Brian Ruckley

The Godless World — (2007-2009) Publisher: An uneasy truce exists between the thanes of the True Bloods. Now, as another winter approaches, the armies of the Black Road march south, from their exile beyond the Vale of Stones. For some, war will bring a swift and violent death. Others will not hear the clash of swords or see the corpses strewn over the fields. They instead will see an opportunity to advance their own ambitions. But all, soon, will fall under the shadow that is descending. For, while the storm of battle rages, one man is following a path that will awaken a terrible power in him — and his legacy will be written in blood.

Brian Ruckley reads from Bloodheir:

Winterbirth

I have been craving a real epic fantasy novel and Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley is exactly that — gods, diverse races, medieval setting, and plenty of warfare. What more could a lover of epic fantasy want?

Well, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that Ruckley also does a really good job of creating fascinating characters and plot. Too often you get one or the other, but Ruckley really paints a picture that you can get into. That is due in large part because he doesn’t try to feed you too much all at once — it’s really well-paced.

The main character (if there really is just one), Orisian, is a younger son of a minor noble family. He seems immature for his years, which makes him both interesting and annoying at the same time. The progression from young and weak to mature man is very well done; Orisian’s reaction to life-changing events feels real, not like the typical hero who nonchalantly passes through the refiner’s fire with barely a thought. The other characters are equally interesting.

I really enjoyed the way that Ruckley allowed the reader to see how something that one person sees as evil could be another person’s good. It’s not that you want the bad guy to succeed, but his motives are understandable and reasonable for his character.

I am excited to start the next book in this series, Bloodheir. If Ruckley can maintain the intensity and pace that he set with Winterbirth, then this promises to be one of the best trilogies released recently. Fans of excellent epic fantasy shouldn’t miss Winterbirth. —John Hulet

Winterbirth: I think it will only get better

If your taste runs along the likes of George R. R. Martin — dark, gritty fantasy that reads like historical fiction — then Winterbirth, the first novel in Brian Ruckley's The Godless World trilogy, is for you.

The gods got fed-up with their creation and left it to its own demise long ago and this world feels like just that. It's a cold, dark, and violent, place that's full of rugged highlands, foreboding forests, and misty, frigid coastlines. Cross-generational feuds among Bloods are the cause of constant unrest among the human races. The Kyrinnin race of forest dwelling people not only must face the sometimes violent prejudice of the humans, but have their own tribal wars to contend with. Now, the banished fanatical Black Road Bloods are invading and a lust for vengeance in one lone cross-bred human/Kyrnnin is awakening a dark force with a strength that hasn't been known in living memory.

As I read Winterbirth, the story's feeling of hopelessness that accompanies a godless place just kind of crept through like a chill draft that sends a shiver up one's spine.

I only have two complaints about this book:

1. The names are long, hard to pronounce, and similar. On one hand, this adds some realism to the story, but on the other, I became easily confused at times as to who is who and where is where.

2. There is a huge lack of visual description which seems to me to be a trend in a lot of the new fantasy. While I understand that authors may be trying to distance their work from past epics that wasted page after page on boring, gratuitous details, I think fantasy, more so then other genres, requires a certain amount of visuals due to the totally made-up worlds with made-up races, creatures, and other things.

Overall, Winterbirth is a good story that's well worth a read — especially by those who already like this kind of fantasy epic. It's not a first book that just "blew-me away." However, it seems like its building up momentum and should get better as it goes. Which is a great relief compared to all the series that start-out strong but progressively become less interesting with each following book. —Greg Hersom

Bloodheir

Often, the second book in a trilogy is accused of something called “Middle Book Syndrome.” The idea is that the second book in most trilogies is mostly filler and very little plot movement really happens. And often it is true. But if anyone accuses Brian Ruckley’s second book in The Godless World trilogy, Bloodheir of suffering from middle book syndrome, I’m afraid I will have to scoff in his face.

Bloodheir moves the story from the personal to the epic. In the first book of the trilogy, Winterbirth, most of the story was about the harrowing near escapes of its protagonists, with occasional insights into the minds of the villains. While that sort of writing style continues in Bloodheir, the action moves out from the immediacy of survival for the heroes and catching them for the villains into grand political machinations and sweeping battles. Some of the minor characters who were encountered in the first book, such as Taim Narran and some of the Inkallim, move out into the fore, and add more dimensions to this epic fantasy.

As the story begins, Orisian is now Thane of the Lannis–Haig Blood, but his lands have been overrun by the forces of the Black Road. He and his sister Anyara are all that is left of his Blood, and very few of his people are still free. Meanwhile, the na’kyrim Aeglyss — one of the few people in the world able to access the Shared — survived his torture at the hands of the White Owl kyrinin and appears to have become more powerful. But his mind is broken and he begins to use his power to try and take control of all the world. Orisian is forced to choose between fighting for his people and fighting for all people everywhere. It’s a hard choice, and his eventual decision may have disastrous results.

Whereas in the first novel, Ruckley focused on the battle between the Black Road and the True Bloods, to the point where the reader almost forgot about the magic aspect of the story, this second novel centers much more on the magic of the Shared and the rise of the strange and powerful race known as the Anain. Those are hoping to find more magic will get a healthy does of it here. The Shared is an interesting concept, the idea that the magic is a part of everyone, but only a few — the blending of two races known as na’kyrim — are able to tap its power, and even then only in limited fashion. The reader begins to see that the battle Orisian and Anyara are fighting is much more than a dispute over land: it is a struggle against a once-known and vanquished horror that appears to be rising again.

Ruckley’s characterization continues to be good. He refuses to have his characters make sudden, abrupt changes in personality, instead opting for slow changes. They way they change, and the way they behave and react to their environments, is believable. In particular, the way that Ruckley describes two types of love intrigued me. Orisian’s love from afar of E’ssyr reminds me very much of myself as a youngster, and Orisian’s reaction and behavior are very much in line with how a young man might act when he feels desire for a woman he respects and whom he refuses to force into love with him. Mordyn Shadowhand and Tara’s love for one another as a married couple is well-written as well. The passion and loyalty they feel for one another is a tangible thing, and anyone who has ever experienced it in real life will see that Ruckley was able to truly capture that feeling. And these are but minor parts of characterization in the grand scope of the story.

For those who felt that there was an excessive amount of description in the first book, they will find that the sequel has toned down the descriptions of grand vistas, and instead focused much more on action and battle sequences. These are described in bloody and violent detail from the POV of a few of the characters, and there is enough gore to satisfy any bloodlust.

Events continue to get progressively worse for the supposed heroes. Rather than leave a light at the end of the tunnel, as many books with middle book syndrome do, Ruckley chooses to leave his characters on the edge of a precipice, having few successes and almost no resources. The reader still is unsure who will win; I thought this was refreshing and was much of the reason I enjoyed Bloodheir so much.

I highly recommend Brian Ruckley's The Godless World. This second book cannot be read without reading the other, but ach one has its own strengths and weaknesses, although of the two, I think Bloodheir the stronger. It is full of the action one expects of an epic fantasy. Ruckley’s novels are some of my favorites, and I have little bad to say about them. If I did, it would be a critic being a nitpicker, trying to find something wrong with the novel so he could be said to have fairly reviewed it. Ruckley’s novels are some the few that I can find nothing wrong with whatsoever, in my own not-so-humble opinion. If you enjoy epic fantasy, you should not be disappointed by Winterbirth or Bloodheir.

Read an interview I did with Brian Ruckley here, or listen to him read from Bloodheir here.
—John Ottinger
FanLit thanks John Ottinger III from Grasping for the Wind for contributing this guest review.