Match Book

Blood Song

Anthony Ryan

2011 · 591 pages · Fantasy

dark moodfast pacedbalanced tonecliffhanger ending

How it reads

Blood Song is fantasy (epic fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is dark. It goes to difficult places and doesn't look away. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.

It's set in an invented world, in no single period, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are coming of age, war and power and politics. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It opens a series. It ends on a cliffhanger, so have the next book ready. At 591 pages it's a real commitment. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.

Pick it up if…

  • you're in the mood for something dark
  • you want a book that pulls you through
  • you like disappearing into an invented world

Maybe not if…

  • you need something cosy, heartwarming or funny
  • you want dense, lingering prose
  • you hate waiting for a sequel

All 15 dimensions

Genre
fantasy
Author gender
male
Author experience
early career
Setting: place
fictional world
Setting: time
timeless or multiple
Mood / feeling
dark
Tone / weight
balanced
Length
long
Narrative style
first person, one narrator
Publication era
recent
Popularity
well known
Series vs standalone
first in a series
Ending style
cliffhanger

What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.

Books with a similar reading

The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.

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