Of Blood and Fire

The Bound and the Broken, Book 1

De: Ryan Cahill

Narrado por: Derek Perkins

Born in fire. Tempered in blood.

Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North.

In the remote villages of Southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving - a test of courage and skill that not all survive. But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war that has been raging for centuries.

There is no prophecy. His coming was not foretold. He bleeds like any man, and bleed he will.

Includes bonus story The Fall.

©2021 Ryan Cahill (P)2021 Podium Audio

Excellent beginning to a new series!

I really enjoyed this book. This book has everything I love in epic fiction. There is an enormous detailed world filled with familiar races such as elves, dwarves, giants, and humans. The main characters all have depth and you can really pull for them. Even the evil characters were fleshed out & felt like they had depth.

The magic system was pretty cool and would be considered a soft system which I like. I’m not into the trend of creating weird magic systems in an attempt at creating a pseudo-science explanation for the magic. Ryan Cahill avoids this and I really like that.

My only real criticism is the use of curse words from the real world. I don’t mind them being used in books that take place in modern day or the future but when they’re used in fantasy it immediately pulls me out.

The narration was very good. I’d definitely like to hear more from Derek Perkins.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone that loves classic epic fantasy. Looking forward to the 2nd book in this series.

Standard Fantasy Story

Pretty good but nothing special so far. I will continue to the next book. If you like the genre it’s worth giving it a shot.

Action Packed

Loved it
Re Read and Re-listen
Of Blood and Fire
And the prequel Novella The Fall
Get to know the backstory of the betrayal and more on theMagic. Excellent .. you Get to know what fueled the fire.
Ryan Cahill Ii s a master at his craft!

Needs editing

While this book has little original content (strong Eragon and Wheel of Time influences/copying) there is some good action writing at the end. The first half of this book spends way too much time of events that have to connection to the plot of the book. The second half is way too fast and skipping character and country introductions. Bad pacing, conflicting history. It could probably have been a much better book with another round or two of edits. Definitely a weak beginning.

Very strong series beginning

4.5 stars.

Pros:

The conceit of the story is a strong one that compels the attention of the reader.
The main characters are compelling and sympathetic, but not ridiculously powerful.
And the plot is handled very well.

Cons:

There are a lot of characters; so many characters that keeping them straight is difficult. And there's a fair bit of evil for the sake of evil, which is not especially interesting.

The cons are heavily outweighed by the pros. I'm looking forward to continuing this series in the near future.