Blood of the Chosen by Django Wexler – A Book Review

Blurb:

Deep below the Gap, Gyre Silvereye discovered a city, hidden far from human eyes. There, the ghouls have dwelt for four hundred years in hibernation, awaiting the moment to wreak their vengeance on the Dawn Republic.

With their help, Gyre can finally see a way to overthrow the all-powerful Twilight Order. But the ghouls do not give their trust easily, and Gyre will need to secure the alliance of the human rebels to the south if they are to even stand a chance. And uniting the two won’t be simple.

His sister Maya still fights for the Order. But after recent events, she is no longer certain where her loyalties lie. Chasing the origins of a mysterious artefact to a long-lost library, she just might find the truth – whether she is ready for it or not.

Author: Django Wexler

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Release Date: 14/11/2021

Pages: 415 (480 according to Amazon)

Genre: Fantasy

Series: Burningblade & Silvereye #2

My Chosen Format: Hardcover

My Rating of ‘Blood of the Chosen: 4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon, Audible

Review:

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book one of this series, Ashes of the Sun, was my first taste of Wexler’s writing and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was hoping for the same kind of greatness but taken to a new level due to new developments in the story. What I got was pretty much just the same level of greatness. I know, I know, how can it be a negative if it was great, I hear you ask? Simple: Blood of the Chosen was essentially the same as Ashes of the Sun just an opposite/mirror image.

I know what you’re thinking now. Still not made much sense with that explanation. Essentially, what it boils down to is that book one was very much Gyre’s stage to shine and book two is Mya’s stage. In the first book, Gyre discovered some pretty cool things about the big aspects of his story line and the people that would be helping him. In book two, Mya discovers some pretty cool stuff about the big aspects of her storyline and the people that will be helping her. Book one saw Gyre get new tech and understand it and, in a slightly different twist, book two simply saw Mya understand tech she already had.

There are other aspects that essentially mirror book one, but that’s all I’ll say on the matter. I don’t want this review to be just about how both books are essentially the same. There’s so much goodness to talk about now I have the negatives out of the way.

Like how, if you forgot what happened in book one, Wexler provides a recap at the start so you can dive right in without feeling like you’ve missed a beat. Or how the world he’s created is easy to dip in and out of. It’s a very inviting world to the reader that doesn’t require insane amounts of remembering to get the most out of it.

And how everything that happened in the first two books has set things up so that book three should be absolutely awesome. Everyone has been put on a pedestal, stakes are high, discoveries have been made and characters have been altered in ways that will have some seriously juicy impacts on the story. I very much look forward to book three. I very much look forward to seeing what Wexler will do now the ‘he had this book, she had this one’ format has pretty much run its course … unless we have four books and they each get a mirror image again to showcase the exact same story progressions? Hopefully not, though.

The writing is very good and, for the most part, incredibly filled with banter. This is both a good and a bad thing. It makes it an easy, quick and enjoyable read, but it also has the drawback of feeling somewhat unrealistic. When things are getting very grave and serious, it’s hard to actually feel like it is when none of the characters take anything seriously. I also feel like they all have the exact same sense of humour. It comes across as more as ‘this is the author’s sense of humour’ rather than any particular character’s.

But, try as might to find nuggets of negativity, I found myself not only devouring this, but being very into it. Into it to the point where I finished it and was frustrated that the next was yet to be published. So, despite the drawbacks I came across, Wexler has done something to keep me hooked.

As mentioned earlier, I’ll be watching for book three with excitement and a little higher expectation.