(This review may contain spoilers).
I remember purchasing this book originally a number of years ago, but I didn’t get round to reading it straight away.
I felt like I was missing a big chunk of the story, especially in regards to Va’s and Elenya’s relationship. While I did find Elenya a really interesting character, Va seemed to more react to what happened to him for a lot of the book. I didn’t really get a good handle on what motivated and drove him; and even by the end of the book, I couldn’t really decide if I liked him or not.
I did like Benzamir’s character, but there wasn’t nearly enough information about his real motivations. And while he hinted at there being danger for the people travelling with him if they got involved, I didn’t get any real sense of danger or urgency while I was reading this book. Even when characters were being attacked, there didn’t seem to be any real danger. Benzamir’s command of technology meant they were easily able to escape and I was disappointed by how slow this book moved.
It really wasn’t clear what kind of setting this book had. I assumed at first it was in a more fantasy world, but as the book moved on, it became more clear that that wasn’t the case. I found both Said and Wahir to be interesting characters. Alessandra didn’t really have enough detail shown about her for me to feel so concerned about her as a character.
It was clear that the world in this book was a large and far-reaching one and I thought it was good to see some semblance of culture and language problems. However, those did seem to go away when it came to Solomon. And as for Solomon, I was convinced he and Benzamir were from the same people; and it added to my confusion as the storylines began to converge.
When the action started up, it made the book more interesting and engaging. However, that was towards the end of the book and it was a long time before I got any kind of answers. I would have liked to see more depth and background to the characters and more in the way of action earlier in the book.
Ink of Blood 