Review: Grievar's Blood by Alexander Darwin
Blurb:
The second book in an action-packed science fiction trilogy set on a far future world where the fate of nations is determined by battle-hardened warriors who are trained to compete in brutal single combat.
In a world where single combat determines the fate of nations, the Grievar fight in the Circles so that the rest can remain at peace. But given the stakes, things are never so simple. The Daimyo govern from the shadows and plot to gain an edge by unnaturally enhancing their Grievar Knights.
Cego and his team return to the world’s most prestigious combat school, The Lyceum. Though he'd like to focus on his martial studies, Cego feels the pull of his mysterious past and two missing brothers.
Solara Halberd, daughter of the fighting legend, embarks on her own quest to bury the past. She must utilize every lesson her father taught her to explore unknown lands where evil lurks in the shadows.
Review:
Grievar's Blood is round 2 of a 3 round fight and boy oh boy did Alexander Darwin put on a show. Darwin's writing grabs ahold of you right away and locks you into a Kimura but rather then fight back to escape the words on the page draw you in closer and closer and next thing you know the bell has rung and you have to go fresh up as you get ready for round 3 ‘Blacklight Born’ to get released. Seriously Alex I need that in my inbox asap :)
Treading too heavily in memories, dredging up either joy or regret, will only serve to impede the path of progression. Thirtieth Precept of the Combat Codes
All jokes aside Drawin takes what started off as a very small world with ‘The Combat Codes’ and used ‘Grievar’s Blood’ to transition the series into a full blown epic fantasy. While the original cast is present in this one they play a lesser part and instead we spent the bulk of the time with some new characters that we were aware of but didn’t get the chance to get to know in book 1.
If the fear gets too high up, here in your chest, you won’t be able to breathe, think, act. “Keep your fear down here,” her father said as he patted Sol’s belly again. “Here, you can use your fear. Here, it is your friend.
As someone who has spent many years studying Taekwondo, alongside Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, one of my favorite aspects of this series is that the fighters have to actually put in the work, take their bumps and bruises in order to level up their fight game. This is something a lot of authors who write action scenes, especially martial art based ones tend to overlook. The attention to detail shown here as well as how Darwin describes the fight scenes when they do take place shows his first hand martial arts knowledge and allows the book to feel both fantasy and authentic all at the same time.
As the story progresses so does the political tension, gone are the days of school kids training to prove their worth among their peers. Unfortunately Cego and his friends are getting to learn first hand the grim reality of the world they live in. Similar to the world we live in, it's easy for those with power and money to make decisions that can greatly impact those who don’t.
While I would love to shed some light about some of the new POV’s we experience in this installment in the series to do so would run the risk of spoiling things so if you want reach out after you have read the book as I would love to talk in length about the direction I think this might all be going.
This world they’ve built, it is not for us. Soon, this storm will come to them. Soon, we will find our path home.
I’ll leave you with this teaser, just like in the real world when people get pushed to their limits the only option is to push back and I suspect that is exactly what we will see in the epic conclusion to this series.
