Blood of the Old Kings
The Bleeding Empire series, Book 1
Sung-il Kim
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
Themes: Diversity, Dragons, Epics, Ghosts and Spirits, Girl Power, Magic Workers
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Description
Long ago, the Empire rose to power on a wave of blood and necromancy, using the corpses of sorcerers
to power an array of war machines and other technology. The old kings were thrown down, the old nations
subjugated, the old ways and magic lore destroyed, and every child tested for magic potential, to be
taken away and eventually serve as power sources. But not all rest easy under the imperial boots that
crush them...
Loran was an ordinary peasant woman in the conquered nation of Arland, until her husband and daughter
were slaughtered by the Empire for "treason": singing a simple song to commemorate fallen heroes of
days past. Driven by rage, grief, and desperation, she casts herself into the volcano where a great
dragon lies bound, the dragon who was once companion to Arland's fallen king. She may have no royal
blood, but vows to become king and avenge the deaths of her loved ones, and every Arlander who has
fallen to the Empire. Thus the dragon grants her a sword made from its own fang, at the cost of one
eye - a sword that grants powers and burdens she does not yet understand, but which may forge a legend
for the ages, if she has the courage to wield them.
As a resident of the imperial Capital, the young man Cain feels no strong ties to his native Arland and
little outright animosity towards the Empire. Instead, he uses his cleverness and many connections to
help out others who, like him, come to the city with little but the clothes on their backs, trying to
make new lives for themselves in a complicated place. When his friend and former mentor Fienna is found
murdered, Cain sets out to discover the culprit, only to find himself chasing a plot that could destroy
the Capital and strike a mortal wound to the very heart of the land.
Arienne was taken to the Imperial Academy when she was just ten years old after she was determined to
have the potential for magic in her blood. Here, she's taught little that could actually be called
magic, just enough to potentially make her useful as a sorcerer engineer designing Imperial machinery,
before her eventual fate as a Power generator after death. It's not a future she wants, but not one
she sees a way out of... until a voice starts talking to her, offering bits of real magic even as it
convinces her to break into a forbidden chamber in the Academy and thence escape... now bearing the
living corpse of a dead sorcerer in a room inside her mind. She does not trust Eldred, but she cannot
deny that she needs his help, especially when rumors reach her of an upstart would-be king stirring
up trouble in her former homeland of Arland.
Review
With some interesting imagery and different cultural roots (being translated from a Korean novel),
Blood of the Old Kings was a novel I felt like I should have enjoyed. At times, I did enjoy
it. But the more it wound on, the less I cared about it or its characters or world, until I realized I
was just listening to reach the end and not out of any particular emotional investment.
The opening is quite strong, as common-born Loran dares to confront the bound royal dragon of Arland
in its volcanic prison, making a vow she has no idea how she will keep but unable to stand by meekly
while the Empire continues to bleed the life and hope from the land. Her sacrifice of an eye allows
the dragon to share her vision and speak in her mind, as well as granting other powers that
increasingly bind her to the great being as she sets out to fulfill her apparent destiny. Destiny
becomes a big driving factor of much that unfolds, to the point of almost becoming a deus ex machina
to see characters through impossible situations, but early on it's just a slight background noise
under the main stories. The reader, in turn, meets the young problem-solving city dweller Cain, who
doesn't particularly care for politics or the various lands crushed by the Empire so much as how it
personally affects him and the city he now calls home, as well as the people in it, and also the
runaway sorcery student Arienne as she breaks into the hidden chamber and "rescues" the corpse of
Eldred... having to step past the skeletal remains of another student who heard the dead sorcerer's
call and failed in the task. They each have different but ultimately vital roles to play in the
events that unfold, all driven by the currents of destiny... and all somehow feeling strangely like
the plot of an anime or maybe manga series, somewhat exaggerated and orchestrated to create visual
and emotional spectacle in increasing escalation to near-godlike stakes where nothing really seems
to matter because destiny has dictated it all anyway (though I'm sure it would look awesome in an
illustration or animated). There's something oddly episodic about it, as it keeps reminding the
reader of events and revelations that occurred barely a chapter or scene previously, and again later
on, as though it had been originally released in serialized installments. The characters also become
more exaggerated and less grounded as the stakes raise around them, their speech and actions
becoming more grandiose. The story itself has some interesting turns and worldbuilding; it's not
quite so simple as the Empire being bad and the old kings being good. But at some point I realized
I just wasn't connecting with the characters or the world they lived in, as they seemed less and
less real to me and more like caricatures going through stylized motions. The ending feels like a
letdown, driving home how much destiny was ultimately more in control than the actions or inactions
of any of the characters, which ultimately dropped the whole experience into the three-star Okay
territory. It just wasn't my cup of cocoa, though there were parts and moments that worked
well.