Customer Reviews

Tyrant's Blood: Book 2 of the Valisar Trilogy

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

 

 

Tyrant's Blood: Book 2 of the Valisar TrilogyI just finished "Tyrant's Blood" it was excellent as anticipated. A host of interesting characters surround a pair of Royal sons, separately in hiding from the (supposedly) evil Emperor that has ruled for the last ten years. Twists, turns, supprises, magic, action makes this one worth the 4 stars I gave it. It is a fairly long, (which i like)tale that develops interesting real characters, you find it very hard not to read, just one more, chapter. You know what I mean.

Out of the three, this one was by far my favorite. It kept me intrigued, whereas the first book had me bored. The plot was more complex, but I was still able to figure the plot twists, which was a bit disappointing. Overall, this was a decent book.

I liked Tyrant's Blood even more than Royal Exile. My favorite thing is that McIntosh took the story places that I never saw coming. She does a great job of keeping the action moving and throwing in twists and turns that took me by surprise. I love her ability to write characters that you see as bad and then turn them into people that you are rooting for and vice versa. I can't wait to see where this story is going. I highly recommend this series.

The main reason I picked up Tyrant's Blood was because of Royal Exile. The first book ended in such a way that it made me wonder, "can McIntosh going to wrap these problems up?" It wasn't because the problems were so very difficult to deal with, their solutions would have been simple enough to find, the reason I wondered was because the set-up of the book required that several years pass. As it turns out I was right to worry, though my problems were largely unforeseen.

One of my main problems was this: that the issues left over from the previous book weren't properly resolved. In addition, we spend a large amount of time in the minds of various side-character types. Kirin, Greven, Piven, and Freath, while all characters that played a part in the last novel, dominate the book and we thus see very little of Leo. While it was an okay author decision, being in these characters minds slowed down the pace of the novel considerably. The ultimate problem I had with the novel was that it seemed as if all the characters I loved from the previous book either didn't get much air-time or became someone I didn't like at all. I found myself actually despising Piven more than I ever hated Loethar. If there was one thing about Loethar it was that he was direct. Piven, on the other hand, was not upfront about his motives or his self. We barely get to know the character though we spend countless pages in his mind. However, I can say this about McIntosh, she doesn't hesitate to take the plunge and go where you wouldn't expect. She doesn't worry so much about the thoughts of the readers that she let's it spoil whatever train of thought she has going and for that I wholeheartedly commend her.