Book Review #127
New Blood by Gail Dayton
I had to do a bit of research on Google, but i still am not sure if this book is written as fantasy in an alternate reality but based on the real time period of the Napoleonic Era, or if it's a fantasy based in the ACTUAL Napoleonic Era.
Confused? Ya, me too.
Anyhow, this book is written as if it is the early 1800's, and Napoleon is the reigning Emperor of France (and beyond) and Austria is part of the Ottoman Empire, and so forth. I'm just not sure how much in this book as far as places and areas are real or made up.
There's four types of magic in this world. Alchemy, Wizardry, Conjury, and Sorcery. Sorcery is Blood Magic, which has been lost for 200 years since the last known Blood Sorceress was burned at the stake.
But her bound blood servant escaped, filled with her knowledge and searching for the next sorceress.
He found her in Austria.
Her name is Amanusa, the daughter of an Austrian woman and an Englishman. She lives in a cottage far away from Nagy Szeben. She makes a living on her tiny farm, and makes money by making love potions and cures for local people. She's also being used by a group of Revolutionists to cure their men after battles and forays.
Jax, the blood servant, finds her and begins to tell her who she is, but Amanusa is afraid. Blood sorcery is supposed to be evil. Jax claims it is not so, that people fear it because it brings justice to the innocent and uses blood, and that sorcery has been twisted into something evil when it's not at all.
A couple days after he arrives, Amanusa gets a visit from the Revolutionaries, and they force her to come with them to heal some men who have been badly wounded. Jax goes along to protect her, in disguise as an idiot.
The rebels hold her while they wait to see if the men she healed will survive, so at night, Jax teaches her about sorcery and her talent. One morning she learns one of the rebels, a man named Teo, plans to attack her, beating her and raping her til he breaks her spirit and she stays with the rebels instead of going home. She'd been held in this camp between the ages of 14-18 and knew what this was like already. She uses her magic, with the help of Jax, to give justice to her murdered family (killed at the hands of these rebels) and escapes.
Jax and Amanusa flee across Europe trying to reach Paris. As they go, they are almost killed by the necessity of traveling through 'dead zones' where magic has died completely.
In Paris, a magical conclave is trying to figure out how to fix the dead zones.
Arriving in Paris, Amanusa must face the Magician's Conclave, who are not at all happy to a) have a sorceress among them again and that b) those damn females are making magic again and try to prevent her from her birthright.
Now, Amanusa has to prove her usefulness and help find an answer to the dead zones before the entire world is destroyed, and perhaps find love in the process.
My thoughts: This was a really interesting book. It's a bit confusing, but it's far different from other fantasy novels i have read, and i enjoyed it a lot. It took me a while to read it, but it wasn't because it wasn't good, i just have't had a large attention span lately.
I had to do a bit of research on Google, but i still am not sure if this book is written as fantasy in an alternate reality but based on the real time period of the Napoleonic Era, or if it's a fantasy based in the ACTUAL Napoleonic Era.
Confused? Ya, me too.
Anyhow, this book is written as if it is the early 1800's, and Napoleon is the reigning Emperor of France (and beyond) and Austria is part of the Ottoman Empire, and so forth. I'm just not sure how much in this book as far as places and areas are real or made up.
There's four types of magic in this world. Alchemy, Wizardry, Conjury, and Sorcery. Sorcery is Blood Magic, which has been lost for 200 years since the last known Blood Sorceress was burned at the stake.
But her bound blood servant escaped, filled with her knowledge and searching for the next sorceress.
He found her in Austria.
Her name is Amanusa, the daughter of an Austrian woman and an Englishman. She lives in a cottage far away from Nagy Szeben. She makes a living on her tiny farm, and makes money by making love potions and cures for local people. She's also being used by a group of Revolutionists to cure their men after battles and forays.
Jax, the blood servant, finds her and begins to tell her who she is, but Amanusa is afraid. Blood sorcery is supposed to be evil. Jax claims it is not so, that people fear it because it brings justice to the innocent and uses blood, and that sorcery has been twisted into something evil when it's not at all.
A couple days after he arrives, Amanusa gets a visit from the Revolutionaries, and they force her to come with them to heal some men who have been badly wounded. Jax goes along to protect her, in disguise as an idiot.
The rebels hold her while they wait to see if the men she healed will survive, so at night, Jax teaches her about sorcery and her talent. One morning she learns one of the rebels, a man named Teo, plans to attack her, beating her and raping her til he breaks her spirit and she stays with the rebels instead of going home. She'd been held in this camp between the ages of 14-18 and knew what this was like already. She uses her magic, with the help of Jax, to give justice to her murdered family (killed at the hands of these rebels) and escapes.
Jax and Amanusa flee across Europe trying to reach Paris. As they go, they are almost killed by the necessity of traveling through 'dead zones' where magic has died completely.
In Paris, a magical conclave is trying to figure out how to fix the dead zones.
Arriving in Paris, Amanusa must face the Magician's Conclave, who are not at all happy to a) have a sorceress among them again and that b) those damn females are making magic again and try to prevent her from her birthright.
Now, Amanusa has to prove her usefulness and help find an answer to the dead zones before the entire world is destroyed, and perhaps find love in the process.
My thoughts: This was a really interesting book. It's a bit confusing, but it's far different from other fantasy novels i have read, and i enjoyed it a lot. It took me a while to read it, but it wasn't because it wasn't good, i just have't had a large attention span lately.