A review by cheezvshcrvst
Bloodstone by Karl Edward Wagner

3.0

Let’s face it: Wagner is a force to be reckoned with. His prose, as most and many have often and always repeated noted, is intensely descriptive and flows dynamically and wonderfully. His characters leap off the page, even when they respond to the story in ways that will make you groan. But that’s because you know this novel, Bloodstone, in a bajillion things that have been written since. Whatever tropes predate the ones Wagner wields here with style are just as tired then as now. Bloodstone is worth reading, and it is often page-turning and groovy as hell. Kane is a bastard of an antagonist masquerading as his own protagonist. You want to root for him, nearly as much as you will root against him. If Bloodstone could have been trimmed a bit, it would’ve lost Wagner’s flair for writing, but maybe been a better book. Still, points for a relatively strong female lead and for being so clearly influential on a ton of epic fantasy novels since and still to come.