Review: Of Blood And Fire by Ryan Cahill

Blurb:

Born in fire. Tempered in blood.

Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North.

In the remote villages of southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving – a test of courage and skill that not all survive.

But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war that has been raging for centuries.

There is no prophecy. His coming was not foretold.

He bleeds like any man, and bleed he will.

Review:

I mentioned in my review of “Ascendant” that I’ve read three authors' unique takes on dragon riders. The Elmerïan Chronicles written by Corey Ratliff made me want to chase him around with a pitchfork for leaving us readers hanging with the ending of “Bloods of a Withering Kingdom” and the fact that humans just had to be the most powerful with magic abilities. Songs of Chaos is both hopeful, sad and altogether fun watching people crush literal bugs.

Then, lastly, we have the Bound and the Broken series starting off with “Of Blood and Fire”. I ended up reading this book after joining Cahills server on discord that someone here on the team recommended I join. And this book was just as fun to read as the other dragon books I’ve read this year. If you like dragons, gods and morally grey characters, no need to continue reading this review, go pick this book up and have fun reading. If you’re still not entirely sold on “Of Blood and Fire”, here’s my review of the first novel within the Bound and the Broken (shortened to TBAB) universe (the name of which I’ll be shortening to “OBAF”). 

What did I like about this book?

Well, first off, the world building and lore. Without revealing too much, the lore within this book is immense. There’s storytellers and bards running around taverns talking about the history of Epheria and how that’s impacting the main characters, there're travellers with tales of new threats and dangers. Rebellion leaders being rebellion leaders by being in the thick of it. Mysterious pasts and characters that remain veiled to us that act as lore boxes waiting to be opened (until later books). Dragons, reduced in number but still terrifying. Evil monsters worshipping the God of Blood. As for the part of world building in terms of physical maps, I could run a D&D campaign off of it. Unique landscapes, different kingdoms and races, it’s all there.

Then, the characters within OBAF. I’m sorry, but what the actual heck was going on with some of these people? Who hurt them? I’ll only talk about Calen Bryer because he’s in the blurb, yet, I can say with certainty, the side characters are all fully fleshed out and have their own wants, needs and worries. Calen, the guy who’s taking us through this series as the central focus point, is a kid in a village off in the southern kingdoms, with no bigger worry being the Proving. Until he carts off his fathers wares over to a port city and the subsequent actions there toss him and his two friends off the nearest cliff, expecting them to fly. That’s the first life changing event. Then there’s the second one. The dragon egg hatching for him. From then on, his old life in the village gets left behind and the real adventure begins. Throughout the novel, he learns new things, practises old habits with the blade and gets hurt and traumatised by various, in lightly put terms, mishaps that befall him and his friends as they travel through Epheria.

Next, we have the magic system. Magical dragons, yup. Gods that are terrible and cruel depending on context to both the good guys and the bad guys. Near immortal dragon riders? Yes, there are. Near immortal magicians? They exist, and are mostly evil. Possessed mages with even more terrifying magic? Right this way, head towards aisle six. With the way magic is crafted within this book, all that I’ve mentioned beforehand exists within this book. OBAF and the rest of TBAB does an excellent job explaining the Spark, the thing that separates the immortal magicians and riders from the common folk. Accessibility to that magic? That has to be trained and perfected, lest you let it consume your soul. Does this add a ton of extra things to the world that make it so much more fun to read? Yes. 

Before the final part about what I liked about the book, let me talk about the villains in this series as a whole, starting in OBAF and ending with whatever the fifth book is called. The villains, the villains of this book and series are interesting, definitely worthy to mention in this review as a separate part. Not wanting to say much, what the actual hell did you create, Cahill? What mind-boggling shenanigans have you crafted using the blood god? I’ve already read through the entirety of TBAB, and plan on doing so again, just to fully understand the immensity and yet, paradoxically, the smallness, of what the enemy is and its motivations. It’s complex, yet simple.

The final part of what I liked about this book would be the way each faction within this book and the rest of the series interact and conflict with themselves and others. It’s not “these people bad. we good.”. It’s “oh hells, can we trust this guy on our side?”. There’s so many conflicting interests and wants and needs that it’s nigh impossible to keep track of unless you’re either keeping notes or you’re insane at keeping track of lots of things. But it’s done in such a way that each thread of conflicting chaos within this book crafts a much larger story as a whole, leaving readers with a sense of wanting to read even more about this world, be it within this series or other works. 

As for what I didn’t like about the book, more lore about some of the background characters would've been nice, but due to reading the rest of the series, it’s not much to muck about, since some characters get somewhat of their history explained later on. But some of them, some I want to know more of. 

All in all, if you like high fantasy, dragons and magic, morally grey characters and adventure, I’d hand you this book with the rest of the series as well.

As always, if you’ve gotten to this part of the review, thank you for reading it and I hope I’ve helped you along finding your next read. If this doesn’t seem like something you want to read, don’t fret! We here over at SFF Insiders have a review for you, ranging from Space Operas to almost mundane, quaint tales, if it weren’t for the superheroes, and we would be delighted if we’ve helped you find your next read!

Wherever you are reading this, have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening or goodnight!