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Bloody Rose
- The Band, Book 2
- Narrated by: Katherine Fenton
- Series: The Band, Book 2
- Length: 18 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy
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caught me up, could not stop listening until end
- By Leslie on 13-11-14
Summary
Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local pub, slinging drinks for world-famous mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventure and glory in the world beyond her sleepy hometown.
When the biggest mercenary band of all rolls into town, led by the infamous Bloody Rose, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard. It's adventure she wants - and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a quest that will end in one of two ways: glory or death.
It's time to take a walk on the Wyld side.
Critic reviews
"Bloody Rose solidifies what Kings of the Wyld proved. Eames writes like a hurricane and has a voice like no one else in this genre." (Sam Sykes)
"A rollicking, page-turning, edge-of-your-seat road-trip of a book...Wonderful." (John Gwynne)
"Joe Abercrombie meets Terry Pratchett, and that is not praise I would give lightly." (Fantasy Review Barn)
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What listeners say about Bloody Rose
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Simon
- 30-08-18
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!
16 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 02-11-19
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
5 people found this helpful
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- Paul
- 16-09-18
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.
4 people found this helpful
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- N
- 23-02-21
Bloody Awful
I hate not to finish a book but this one just got untenable. I loved the Kings of the Wylde but this was a very poor follow up. Tried to stick with it hoping a story would show up but in spite of spirited naration I finally gave up, the idea that slaughtering "monsters" for daring to exist just appalled.
3 people found this helpful
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- john
- 08-09-19
High expectations and low results
Kings of the wyld was very good and I automatically went for this one since I expected a great series. This is not the case though, the narrator is not as good and the characters of this book are not as likable as the original ones. The story was kind of dull as well. All in all, treat kings of the Wyld as a nice stand alone book and leave this one alone.
3 people found this helpful
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- A. AKANNI
- 30-12-18
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.
3 people found this helpful
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- sandra crookes
- 14-04-21
disappointing
Really struggled to finish it.
To me the characters and their interactions felt very superficial and not especially likeable. Sadly I began guessing the storyline too. Ah well......
2 people found this helpful
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- R R Lewis
- 26-10-20
Simply outstanding
This coupled with Kings of the Wylde are 2 of the best books I've listened to in a long long time. Great story telling that conjure the imagination like no other. Highly recommended. Bring on the 3rd instalment.
1 person found this helpful
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- GigiMC
- 07-08-20
Another Great Battle of the Bands
The continuation of the Band trilogy. Book 2 follows Tam Ashford, a girl who wanted to be a bard for the best Band in the 5 courts, Fable, led by Bloody Rose. Rose and Freecloud were touring the arenas with Kira , the Inkwitch and Bruin, the Shaman.
The characters come to life in both Nicholas Eames writing and by Katherine Fenton's narration.
The world building and magic system continue to grow and develop and we meet new monsters and necromancers along the way.
The end of the last book leads into this and some old friends come back and there is laughter, drinking , sacrifice and sorrow along the way. Amazing battle scenes also remain a fixture.
Looking forward to the next book.
1 person found this helpful
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- Joshua
- 30-01-20
Narrator didn't inspire my imagination.
Narrator didn't inspire my imagination to help mentally picture the books characters or world. Feels like a totally different series to first book "Kings of the Wyld".
1 person found this helpful
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- Øystein
- 22-09-21
Total letdown
After the excellent Kings of the Wyld this was a total disappointment. It's almost like it was written by an entirely different author with a very different tone and a way below average story. It started decent enough, but went downhill really fast with no likeable character whatsoever. The narrator didn't help matters much with some extremely annoying and cringeworthy voices. As a whole it has turned me off the series completely, and I'll definitely skip any future additions to the series.
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- Daniel
- 21-01-21
Just too much
Really struggled to finish it. Just too much. Starts out decent then goes downhill fast. :(