Name: Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels #1)
ISBN: 9780451456717

Anne Bishop

Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels #1)

M. Sosotris

I don't know what to think about this except that I liked the book and want to read the sequel. But it's a very different sort of book to get into, and it took some getting used to.

First off, there's a sort of extreme minimalism that's rare in complex fantasy. There are no info dumps, no historical chronologies, no pages of description. It's entirely character focused (and what wonderful characters they are!)

You're dropped into this world with very little hand-holding, and it takes until 2/3 of the way through the book until you know what's actually going on. But, like...I kind of liked that. It gave the whole thing a dreamy quality as though you were seeing an image through mist, eager for the big reveal as the mist gradually thinned.

One criticism of the book would be that there's so little description of setting that it's hard to tell the different locales apart. How is Tereille different visually from Hell? They sound like they SHOULD be different, but we don't get much.

My other criticism would be the sort of disjointed way the plot moves forward. The different chapters often span unspecified periods of time, and so while you're in a chapter, you're fine, and you can follow what's going on, but ten when a new section starts, there's often a bit of disorientation because the new section doesn't really connect to the one before. Ultimately, everything comes together and you figure out what's going on, but it leads to a sense of confusion that may dissuade some readers (like myself) who had a hard time getting into the story early on.

With that said, Anne Bishop is a master at creating characters. All of her characters just leap off the page in ways that characters written by, say, J.K. Rowling or Anne Rice, often do. I can definitely see  why this series has such a passionate following. Her characters are amazing, and you genuinely become invested in their stories. Saetan, especially, is like this kindly dangerous grandfather whom you LOVE, but you do NOT want to cross. Plus, there's Daemon, who's SO VERY damaged, but he finds something that allows him to do something good, for a change, and seeing how he changes is so great. Then you have Jaenelle who's mercurial and strange and a terrifying blend of a sweet little girl and terrifying ancient power. 

So, if you are lost and confused in the beginning, just keep going and enjoy the wonderful characters, and I promise it will all come together and make sense in a satisfying way.

Vicky  Nuñez 

What did I just read?! 
I am so comfused, I honestly can't say whether I liked it or not. There were times I thought I did and then things turned weird.
Let's start from the beginning. I decided to read this book after reading and loving The Others, another series by Anne Bishop where the main character is super innocent and I was expecting something similar. 
I did not expect the dark and sultry book I got. 

Daughter of the Blood is a book about a society where Witch Queens rule and men who use the craft(magic) are subjugated. They are treated as sexual slaves. The society is corrupted and everyone's waiting for the new Witch who will turn Queen to cleanse from the evil reign of the Queens. Only issue is for the witch to ascend and get her powers she needs to lose her virginity. And the announced heroine is seven years old. 

Anne Bishop is a master storyteller she brings to life this strange place with dark magic and sadistic people, but her writing catches you and makes you want to keep on reading. She makes it seem so natural and brings every character to life and gives you their point of view in such a way that makes you simpathize with the guy you just learned does terrible things to people and makes you understand why he is so perverted. 

Filled with hard issues and an unique setting Anne Bishop wrote a truly interesting book. Did I loved it? Hate it? I'm not sure which, but it is definitely a book worth reading.

A.L.L.

This series is my number one guilty pleasure read. These books just hit some kind of sweet spot where I can't get enough, but I also don't understand exactly why I love it so much. 

*spoilers ahead, maybe?* 

My comments below are more generalized to the entire Black Jewels series. Of Daughter of the Blood itself, I will say that this first book is the darkest and heaviest (content wise) book in the series. All the books in the series thereafter are significantly lighter in theme and content. So if the child and sexual abuse is a little too much to stomach but you still want to enjoy the world of the Black Jewels, I recommend starting with Shadow Queen and Shalador's Lady and easing into the world through the short story collections from there. 

The series is problematic in a lot of ways, both with just the writing itself and with the content. There are many overused descriptions and catch phrases. Daughter of the Blood in particular blurs some especially thin lines as it deals with a number of risky and dark themes including child abuse and sexual abuse. Personally, I don't find Anne's descriptions of violence particularly troubling (she actually does a pretty good job of letting you know something happened without getting super graphic or gory, which was both refreshing and a little frustrating when it came to sex scenes where you wanted a little steam) but I also have a high threshold, so take this comment with a grain of salt. 

While getting into the world initially takes some warming up to (at first thought it was very silly and couldn't take it seriously [or keep it all straight] due to the symbols and terminology- Princes and inner chalices, really? Okay, I'll admit, the Prince and Warlord Prince terms have grown on me, but I'm still not super on board with inner chalices), the world building and the concepts of the world are rather rich and conceptually immersive. I love the mythology of magic originating from dragons and the concept of the "weavers", the spiders that can weave dreams, visions, illusions, and reality. I love the concept of the Kindred and the way they are portrayed. Often in literature animals are treated as familiars, without will or depth of their own, mere extensions of people and human will. Anne let's the Kindred keep their wildness, allows them to be apart from people while still being enjoyable. I love the concept of the depth of the jewels and the abyss, the webs of power, the winds as transportation. 

At the same time that the world building is amazing, the parts of the world we get to see in the books can leave the reader a little wanting. Kaeleer is a place I'm dying to know more about, yet none of the territories we get to see are fleshed out as much as I would like and we don't really get to explore them. A lot of the settings are a bit drag and drop templates with heavy French and British Isle influence. Though it's hinted there more, so much more, in terms of cultural and species diversity, we only get small tastes of it in the stories when some of the Kindred come to visit. None of the anthropoid races that feature prominently in the books have diverse customs or culture but are pretty standard "western European" flavored. There are mansions, well manicured gardens, endless dinner parties and balls, faithful butlers, and every city in every realm we visit (except hell) has cafes, cake shops, books shops, and a very standard fare of casseroles, beef stews, and nut cakes that are inexplicably the only cuisine that can be found in any of the realms or any of the time periods the books take place in. I find this hard to swallow when the civilizations in the books are potentially over 50,000 years old. Our own human history here only goes back 12 - 14,000 years or so and we have had so many different empires grow and fall that I have a hard time believing the homogeneity and apparent stasis/stagnation that we see in all the cities we see in the books. You have all this time, all this magic, and the best these races can come up with is beef stew and horse drawn carriages? I did like the idea of Yarbarah though, and how she approached vampiric concepts without making them entirely traditional. The demon-dead were also pretty cool. 

Wrapping my head around the lifespans and development rates of the long lived races was a bit of a stretch for me at first. Initially I thought it was absurd a person from the short lived races could live their entire life while their long lived friends stayed in adolescence. Then I thought "well, maybe that's what it's like for dogs growing up with human children. They are a pups when we are children, but then they grow and mature into dogs, and we are still children. Once I thought of it that way I started to enjoy the concept and it made my own reality richer for the thoughts it brings. Though, it does add a slightly problematic element to Jaenelle and Daemon's romance. 

The characters are a mixed bag, simultaneously intensely lovable and incredibly frustrating. The warlord princes seem to be eternally be either "rising to the killing edge" or "about the step on the killing field". The minor calamity of a word, a coffee, or a scent being even the slightest bit off, can put them into murderous frames of mind. Honestly I don't understand how the men in this story are able to make it through breakfast when everything is a hair-trigger for them, or how anyone can manage to live around them. I imagine it would be like walking on egg shells all the time. That being said, I really like how toxic masculinity is put in check a bit. The men in this story refreshingly engage in healthy relationships with people outside romantic love interests, there is a lot of endearing male bonding and platonic affection between characters, and the men in this story are free to enjoy books, good food, be a little vain over their appearance, and desire emotional intimacy without it being seen as emasculating. Sure, there is still an abundance of flexing and posturing, but I thoroughly enjoyed the mix. 

Two huge pet peeves of mine for this series is #1 there is only one template for "villain" and it's incredibly caricatured and reused over, and over, and over again. You can guess what the villain will be like well before their first appearance in the series after the first one, they are all basically carbon copies. 

The second is how dense and unwilling to act the characters can be. For being so overpowered and supposedly intelligent, the main characters miss a lot of pretty obvious stuff, and take an awful long time to draw on their abilities or act. I know the plot demands, but it bothered me that Saetan's apathy created the evil he claims to stand against (even though he claims that his inaction is commitment to protocol). I find where he decides to draw the line on some issues pretty baffling.

All flaws aside, it's an addictive series. It's a character not plot driven series, and the characters are pretty lovable. For all his broody ways, Daemon is charming and sweet. Saetan and Lucivar are fun to pal around with, and I find myself genuinely longing for Jaenelle Angelline to be real and for her to be able to purge our Earth of corruption...and then teach me her version of the game Cradle and go on a trail ride with me. The characters come to feel like family that you just enjoy hanging out with and delight in reuniting with each book.

Magda Silva

You know that book that you should hate but you kinda love? Yeah, that was what Daughter of the Blood was for me. The story is well written and is appealing. But on the other hand... There were some bits of the story that really stroke a nerve. Before I get to that I need to say that I missed a map on the book, it made the world confused especially considering that the characters were all spread out. And the character development is not the best, some bits are a bit confusing, at least for me. On another note, there are some sub-plots, some elements to the story that I really didn't like and made me drag the book. I will spoil it but it is not a book for everyone to read and has some triggers.

the Dark Kingdom is preparing itself for the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy - the arrival of a new Queen, a Witch who will wield more power than even the High Lord of Hell himself. But this new ruler is young, and very susceptible to influence and corruption; whoever controls her controls the Darkness. And now, three sworn enemies begin a ruthless game of politics and intrigue, magic and betrayal and the destiny of an entire world is at stake.

Daughter of the Blood

Sandra Gomes

3,5

Tive algumas dificuldades com este livro e admito que só o continuei a ler devido ás recomendações de outras leitoras em cujo gosto confio.

Até mais ou menos metade, senti que estava a ler, mas que não estava a "entrar" no livro.

A partir de certo ponto, a história e a mitologia começaram então a fazer sentido e comecei a envolver-me.

A linguagem é diferente e bastante elaborada, ler este livro em inglês não foi tarefa fácil.

Admiro a capacidade da autora em criar um mundo completamente diferente de tudo o que já li. Curiosamente, nunca consegui criar uma imagem "visual" deste mundo, não consegui perceber se foi falha minha ou se foi deliberado da autora, não consegui visualizar os locais, nem as indumentárias das personagens.

De qualquer das formas, gostei bastante e tenciono ler pelo menos o seguinte volume desta trilogia.

Megan Williams

Daughter of the Blood tells the story of Jaenelle, a girl who is destined to become very powerful but first who has to survive her childhood until she can grow into her powers. This book was such a great introduction into this world and story line. I loved how there was no one perspective but a POV from most of the characters that were involved in this book. This book is very well written and each chapter flows nicely into the next. The only major problem about this book was just how dark it got in some areas of the book. There was no small doses of abuse and heartache. Everything in this book was filled with worst nightmares and painful discovery. This is definitely not a book for those who have a weak stomach. 

Jaenelle was a character that was very mysterious. Few parts were actually told from her perspective even though the book was revolved around her. Everything that was learned about Jaenelle was learned through the eyes and perspective of another character. Yet her character had such a strong influence on the book that you couldn’t help but be greedy to get more of her life and her thoughts. Jaenelle had to go through many challenges in this book and I loved how she met each challenge with defiance. For only being seven years old in this book, she sure made a statement.

Another big part of the story was from Daemon’s perspective. Daemon is a slave to many in the kingdom and has been abused for most of his life. He has become hardened from his life and it was interesting to see his barriers break down around Jaenelle. Sometimes I felt that their interactions were a little too much for this book and could have been taken out. Otherwise I felt that they did each other good. And I loved the friendship that they found in each other.

Overall this book was a pretty good read and I loved the story. This book is definitely one of my favorites and I love to re-read from time to time. The next three books in the series are equally good if not better and I love them.

Judy Hudgins

Ashley shackelford

Johanna

Aubrey Hicks

Three men, sworn enemies, vie for sway over the girl witch--a blue-eyed innocent--who is to rule over the Dark Kingdom, commencing a ruthless game of politics, magic, and betrayal, in which the weapons are love and hate. Reprint.

Daughter of the Blood (The Black Jewels #1)

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