April 2022 Indie Book Review by Joseph Poopinski
The
Blood of Outcasts
By
D. A. Smith
A
Purpose-Driven Second Life
4
stars
Instead of just dying after her unfair, sham trial & execution at the hands of the satanic (or equivalent) Godlord, our heroine Masako escapes with mortal wounds. As she dies, Masako’s mysterious origins allow her to strike a bargain of reanimation with a powerful (and possibly demonic) entity, a Godsborne. Revenge for her master (the captain of the Godlord’s royal guard beheaded him) & their disgraced clan intertwines with various unique individuals including a mercenary leader, a boy with the shapeshifting powers of cannibalistic death’s cultists, a handless shaman, neighboring feudal lords, swordsmen galore, “witches” & an exceptionally honorable farmer. Masako, concealing first her identity then her death, makes alliances as the Nameless Swordswoman then later as the new leader of the Dattori. There’s intrigue & betrayal, swashbuckling violence, spiritual debts, wild magics & a portent dragon intervention everyone misinterprets
Masako
must dig within & discover interesting avenues to circumvent her
limitations especially when battling the Godlord’s matchless swordsmen. For
perspective: “Law dictated two blades, but, this man,” their captain, “had
eight. The only warrior permitted to break that law.” Additionally, there’s
plenty of surprises & leads into the forthcoming second volume of the Bane
Sword Saga. I found various threads & factions objectively entertaining
& fascinating but as told & explained by a first person limited
narrator, plenty confusing. Understandably she didn’t have a comprehensive handle
on so much unfamiliar information. Therefore, like a curious customer reading
the label on an empty package of freshly consumed snacks wondering what he or
she just ate, asking, “Is mononitrate riboflavin or monocalcium phosphate
unhealthy?” Masako questions her vampire thirst & finds it, neither healthy
nor unhealthy, but essential: Blood is like adrenaline, cocaine, steroids &
nuclear energy all rolled into one!
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