Review : The Black Song by Anthony Ryan

« 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞, » 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐦𝐞, « 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐋𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥, 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐬𝐨. »

• Release : July 30th 2020
• Publishing house : Orbit
• Series : Raven’s Blade
• Pages : 498

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Spoilers ahead

Read my review about the first book, The Wolf’s Call here

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The Steel Horde has laid waste to the Venerable Kingdom, unleashing a storm of fire and blood. Now the leader of this mighty host – Kehlbrand, the warlord who thinks himself a god – turns his eyes to the other merchant kingdoms. No one can stop his divine conquest.

No one, perhaps, except Vaelin Al Sorna.

Yet Vaelin is on the run, his own army in disarray. Worse, the new blood song he has acquired is as much a curse as a blessing, and seeks to guide him down a path far darker than he could have imagined…

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Character :

Vaelin al Sorna : After reading The Wolf’s Call a few months ago, I was so eager to continue this series. Since The Raven’s Shadow series, Vaelin has grown a great deal since he joined the Sixth Order.

We enter the story right after what happened in The Wolf’s Call. Vaelin now has a new song which is more dangerous than the one he had, one who threatens to turn him into someone controlled by the song. Anthony Ryan found an interesting way to challenge again Vaelin as he must stay in control of himself.

Thanks to his experience, Vaelin is the most experienced man on the field and thanks to that, he is able to take advantage of that to win battles and trust from other important people. Without his insight, Tsai Lai’s army would have perished and Kehlbrand would have taken control of the region.

« Weapons are like thoughts, » the tall man replied.  « Best kept hidden until needed. »

While in The Wolf’s Call, we could see the adventure through Luralyn Reyerik‘s eyes, in The Black Song, it shifted to Obvar Nagerik. As with Luralyn, his point of view is welcomed as we could witness the fanatism of the Horde along with its progress. We could also observe his slow-growing hate for Kehlbrand and his desire to slain him. I’m quite glad for Nortah who regained a bit of the old self he was.

Story :

Most of the story is centred on the growth of the army by going to different nations and lands. We explore a lot of the world crafted by Anthony Ryan, going to the Free Cantons, the Venerable Kingdom and so on to find allies willing to fight against the Horde.

As in the other books, this one had a lot of action – be it military or magical. As the book goes on, the army goes from a few hundreds to an army threatening the Darkblade’s.

In my opinion, Anthony Ryan’s writing has also been one of his strong points. It’s flowing, descriptive but not overly and precise.

While The Raven’s Blade series has come to an end, I feel like we’ll see Vaelin again. While Blood Song still is one of my favourite series, this one was a great add to Vaelin’s story and a good way to see how Anthony Ryan has improved as a writer.