Blood Song

Raven's Shadow, Book 1

By: Anthony Ryan

Narrated by: Steven Brand

Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins

Publisher's summary

From "a new master storyteller" comes the beginning of an epic fantasy saga of blood, honor, and destiny....

The Sixth Order wields the sword of justice and smites the enemies of the Faith and the Realm. Vaelin Al Sorna was only a child of 10 when his father left him at the iron gate of the Sixth Order. The Brothers of the Sixth Order are devoted to battle, and Vaelin will be trained and hardened to the austere, celibate, and dangerous life of a Warrior of the Faith. He has no family now save the Order.

Vaelin’s father was Battle Lord to King Janus, ruler of the unified realm. Vaelin’s rage at being deprived of his birthright and dropped at the doorstep of the Sixth Order like a foundling knows no bounds. He cherishes the memory of his mother, and what he will come to learn of her at the Order will confound him. His father, too, has motives that Vaelin will come to understand. But one truth overpowers all the rest: Vaelin Al Sorna is destined for a future he has yet to comprehend. A future that will alter not only the realm, but the world.

©2013 Anthony Ryan (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Ryan is a new fantasy author destined to make his mark on the genre. His debut novel, Blood Song, certainly has it all: great coming-of-age tale, compelling character and a fast-paced plot. If his first book is any indication of things to come, then all fantasy readers should rejoice.” (Michael J. Sullivan, author of the Riyria Revelations series)

“Fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels should find this debut much to their liking.” (Library Journal)

“Ryan hits all the high notes of epic fantasy - a gritty setting, ancient magics, ruthless intrigue, divided loyalties and bloody action.... [A] promising debut." (Publishers Weekly)

Excellent book. perhaps you should read it instead

A pure gem that will make you want explore the authors other work. A rich story that could have been told in two or three books has been compacted into one.

You'd appreciate this work a heck of a lot more if you were to read it. Perhaps I've been spoiled by the narration for Cain (Hero's die), The Storm Light Series, or The Gentleman Bastards. If anything, these books were brought to life by the performance of the narrators.

In this case I felt like skipping this purchase and moving onto the next book. On the brightside his monotonous tone put me to sleep in minutes at night.

alright/decent

i listen to this while doing manual labor. it was decent for that.
At times the story is interesting, at others it felt like just adding more to the book. overall decent.

to be fair, i have been listening to masterful writers a lot. as compared them, midst books would fall a bit short.

mediocre narrator

The narrator was monotone and slurred names alt making it hard to follow some of the story. I had to skip back a lot and listen again. The story was great though. finally a full book instead of the half books everyone calls trilogies.

A great new series to start.

I was looking for something new to get into and this really grabbed me. I have been bouncing around titles and genres since Rothfuss' Name of the Wind. I am looking forward to next book!

unique magic system. excellent story

Really liked this story. found the voice acting easy to follow and understand.
found this story looking to fill the void of waiting on GOT and name of the wind.
has some really unique aspects of the magic and orders of faith. I found myself caring for the characters. the story jumps around a bit with time frames which can get a tad confusing but overall very happy. looking forward to the next books.

brilliant

loved the voice, loved the book, loved the characters!! Can't wait to read book 2!

Imagine this book narrated by RC Bray

I really liked the story and the narrator has a good voice but as other reviewers mentioned, the narrator doesn’t give the characters different voices. If you’re a little distracted you can miss something important. I found myself going back and starting chapters over to figure out who said what. I think if someone like RC Bray narrated this I would finish the series for sure. Instead, I’ll likely stop with this one. Worth a credit for sure.

Great book, poor reading

The story is fantastic, but the narrator is so drab and monotone is to confuse who is talking in a conversation between characters. Of all the audiobooks I've listened to, this was the worst narrating. One performance star because he spoke clearly and has a nice accent.

Excellent book, terrible narration.

An excellent book, but the narrator was about as passionate as a dead pan comedian... He made it very difficult to get into the story. A good narrator is like the multicoloured paints that a painter has to render his composition. But the only colour Steven Brand has, as an orator is boring old grey that is featureless, colourless, lifeless, soulless, passionless, spiritless, unspirited, insipid, uninteresting, unexciting, uninspiring, unstimulating, unoriginal, derivative, jejune, nondescript, sterile, flat, bland, (plain) vanilla, arid, dry, dry as dust, stale, wishy-washy, grey, anaemic, tired, banal, lame, plodding, ponderous, pedestrian, lacklustre, stodgy, dreary, mechanical, stiff, leaden, wooden; mind-numbing and completely soul-destroying. Please look for a new occupation Steven, before you ruin any more fine works of literature.

one of the best books here.

I love this author and narrator so much I need to find more of their books