The Savage Messiah by Robert Newcomb
The Savage Messiah
Robert Newcomb
FT Rating 7.4
Savage Messiah, Book One in The Destinies of Blood and Stone trilogy is apparently set in the same world as The Chronicles of Blood and Stone. I say apparently because I have not read the Chronicles of Blood of Stone. This is important to the review since I was moderately confused for the first three chapters. But I will get to that.
The Orb of Vigors, the source of all beneficent magic, has been torn asunder and is spewing destructive magical energy causing death and destruction as it tears through the country of Eutracia. Prince Tristan is prophesied as the only one who can repair the damage, but Tristan’s blood needs to be changed to do so. To do this they must decipher the Scroll of the Vigors which is partially destroyed. Enter Wulfgar, the Prince’s half brother who has been taught the forestallment to gain impressive new powers. He creates a new army and sails on Eutracia.
As stated earlier, I was confused. The first third of Savage Messiah was spent attempting to begin a new story arc while bringing necessary knowledge from the Chronicles of Blood and Stone to the reader. It would have been much cleaner to just write a prologue with the necessary information rather than trying to mix it into the new story line as this approach was unsuccessful.
The characters were interesting but seemed quite one dimensional and even Wulfgar wasn’t the type of antagonist I look for in any book, especially “epic fantasy”. Satine, an assassin was quite impressive and was one of the few deep characters in the book. A story about her would be interesting.
The story arc was quite flat and seemed to drive in a very straight line with little deviation. However, the story quickly unfolds and the battles, although short, were quite well written. I can’t say the writing was poor, or the pace too slow. I can only say it wasn’t very interesting. Please temper this review with reviews with those that have read the Chronicles of Blood and Stone, but if you haven’t read the first, you might want to pass on this one.
FT Rating 7.4
