Review: The Blood That Burns the Winter Snow by Ryan Cahill

Blurb:

The Blood that Burns the Winter Snow is a short story set in the world of The Bound and The Broken.

Vars Bryer is a man of The Glade. He loves his wife, feels at peace in his home, and would give the air in his lungs to keep his children safe.

But the past has finally found him, and it cares little for the wants and desires of men.

Review:

Ever since he debuted in 2021, Ryan Cahill has been at the forefront of taking classic fantasy and putting a fresh, modern spin on it with his epic series The Bound and the Broken. He’s grown stronger and stronger with each entry, regardless of whether he’s releasing a 400,000-word tome, or, in this case, a short story. The Blood That Burns the Winter Snow is proof enough that Ryan Cahill is a master of his craft who can make his shortest works rise just as high as his longest.

Set a few years before Of Blood and Fire, the story follows Vars Bryer, the father of the series’ central character Calen. He is a man content with the life he’s created in the quiet confines of the Glade with his wife and three children, but he also carries a heavy past. And in the land of Epheria, the past does not remain buried for long.

Vars has long been an important character to Calen’s development in the main series, but his story is not at the forefront beyond the hints of his past we receive along the way. Having him front and center was such a treat, and it’s clear just how much Cahill loves this character. We’ve known from the beginning of the series that Vars is a loving father, but seeing the lengths he has had to go to protect his family and give them a wonderful life was both powerful and heartbreaking—especially after being fully caught up with the series to this point.

Cahill’s writing chops are on full display here. For an author to write on a grand scale that would be unwieldy in lesser hands, to then create such a gripping narrative in the space of 5,000 words, speaks to Cahill’s talents. This is a short read, perhaps fifteen to twenty minutes in total, but in that short time, Cahill was able to elicit emotional responses of love, warmth, death, and fear. In his larger works, not a word is wasted, and in The Blood That Burns the Winter Snow, not an extra word is needed.

If it wasn’t already evident enough, this short story proves that Ryan Cahill is at the top of his game. No matter the length, no matter the character, he has made the land of Epheria incredibly memorable, and has ensured that The Bound and the Broken will remain a classic long after its final words are written.