Review: Bloodwoven by G.J. Terral

Blurb:

Road-weary soldier Lindel thought all he needed to do to return home was finish his current escort mission. Then he discovers one of his charges murdered with a wailing newborn in her limp arms and his ally Aemun holding the accused murderer at knifepoint.

His new mission? Take the murderer, Tylle, to face judgment and execution. But then Lin is ambushed by monsters and gravely wounded. While unconscious, Tylle magically stitches Lin's wounds closed. An act forbidden by the Binding Tenets, laws that Lin's military faction aggressively enforces.
Lin wakes to find himself marked by Tylle's magic, making him appear as an oathbreaker.

Unfortunately, that's not Lin’s biggest problem. Tylle claims she can remove the markings if Lin helps her kill Aemun. What Lin doesn't know is that Tylle is part of a secret coterie working against the military faction Lin belongs to and is the sister of Lin's murdered charge.

Unless Aemun is alive to vouch for him, Lin will face a death sentence by his own people. But if Tylle is telling the truth, Lin might not need Aemun. No one would need to know Lin was ever marked. All he has to do is help find and kill his former ally. On the other hand, with Aemun's support, Lin could find forgiveness for breaking the Tenets. Lin would betray his savior, Tylle, but he never asked her to save him.

Review:

Bloodwoven is a third person POV swords and sorcery fantasy that takes you on an intimate character driven journey.  

The opening pages introduce our MC, Lindel, and the two key supporting characters, Tylle & Aumen.  Early on, Terral does a wonderful job of leaving it to question as to who would be Lindel’s ally and who the antagonist.  The slow burn realization of who is who is well played.  I knew who I wanted to trust and who I wanted to hate.  But was it a trap?  The lines do begin to clarify as Lindel confronts the complete disaster that his life has become while experience teaches him what’s what.

Initially I was leery that the MC would pan out as over angsty and prone to self-flagellation.  My concerns turned out to be unwarranted.  I was pleased with how Tarrel managed a character having his entire system of beliefs challenged.  Much like real life, Lindel progresses through the stages of grief… anger, denial, bargaining, & depression but can he achieve the final stage of acceptance? What will he accept? A large part of why I appreciate this tale is how this is managed over Lindel’s character arc. There is no rush to revelation and acceptance.  

“Breaking himself, piece by piece, belief by belief, to fit into the thing he needed to be to survive this?  Or perhaps he wasn’t breaking so much as shaping.”- Lindel internal monologue.

I give high marks for how the relationship between Lindel and Tylle develops. The two challenge each other logically and emotionally.  Can trust, faith and friendship take root when their belief systems cannot be any further apart? Terral explores and leverages this dynamic to great effect from their initial encounter to the finale.

Supporting cast of note are Nebra & Pael.  Nebra enjoys being a key fixture from the beginning while Pael is introduced later at a significant juncture of the narrative.  While Nebra is of high importance to Lindel, Pael is an old and dear friend of Tylle.  Both are feisty and steadfast in their own ways and provide the author with avenues to further explore Lindel and Tylle.  

The magic system was intriguing.  Magic is commonplace and quickly found within the pages.  The reader’s understanding of the system’s capabilities and the consequences for the user are filled out as the MC himself discovers that there is more to it than what he has been taught over the course of the novel.

The consequences for magic users range from the mundane to the utterly disastrous.  The disastrous end of the scale provides a threat that is a fulcrum for societal beliefs and adherence to what is considered acceptable use of magic, the binding tenents.  

The monsters of this realm, the untethered, are creepy, powerful and ruthlessly violent.  They are, or were, human. Terral had these bad guys right in my face.  The imagery was sublime enough that I might have had a childhood night terror flashback at one point. 

Gradually, the plot expands to encompass elements of skullduggery, revolution, power and politics that culminate in a finale providing a high degree of closure.  I felt that the final chapters were a bit rushed.  I believe Terral left some things on the table with the build up to the final boss battle.  That said, it was still enjoyable and very well done.  It could have been better.

Bonus points for ending without a cliffhanger.  The epilogue sets up the next book and leaves the reader wanting more.  Not everything is happy ever after and it is evident the journey has just begun.

I’m not much of a grammarphile, I’m probably more of grammarphobe, so I’m not exactly familiar with  the proper use of clauses, modifiers, prepositional phrases and all that goes into a proper sentence.  What I do know is when an author’s prose reads well.  Terral’s prose does just that providing an enjoyable experience that is consumed without distraction.  So much so, especially for a debut, that I reached out to him to ask about the development and editing of Bloodwoven.

He credits “…a very strong critique group” that heavily influenced the developmental aspects of the story.  He shared that the story ended up significantly different than how it started due to the feedback.  Terral went through two rounds with beta readers fondly calling out one reader, his stepmother, as “…very loving but absolutely vicious when it comes to critique (in the best possible way).”  One beta reader can even be credited with asking a simple question that resulted in significant changes impacting the entire work.  I couldn’t imagine what the story would have been without that change.  Sorry, but sharing the details would be a spoiler.

Once he felt that it was ready, Tarrel submitted the manuscript to Dom, at Dominsh_Books for proofreading and line edit style suggestions.  Dom is a well-known and highly appreciated quantity to much of the writing community.

All this effort culminates in prose that is fluid and natural.  The pages turn with ease and carry the reader forward effortlessly and without distraction.

Final impression: Bloodwoven is a highly readable tale with well executed character development, a genuinely interesting magic system and descriptive styling that at times provokes intense imagery.  The plot is interesting and does not flounder.  Variation in pace serves purpose and advances the narrative.  As mentioned, I felt like there were some things that could have been developed that would have made the final chapters better.  

I will pick up book two when it is available.  This is a fun and engaging read.  I expect future works from G.J. Terral to be even better as he grows as a writer.