This is more of a 4.5 and I really can’t articulate why I’m not giving it a full 5 stars.

As someone who reads adult fantasy very rarely, I usually only pick up books which my friends have already loved and are sure I would too. But this is a book I didn’t see anyone within my small group talk about but since the first time I saw it mentioned in a booktube video, I was totally fascinated and I knew I had to take a chance. And I’m so so happy that I stuck to my instincts because I was completely engrossed from start to finish.

The world building in this book is just perfect. As you can guess from the series title (Dragons of Terra), this is a world which has lots and lots of dragons, all different kinds with their own characteristics and habits and strengths. Almira is the main kingdom we follow which is bogged down by its issues like infighting between the various lords for more power, people who are very superstitious and would rather depend on their totems and prayers than go to an alchemist who can solve their problems, and there are multiple areas in the kingdom which are affected by some sort of plague for which no solution has been found. On the other hand, Balaria is the enemy kingdom which has made a fortune by killing off most of its dragons and using the oil to build a technologically advanced city. I loved this dichotomy of a medieval and steampunk like kingdoms existing in the same world. And the travel between these two kingdoms takes us through various kinds of landscapes and I loved the descriptions of the mountains, rivers, barges, dragon warrens etc.

The best part of the world for me was how the environment and ecology was described. Through discussions between characters ( and not info dumps), we come to realize how important each living creature is to the overall health of the land, including the super predators like the dragons. And while killing dragons for oil can provide for short term prosperity, it’s long term consequences like drought and famine and other devastation to the ecology is never considered except by few people who care but are dismissed. I think this is a great parallel to our world and how we exploit the nature and resources we have in the name of capitalism and development without realizing what we are doing to our future.

I’m always scared when I start an adult fantasy that it might be too complicated, or the language very lyrical/metaphorical for me. I like my books to be straightforward which is what I love the most about YA fantasy novels. Thankfully, this book was exactly how I wanted it to be. The third person multiple POV writing style was very easy to follow, and the author did such a brilliant job of being able to distinguish between the characters’ voices that I never got confused who we were following. It did get gory at times which I’m not used to, and some scenes were just brutal to get through. The feeling of dread when a dragon attacks or the adrenaline pumping action sequences are written excellently as well and I really enjoyed reading them.

Among all these action sequences, we also get a journey and this whole year has been me discovering my love for fictional journeys, and this was no different. The author uses the journey and the conversations that happen during it to develop the relationships between the characters and give us more insight into their motivations, and that was amazing. However, this also leads to the pace of the story being a bit on the slower side, which didn’t affect my enjoyment at all. This is also not a very twists and turns kinda book, but does have a few mysteries and betrayals that the characters are trying to unravel, and I had so much fun figuring them out correctly just before the actual revelation happened. But there was one thing which I didn’t see coming at all and that left me very bereft and in tears. The author also ends the book in such a way that there are enough plotlines resolved to work as a standalone, while also leaving us with so many exciting possibilities in a sequel.

While I keep harping on about the excellent world and writing, it’s still the characters who are the strength of this book. Silas Bershad, the Flawless and the acclaimed dragon slayer of the land is an exile who is just going through his life with lots of regrets, always prepared to die. Fourteen years of slaughtering has changed him a lot and he doesn’t think he deserves any good things, but deep down he is so compassionate and will do anything for the ones he loves (who are very very few). His shield is Rowan who has followed him since the beginning and their loyalty to each other is just beautiful. They may bicker and admonish each other, but ultimately it’s a deep friendship and I was so glad they had each other. But the third entity in their trio is their donkey Alfonso, and I promise you I don’t remember ever seeing a donkey in a book before but I loved him. These three are just awesome and the way Silas and Rowan care for Alfonso is heartwarming.

Felgor the thief, and Vera the bodyguard who lost her charge are the other two people who make up the group which goes on the journey from Almira to Balaria for their task. They are all basically outlaws who have nobody, and there is a lot of friction initially, but as they face dangerous situations and fight them together, they all form a bond and I was thoroughly impressed by the way the author developed these relationships in a believable manner. It’s very hard not to get attached to them all.

Ashelyn is the princess crowned Queen of Almira and I thought it was so refreshing to see a very scientific ruler on the throne, who loves conducting her research into how everything is connected in nature and take steps to ensure that her world is not destroyed due to poor short term decisions. We also have an assassin who is hell bent on creating chaos in her kingdom, an apprentice alchemist who just wants to conduct his experiments and many others who will do anything to harness the power in this world.

To conclude, I just want to say that if you love to read about a world full of dragons, you should totally pick this book up. If you enjoy books with equal parts extensive world building and excellent plotting, this is perfect. And if like me, you are a fan of a very unlikely group of flawed people coming together for a quest and start caring for each other, I highly recommend this book. The author has written a great debut fantasy balancing all the elements perfectly, full of thrilling and emotional moments and characters you can’t help but fall in love; and in the process setup a great sequel which promises to be full of more dragons and definitely a lot more magic. I already can’t wait for Sorcery of a Queen. ( )

Silas Bershad is an exile, condemned by his king to the life of an itinerant dragon-slayer. Marked with the blue bars of his trade on his cheek, and with his arm covered in tattoos recording the beasts he has killed, he is an object of fascination and fable to those he meets. Most dragon-slayers don’t last long, but Bershad – known popularly as the Flawless – has outlived sixty-five dragons and has no plans to stop there. The alternative is death on the king’s command and Bershad doesn’t fancy giving him the satisfaction. But when he’s summoned to the capital, Floodhaven, Bershad must confront the life he gave up fourteen years ago and decide whether his hatred for King Hertzog will stand in the way of accepting a new mission beyond the kingdom’s borders. If he succeeds, he will win his liberty and regain his noble status. And besides, there’s more at stake than simple politics. While this first instalment in Naslund’s fantasy series is focused on setting out the pieces – and ends rather abruptly – it does offer rich and intricate scene-setting, with an unusual emphasis on the ecosystems of this fantasy world...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/04/12/blood-of-an-exile-brian-naslund/ ( )

Blood of an Exile by Brian Naslund is the first book in the Dragons of Tara series. Silas Bershad, also known as the Flawless Bershad, is a legendary dragon killer. He was sentenced to be a dragon killer after committing horrendous crimes. It is a form of exile and a form of execution, for dragon killers are seldom long-lived. Bershad, however, has been hunting dragons for 14 years killing more than 60 of them.

Bershad longs for a death it seems likely will never come due to his unusual healing properties. When he is summoned to an audience with the King who sentenced him to his exile, he is offered a chance to end his sentence. Bershad is disinclined to do the king any favors but agrees to the plan at the behest of the King's daughter and Bershad's former lover, Ashlyn. In order to be free Bershad need only cross dangerous, dragon-infested territories into a foreign country, rescue the King’s other daughter and kill an emperor.

The story is told from multiple points of view including Bershad, Ashlyn, an assassin and a young alchemist. Naslund creates a fascinating world. The country of Almira is simple, unsophisticated and superstitious. The country of Balaria is far more technologically advanced and eager to tap into Almira's natural resources; namely, it's dragon population and the valuable dragon oil that literally fuels its society.

Naslund not only writes wonderful battle scenes, but he has created an intricate and interconnected world. The connection of the dragons to the natural world and the battle between those who would understand them and those who would destroy them is as much a part of the story as the plot to rescue the King's daughter. Bershad's own unique healing properties and the mystery behind them add another layer of complexity to the story.

The battle scenes are exciting and brutal. The interconnected plotlines and the link between the dragons and nature add complexity to the story in this highly entertaining fantasy debut.

Steven Brand does justice to a complicated hero and a fascinating world with his narration. His vocalization effortlessly moves between the gritty Bershad, the conniving assassin and the thoughtful Ashlyn. He does a great job with the pacing, particularly during the battle scenes.

This is an excellent start to a new fantasy series and I can't wait to see where it goes next.

I was provided a copy of this audiobook by the publisher. ( )

I received this novel from the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review: my thanks to both of them for this opportunity.

Fantasy stories tend to gravitate toward a number of “classic” themes like the quest and the hero’s journey and in this Blood of an Exile is no exception, but experience taught me that what truly matters is the way that journey or quest is told, and how the characters can reach out to the readers and make them care: Brian Naslund’s debut novel accomplished this goal by creating an intriguing background that stems from the usual fantasy elements, then enriches them with some unexpected angles, and by shaping equally intriguing characters that grow on you slowly but surely, their flaws more captivating than their strengths.

In Almira, one of the kingdoms of Terra, criminals are punished by being charged with the slaying of dragons, and Silas Bershad - once an Almiran noble now fallen in disgrace - was so sentenced: life expectancy for dragon slayers is quite short, not surprising in consideration of their deadly prey, but Bershad has been enduring his sentence for fourteen years, slaying dozens of dragons and becoming something of a folk hero. Still, he’s an outcast, marked by the infamy tattoos on his face and easily recognizable by the symbols of those killings that are branded on his arms. He’s offered a chance for redemption though: king Malgrave, the man who condemned him and the father of his former lover, princess Ashlyn, offers him a full pardon if he will travel to the neighboring realm of Balaria to rescue the king’s younger daughter Kira, who was kidnapped, and also kill the Balarian ruler.

After some initial reluctance, Bershad agrees to the mission and leaves with a small group of people: his faithful companion Rowan and the inseparable donkey Alfonso; a noble from the Almiran court who’s there to expedite passage through the land; Vera, a widow, i.e. a female warrior trained in the most fierce of martial arts, and condemned thief Felgor, whose sneaky ways will prove invaluable once they reach their destination. The journey is of course fraught with perils, double dealings and revelations, and while the group is en route to Balaria the situation in Almira becomes quite complicated as political intrigues and long-standing plots finally come to fruition, offering an interesting counterpoint to the disparate travelers’ mission and expanding the readers’ knowledge of the land and its history, as the tension escalates toward its edge-of-the seat ending and promises more to come in the following books.

On the surface, Blood of an Exile might appear like your run of the mill fantasy novel, but there are some elements that set it apart from its brethren, and the story’s background is one of them, particularly when you take into account the dichotomy between Almira and Balaria: the former offers the standard medieval context of a primitive land with basic living conditions, where ignorance and superstition rules - the inhabitants’ response to any problem or ailment is to shape mud statues as an offering to the gods, and princess Ashlyn’s interest for natural studies is considered odd and tainted by witchcraft - while the latter is more technologically oriented in what looks like a steampunk society, and the capital city is shaped like a clockwork-driven mechanism requiring great quantities of dragon oil to function.

Linked to that is a very intriguing - and new to the genre - angle on environment and the way its delicate balance can be upset by inconsiderate choices: Ashlyn’s studies have brought her to understand that kind of balance and how it’s all linked to the dragons - how decimating them, either to assuage the people’s fears or to obtain their precious oil, is causing some of their natural preys to overbreed and in turn lead to crop failures or widespread disease. There is a thought-provoking passage in which the Balarian ruler offers a deaf ear to Ashlyn’s warnings about the fragility of the whole system, saying he’s not afraid to go against the “natural order of things” as long as he can keep his people comfortable and happy: it’s a very contemporary, very widespread attitude, that of thinking only about the present and not caring about the future….

As far as the characters go, the chosen theme of throwing together a mismatched band of people to accomplish a given task is one that always intrigues me, because it helps showcasing their characters and makes for a compelling narrative, especially when danger starts rearing up its ugly head and everyone is forced to abandon the mask they present to the world at large. Along the journey I became quite fond of some of these characters and in the end it proved a mixed blessing, because here I must warn you not to become too attached to anyone, since there is no certainty of survival for all of them - that was one of the most devastating surprises in a story that is certainly filled with violence and hardship, but also proved unexpectedly cruel to some of its players.

Of course Bershad takes the lion’s share of the story, and if at first he’s the epitome of the anti-hero, moving from one dragon slaying to another and drowning himself in wine between assignments, his past is revealed bit by bit and we understand how guilt for his actions and resentment for his fate have come into play, while the uncanny way in which he heals from the wounds sustained in his craft seems to go against what I could see as nothing else but a death wish - unexpressed, but clearly latent. This narrative element will come to present a compelling angle in the overall story and it’s clear it will be at the roots of its continuation: I for one am looking forward to see the direction it will take in the future installments. ( )

Blood of an Exile – Preview by Brian Naslund
Dragons of Terra #1

Being given a preview of book one in a new series that had to do with dragons seemed a good choice for reading. I just wish that it had been the entire book since there is a lot more story to be told than what I read in the first 200 or so pages. I can see this as a multi-book series that will deal with dragons, vampires and a variety of other beings before it ends.

Bershad seems to be the main character in the book. He had a run-in with the king and was demoted from lord to dragon killer exile and sent out to kill dragons. With nearly seventy killed he has mixed feelings as it seems he admires the lizard-beasts he has been sent to kill. In the past he had a lover who will become queen and that queen has a part in the story, too. There is his faithful man and donkey that stand by his side and a troop of others that will follow him on the quest-like journey he has been sent on to recover a kidnapped sister of the soon-to-be queen. Mention of an assassin, apprentice alchemist-healer and Vera are just the tip of the iceberg in this story that has a bit of the feel of Game of Thrones but also of other fantasy authors I have read.

I have a soft spot for dragons so am not sure I will follow up and read the rest of this book or the series but do believe this will appeal to those who are into this sort of story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan – Tor/Forge for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars ( )