Book Review: Blood on the Sand, by Kacey Ezell
Magelight, Book 2
Magelight was a solid fantasy novel with mild romantasy elements that focused on character and action rather than a heavy plot. The character interactions were heavy enough.
Now the sorceress (or “Belletrix,” since we’re seemingly going Roman) Aelys and her escorts are back. And they’re going out of the woods and into the arena.
The Story
There are spoilers for book one. You’ve been warned.
Bellatrix Aelys (do not ask me how to pronounce her name) has been through a lot. She passed her finals at the magical academy, ran into a small RPG party at an inn, accidentally enslaved them with a magical geas, and when she finally made it home, she discovers that her entire family are a bunch of bastards out of a Game of Thrones novel. She managed to free her three traveling companions, and they escaped her family together. Now, they’re professionals for hire.
Except Aelys isn’t out of the woods yet. Someone or something is still hunting Aelys. Some of her three companions didn’t want to be released from the geas, and have mixed feelings about it. When bounty hunters try to take her, it seems to be a good idea to be elsewhere for a while. A job in the “elsewhere” city of Zandrine conveniently comes up, and we’re off to the races.
And things manage to get worse from there.
I’ll begin by noting that Kacey Ezell is nice enough to give a list of who is who at the front of the novel, just to track all the players. Tracking four main characters and backstories is bad enough for many readers. So this is a way to track everyone without needing a score card. We have a nice easy opening with some mild mortal stakes, reintroduces everyone and the situation thus far … and then gets into some bloodshed, because we have to keep the plot moving.
And the plot moves. If you think at any time that the plot is too slow, don’t worry, it’ll pick up, and probably within the next chapter. There are a lot of reasonable, sensible solutions throughout the book, which are promptly undercut by highly violent events. When the plot slows down, dragons will burst through the door and set everything on fire.
After a while, it does feel like one damn thing after another. But I promise, everything is building to a point. When Tom Clancy’s The Hunt For Red October had a random subplot following a sequoia from Japan, the readers didn’t know what was happening until the sequoia nearly starts World War Three. The way Kacey Ezell handles it, everything comes together at the end instead of in the middle.
George Martin’s X-rated fantasy rape porn thinks its edgy and full of conspiracy. This one easily outdoes it. Blood on the Sand’s city of Zandrine feels like it’s based on Ancient Rome, and if you think that was nice and neat in politics, watch I, Claudius sometime.
The Magelight series feels very much like one part RPG and one part romantasy, with a heavy emphasis on the former. (I’m not sure Baen would publish it if it were more the latter.) We’ve got the warrior, sorceress, forester, and thief. We have at least one side quest that’s a heist that turns into a Mission: Impossible episode (and a thieves’ guild chief named the Gray Arrow, who I’m certain has no relation to the Gray Fox of Elder Scrolls Oblivion). We’ve got a gladiator arena. We have legendary loot drops from book one. And there is enough back stabbing and politicking for a Game of Thrones novel, only Kacey Ezell is actually readable and enjoyable. (No, I couldn’t even finish a single book of ASOIAF, and I feel I’m not missing anything.) And there’s one moment at the end where a major plot point looks like something from Shadow of Mordor.
Once more, we have a four-person rotating point of view, typically getting four perspectives on the same event. It’s not Rashomon, but good enough for fantasy work.
It’s just a guess on my part, but since this book focuses on parts of Romik’s past, I’m going to guess the next two books will flesh out the backstories of Vil and Daen. I’m not sure if that means we’re going to have four books in this series, or five (so we circle back to Aelys).
By the end of Blood on the Sand, the plot of the next book is very neatly set up. And there’s a reason I keep referencing the machinations of Game of Thrones. Only here it makes sense, handled with delicacy and subtlety that Martin couldn’t imagine on his best day. It’s not heavy and ponderous, and self-important, but very well executed.
Also, Kacey Ezell is clearly a cat person, but that’s forgivable here. Heh heh heh.
The Characters
Romik is a former gladiator, and the city of Zandrine was where he was a slave, so much of the roots of this story are around him. And he has enough demons in his past to keep him busy. In Zandrine, he has more triggers than a gun shop, but keeping it together quite well.
Vil the thief leads the heist side quest. He’s more sensitive and empathetic than he looks. (Which is a low bar, since he likes to dress like the Grim Reaper.)
Daen (I presume rhymes with “Baen”) is undergoing the most recovery in this book. In Magelight, he was the most understanding and connect to Aleys. Severing their connection without his input has him downright pissed off.
Aleys has more growth, in character and abilities. She’s less of a doormat, a character trait even other characters have called her on. There is a lot of nice follow up from the events of Magelight, building on and expanding on her time at mage academy (yes, they call it the Lyceum, let’s move on).
These are four very broken people, and there are moments I get the impression that they’re like houses that would have toppled over, but they’re leaning on each other. There are an unnatural proclamations of love here that it feels desperate. I’m not sure if this is called codependence, I try not to practice psychologist without a license.
Acten and Tyrus are two new additions to the cast. They’re brothers who are mage and bodyguard. Aleys has a history with both. Acten comes off as a pansexual with no morals, but that’s covering a serious and cunning little bigger. Tyrus is more serious and political. They’re interesting and complex characters who should entertaining to follow in later books.
And then there’s Cadian. I hope we get more of him in later books. He’s fun.
The World
When I say this is a fantasy world, I mean it’s probably more on par with the world of the Elder Scrolls video games than any other fantasy world. There’s some Roman coliseum gladiator elements. We have world with a made-from-scratch-creation myth, a few … gods or goddesses (who are color coded)?
It is not Christian, which makes certain things confusing. History shows that Christians ended slavery … three times. Why were all slaves freed here? Don’t know.
This is very much a world where the elements are explained as needed. And most of the world-building is pretty seamless, woven into the narrative very easily. I like her original uses of magic and magic applications, and it feels like everyone’s progression is leveling up at a nice, sensible pace.
Yes, I said it felt like an RPG. I stick to that.
Politics
There is a lot of in-world politicking. Nothing modern day related, really.
There are two male characters who are apparently bi, but I have no idea how much is for show and how much is supposed to be real. Every other person who isn’t a main character has at least two faces.
Content Warning
Soooo, about that content.
First, it’s already Rated R… for language and dismemberment more than anything else, because sword work is messy.
As established, this is a fantasy world that is not our world. Not Christian.
Which is my round about way of noting that Alys does end up marrying all three men. Though I will highlight that there are plot and in-world related reasons to do this.
I said this was one part romantasy.
Is this rated R for sex? No. Any sex is mercifully off-screen. If the polyamory irks you, then you can skip four pages. Yes, four pages. I counted every single one of them. However, by and large, this does not get in the way of the overall story. Thank God, because I cannot tolerate another Anita Blake, bisexual 120 page gangbang.
If everything else so far appeals to you, and this is a turn off, again, it’s only six pages. It’s enough to satisfy the romantasy enthusiasts this seems to be targeting, without any of the smut that would make me shoot my Kindle.
Who is it for?
If you liked Tavi’s character progression from Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera, the political macchinations of an Elder Scrolls, and a lot of high fantasy action, you’re going to enjoy this.
Why buy it?
Three sentences that would make you buy it if it were on the cover of a book you were looking at.