Much Fall of Blood [Hardcover]

Mercedes Lackey (Author), Dave Freer (Author), Eric Flint (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2010

Prince Manfred and his mentor and bodyguard, the deadly warrior Erik, survived dangers and enemies both  natural and supernmatural, and if they thought that their new mission was going to be anything but more of the same, they soon gave up on that hope. Returning from Jerusalem, they and their escort of knights of the Holy Trinity are escorting an envoy of II Khan Mongol to the lands of the Golden Horde-between the Black Sea and the Carpathians, which happen to be eastern bastion against their old enemies, the demon Chernobog and his possessed puppet, the Jangellion.

Unfortunately, what began as a diplomatic mission leads to Manfred and his knights being caught up in an inter-clan civil war, rescuingh a fugitive woman and her injured brother, and becoming involved in the problems of Prince Vlad, Duke of Valahia, who has been held as a hostage by King Emeric og Hungary until freed by Countess Elizabeth Batholdy to use as bait to capture a gropu pf nonhumans. Instead, the wolflike nonhumans, who masquerade as gypsies, free Prince Vlad, and help him to return to his homeland to raise revolt against Hungary and to renew age-old magics.

Manfred and Erik are forced into an alliance of convenience between the Golden Horde and the ancient magical  forces of Valahia, as directed by the troubled Vlad. The magic calls for blood and Vlad is deathly afraid of it-and at the same time, is irresistibly drawn toward it...

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mercedes Lackey is the New York Times best-selling author of the Bardic Voices series and the SERRted Edge series (both baen), The Heralds of Valdemar series (DAW,) and many more. She was one of the first writers to have an online newsgroup devoted to her writing. Among her populat Baen titles are The Fire Rose, The Lark and the Wren, and The Shadow of the Lion (with Eric Flint and Dave Freer). She lives in Oklahoma.

Eric Flint is the author/creator of the New York Times best-selling Ring of Fire series. With David Drake he has written six popular novels in the Belisarius series, including the new novel The Dance of Time, and with David Weber collaborated on 1633, and 1634: The Baltic War, two novels in the Ring of Fire series, and on Crown of Slaves, a best of the year pick by Publishers Weekly. Flint recevied his masters degree in history from UCLA and was for amny years a labor union activist. He lives in East Chicago, IL, with his wife and is working on more books in the best-selling Ring of Fire series.

Dave Freer  is an ichthyologist turned author living in a remote part of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with his wife and chief proof-reader, Barbara, four dogs and four cats, and two sons. Paddy and James. His first book-The Forlorn (Baen)-came out in 1999. Since then he has co-authored with

Eric Flint (Rats, Bats, and Vats, The Rats, The Bats, and the Ugly, Pyramid Scheme, Pyramid Power) and, with Mercedes Lackey and Eric Flint ( The Shadow of the Lion, This Rough Magic, The Wizard of Karres) as well as writing another solo novel in that series, A mankind Witch, and various shorter works. Besides working as a fisheries scientist for the Western Cape shark fishery he has worked as a commerical driver, and as a relief chef at several luxury game lodges.

 

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Baen (May 11, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1439133514
• ISBN-13: 978-1439133514
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #964,560 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Third book in the Heirs of Alexandria series, April 21, 2010

By 

Wulfstan "wulfstan" (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Much Fall of Blood (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

This is the third book in the Heirs of Alexandria series, a continuation of the alternate-history fantasy begun in The Shadow of the Lion (2001) and This Rough Magic(2005). Written by the Mistress of Fantasy- Mercedes Lackey and one of the Masters of Alternate History- Eric Flint, along with his co-author Dave Freer.


This book is a worthy sequel, none of that "sequel-itis" that too often sets in. The story is just as vast and absorbing- Lackey, Flint and Freer continue the fantastic weaving of characters that they started- a tapestry of political intrigue, love, vengeance and blackest magic.

This fantasy world is set in a well researched and lushly written alternate history that broke off from ours in A.D. 349 (when the Alexandrian Library was saved), Christian magic and song battles blackest sorcery. We have of course the great and well written villains-sadistic King Emeric of Hungary and Elizabeth, Countess Bartholdy, who is bathed into eternal youth by gallons of virgins' blood.


The action starts in 1540, and never stops. This third book also brings in a fascinating historical-fantasy of Prince Vlad, who is both drawn to and afraid of the blood magic that is such a large part of this series.

But this is a very silly review. What am I doing? If you have already read the first two, of course you already have this book on pre-order or at least your Wish List. If you haven't read the first two, and you're a Mercedes Lackey and/or a David Flint fan- then buy The Shadow of the Lion, right now! Note- Ms. Lackey says the three books are supposed to be able to "stand on their own" and I think she's right. But why would you want to deprive yourself of the pleasure of reading all three in order?

Anyway, a great read. If you like these authors or this sort of book- buy it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Alternate history over a larger scale, May 17, 2010

By 

Avid Reader (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Much Fall of Blood (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Many alternate histories deal with just one country and it can be tiring to read yet another about England or Ireland or maybe Italy. I really enjoyed reading the wider range of this book, even though the demon possessed ruler Jagiellon was Lithuanian, which is where my ancestors are from. Many of the other reviews go into the story so I will say that it's mostly the characters that make this book, both male AND hooray! female. There is much humor and genuine feeling in the characterizations, so that one really cares about the characters and what happens to them. Vlad, grandson of Drac - the Impaler, his sister Dana, Erik the Vinlander, Manfred, heir to the Holy Roman Emperor, Bortai, the granddaughter of the great Khan, David, the young thief from Jerusalem, all took my interest, that I turned the pages eagerly to see what happened to them. The chapters and sections of chapters jumped around from character to character, sometimes country to country, from evil to goodness; from Mongol to Hungarian to Venetian to Croat to Lithuanian to Illyrian. They all have a wild ride being misled by black magic and conspiracies. Hopefully there is more to come!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just couldn't get into it, November 29, 2010

By 

Lupa (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Much Fall of Blood (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Normally I've found Mercedes Lackey's work to be at least readable; I haven't read anything by her two co-authors. I don't know how much of this book was written by each of these, but I found the prevailing writing style to be something I simply couldn't get into despite numerous starts. So I can't really give it a good review, since it wasn't enough to pull me in in the first place.