{Review} of Blood's Pride by Evie Manieri

Blood's Pride by Evie Manieri
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

GENRE: Fantasy
THEME: Romance, Magic
RECEIVED: NetGalley
AUTHORS BLOG: Evie Manieris' Site

BLURB:

Rising from their sea-torn ships like vengeful, pale phantoms, the Norlanders laid waste to the Shadar under cover of darkness. They forced the once-peaceful fisher folk into slavery and forged an alliance with their former trading partners, the desert-dwelling Nomas tribe, cutting off any hope of salvation.

Now, two decades after the invasion, a rebellion gathers strength in the dark corridors of the city. A small faction of Shadari have hired the Mongrel, an infamous mercenary, to aid their fledgling uprising—but with her own shadowy ties to the region, she is a frighteningly volatile ally. Has she really come to lead a revolution, or for a more sinister purpose all her own?

This thrilling new epic fantasy is set in a quasi-Medieval Mediterranean region, drawing together the warrior culture of Vikings, the wanderlust of desert nomads, and the oracles of ancient Greece. Evie Manieri's Blood's Pride is an intricate, lush fantasy novel full of taut action, gut-wrenching betrayal, and soaring romance.

REVIEW:
For me strong written fantasies take some getting use to, for example Game of Thrones has a lot of characters, different regions, and details that need to be followed. Blood’s Pride fits in that same category of many characters in which they each have a key purpose, a culture and history that is very detailed, and plot that has been thought out wonderfully, it makes for a thrilling story. I’m not usually one who likes hard fantasies but the world development was really enjoyable.

Blood’s Pride follows the aftermath of Norlanders taking over the city of Shadar. Many generations later the Shadar people are planning on overthrowing the Norlanders who have enslaved them for so many years.

I normally pinpoint specific characters in the books I read that are highly focused on but in this type of story there are no real main two characters. Each character has a purpose; such has the character known as the Mongrel. She is a mercenary who is hired by the Shadari people to help with the uprising. Little do they know she has her own connection to the region, but I felt her character development was the most significant. All in all the main characters are Eofar, the son of the governor who has a good heart and Harotha, the woman he loves who is a Shadari. Her bother Faroth is leading the rebellion along side the Mongrel, Eofar sister Isa and a damaged warrior Rho. There is many more character that has important roles, but its better to read such a complex story to get the idea of how everything and everyone is connected.

What was difficult for me is that since there are so many characters that meant there were multiple POVs. I’m not a fan of jumping around to so many characters, since it will get me lost and I loose interest. I would of like to a focused on two or three specific characters so that I could follow their journey and in their eyes see the development of other characters. There was just too much happening that was crammed into this book that I felt I wasn’t able to connect with the characters and their purpose.

Overall Manieri’s writing was beautifully done, she knows how to captivate with her words and create a whole world. Though her vision may have been lost in her character development, I felt that the ending really brings on a new journey that she can create more focus on specific characters instead of multiple. The beginning of this book was what kept me reading, some fantasy books don’t have that major impact but Manieri hit that spot. It was errie, mysterious and made the readers feel that horror for the Shadari people as their livelihood was about to change. I hope in the future books that feeling in the beginning stays through out the book, it will connect the readers to the characters more.

RECOMMENDATION:
This is a fantasy book with a complex plot, unique character names and very epic start to a trilogy. Fans of Maria V. Snyder’s Poison series and Patrick Rothfus’ The Kingkiller Chronicals will enjoy Blood’s Pride by Evie Manieri.

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