Review: Blood of Requiem - Daniel Arenson

Series: Requiem Fire book 1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: E-book 250
Published: May 3rd 2011

Long ago stood the kingdom of Requiem, a land of men who could grow wings and scales, breathe fire, and take flight as dragons. Requiem ruled the sky. But Dies Irae, a tyrant leading an army of griffins, hunted Requiem's people, burned their forests, and shattered their temples. Requiem fell. This ancient land now lies in ruin, its halls crumbled, its cries silenced, its skeletons littering the burned earth. In the wilderness, a scattering of survivors lives in hiding. The griffins still hunt them, and every day promises death. Will Requiem's last children perish in exile... or once more become dragons and fly to war?

My thoughts:

I do not read e-books that often since I only have my borrowed reader from the library. But when I got an email from Arenson I knew I had to read this book. Because I got a taste of his writing in the anthology Kiss Me, Kill Me and it was good.

This is the first book in a planned trilogy and I like the world building. The Reqiem were humans who could transform into dragons, but then they were killed and hunted to extinction. It was bloody and it was horrible. The man who did it was a prince who was meant to rule the land but he could not shift so he grew angry. This book then takes place 10 years later and there are survivors, but the future is bleak.

First I must say that this book has a bad guy that I just wanted to strangle. She was so evil! I have not read about such an evil character in quite some time. Her name is Gloriae and she is the daughter of Dies Irae (who in his turn is an evil bastard too), but I was mostly angry with Gloriae. Because she was actually good and was kidnapped by him. She was the daughter of the Requiem King Benedictus and his wife (bit does not know it). Sure if a person is raised evil she can turn evil but I wished she had seen the error of her way. Her father rapes a women, kills a peasant and she laughs? She should think for herself and see it's wrong. There you have it, the evil duo. Remarkable done since it was those two that had me wanting to read more and more, wishing they would die.

I spent enough time talking about the bad guys, but they just brought forward a lot of emotions. The good guys are Benedictus, poor man and Kyrie who is a young reqiuem and…, oh I will save some secrets. I liked Kyrie, he really wanted to fight back even though they had no force at all. But he was angry and who could blame him.

One more thing. People are blind and stupid. The dragons never did any harm, but Dies came with his lies and people believed and now the dragons are thought of as monsters. That is what one wicked cruel man can do with words. And those that spoke down were hunted down. I still hope they will see right from wrong.

The book isn't that dark, but at the same time it is very bleak, because how can I have hope when there is no way they can survive or fight back? I really need to know what happens next.

Conclusion:

This book had me turning page after page to see what happens. It's exciting and good with fleshed out characters that will make you scream. I want to read more of this series and I would recommend this fantasy author to others.

Rating:

Page-turner

Cover

Fits since it's fantasy

Source: Author

winners:

Love Drunk Cowboy

Mona and Mary (email sent to publisher )

The Legend of Michael

Dana and Melissa (books on their way)