by Nicholas Eames
Brief Summary:
Some time after the massive Horde of every fantasy demon/creature/evil being created by authors for thousands of years (see goblins, giants, chimeras, dragons, walking trees, etc.) is defeated by the old mercenary boys from Saga, a new Horde is growing, a bigger and badder one. As all merc bands are gearing up for said Horde, Saga’s leader’s equally famous daughter Bloody Rose and her band Fable are going in a different direction. Going on tour and then for dangerous job. But every good band needs a bard, in comes youngster Tam. Though unlike Saga the equivalent of say Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, Fable is straight out of the 80s and the glam rock and roll lifestyle of sex, drugs, and getting into trouble.
What works:
Picking up straight from Kings of the Wyld, Bloody Rose is an excellent follow-up story. Mr. Eames has an excellent writing style, and most importantly, his humor is his bread and butter. Like in Kings, I laughed out loud more times than I could count, he just has this awesome sense of humor and knows how to perfectly capture this humor in his protagonist POV. I will say, I thought Clay Cooper from Kings was a better POV than Tam in Bloody Rose as far as funny goes, but that’s because Clay has been around and seen things, so that gives him an edge. But the banter between the band is just as fun as it should be. These characters spend so much time with each other and they should have great jokes.
The episodic feel of Kings returns in Bloody Rose. I enjoyed it in the first book because it cuts down on that awkward traveling chapters that can sometimes slog down a book. Sure, this story revolves around the band “touring” but it still has a true episode set-up. The stops on the tour all build upon each other to build each individual character, the flow is good for this type of story. One thing that Mr. Eames did with Kings is that he builds to some grand event, then the next episode starts and there is a different explanation of what happens, such as Tam playing this amazing song to be named the bard of Fable. We get to the point Tam is about to play, then scene change to Tam already being named the bard. It’s a tactic that shouldn’t work, but in this type of story, yes it does.
As great as Clay Cooper was in Kings, it was all the rest of the bandmates that elevated the story. The same occurs here in Bloody Rose. All the bandmates are great in their own ways, but the best of the bunch is Cura that Inkwitch. Not only was Cura awesome, but the magic that Cura wields is very cool and imaginative. She has tattoos of crazy weird creatures that she can call forth to fight for her basically like summons from Final Fantasy. A giant flaming tree thing, an octopus-like warrior, a sparking flying horse-thing. Just really cool stuff. Very original. Also helped that Cura was awesome as well.
Brune, Freecloud, and of course Rose are each interesting for sure. Brune’s animal shapeshifter shaman was a cool arc. Him fighting the family concept of friends = family v blood family. Rose and Freecloud’s relationship is a good one, very loving but also two people who have some very different views on how things should go down. I also liked how Freecloud was the one to be all about settling down, typically many resolve to use the stereotype of it’s the woman who wants to settle down. So, that’s pretty refreshing.
Special shoutout to Rod the Pan-like character who is a total drunkard. He’s pretty damn funny.
What doesn’t work:
I won’t lie, it took a bit to get into the actual plot of the story. Tam joins the band as their bard and then they go on tour fighting monsters in a variety of different cities/arenas. These battles and fights and time in between does really set up the story and the characters, but I do think it did take a little too long to get truly going. After a handful of battles, touring, etc. you get a bit bored and ready for things to kick off.
I didn’t find myself as enamored with Tam as POV as I was with Clay in Kings. I think, for me, the fact that Clay was a reluctant POV drew me in as Tam fits the normal trope of young, inexperienced protag.
Rating: 4 out of 5
I enjoyed the story overall. It’s not as good as Kings of the Wyld, but I think Bloody Rose works so well because Mr. Eames is an excellent writer. The humor is top notch.
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