The Bloodbound

The very enthusiastic reviews I kept reading about this novel since it came out compelled me to add it to my reading queue, but I finally got to it only recently, when the other two books of the trilogy have already been published: the bad news is that until this moment I missed out on a solid, compulsive read; the good news is that I will not have to wait long to read the other two installments in the series. So I can take some measure of comfort in my lateness to the party...

The Bloodbound starts in what deceptively looks like a well-known pattern: the kingdom of Aldea is at war with the invading Oridians, and in the middle of a crucial battle, part of the Aldean forces, led by the king's brother, leave the field allowing the enemy to attempt a decisive blow. King Erik himself is about to be killed when one of the scouts - the young noblewoman Alix Black - saves his life by unseating him from his horse. And breaking his leg in the process.

This is the first departure from the expected norm of the genre: women are not only allowed, but required - like everyone else in Aldea - to serve in the army for at least a two-years stint. And if they are mostly employed as scouts rather than actual warriors, this does not mean they are exempt from risk or physical harm. It's a refreshing attitude, and one that gives the author the opportunity of showing some female characters with actual agency, who gather the respect and admiration of their peers.

Alix is indeed one the best scouts in the Aldean army: she's nimble, able to move unheard and unseen in the most difficult of terrains, and her courage is unquestioned - but she's also headstrong, impulsive and prone to mistakes due to her recklessness. Unlike similar characters, she's not trying to prove anything, nor is she driven by a desire to emerge: she acts before she thinks, and that's what makes her commanding officer, General Green, so furious - but also what allows her to save the life of the king, who promotes her as his personal bodyguard on the field.

This is where the romantic thread of the narrative pops up, because if Alix has strong feelings for her fellow scout Liam (feelings that are not socially acceptable, since he's a fatherless bastard), the closeness to king Erik brings her to enjoy his company and respond in kind to her ruler's very gentlemanly advances. When this part of the story surfaced I was instantly on my guard: I'm not very partial to romance in my reading, and I try to avoid love triangles as much as I can - blame it on my encounters with some trope-laden YA stories that made me violently allergic to these two themes.

Well, I'm very happy to say that my unease was groundless: Erin Lindsey managed to treat the subject matter with a very light hand and with very well developed emotional responses on the part of the three involved people - you will not find any artificial angst over unrequited love, or tormented inner dialogue in the most inappropriate moments, or childlike behavior of the kind that makes me want to slap the characters senseless. No, what we see here are three people having to deal with very complicated feelings that encompass love, respect, friendship and duty, and do it in a very adult way, to the point that I could not be more partial toward any one of the three involved characters, but felt sympathy and compassion for all of them: the very impossibility of a simple resolution for the complicated entanglement of these three lives is what makes the dilemma real and approachable - from the reader's standpoint - and what turns a potentially destructive narrative thread into one around which the story's major events develop seamlessly.

The backbone of The Bloodbound is a compelling one: there is a war going on, but it's not treated simply as a clash of armies - there is that of course, and also some politics and treachery, but more substantial themes are explored, like the meaning of rule, the qualities that make a good king versus a bad, distant one. If Alix is somehow the main character here, and her journey of inner growth is often at the forefront, king Erik is also closely observed as he transforms from a happy-go-lucky monarch and commander to a more mature, responsible and hardened person, one who comes to understand the price of power and is ready to pay it, no matter how painful the cost.

If Alix, Erik and Liam are often in the spotlight, this does not mean that the characters surrounding them are simple props put there just for background color: there is a good number of people, some of them fleshed out more fully than others, who at times bring a choral flavor to the story, enriching it and making its scope broader and multi-layered. At the same time, the various dramatic threads, like the war and the sacrifices it requires, are offset by sparks of humor that dovetail seamlessly into the most serious events, balancing the overall effect in a very pleasing way.

Last but not least the magic: it's there, but not in an intrusive way and it adds the necessary pinch of spice to the mix. Most interesting is the bloodbond established between a weapon (be it a sword, a knife or a bow) and its wielder, that makes it an integral part of its owner: wielding a weapon so magically linked to the person using it, makes for a lighter feel, and an almost subconscious integration with the body. The most intelligent choice in this aspect of the story is that the bloodbond can be reached with difficulty, since it's a rare craft whose experts are dwindling in number, so avoiding the risk of making it a deux-ex-machina prop.

Then there is the dark art able to transform people into almost invincible zombies - again, a kind of witchcraft requiring blood to work, in what looks like a pattern in this world's magic system - and that creates a terrifying host of unfeeling soldiers launched against the Aldean army. The attempt at neutralizing this looming danger gives us some of the most breath-stopping pages of the whole story, one that practically read itself, thanks to the almost compulsory quality of the narrative.

I'm quite happy to have finally started this series, and I know I will not wait too long before reading the other two installments. On the contrary, I'm quite eager to see how the story progresses.