The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst

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.

Reviewed by Jordon on

4 of 5 stars

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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

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 5 July, 2018: Finished reading
  • 8 July, 2018: Reviewed