Mage's Blood (Moontide Quartet)

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Also the 2nd book is out and amazingly enough it is just as good as the first. So many times an authors 2nd book just isn't as good. But David Hair knows how to keep it going. Mage's Blood is true epic fantasy. It has everything a fan could want - detailed magic, good characters and evil characters (of both genders) and some in between, a compelling plot, and twists aplenty.— A Bitter Draft

Urte is divided into two continents; Yuros in the West, and Antiopia in the East. Both continents are separated by impassable seas, but once every twelve years, the Moontide makes the water sink and revealed the gigantic Leviathan Bridge that links both continents for two years long. The next Moontide is coming in a year, and The Rondian Emperor wants to use this time to rule both continents, but this time the people of Antiopia will be prepared. How many times have you heard this: “If you love Game of Thrones, you will love this,” and how many times have you actually find the books with that recommendation stamped on the front cover to be accurate? Based on my experience, extremely rare. Fortunately, Mage’s Blood, the first book in The Moontide Quartet by David Hair, seems to be rightfully living up to that claim. The Moontide Quartet is an epic fantasy series that’s highly recommended by one of my favorite booktubers—Kitty G—and it has been on my radar for years now, and it is thanks to her that I finally gave this series a go. The result? I overall enjoyed this one very much, and with some caveats, I recommend this to patient epic/historical fantasy readers.The Omali are indians wearing sarees, bathing in holy rivers and praying to gods resembling elephants or multi-armed entities. The list goes on. Sweeping conflicts, clashes of cultures, political and personal entanglements, rich and in-depth magic, and mighty warriors dot the landscape. . . . Hair tells his story with aplomb in a clear and concise prose— A Dribble of Ink If the writing wasn’t so disjointed & the storyline didn’t jump around so much & if the character actually got on & did things it might have been ok.

The Story: Far below the impassable oceans of Urte lies the Leviathan Bridge. Every twelve years, during the Moontide, the enchanted structure used from the depths, connecting the advanced magical society of Yuros with the resource-rich lands of Antiopia. Built to facilitate trade between the two continents, the Leviathan Bridge brought wealth and prosperity to both. But two Moontides ago, the Rondian Emperor launched a Crusade of conquest to the East, sending his armies of Magi across the Bridge to plunder Antiopia. A Second Crusade twelve years later cemented a new cycle of war. Sin-Eaters: their blood is fused with lots of Plasm, which might let vampires heal wounds faster at the cost of Ghost vision that can't be turned off for a while. Alternatively, since Plasm is kinda like a conduit for a "Vinculum" between Sin-Eater and Geist, a vampire with Plasm in her blood might get unwanted attention from the Geist which shares that Plasm. Normal and Unique Flasks are unaffected and can be used as normal. Magic Life, Mana, or Hybrid Flasks are also unaffected. Mages: Experience something like the Mage Sight — and become vulnerable to supernal entities whose attentions you suffer.We also have many other fabulous side characters such as Cera, Kazim, Gurvon, Cym, Ramon, Huyria, Lori and many more. They were all just as convincing and fleshed out as the main characters and I loved seeing how each of them was manipulated, used, dominated or took control themselves and stood up for things they believed in. They're a collection of devoted, sneaky, loving, friendly and harsh characters and they're all fab!! Yuros is where one of the main problems with this story comes to light. No spoilers but one of the myriad point-of-view characters is the victim of relentless bullying at the hands of his classmates and the school staff is of no help whatsoever. When Bookworm read these passages, he rolled his eyes.

We also get to visually imagine the places our characters travel between because the descriptions of markets, castles, towers, spices and scents are all so well described and make you feel fully immersed. Magic Utility Flask Effects cannot be removed Rivers of power course through your veins. could sometimes fail to apply flask effects to you, for example, when swapping out an equipped flask for another. For this situation I would probably go with an Orphan, Matter Life and Prime and then some Mind and Correspondence as soon as possible; that's a bit of a min-max mindset though, and I try my best to tone it down on purpose. The PARADIGM is the most important part of playing a Mage, so I would suggest you focus all of your energy on that before anything else. Suffice to say though, this book has it all: nations at war, clas Next we have Ramita, a lowly market girl who lives with her family in the middle of nowhere really. She's the daughter of a fairly well of family, and from her early childhood she's been utterly in love with Kazim, the boy she's engaged to marry. THe two of them have always been utterly devted to one another and happy in each other's company, but one day an evil man comes to Ramita's father and gives him an offer he cannot refuse. This offer means that not only will Ramita be forced to leave everything she's ever known, but she'll have to do it alone.

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While there were some elements that I struggled with, for the most part these books hit me right in my epic fantasy heart. There was the coming of age, the new powers save the world thing, the quest, the evil ruler, the warrior woman, the evil church thing and other fantasy tropes, but I never felt that they were overdone. Pretty much every major character seemed like ‘real’ people to me—flaws, irritants and all. And they stayed true to who they were. While the ‘good guys’ weren’t all good—the bad guys were god-awful evil. Some right away and others with a slow and dreadful spiral into pure malevolence. I let out more than one verbal OMG and just as many laughs.