Mage's Blood: The Moontide Quartet Book 1 (The Moontide Quartet, #1)

by David Hair

The Moontide is coming. Urte stands on the brink of war. Now three seemingly ordinary people will decide the fate of the world.

Urte is divided, its two continents separated by impassable seas. But once every twelve years, the Moontide sees the waters sink to their lowest point and the Leviathan Bridge is revealed, linking east to west for twenty-four short months.

The Rondian emperor, overlord of the west, is hell-bent on ruling both continents, and for the last two Moontides he has led armies of battle-magi across the bridge on crusades of conquest, pillaging his way across Antiopa.

But the people of the east have been preparing - and, this time, they are ready for a fight.

An epic fantasy, rich in intricate plots, intrigue and treachery. Vast forces collide and ordinary people make heart-rending choices that will shake the world.

'A complex world populated by a rich and diverse cast of characters . . . Recommended for fans of George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss' - Library Journal

• ISBN10: 178087197X
• ISBN13: 9781780871974
• Publish Date: 26 September 2013 (first published 27 September 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Imprint: Jo Fletcher Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 704
• Language: English

Reviews

[ross91]

I would like to start this review by saying that I don’t usually like fantasy books that have relations with our world; that’s why I’m not a big fan of urban fantasy and why I haven’t got a fascination with historical fantasy.
With that said, Mage’s blood clearly has strong connection with our world: it is basically a fantasy retelling of the crusades. I knew that when I bought it and that’s a reason why I’ve waited so long before reading it. Another reason why I was put off by it is that this book has many mixed reviews: it seems you can only hate it or love it, no middle ground. In the end I decided to trust the people who enjoyed it and so here I am today.
Mage’s blood for me was really “MEH”. I didn’t like it or hate it, I was just very bored by ¾ of it. The major problem about this book is not that it’s heavily based on our world (the author, with no imagination whatsoever, has simply decided to use some of our cultures, cities and religions as world building, instead of create something new), the blame lays in the characters.
We follow 4 main characters throughout the story: Alaron (a young mage who’s finishing school), Elena (Alaron’s aunt and a great mage that is working as a bodyguard in the East continent), Ramita (a young eastern girl who’s waiting to marry the boy she loves) and Kazim (said boy).
I can say without any doubt that I passionately hated Kazim with everything I’ve got: he’s sexist, arrogant, stupid and not at all important, at least for 95% of the plot. Every time one of his chapter started I had to brace myself and force myself not to give up on this book; Ramita was boring to read, Elena at first was my fave POV because her chapters were eventful, but then I lost interest in her story. Alaron was the only one I was really interested in, even though I didn’t connect with him at all and I thought he was just pathetic.
In addition, all of them (and the secondary characters too) felt tropey and I didn’t really care for any of them.
So why 3 stars? I thought of DNF Mage’s blood countless times, but I’m glad I finished it: the last 15% was amazing, seriously. I always love a good bloodbath and I was not disappointed. The cliff-hangers were well done (even though some of them were kinda predictable) and the ending set the bar high for the next book.
I don’t think I’m going to start reading the sequel anytime soon, but I’m not yet ready to give up on the series.