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 The story flows smoothly from one chapter to the next. I was simply amazed by the amount of emotion it must have taken to build this world and the characters who live in it. You will fall in love with her story and not want to ever put it down.
Reviewed by Teresa Aguilar
The Tyranny of the Blood
by Jo Reed
Wild Wolf Publishing
ISBN:978-0-9562114-1-5, May 12, 2009, Paperback: 394 pages
First of all let me say that I was completely enthralled by this book. I can't wait for the next installment to this trilogy. You can certainly tell that the author Jo Reed has degrees in psychology and pure science by the detail she showed in her writing. The story flows smoothly from one chapter to the next. I was simply amazed by the amount of emotion it must have taken to build this world and the characters who live in it. You will fall in love with her story and not want to ever put it down. I am reminded of one of my favorite fantasy writers Robin Hobb when I read this book. The family's society is twisted in their ways. Trying to create a child with the ability to control time. When the book cover said it was a powerful inbred society with superhuman power and hereditary madness it certainly meant it.
The story follows the life of Rendail from being chained to his mother and her hatred for him to being taken from her when he came of age by his father, Corvan, to be trained in the ways of the Blood. A child knowing no love in his life but craving the attention of his father:
Whatever the truth of it, I had but one ambition - to be like my father, to please him, to make him proud. From that moment I belonged to him, body and soul, and my yearning to see him again, to hear him speak, to feel his touch, made my stomach almost rise to my chest.
The story continues with Rendail learning how to behave, living with first one then another learning all the aspects of being a part of 'The Family'. Then as his enormous gift comes upon him he goes to live with his father and learn from him. Along the way he developed relationships with various people. Some that could be called love if he knew the meaning of the feeling. Rendail's gift is amazingly strong and when his father dies he becomes head of the family.
Rendail is confused by his growing feelings for the mate he chooses. When their first child is born and taken from him to be hidden away he realizes that he too has a part of the family's madness .Later on Rendail comes across another of his kind. One who has lived for untold years that tells him of his father's madness and what the family was like before Corvan was born. Giving Rendail insight into what the family could be again with Rendail's help.
After Rendail's second child is born, a child of great power but hold's the taint of his father, Rendail makes the choice of keeping the child. But in so doing he risks losing everything:
"You want the truth, Lord?"
"Tell me what your gift reveals to you, no more, no less."
"I see a child of great beauty, breathing the air of the valley for the first time. Those who see him will think him a worthy son of Rendail. He will have your strength and your look about him, but he will not have your heart, nor your wisdom. He will understand neither beasts nor men, and seek only power over them. Forgive me Lord, but that is what I see."
In creating this monster Rendail sees what the future holds and tries to change it by having yet another child in the hopes of creating a heir that is worthy of leading the family.
About the reviewer: Teresa Aguilar is a stay-at-home mom who lives near Lake Fork in Emory, Texas. Married for over 17 years with three children, the whole family shares a interest in books of all genres. She aspires to own a book shop of her own one day. Her time is spent raising her children and her miniature dachshunds and one orange tabby cat. She also tries to grow trees in clay, and finally having some success, maybe to have some shade in the future to read under. She would also like to say thank you to her cousin Jeanneta who read “The Hobbit” to her when she was a small child and started her love affair with books.
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