The Queen of Blood
Book One of The Queens of Renthia
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4.2 • 40 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Set in the magical world of Renthia, The Queen of Blood is Sarah Beth Durst’s ambitious entry into adult epic fantasy. With the danger of Peter Brett’s The Warded Man, heart of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, and lyricism of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind, this is the first chapter in a series destined to be a classic.
Everything has a spirit: the willow tree with leaves that kiss the pond, the stream that feeds the river, the wind that exhales fresh snow . . .
But the spirits that reside within this land want to rid it of all humans. One woman stands between these malevolent spirits and the end of humankind: the queen. She alone has the magical power to prevent the spirits from destroying every man, woman, and child. But queens are still just human, and no matter how strong or good, the threat of danger always looms.
With the position so precarious, young women are chosen to train as heirs. Daleina, a seemingly quiet academy student, is under no illusions as to her claim to the throne, but simply wants to right the wrongs that have befallen the land. Ven, a disgraced champion, has spent his exile secretly fighting against the growing number of spirit attacks. Joining forces, these daring partners embark on a treacherous quest to find the source of the spirits’ restlessness—a journey that will test their courage and trust, and force them to stand against both enemies and friends to save their land . . . before it’s bathed in blood.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Mythopoeic Award winner Durst (Chasing Power) launches her Queens of Renthia series with a stellar and imaginative tale. In the fantasy world of Renthia, spirits tangible magical beings associated with the four elements would destroy all humans if it weren't for the queen, a powerful chosen ruler who can control them. When a group of spirits destroys an outlying village, young Daleina chases them off and discovers that she has the power to potentially be a queen one day. After training for years at the academy, she comes under the tutelage of Ven, a disgraced champion (and former lover) of the current queen, Fara, and they work to make Daleina stronger as it becomes more apparent that Fara might be losing control of the spirits. Durst ably dispenses with tropes of the genre, zooming through the standard "young magician at the academy" plot to focus on Daleina's growth as both a person and a potential queen. In addition to a solid cast of characters and great political intrigue, Durst delivers some fascinating worldbuilding, and the spirits are malevolent, cunning, wild, and mysterious antagonists.
Customer Reviews
Needs more world building
I like that this book doesn’t waste time with exposition, but at the the same time, I feel like it needs to. Primarily when it comes to the environments and the spirits. Beyond what element they are, there’s not a whole lot else describing them. This, combined with not having a lay of the land, made it a little difficult to wrap my head around what exactly was happening in certain scenes.
Eventually, I decided I was going to picture the spirits as some kind of humanoid flying fairy formed by their respective element (I know that’s probably completely wrong, but there wasn’t a whole lot to go off off). But then that image completely fell apart when one of the spirits gets cut and starts to bleed... like, blood. Now I don’t want to criticize the authors world building (especially since I didn’t fully understand it), but an elemental spirit bleeding normal blood seemed a little weird to me.