A Trial of Blood and Steel — (2007-2011) Publisher: SASHA IS A FIGHTER, THE LIKE OF WHICH THE HIGHLAND COUNTRY OF LENAYIN HAS NEVER SEEN. Spurning her royal heritage to be raised by the great warrior, Kessligh, her exquisite swordplay astonishes all who witness it. But Sasha is still young, untested in battle and often led by her rash temper. In the complex world of Lenayin loyalties, her defiant wilfulness is attracting the wrong kind of attention. Lenayin is a land almost divided by its two faiths: the Verenthane of the ruling classes and the pagan Goeren-yai, amongst whom Sasha now lives. The Goeren-yai worship swordplay and honour and begin to see Sasha as the great spirit the Synnich who will unite them. But Sasha is still searching for what she believes and must choose her side carefully. When the Udalyn people — the symbol of Goeren-yai pride and courage — are attacked, Sasha will face her moment of testing. How will she act? Is she ready to lead? Can she be the saviour they need her to be?
       
 Sasha
Sasha is the first volume in A TRIAL OF BLOOD AND STEEL, a projected 4-book fantasy series by Australian author Joel Shepherd, who previously also published a science fiction trilogy called the CASSANDRA KRESNOV series. His novels have been available in Australia for several years, and are now being released in the US thanks to Pyr, with Petrodor, the next volume in A TRIAL OF BLOOD AND STEEL, due out in March 2010. Based on the strength of Sasha, I expect Joel Shepherd to become a well-known name in US fantasy circles soon.
The land of Lenayin is spiritually divided into two different religions. The Goeren-yai faith, which is the original Lenayin religion and embraced by most of the common people, has a pagan flavor, its adherents guided by spirits and focused on strength and honor. The Verenthane belief more closely resembles a traditional organized religion and counts the vast majority of Lenayin's nobility amongst its followers. When the sole remaining Goeren-yai High Lord kills a neighboring province's Verenthane leader, a complex conflict begins that threatens to tear apart the fragile balance keeping Lenayin together.
In this setting we encounter the novel's fascinating heroine, Sasha (short for Sashandra), a younger daughter of the Lenay king who has abandoned her royal privileges to live among the Goeren-yai and study svaalverd fighting techniques with Kessligh, the hero of a past war with neighboring Cherrovan. She has also adopted the Nasi-Keth, a third belief system that follows the teachings of the non-human serrinim. Sasha is an interesting protagonist — a supremely talented sword fighter, but temperamental, stubborn, and torn in different directions by her desire to lead a simple life studying swordwork on the one hand, and the call of history and duty on the other hand... especially when it becomes clear that the Goeren-yai believe she is guided by the Synnich spirit that will liberate them from Verenthane oppression.
Complex as all of this may sound, it's only a very crude sketch of the intricate and frankly huge fantasy world Joel Shepherd has created in A TRIAL OF BLOOD AND STEEL. The novel introduces or hints at several other plot threads, and the country of Lenayin, which this entire novel is set in, barely takes up 5% of the map. It's very clear that there is a huge amount of space and story left for the next novels in the series to explore and develop, but at the same time, Sasha is a self-contained story. While the novel starts out slow due to the understandable need for some basic exposition early on, it quickly ratchets up the intensity to the point where I had trouble putting it down, and reaches an explosive conclusion.
One minor criticism: Sasha has a LOT of characters, and unfortunately, several of them have quite similar names. Not counting the historical names, the cast list has 66 names, and almost 50 of those contain the letter Y: Jaryd, Daryd, Garys... Tyrun, Tarryn, Tarynt... the Lords Usyn Telgar and Udys Varan... You get the idea. There's really nothing wrong with this in principle, but combined with the slower pace of the first few chapters, it makes this novel a bit harder to get into than it could be, and impatient readers may unfortunately lose interest and miss out on the big pay-off later on.
Aside from that minor point, I thought Sasha was excellent, especially given that this is Joel Shepherd's first fantasy novel. It offers a huge fantasy world, a fascinating heroine, heart-pounding descriptions of both small-scale sword fights and full-on warfare, several characters that genuinely grow and change, and — maybe most importantly — the hint that this is just the start of what could become a great series. While I wouldn't rank it quite as high as George R.R. Martin's A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, I think Sasha will go down very well with fans of that series because it shares some of its characteristics, including its huge scope and cast, its focus on politics and noble intrigue, and (at least in the early novels of ASoIaF) the almost complete absence of magic and mystical creatures. Based on the cover art of the recent Pyr edition (which, to my eyes, unfortunately resembles a screen capture of a bad video game and made more than one person ask me if this is a YA novel), I had low expectations for this novel, but those were quickly blown out of the water. Sasha is an excellent epic fantasy novel that promises great things for the rest of the series. Recommended. —Stefan Raets
Petrodor
Petrodor picks up shortly after the ending of Sasha, the first novel in Joel Shepherd's A Trial of Blood and Steel series. Sashandra Lenayin (Sasha for short) now resides in the Torrovan port city Petrodor, a true hotbed of intrigue with several political factions squaring off against each other. With a brewing Verenthane crusade to retake the Bakosh provinces that are occupied by the serrin, war is in the air, and the tensions between the various camps are threatening to come to a boil: the powerful and rich merchant families, the nobility, the clergy, and the common folk who are torn between the predominant Verenthane religion and the serrin-influenced Nasi-Keth. Add to this the "talmaad" — serrin agents living in Petrodor — and you have a tension-filled setting that promises — and delivers — an exciting read.
A large part of what makes A Trial of Blood and Steel so memorable is its main character, Sasha, who is (for a fantasy character) refreshingly human: she is a supremely talented swordswoman, devoted to her cause, her training, and her friends, but at the same time she's also a hothead, a bit full of herself, and not as tactful as she could be. One of the most interesting aspects of this novel is seeing Sasha become more mature and aware, e.g. applying the theory and patterns of the svaalverd fighting style to larger concepts such as politics (at the start of chapter 13), or coming to terms with the fact that her concept of honor doesn't always translate well into the Petrodor environment (throughout the entire book). Sasha, as a character, probably learns and grows more in Petrodor than she did in the first novel of the series.
A second main character who reappears in Petrodor is Jaryd, who is now training with the Goeren-yay in Sasha's old village after having abandoned his Verenthane faith at the end of Sasha. He is hell-bent on revenge for the murder of his little brother, and the way he sometimes lets his passion and temperament take over make him, in some ways, a mirror of Sasha.
A new viewpoint character is Sasha's sister, the princess Alythia, who is also in Petrodor after having been married into one of the merchant families. Alythia is another great example of Joel Shepherd's ability to create characters who go through genuine changes throughout the novel, and I am curious to see if and how her story will continue in later books in the series. (Side-note: the many reviewers who compared Sasha to George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire will probably be amused to find out that Alythia ends up with, yes, a pet wolf in this novel.)
Most other characters and factions also avoid falling into black-and-white stereotypes: not all Verenthanes are evil, not all nasi-keth are honorable, and the serrin aren't quite as unified and angelic as they seemed at the end of Sasha. Everyone tries to look out for their own interests as best as they can. The political set-up is once again very complex, with factions within factions depending on or plotting against each other. It's a shame that Petrodor doesn't include a Dramatis Personae (like Sasha did), as it would have been helpful in keeping track of the many different players in this story. Likewise, including a map of the city of Petrodor would have been great to help visualize some of the gripping street battles.
There are some minor issues (including the occasional tendency of characters to engage in debate and speak back and forth in full paragraphs, even in the middle of action scenes), but overall, Petrodor is an excellent continuation of the story started in Sasha. Both books are opening chapters that show separate glimpses of the build-up to a major conflict. Joel Shepherd has carefully built up this fantasy world's complexity, with considerable focus on the nature of power, politics, and religion, while at the same time creating some fascinating, memorable characters. An intricate setting, interesting characters, and a solid plot arc that leads up to what promises to be a strong climax — what's not to love? Tracato, book 3 in A Trial of Blood and Steel, is due out from Pyr in October 2010, and I, for one, can't wait.
—Stefan Raets
 Tracato
Tracato is the third installment in Joel Shepherd’s excellent A Trial of Blood and Steel fantasy quartet, and not only is it the best book in the series so far, it’s also one of the best new fantasy novels I’ve read all year.
The continent of Rhodia, shared by a fractured human civilization and the non-human serrin, finally begins to inch towards full-scale war. The northern Verenthane countries, with their conflicted and somewhat reluctant goeren-yai allies, are marching south to reclaim the Saalshen Bacosh. These provinces, occupied by the serrin during the last major conflict with humanity, have been thriving thanks to the rational guidance of the serrin and the Nasi-Keth, but the zealous Verenthanes have long wanted to reclaim them, and even some humans there long to return to feudal times...
In this politically and religiously complex situation we find our equally complex heroine Sasha, the headstrong former Lenay princess whose loyalties and beliefs have been stretched to the point of breaking in the first two novels of the series. In Sasha, she learned that not all goeren-yai are perfect, and in Petrodor it became clear that even the serrin aren’t as united and angelic as they initially seemed. Now, with her Lenay countrymen marching to wage war on the serrin, her ongoing crisis of identity builds to a truly agonizing climax.
The series’ large and complex cast of side characters returns in Tracato. While most of them don’t approach Sasha’s complexity, many also experience conflicted loyalties and are forced into difficult decisions. Most notably there’s Sofy, Sasha’s younger sister, who is marching with the Lenay army to marry one of the most powerful Verenthanes and who becomes a character you can genuinely cheer for in this novel. Somehow always in Sofy’s periphery are Jaryd, the former noble and now goeren-yai soldier, and Yasmyn, her fierce handmaiden. Meanwhile in Tracato, other returning characters are Sasha’s second sister Alythia, her mentor Kessligh, and the two almost diametrically opposed serrin: her lover Errollyn and the pragmatic, uncompromising Talmad leader, Rhillian.
If you haven’t read the first two novels in A Trial of Blood and Steel, the above paragraphs probably make this series sound impossibly complex (if you have read them, they will hopefully help refresh your memory). However, Joel Shepherd has taken his time to carefully and organically build up this highly complex political and religious setting to the point where now, finally, the tension is dialed up to the maximum: the history of the various countries and religions is known, the characters are in place, and everything is inexorably converging. The result is a textbook example of how to structure a fantasy series: this novel has a few scenes of such unbearable intensity that, at one point, I was gripping the book so hard I accidentally almost ripped it in two.
With the third book in a series of such complexity, it becomes hard to include many plot details without also including spoilers, so this is intentionally vague: you’ll find romance, conflict and betrayal ratcheted up to entirely new levels. Characters’ morality and loyalty comes in so many shades of grey that black and white may seem a faint memory by the time you’re done. There are some edge-of-your-seat scenes describing warfare that are, in a word, simply awesome — especially those including the serrin light cavalry. There are a few scenes that are extremely dark, but also some that may have you cheering out loud for the characters. In a nutshell, it’s hard to imagine that readers who have been following the story so far in Sasha and Petrodor will be anything less than satisfied with Tracato — not to say chomping at the bit to get the fourth and final book in the series, Haven (tentative publication date: April 2011). Sure, there are still a few small glitches (mainly some run-on sentences and the occasional lecture-dialogue) but those are easy to forgive in such a gripping novel.
Joel Shepherd, only in his mid thirties, has already written six excellent books: the three Cassandra Kresnov science fiction novels, and now the first three installments in A Trial of Blood and Steel. Thank goodness the intrepid folks at Pyr brought this Australian author’s work to the US, because if he keeps working at the same high level of quality, he will be a writer to watch for a long time to come. For now, Tracato is simply one of the best fantasy novels of the year. Highly recommended.
—Stefan Raets
 Haven
Haven is the fourth and final book in Joel Shepherd’s excellent A Trial of Blood and Steel fantasy series. If you’re not familiar with the series yet, please take a look at my reviews about the first three novels above, as well as my article about them over at tor.com. If an excellent fantasy series that’s low on magic and high on morally ambiguous characters and complex politics in the vein of George R.R. Martin’s A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE (to which this series has been compared by many reviewers) sounds good to you, I highly recommend checking out series opener Sasha, because these books are almost criminally under-read.
The first thing that struck me about Haven is that it doesn’t feel like a brand new chapter in the series as much as the previous books in A Trial of Blood and Steel did. Sasha, Petrodor, and Tracato all have their own distinct identity: they’re each set in a different part of the continent of Rhodia, there are short gaps between them, and they offer strong individual sub-plots while at the same time gradually building the overall story arc. Haven, by contrast, starts out as a more or less direct continuation of Tracato, to the point that the two books could almost have been presented as two parts of the same novel. It’s understandable that, after ratcheting up the tension during the previous three books, the author would want to keep the lens focused on the Verenthanes’ efforts to “liberate” the Saalshen Bakosh, but there’s so much unexplored territory left on the books’ maps (e.g. the Lisan Empire and Cherrovan) that I was hoping the scope of the story would broaden again. Then again, we do get some neat looks at life among the serrin and at the border city of Jhand (“Haven” in one of the story’s languages), which is a city shared by serrin and humans. And — fingers crossed — maybe in the future there will be more novels set in the same world....
Because Haven is the final book in a series, it’s hard to give many plot details without including spoilers for the previous novels, so this will be intentionally vague. In a nutshell, the book shows the progression and final culmination of Sasha’s attempts to balance her strong personality, her sense of duty and honor, and her family background with the larger conflict between the serrin on the one hand and certain factions of humanity on the other. Important side characters like Kessligh, Jaryd and Sofy continue to grow and become more complex. Newer ones like the Isfayens Markan and Jasmyn, who were both present in Tracato but become more important in Haven, are intriguing enough to make me wish there were more books coming in the series. The religious and political situation on the continent grows in complexity and moral ambiguity, presenting many different shades of grey — although by now it’s becoming harder and harder to find anything positive in some of the players.
In some ways, Haven is as strong as the previous installments in A Trial of Blood and Steel, but depending on exactly how high your expectations were, you may — like me — still feel ever so slightly disappointed. In retrospect, this series has been getting better with every book, up to now. Tracato was definitely the high point for me, because it was such a near-constant onslaught of the most grueling personal decisions and thrilling battles. Compared with this level of intensity, several parts of Haven are almost tame. The novel also feels a bit scattered early on as it tries to keep its various story threads running, and because of this, it doesn’t have as much tension as the previous books. Subjective as this may sound, Haven just didn’t grab me from the start the same way Tracato did.
A few other minor quibbles: medieval warfare buffs will probably disagree with me here, but I feel that Haven occasionally spends too much time on the highly in-depth tactical discussions about troop dispositions and so on before the (many) battles. The series as a whole has featured some of the most exciting, edge-of-your-seat descriptions of both smaller fights and large scale warfare, but this time there’s much more focus on the pre-battlefield planning stages, which gets a bit tedious at times. And finally, after all the careful buildup of tension throughout the series, the ending of the novel somehow feels rushed, both in the way it resolves the series’ overall conflict and in the epilogue-like “what happened to everyone afterward” final chapter.
Then again, keep in mind that I’m comparing Haven to Tracato, one of the most intense fantasy novels I’ve read in years, so if Haven is maybe a little less excellent than its predecessor, it’s still a good conclusion to a great series and more than worth your time. Taken all together, A Trial of Blood and Steel is an amazing fantasy series that should have a much wider readership than it currently does. Based on the strength of this series and his previous Cassandra Kresnov SF novels, I can’t wait to read whatever Joel Shepherd decides to write next.
—Stefan Raets
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