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With the races over and the games behind them, the Ashlord and Longhand armies battle for control of the Empire, while the Dividian rebels do their best to survive the crossfire.
Adrian, Pippa and Imelda find themselves on three opposing sides of the conflict. However, each emerged from the races with questions about the ongoing feud and their places in it all. The more they dig for answers, the clearer the truth becomes. The hatred between their people stems from one thing: the gods.
Instead of fighting each other, they begin to realize their true target should be bigger. One disgruntled deity is ready to unveil the truth. But if they hope to survive against the gods, they’ll have to join their people and travel to the underworld, where the long-buried secrets of the gods remain hidden.
While I loved the setting and high-stakes race of Ashlords, Bloodsworn offers readers what feels like a completely new story, and I am still unsettled by the 180-degree change.
Unlike the first book, the phoenix horses do not play much of a part in the plot, and I missed them. For me, they were part of what made the story so fascinating. Also, the tone and focus of this book are completely different. Without the races, the speed suffers, with none of the edge-of-your-seat tension. It sometimes felt as if the characters had been placed in another world altogether — less American Western fantasy and more dystopian sci-fi with influences of the Norse underworld. This left me mostly confused and vastly underwhelmed.
However, if you can avoid the shock of the veering story changes, Bloodsworn still offers a unique story world and makes for an interesting read.
Rated: Moderate. There are around 18 uses of mild language. Violence is high, without going into much detail, though there are still a lot of battle scenes and blood. Characters kill villainous gods. In one scene, a young woman is caught naked from the waist up — though she bunches clothes in front of her so nothing can be seen.
