Bradley Beauleau returns to the desert landscape he introduced in Twelve Kings of Sharakhai, a world with a complicated, rich and deep history. Although there are multiple characters, the primary character, Çeda has become a powerful character, part of the “special forces” who protect the kings of Sharakhai. She is not only “protecting” them, but she’s even closer to their secrets for she wishes to bring down their tyrannical rule and free not only the humans under their boot heels, but the asirim, the enslaved vampyrric werewolves who are forced to serve the kings.
With Blood Upon the Sand is the second book in the Song of Shattered Sands epic fantasy trilogy.
Çeda, now a Blade Maiden in service to the kings of Sharakhai, trains as one of their elite warriors, gleaning secrets even as they send her on covert missions to further their rule. She knows the dark history of the asirim—that hundreds of years ago they were enslaved to the kings against their will—but when she bonds with them as a Maiden, chaining them to her, she feels their pain as if her own. They hunger for release, they demand it, but with the power of the gods compelling them, they find their chains unbreakable.
Çeda could become the champion they’ve been waiting for, but the need to tread carefully has never been greater. After their recent defeat at the hands of the rebel Moonless Host, the kings are hungry for blood, scouring the city in their ruthless quest for revenge. Çeda’s friend Emre and his new allies in the Moonless Host hope to take advantage of the unrest in Sharakhai, despite the danger of opposing the kings and their god-given powers, and the Maidens and their deadly ebon blades.
When Çeda and Emre are drawn into a plot of the blood mage Hamzakiir, they learn a devastating secret that may very well shatter the power of the hated kings. But it may all be undone if Çeda cannot learn to navigate the shifting tides of power in Sharakhai and control the growing anger of the asirim that threatens to overwhelm her…
Bradley’s writing is more an immersive experience than anything else, he draws the reader in with such great skill. The first novel was an electrifying start to the series, providing a spectacular introduction to a multi-layered and captivating character living in a world whose layers match her own. With much of the character’s foundation built, Bradley is able to surge forward with the plotting, in particular Çeda’s plans to avenge the kings for their role in her mother’s death.
With Blood Upon the Sand begins shortly after the conclusion of Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, with Çeda firmly entrenched as a Blade Maiden. Her quest to topple the Kings’ rule becomes more difficult for many reasons. She’s brought into their trust, to a degree, and finds herself becoming more duplicitous. The opening of the novel exemplifies this as she causes chaos disguised in the streets only to return to the Blade Maidens and service of the Kings. When Yndris, the daughter of one of the twelve kings (Cahill) joins the Blade Maidens, we see a true rival, a young brash woman who has as little patience for Çeda as Çeda has for her. Further complicating matters for everyone is Hamzakir, a blood mage who seems to have something different in mind than what the Kings wish to do or the toppling of those Kings Çeda seeks.
Emre, Çeda’s childhood friend, is part of a group fighting against the Kings from a different front – a group known as the Moonless Host. There is a reunion of sorts as Çeda hasn’t seen her friend very much since becoming a Blade Maiden in the previous novel. The associated trust issues that time apart for friends would cause rears its head a bit, too.
As he did in Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, Bradley intersperses the main storyline of the “current” events with flashbacks to thirteen years earlier, focusing on a young Çeda whose mother is still alive and pushing her. Çeda has a better understanding of who her mother is during the timeframe of these flashbacks, and this provides additional depth and understanding to an already well-drawn, complex, and engaging characters.
As much as the prose was welcoming, there was a meandering sense to some of the middle sections of the novel with a slightly uneven pacing for my reading sensibilities. It felt as if events came together a bit slowly until the last one-hundred to one-hundred and fifty pages. As the climax of the novel flowed into the conclusion, I was as sucked into the story as I was for any book I’ve read in the last couple of years. Çeda is in an interesting place as a result of her actions and sets up for what could be an even more exhilarating set of events in the next novel.
With Blood Upon the Sand was one of the books publishing this year I was most looking forward to reading and, despite a mid-section that sags a tad, the anticipation I had which began when I finished Twelve Kings in Sharakhai was well met. The novel is a wonderful experience that helps to expand the world introduced in the first novel, raise Çeda’s status in the modern canon of fantasy protagonists/heroines, and leaves this reader wanting more.
Highly Recommended
© 2017 Rob H. Bedford
Hardcover | 672 Pages
February 2017 | DAW Books
Excerpt: http://quillings.com/fiction/with-blood-upon-the-sand/ | http://quillings.com/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher DAW Books
