Bloody Rose is Bloody Good!

When most sensible debut authors produce something as spectacularly good as Nicholas Eames did with his Kings of the Wyld opener to "The Band" series they tend to follow up with something that gives the fans exactly what they want. And you could argue that Eames did that by continuing his stories of mercenary bands roaming the Heartwyld and its environs. But that would be to miss the fact that he largely ditched his old characters, changed from an aging band reforming one last time to a current and vibrant one. He then changed the sex of his leading heroes, replaced the excellent Jeff Harding with Katherine Fenton, moved most of his delicious musical references to the 1980s and started 6 years after the end of the previous book!

I can only imagine how deliciously smug Mr Eames might have become after taking these brave moves because "Bloody Rose" delivers an equally riotously funny, action-packed fantasy experience as the Kings book did. In fact I would venture to say that some aspects of it such as the action sequences are even better. The musical references are just as tasty with my favourite being the Hucknall Bean though the clever mention of Simon le Bon's pop rockers made me smile as well. Even us prog rockers are well catered for but these references are just a side show to the story.

Katherine Fenton is also something of a revelation. She covers such a wide range of character voices and tones you'd think it was two people sometimes mastering the bizarre cast of characters and voice tones with considerable aplomb.

Although Bloody Rose could stand alone I would read Kings first if you haven't already as quite a few of the events of that one are played upon and the background you will gain will add depth to this one.

In short, he's done it again, despite all the changes Eames has hit the sweet spot bang in the middle and I'm already looking forwards to where the next book will take us!

11 people found this helpful

Paler version of the first.

Perhaps my expectations were too high after the amazing first book but this one just didn't do it for me. The characters were not as interesting overall and the book seemed more about investigating the moral issues raised (eg humans treatment of so called monsters) and definitely lacked the sharp and biting humour of the first. Taken as itself, it's a decent yarn but there's almost no "wtf" moments, whether a scene or witty dialogue or commentary. It does feel as if the first book was written 'for the boys' and this second one 'for the ladies' (and yes I know this book was told from a young woman's point of view which I have no issue with) but where the first film breezed along (with serious undertones), this book seemed mired in angst and perhaps forgot what made the first book so good. The narration was ok, but nothing special and again a disapointment because the narrator in the first book with particularly its selection of US southern accents and drawls (to my English ear anyway) set an amazing tone and brought the world to life but here, there was no attempt to re-create that atmosphere. I do look forward to the next book but for me personally, more of the first book please, not the second. And definitely less angst.

2 people found this helpful

A weak shadow of "The Kings Of The Wyld"

A weak shadow of "The Kings Of The Wyld"

And not the best choice of a narrator

1 person found this helpful

Great story. poor narration.

great story like the first book.

sadly a terrible narration. where is Jeff Harding??!!

read the book rather than listening to this one.

1 person found this helpful

lispy

not a great narrator for this story, very lispy sounded like the snake in Harry potter.

1 person found this helpful

a bit of a slog to get through

Not as good as the excellent 1st book. I wasn't grabbed by any of the characters. Their back stories were fairly interesting, but none of the depth or humour of the original gang.

Doesn't add anything of real value to the World previously created.

1 person found this helpful

Not as good as Kings of The Wyld but still Great

Really enjoyed the story overall, Characters are welll realised, and it's a different pace to kings of the wyld but really good. Still Captures the spirit of D&D adventure which I loved about the first book but told from a completely different perspective.
only have 3 complaints.
1) Katherine Fentons performance while great at portraying the nuances of the new female perspectives, does completely different voices for some of the Cameos of characters from the first book, it shows a lack of collaboration between her and Jeff Harding and makes these great characters we've seen before sound generic. (Moog is not British)
2) At a certian point One of the main characters Change motivations changes very quickly and I found that a bit Jarring and in contrast with their Fairly selfish nature.
3) One of the 'Twists' in the midpoint of the story i found very obvious and figured it out
long before the characters did, I found myself asking why characters were going along with the contract and not questioning someone so blatantly untrustworthy especially when they know so much about the history of the world. Maybe this was intentional - I found it grating.

if you can get past those 3 things and they are minor complaints then you'll have a great time with this book. If you're reading it rather than listening to the Audio book I imagine you'll probably enjoy it even more.

great follow up

kings of the wyld was and is one of my faves, this was slow to begin with but wow it took me in

On tour with rockstars (no spoilers)

This book is told through the eyes of a young
no-name bard that gets to join what is the world's greatest active band of mercenaries led by Bloody Rose herself. They are basically rockstars in a "too on the nose" sense in this word, and she is the happy fan that gets to join just to discover the darker side of things as she herself grows from teen to adulthood.


So why I don't like it:
The main story, and main character archs are very predictable and typical.

It does not flow very well compared to the first book, as it has a tendency to tell you something is amazing, than actually “showing” you.

It continues on, and underlines some of the themes set up in the first book, but don't do much with them.

Was a chore to finish.



What is good:
The colourful side characters are a joy.

It's nice to learn a bit more about the world, and it's story.

There are some really good action scenes now and again.

The reader does a great job in general.


If there was a third book in this series I would be hesitant to read it. Would recommend it to those that loved the first book, but want more action.

Disappointing

The first book in the series was wonderful. Full to the brim of tropes and familiar characters, the otherwise well trod formula was turned on it's head by featuring the protagonists as old, past their prime, and jaded to the famed glory of their past profession. Through their cynicism, all the worn tropes and clichés become comical. This sequel, tragically, lacks all of that self-awareness that made the first novel so refreshing. The protagonists really *are* unparalleled virtuosos of combat, mighty and utterly undefeated, and undefeatable. Rather than treating us to an inside track to the world's most famous adventuring band, revealing all the flaws and happy accidents misconstrued as heroics, the author just gave us his 12-year old ideal heroic fantasy and lost sight of what made the first novel so good.

The narrator mostly does a serviceable job, but the parts where she had to act as if she were shouting... I actually cringed. It was so awkward it made me embarressed on her behalf.