Bloodring by Faith Hunter
Jul. 11th, 2008 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snugglekitty(Something that I often find interesting is that people tend not to live up to their given names. I knew a girl in high school named Chastity. She was not chaste. Similarly, I have known a lot of heretics and agnostics named Faith.)
The Apocalypse has come - and gone. We've got the wrathful angels and the corrupting demons. Most cities of the world have been destroyed by fire. The few humans still living "Post-Ap" are banded together in small, restricted communities. They eke out a hard existence under the watchful eyes of the kirk elders and the angels. They try not to go out after dark. Mages and other supernatural creatures are hated and feared. But one of them has escaped the Enclave where she grew up. If only her secret were the greatest danger...
I picked this up during my library crawl. I was intrigued by the cover and the premise. Alas, the book didn't quite live up to its promise. The main character spends too much of her time doing stupid things. Don't understand your forbidden magic? No need to study, just use more of it. Fear your stepdaughter is being courted by demons? Don't tell the authorities or her mom, just "keep an eye on her." Drawn by the mystical powers of strange stone? Definitely use it rather than trying to figure out why or look for a trap. Et cetera.
Probably my favorite thing about the book was the relationships between Thorne and the other characters, but it was hard to see why they cared for her so much when she was screwing up all the time, risking their lives in the process. There were also some world-building inconsistencies - the angels were presented as not telling the humans which religion was "right" but the main character and all the angels quote from the Bible and everything seemed pretty Old Testament. Furthermore, the "kirk elders" acted like religious fundamentalists. If you're trying to avoid sin, you would WANT shotgun weddings rather than illegitemate children. Especially if you are seen as being responsible for the spiritual life of your community, you would say "thanks for coming, nice to see you" to people when they came to kirk rather than glowering at them for not coming all the time. At least, you would if you had any brains! A plot twist at the end did intrigue me, but not enough to keep me reading the series. Two and a half stars.
The Apocalypse has come - and gone. We've got the wrathful angels and the corrupting demons. Most cities of the world have been destroyed by fire. The few humans still living "Post-Ap" are banded together in small, restricted communities. They eke out a hard existence under the watchful eyes of the kirk elders and the angels. They try not to go out after dark. Mages and other supernatural creatures are hated and feared. But one of them has escaped the Enclave where she grew up. If only her secret were the greatest danger...
I picked this up during my library crawl. I was intrigued by the cover and the premise. Alas, the book didn't quite live up to its promise. The main character spends too much of her time doing stupid things. Don't understand your forbidden magic? No need to study, just use more of it. Fear your stepdaughter is being courted by demons? Don't tell the authorities or her mom, just "keep an eye on her." Drawn by the mystical powers of strange stone? Definitely use it rather than trying to figure out why or look for a trap. Et cetera.
Probably my favorite thing about the book was the relationships between Thorne and the other characters, but it was hard to see why they cared for her so much when she was screwing up all the time, risking their lives in the process. There were also some world-building inconsistencies - the angels were presented as not telling the humans which religion was "right" but the main character and all the angels quote from the Bible and everything seemed pretty Old Testament. Furthermore, the "kirk elders" acted like religious fundamentalists. If you're trying to avoid sin, you would WANT shotgun weddings rather than illegitemate children. Especially if you are seen as being responsible for the spiritual life of your community, you would say "thanks for coming, nice to see you" to people when they came to kirk rather than glowering at them for not coming all the time. At least, you would if you had any brains! A plot twist at the end did intrigue me, but not enough to keep me reading the series. Two and a half stars.