Review: Oaths of Blood by Logan D. Irons

Blurb:

Oaths of Blood is an action-packed grimdark historical fantasy set during the Crusades, in the vein of Joe Abercrombie, Bernard Cornwell, and John Gwynne.

In 1099, the armies of Christendom march for Jerusalem. Mercenary captain Robert Cutnose finds himself in the belly of a siege tower waiting to storm the walls in a desperate attempt to take the city.

But what they find inside the city is far more terrifying than the arrows and spears that fly their way...

After a savage attack by the moonlight, Cutnose’s lifeblood leaks from his veins, and he is thrust into an immortal war between the Order and their prey they simply call the Hunted. Each desires to own a relic with power far greater than he could ever imagine. With the aid of a secretive party of warriors, he must track down the man who ripped out his throat in the blink of an eye, for if he does not, his future as a human will be short.

As he crawls deeper into the shadows, it is clear, only oaths made in blood survive.

A war-filled journey through the crusades and into the depths of the ancient Noctis Bellum. Filled with legendary characters both barbaric and gray, driven by valor and treachery alike!

Review:

A blood pumping slash of Iron (Logan, D) through the holy lands.

Historical and fantasy fiction meet in this crusader era set, Norse inspired, werewolf laced and combat infused ride! 

Mr Irons delivers a self published mish-mash of genres and settings in a unique manner and gifts us a writing style akin to John Gwynne’s debut Malice all those years ago. Gritty, grim and delicious!

I was intrigued by how the author would seek to merge a book set in a very historical era but then meld together myths and norse elements in, but I think given the mystique surrounding the Knight Templars and Crusades in general a lot of the fantasy elements fit perfectly. 

We follow the journey of a mercenary captain and his crew through the Holy lands, initially attempting to capture Jerusalem but quickly finding themselves dead. Or not so dead, when he comes back as a powerful mythical werewolf and we read of his struggles to adapt to his new body, his desire for revenge and the deeper plot points of good v evil bubbling up to the surface as the book progresses.

At 400 pages, there is more than enough to dig your wolf-teeth into before hitting the bones, and the action scenes are a throwback to well acclaimed authors in the genre and alone should stand Mr Irons in stead for a successful series.

Improvements; as much as I enjoyed this book I did feel that some constructive criticism was justified. The prose felt janky at times, jumping from scene to scene without flowing all too well.

Finally I felt that the pacing could have sped up at times, it wasn’t always the fastest moving plot and Irons will need to work on character interactions and development to fill out the page number required for a slower plot.

Seriously a good read, a solid debut book with plenty of promise and potential from Mr Irons (I mean isn't that an apt name?!).

The book is short enough to not drag, and shows hints into deeper character and plot development for future books and I'm excited to see how the author progresses from a very good start.

I believe that the series will be a trilogy and that the 2nd/3rd instalments are due out pretty quickly, which excites me as there’s nothing more disappointing to start a great series and realise we have to wait years for the next book!