My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Review: Blood Ties

Blood Ties Blood Ties by L. Waithman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Great YA Fantasy with Abrupt TBC Ending


Book: ****
Performance: ****

A young boy with a mysterious past is taken in by fighting monks after his father is murdered. This is the first of the series that introduces us to Lucas, the blacksmith’s son with unique abilities that may play a role in a prophecy about two warring kingdoms. Not content to stay in the monastery, young Lucas leaves to join a traveling circus, where his special abilities start to reveal themselves … and he draws the attention of the King. Tragically, the jealousy of another young boy sends Lucas into hiding until a mysterious group of toughs/assassins flushes him out into the open and he is finally accepted into a group of young soldiers known as The Chosen (no spoiler here … the series is called The Kings Chosen so you had to be expecting that right). What follows is another typical YA trope where the leader of the Elite Born takes an instance dislike to Lucas and uses his authority over all the Chosen to make his life difficult … but Lucas manages to survive and gain a solid reputation despite all of that. The writing here is surprisingly tight and well done that, with the aid of a solid narration for each of the characters, makes this one of the better audiobooks in the fantasy genre that I have encountered.

The only reason it failed to get top marks is the abrupt ending … obviously this is a setup for the series; however, it is still a stand alone book and it should have resolved at least one of the plot conflicts … if it does I missed it as it seems to be to simply drop off after a new character states that it is time for Lucas to know who he really is … so tune in at the same bat time on the same bat channel to see the exciting conclusion to who the heck is Lucas. It should say something that regardless of my displeasure at the ending … I will probably pick up the next installment

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#BloodTies #TheKingsChosen #FreeAudiobookCodes

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.