Blog Tour Review - Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill

 Blog Tour Review - Of Blood and Fire by Ryan Cahill

Born in fire. Tempered in blood.

Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North.

In the remote villages of southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving – a test of courage and skill that not all survive.

But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war that has been raging for centuries.

There is no prophecy. His coming was not foretold.

He bleeds like any man, and bleed he will.

I loved Of Blood and Fire! It feels like a proper, old school fantasy. There are echoes of Tolkien here, as various races with long-seated antagonism towards each other have to come together to overthrow a great evil. There are definitely elements that would be familiar to any Robert Jordan reader, as three young men from an isolated village find out that fate has something much greater in store for them. This is a book that is deeply rooted in a well-established tradition. It knows what came before, and it embraces it rather than turning away from it. As a long time lover of both The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time, it fulfilled a need within me that I didn't realise I had. So many amazing fantasy writers have taken the genre in new directions, and I love that, but it is actually really refreshing to read something that goes back to where the genre came from.

That said, it is certainly not derivative. Of Blood and Fire is very much its own story. Unlike The Wheel of Time, there are no prophecies, no predestined leaders to save or destroy the world. This boy hero feels like he could be anyone, any villager, any teenager, thrust onto the world stage by happenstance rather than prophecy. Calen is just an ordinary teenage boy at the start of the story, struggling with his everyday life with his best friends. His character arc is already fascinating in just book one and I'm excited to see where he goes from here!

The world building is very strong here. This is a world with a lot of history and a lot of geography. You can see how much work Ryan put into everything from cartography to linguistics to develop his world. (Apparently there's now a fully learnable language sprung out of this series!) Because we're exploring the world through the eyes of several point-of-view characters who've never been further than the nearest town, we get to learn about it with them as more and more layers are slowly uncovered. It's a very effective mechanism that left me feeling eager to learn more. 

One really interesting element is how well Of Blood and Fire deals with mental health, particularly men's mental health. Right from the very start, we see the lingering effects of family trauma, and how different characters deal with it differently. Without being critical, Of Blood and Fire effectively exposes how poorly some men deal with their own mental health, bottling things up, lashing out in inappropriate directions rather than coming together, talking, sharing the load, but we also see good examples, friends who can open up with each other and lean on each other. It's a very mature take on an important subject and I really liked seeing it treated so well here.

Of Blood and Fire has been published before. Ryan Cahill self-published it along with a number of other books in the Bound and the Broken series, and they were a huge success. Now the Broken Binding has given them the full publisher treatment, including a large number of absolutely gorgeous special editions! I went for the stunning Toppings independent bookshop special edition, which looks very lovely in purple. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of the series hit bookshops over the next few years.

Of Blood and Fire is traditional fantasy done very, very well. There are dwarves and elves and giants and dragons. Huge armies lay siege to massive fortresses. There are sinister characters lurking and nefarious schemes afoot and a powerful lord who really needs to be overthrown. It is fantastic!

🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

Of Blood and Fire is out now, from The Broken Binding.

I was gifted a proof copy in return for this honest review and participation in this Black Crow PR blog tour. The tote bag, artwork, pin badge and tour jacket in the picture above were picked up by the blogger as part of attendance at a tour event. The special edition book was purchased.