Stalker Chronicles' (The compilation of the first two novels in the series) or you will find yourself reading a marvelously well written story that you are completely clueless about.

Also, if you're new to the series, know that I'm a little jealous of you because, like everyone else I've ever introduced the books to, even non fantasy readers, you will soon become addicted to this story but you won't have to wait the twenty-five years I've had to wait to be able to read this fifth book...years spent digging through libraries and used book stores scanning spines between Herbert and Hubbard before the Internet finally came around and gave me hope that the series was continuing. Also if you're new, you are about to get to know one of the most fully realized, facinating, likable and self aware heroines in fiction. I hate using all these superlatives but there it is. (She's also really funny).

If you have read the series, then you won't be disappointed in this latest installment of Hodgell's. Though we're five books in, the quality of story telling is still just as high if not better than the first novel. Threads and plotlines you may have forgotten, the author has not and she masterfully weaves them back into the story at just the right moment...(*Spoiler* "Oh, right the Wyrm! Cool!")

Most of the action takes place at Tentir and among the Merikit (whose culture we discover a little bit more about). And, for those of us in love with Tori (though I often want to thump him on the back of the head) there was also just enough of him in the story to keep us happy...just barely. Some small progress is even made on making him less head thumping worthy. And about he and Jame and their intriguing, unconventional relationship...? Nah, you'll just have to read the book to find out.

All in all, Bound in Blood was a wonderful-inhale-it-in-a-day read. My only disappointments being that this is the first of Hodgell's books that I couldn't purchase in hardback (I read and re-read her stories so having it only in paperback is a little worrisome) and also, if you're like me, then the story just wasn't long enough...none of Hodgell's books ever are even the one that's over 450 pages! You get to those last twenty or so pages and there's a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach because you know you're nearing the end and...well, you're just sitting there comparing the amount of pages left with how much more you want to know and....oh, I think I've just been traumatized by all those long waits between books! Time to re-read the series from the beginning again. Keep writing, P.C.!!!!!

It must have been over 20 years since I picked up a copy of Godstalk by chance and I have enjoyed the series ever since. I think this is one of the most original, interesting and self-consistent series ever.
I wish they did not tag it "Seeker" since it may get confused with Terry Goodkind's series which started out great but downhill since book 4 of that series. This is a far superior one.
I am also disappointed with the cheesy cover which is just of much lower quality than all the other original covers. I am waiting for a better cover to purchase the book even though I have already read it from the library. Other than that, the book is great.

PC Hodgell is the best Fantasy, nay, Fiction writer out there! Her books are great adventures with fascinating characters all in a well thought out universe. She had a large cast of well developed characters, but doesn't stray too far from Jame's point of view. All of her characters face heart wrenching moral dilemmas trying to live by their strict code of honor. This is leavened with some of the best action/adventure scenes I've ever read. Rathillien is one of the most original and fascinating worlds I've ever come across in 40 years of serious reading. I have read and reread her books for the past 30 years. They are as good the 10th time as they were the 1st time. You must read them in order, starting with "God Stalk". I HATE waiting for her next book, but everyone of them is a gem, and well worth the wait. Thank you Baen for adding her to your roster of authors!

In 120 at Knorth Hall, twins Jame and Torisen as the lords of the Kencyrath honor their fallen comrades by naming those warriors whose blood splattered on the sacred banners. These fallen comrades deserve the best, however, Jame is aghast when she realizes more than just blood is on the death banners. The souls of these intrepid fighters are trapped inside the banners honoring them.

While working on how to liberate the fallen, she finds proof that her cousin Kindrie is, like her and her brother, a full-blooded Knorth. This is a two edged sword in her mind as she welcomes him as her family equal, but the implications are they can manifest the Three-Faced God, a deity who abandoned the Kencyrath to their fate after a betrayal several thousand years ago. Confused with what to do on any front, Jame returns to Randon College near Tentir to continue her studies, determine the best courses of action and avoid causing unintentional consequences. She also worries that her evil uncle somehow still lurks in the shadows and even more hates being in charge, which seems much more difficult than surviving and going at it with responsibility for just yourself.

The latest Kencyrath thriller is an intriguing tale although for the most part the overarching plot does not move forward much. Jame struggles with expectations of others as the once heroic action figure finds it rather difficult to accept the leadership mantle; she now accounts for others including creatures who have tried to kill her. The subplots of Tori (who struggles with living up to the reputation of his twin especially when in Tentir many mistake him for her) and Kindrie (beyond Jame learning he makes the triad possible) barely budge. Although it helps to have read the previous Seekers' entries, Bound in Blood is a fascinating character study as Jame the courageous heroine must switch from warrior to leader.

Harriet Klausner

Don't read this if you haven't read the previous books in the series--go and find a copy of God Stalk (with the Michael Mariano dust jacket) and start reading it, already. I think you can find excerpts online somewhere; ignore any cover art that depicts the heroine as a big, busty babe.

If you have read the rest of the series, you'll like this one.