Daughter of the Blood
Dayuuum! This was a good one, it has been a long while since i have found a fantasy that i enjoyed so much. To be completely honest with you, i have gotten mixed reviews about this series a while back, and never seemed to find the time to read it. I am glad i did.
It had everything a good fantasy should have, very good world building, intricate social interactions, awesome use and abuse of magic, and most importantly - a wide array of characters, all of them individually multi-dimensional and strong.
There was a point in the book where our heroine was just a child, surrounded by so much evil that i thought- i don't like where this was going. Bishop proves that she can spin a tale like no other, and keep me glued to the pages till the early hours in the morning.
One of the more unusual aspects of this book is the completely corrupt, matriarchal society that harnesses and abuses, what seemed to be every male it encounters. Bishop didn't sugar coat it either. She covers a lot of material, emotional abuse, physical abuse and sexual abuse. Honestly, the graphic details of torture and degradation were somewhat unexpected.
This explains why there are such divided reviews about this series. The world Bishop lands us in is dark and twisted, with an innocent child as the main character, set to stand alone against many. The child had been given an opportunity to wield immense powers, to be used for either good or evil. All depending on who will help shape this child's mind as she grows into a young woman.
Queue the anti-heroes. The devil himself, and his two sons... they are not reformed bad-boys, they are men who have done, and still do some horrible things. We are left to wonder, just on witch side the coin will drop. I am a fan of the dark fantasy genre, and novels that are very much into the gray area. Stories that don't have clear lines of good or evil but stretch and twist our opinions of them, depending on the situation.
I liked this book.
