So, I appeared to be among the lucky ones who was approved for an audio ARC for “The Blackfire Blade”, book 2 of the Lost Legacy series by James Logan. The problem was I hadn’t read the first one. And as I try to take my occupation as an aspiring book reader and reviewer seriously, I got it on Audible to be acquainted with the whole story. And the actual hype on the secondary market about TBB’s (The Broken Binding) The Silverblood Promise copies being sold for much higher than initial prices was also intriguing. Was the hype justified? Do you need a copy of the book? Read and you will know.
I would call The Silverblood Promise a novel in high-fantasy low-magic setting with a very strong political accent. It has a pretty detailed world, pretty likable characters, and pretty twisted plot. It’s a murder mystery story with a several predictable plot lines and a couple of unexpected twists. Now let’s discuss all that in more detail.
Saphrona. City of Splendor, vast Venetian-like city-state, controlled and ruled by Merchant Princes. The city felt alive. Not really deep and multi-faceted, but it had enough distinctive features to be relatable. Different districts, factions, parts of governmental apparatus, everything in the story is fleshed-out enough not to feel cardboard decorations of it, but a living and breathing entity. Looking forward to comparing it to Korslakov, the City of Spires.
Characters are not very much fleshed out, they don’t undergone any significant transformations during their journey and mainly stay the same. But as I say it ofter here, when all the features add up, we receive much more than expected. Some strange chemistry comes into play and flat Lukan together with annoying Flea are more enjoyable and likable. And you start to care. One of the highlights of this book I’d call interaction of Lukan and Flea. It’s vivid, tolerably irritating at times, and adds a lot to this story. I wouldn’t call Flea a sidekick, she’s a righteous co-star of this story. Villains are typically evil, with no depth, but with all vices.
Now let’s talk about prose and dialogues. This part gave the name to my review. I think James Logan accepted some kind of challenge on how many hundred times his characters would interrupt each other. Some fragments were very hard to listen to, because characters were constantly interrupting each other. It looked like we were taking part in some kind of experiment. Of cruel experiment, to be precise. Lady’s blood, interruptions were innumerable. Every time characters have been interrupted, I rolled my eyed, pursed my lips, but went on. But overall the prose was good, the choice of words was smart, and dialogues felt human.
As it was the audiobook I listened to, I want to mention the narrator. Brenock O’Connor did a really good job bringing this book to life. I really enjoyed his voice, always with appropriate intonation and volume. The characters were distinguishable and the way he narrated people from different nations was to the point. Everything felt organic.
The ending. After the main villain was punished and the last plot twist was established, our heroes are ready to make the next step in solving the mystery. And surprisingly, I’m looking forward to following them in their next adventure. During listening to the final chapter, I was smiling as the heroes were gathering on the pier and exchanging their usual jokes.
That’s James Logan’s debut novel and it is a damn strong debut. The level of expectations for the second novel is not extremely high, but the raise is pretty steep, let’s say it so.
When James Logan was asked: “What success means to you?”, he answered: “I just want people to read my book and enjoy it.” I can acknowledge that with “The Silverblood Promise” the author achieved success. For me it is a very unusual situation. If you take each element of this book, it has flaws and you can tell what can be done better, and the list can go on, and on, and on. But when you add all the elements together, the sum is much higher than expected. It is not a masterpiece for centuries, but a nice summer blockbuster, a perfect palate cleanser. Now I’ve got Book Two to devour and I want to see some pirates in it. Lady’s Mercy, let the pirates be in The Blackfire Blade.
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