The Queen of Blood (Queens of Renthia, #1)

by Sarah Beth Durst

Set in the magical world of Renthia, The Queen of Blood is Sarah Beth Durst’s ambitious entry into adult epic fantasy. With the danger of Peter Brett’s The Warded Man, heart of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, and lyricism of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, this is the first chapter in a series destined to be a classic.

Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . .

But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms.

With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land . . .  before it’s bathed in blood.

• ISBN10: 0062413341
• ISBN13: 9780062413345
• Publish Date: 20 October 2016 (first published 20 September 2016)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 24 May 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Harper Voyager
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English

Reviews

[Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub]

I have a problem with The Queen of Blood: it was so good that I couldn’t put it down (okay, technically I could, but I really didn’t want to). I was immediately drawn into this world where every living thing has a spirit, and every spirit hates humans. The spirits have two goals: Create. Kill. The only thing that stands between humans and bloodshed in Renthia is the Queen. She has the power to command the spirits, and they have to obey. Except, suddenly they aren’t obeying. And it falls to Daleina, a woman learning to use her own power, to find out why. Accompanying her is a healer named Hamon, and Ven, a disgraced champion of the queen.

I knew from the very first page that I was going to love Dalein. Any character who is introduced as wanting to kick fate in the face is going to be one I enjoy. I loved that she was intelligent, hardworking, and made difficult choices, even when they went against what she wanted or hoped for. She didn’t have the whole “chosen one” thing going for her, which was an enormous breath of fresh air. She really wasn’t all that great at controlling her abilities the way she was expected to, but watching her play to her own strengths was so much better. I love characters who learn from their shortcomings or overcome them, as opposed to having those shortcomings either not exist or not be an issue.

I also really liked Ven, a former champion of the queen. He had experiences and knowledge that made him act very differently than any of the other characters, which I liked. Ven’s perspectives were often at odds with others around him, and the stakes were much more personal for him.

The first bit of the book takes place at an academy where women with inherent talent to control spirits are taught to develop and use that power, in the hope of becoming heirs to the current queen. When the queen dies, one of them will be given her power and will be responsible for the safekeeping of Renthia. Basically, an entire education is based around the fact that the queen is going to kick it one day. She (understandably) doesn’t love the constant reminders that she’s not getting any younger. At the same time, she knows much more about why the spirits are suddenly disobeying and wantonly killing than she lets on. Her part of the storyline is absolutely engrossing.

I loved the world the author created so very much! The spirits which inhabit everything from rock to tree to air are more like the fae of Scottish lore, changeable and dangerous. Their motives weren’t those of humans and they couldn’t be appealed to or reasoned with. I loved how wild they were and how “compromise” was not something they understood at all. It presented an interesting and unique set of challenges. The author used them so creatively, and I can’t wait to see what she does with them in the next book in the series.

The story did not go where I expected it to at all, which was awesome. The body count is much higher than I expected as well. This isn’t an overly gruesome book, but it’s not all flowers and skipping either. There’s danger in the book, and not everyone comes out in one piece.

I enjoyed The Queen of Blood so much that I bought the next two books in the series before I’d even finished it. This was a fantasy world that I loved visiting and I’m dying to see what happens next! I recommend this to fantasy readers who love kick butt characters, and creative world building.

https://wittyandsarcasticbookclub.home.blog/2020/12/28/the-queen-of-blood-by-sarah-beth-durst/

[HekArtemis]

Perfect. I was considering rereading an old favourite but took a chance on this one instead and, what do you know, it is actually somewhat similar to what I was thinking of rereading. Both are set in a world with deadly flesh tearing human hating beings. So, this hit the spot perfectly. It's well written, it has interesting characters and it didn't fall into the romance I was fearing (there was a touch of romance, but not the one I was fearing thank goodness). The main character is honestly great, strong, determined, stubborn - but she's not overpowered, in fact she is pretty much the worst of the lot but it doesn't stop her. She has some self-confidence issues, but again doesn't let it stop her from trying her best and pushing through despite the overwhelming odds against her. I also liked Ven, though he was an idiot about certain issues - Hamon annoyed me a little though, how he started to get too overprotective of Daleina, she's training to be a queen mate, shut up.

The world is probably my favourite part though, not to say anything else is bad, I just really love the world building. The spirits are awesome, the tree cities and villages so cool, the magic system, all of it I love it. Not that I didn't know that, I read The Deepest Blue a couple months back and loved it so much I took the chance and bought the Queens of Renthia trilogy in deadtree form before reading them. The world. Yes.

[booksandcats]

Truly one of the best Fantasy books I have read in recent times! I love the world Sara Beth Durst has created, and what I love most about it is the potential. "Queen of Blood" is an amazing book and portrays an amazing wold, but it barely scratches on the surface of what Renthia has to offer.

The Characters are fascinating. Daleina is a great heroine, not because she has more power than everyone. The heroine of this book isn0t more powerful, more graceful, more beautiful than everyone else. That's Merecot, and Sata and Fara, the Queen, the one, that dissappeard, the one that died and the Enemy . Daleina is a girl, with barely enough power to qualify for everything. She knows that she is weaker than everyone else, but still she believes, if she just works hard enough, it will be possible to get what she want. And that goal is not just to be queen, it's not just a selfish goal, but to protect her family, her home and her people. There is just a strong inner quality in her, that make me like and support her. But she is not perfect enough to be annoying. She doesn't get all her tasks done, or done properly. Not all her decisions are the right ones. She doesn't win all of her fights. But she keeps on fighting. Even when she doubts herself that she can reach her goal, she keeps on fighting. Which has the potential to be annoying, as it can make her just someone so good that it's boring again. But Sarah Beth Durst makes it work with Daleina.

For Ven I could have done with a bit more character building. I think I would like him very much over some time. I would love to hear more about his story with Fara and his life before this book.

For the secondary characters, they were great and added so much to this book, all of the other heirs and candidates. The one I liked most was Merecot. I started to like her pretty early in the book, because you could just tell, that she was different. Her snarky attitude made the chapters she was in so much fun to read! And when I found out that she is the Queen of another country now, i literally squeeled. I'm waiting nervously for what Sarah Beth Durst has in tock for her future development and I really hope, that she doesn't become an enemy to Daleina but that they work together. I have read the beginning of the second book, so I know it's about Daleina again, but I would love a book about Merecot and her whole story. Not just, how she became Queen of a country witch wasn't her home, but also the beginning of her and Delaina's friendship in the academy. I think it would be a lot of fun reading about that from her point of view. So, I'm hoping we will get her story in another book later. .

I also like the general Idea of the world that Sarah Beth Durst built. That the lands are connected to the spirits, who are needed for everything to life and to grow, but also want to kill all humans. And the build of the five Kingdoms. Aratay sounded so peaceful and idyllic (if you take away the spirits that want to kill you all the time). You could really picture the massive trees with all the bridges and houses grown into them. Plus travelling from wire to wire as Van and Delaina do often sounds like a blast and I want to do it as well. I really hope, that in future books we get to see more of Renthia and the other Kingdoms and how they are built with the different environments.

So, all in all, I would really recommend this to anyone who loves fantasy. It has fantastic characters, a lovely world that is being built, great action, that makes you want to not put the book down and just the right amount of romance. In my opinion, this book has the potential to be one of the great series of fantasy.

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

There's nothing like finding a book you get hooked into, when you're in a reading slump. The Queen of Blood had me glued to the pages, I read it within days, rather than weeks which is how long it's been taking me to read anything these days. A world that needs spirits to keep running, spirits that need a balance of creation and death, a Queen that keeps those spirits from killing all humans. The Queen of Blood was riveting, and I am so glad I picked it up.

The world was intense. I absolutely loved this world, spirits controlling everything, humans need them but spirits have an uncontrollable urge to kill all humans, so spirits need a human Queen that will keep them in check from destroying everything. Some people in the world have an affinity for controlling spirits, where the spirits will listen to their commands. These people are then trained in that affinity, they then become heirs to the throne, so when the Queen dies, one of them will become the new Queen.

I loved the simple way time passed. Durst's story-telling is very minimalist, there's no flowery prose, when time passes she simply states things like 'Three months later', or 'It's been 5 years since that happened'. A lot of people didn't like this because it was so abrupt but personally I loved this, I loved that so much time passed in this story. It allowed us to see Daleina grow up, and understand her decisions. I found it really refreshing that it was always so sudden. It cut out a lot of unnecessary bulk in my opinion.

This was a fantasy without romance. The main story of The Queen of Blood is the actual events that take place. There's not much romance in it at all, there is love but we don't see the main character fall in love. Another minimalist way of story-telling. I actually enjoyed this because I was hooked on the story that was happening, and this story wasn't about love, it wasn't about how two people fell in love with each other and how they overcame all of these things.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. The fact that I've had it sitting on my Kindle since 2016 is appalling. I wonder how many other really good books have been sitting on my Kindle just waiting for me to read them. I hope this is the end of my reading slump!

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

[Kait ✨]

This was good but not a favourite, though I keep thinking about it because it was really interesting to pull apart. The plot and worldbuilding was 100% up my alley but I just never quite fully connected with Daleina.

I was very conscious it was a story and I wasn’t immersed—it made me think a lot about third person though and also how to write an effective and believable romantic relationship. Not that Durst did it wrong, just there were some holes in it I think and I wasn’t fully invested.

Ultimately I guess that’s my criticism—I never felt invested in this story. Because objectively, there were things I loved about it. I really liked how Durst represented the different kinds of relationships girls can have in their school years, especially with the not-so-nice top-of-the-class girl. I LOVE training montages so that part of the book really appealed to me. I loved the concept of a “tree people” and how that would play out logistically. I thought Daleina’s emotional arc was really well considered. Daleina’s struggle of leaving home and then coming back to it and not belonging is one that I think many people will relate to. The political aspects of the plot were interesting and I’m super curious to see what will happen in [b:The Reluctant Queen|32600602|The Reluctant Queen (The Queens of Renthia, #2)|Sarah Beth Durst|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1481737807s/32600602.jpg|44737355].

All that being said, I just did NOT connect. I think it was something about the way she wrote in third person. I’d like to go back and dig into the whys and hows of that a little more, but I just can’t put my finger on it for now.