Ink of Blood

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I felt this book was a really fast, entertaining read. I found myself really empathising with Fin. Although at first he seemed to be making the most of the bad situation with no one being able to remember who he was, I think the author did a good job of showing just how difficult it was for him when the people he would have wanted to remember him didn’t.

It was really good to see how both of the storylines met and converged. I really liked Coll as a character, as well as Ardent, even though I found myself getting a bit frustrated by how they kept forgetting Fin, as understandable as that was. I really liked how Fin reacted to the person who did remember him. I could really believe in his friendship with Marrill.

I also really liked how different Fin’s world was to Marrill’s. It was quite intriguing how Marrill ended up there and how the Streams converged.

The idea of the different parts of the map was quite an intriguing one and I felt it definitely fit in with the world in general. I would have liked a bit more if I’d seen some more of the different types of creatures, though. There wasn’t much information about the different sorts of races/species there are.

I did think that Ardent’s character was markedly similar to the old, wise man trope I often see in these kinds of books – the slightly eccentric character with a deeper past than he lets on. There were still things that weren’t revealed by the end of the book, though.

The Oracle was a particularly creepy part of this book, I felt. Everyone crying when he showed up/came near an area was genuinely disturbing. It was good to learn more about who he was as the plot of the story went on.

I felt there was a lot of world building that went on in this book and it really showed. There were some things that were recognisable to the world we live in… but so many other things completely different, as the file right at the beginning shows.

I think it would be good to read a sequel to this book. There’s a lot more of the story that can be told and there’s quite clearly more that will happen. All in all, though, I did enjoy reading this and I plan to pass it on to my niece to read.