Bloodring

Bloodring (2006) Faith Hunter

Thorn is a neomage. But unlike the rest of her mage brethren, she does not live in a mage Enclave, but instead is hiding in the small town of Mineral City running a gem and jewelry show with her friends–none of who know she is a neomage in hiding. Unfortunately for Thorn, the kidnapping of her ex-husband brings law enforcement officials into town.

The world in which Thorn lives is post-apocalyptic in a very interesting way: angels came and pretty much took humans to task for their misdeeds and misbehavior. There are three types of beings: humans, seraphs, and neomages. The relationship between the three is both complex and somewhat confusing, and I’m still not sure I’m clear.

One thing that I did care for was the high boink possibility that went through the story. I don’t see why a humanoid species would develop estrus later in their evolution–it doesn’t make biological sense to me, but then we still don’t know how neomages came to be, so I suppose if they were engineered beings, that might serve to limit the population.

Regardless, books that constantly dwell on sex tend not to be my favorites, so that took the book down a notch for me.

Otherwise, I thought the character development was very good–and I quite liked many of the characters, though I thought some of them might be a little too good with not quite enough flaws, but this book was written from Throrn’s POV, so I don’t think the characters were actually perfect, only that Thorn idolized them a wee bit.

This is the first book in a series, and although the main story arc did conclude in this book, if I’d bought this book before the following two books I probably would have been a little annoyed.
Rating: 7/10

• Browse the archives:
  
• Bones to Ashes » »
• « « Dancing on the Head of a Pin