Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Fires of Vengeance by Evan Winter

14 reviews

badbadwolf's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Slavery, Child death, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Medical content, Xenophobia, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and War

straw_hat_kd's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The book picks up almost immediately after the ending of The Rage of Dragons and from the point forward it refuses to let it's foot off of your neck. It reminds me a good television or movie that has a stronger second season/film. You see relationships form and grow. The stakes are even higher than book 1 and reaches an eventual fever pitch at the close of this book. Evan Winters does a great job of writing detailed action sequences. Sometimes I could see Tau was clearly in control of a battle. Other times, I was wondering how bad the damage was going to be to Tau or those in his company. There are so many jaw dropping events that I was scrambling to find a free moment to read so I could see what was going to happen next. I'm looking forward to book 3, whenever that may drop. Hopefully, it's sooner than later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, War, Xenophobia, and Violence

alyanna_dm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Misogyny and Classism

misterwisp's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

 This is an epic and intense sequel. It was hard to put down and easy to inhale. 
The pace stays fast and engaging. The main character's revenge quest continues and he also gets wrapped up in bigger picture events of the rebellion that took place at the end of the first book. 
The world gets some interesting new background lore that was compelling. 
In a pivotal part of the story, the point of view changes to a side character which added depth and perspective to the actions of the main character in a worthwhile moment. The characters continue to be written well even if the main one gets most of the page time. The book is more about the action than the characters but it all works.
The ending is satisfying on it's own, while at the same time setting up what promises to be an even more intense book 3. There are some interesting threads set up here with great potential to develop in the next book. A great heroic fantasy series so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, and Classism

Moderate: Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

decembermagpie's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, War, Animal cruelty, Gore, Grief, Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit

sipping_tea_with_ghosts's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, Blood, Violence, Murder, and Gore

cognitivedisaster's review against another edition

challenging dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content

ehmannky's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

So! Good! It's just as fast-paced and intense as book one. I loved the further development of the characters, the plot moved at the right pace, and it was just so! good! Everything I liked about book 1 is here, but now there's more female characters and they are all so different and awesome. One additional thing that I love about this book is that even though it is so bloody and violent, there's not really any rape/sexual assault other than some references. Like, we have this brutal world and you aren't subjected to multiple women being hypersexualized or brutalized (other than the death). Like, again if you don't like war books, it's not going to be something you particularly enjoy, but I couldn't stop reading it. 

Also,

I just about shrieked when we learn that Uduak, my favorite background character, is gay and in a relationship with Hadith! And it did feel like a natural revelation since so much of book 1 is just Tua being a "no thoughts just vengeance vibes" character that he only just barely starts paying attention to his friends in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Violence, War, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Colonisation, Child death, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Vomit, Torture, Religious bigotry, and Genocide

maelikesbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I loved this book and breezed through it. Really engaging plot and characters are compelling. That said, I did think it was a little weaker than the first book. It’s themes are a little messy and there isn’t as much character development. I also didn’t care for the main romance and thought it was given way too much page time that I would’ve rather spend with characters like Uduak and Hadith who didn’t get as many character moments. I missed the friendship and brotherhood we got to see in Book 1 with Scale Jayeed.
For example, Jabari’s storyline and relationship with Tau was a high point for me, and yet it still felt rushed and a little under-explored.

There is a distinctive tonal shift (I’m not really sure if tonal is the right word here) from the first book, specifically when it comes to violence. While the first book did focus a lot on combat and violence and didn’t shy away from showing messed up things (Lekan’s action at the start for example), Book 2 feels like it’s jumping into the grimdark deep end. I don’t think this is a problem, and it never feels gratuitous - but it did feel more brutal than I was expecting going into it.

Overall, this book feels like it’s doing a lot of setting up for the next installations. And while it’s not the most polished approach, it remains damn entertaining every step of the way. If this is what middle book syndrome feels like for this series, I can’t imagine how much fun the final book will be!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, Body horror, Genocide, and Torture

Minor: Slavery and Suicidal thoughts

noraa's review

adventurous challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Colonisation, Cursing, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit