Bound in Blood (Seeker) by P.C. Hodgell

Some readers of fantasy were swept away by Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind in 2007 and now chafe because there is no publication date yet for the sequel. Others prefer the grim world of A Song of Fire and Ice by George RR Martin and are vexed about that A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 and the next novel is nowhere near done. Pah! What do they know?

In 1982 I was entranced by the most wonderful novel Godstalk, the first book in the saga of Jamethiel Priestbane and the Kencyrath. Little did I suspect how long I would be waiting! The sequel, Dark of the Moon, did not arrive until 1985. Even though Seeker's Mask was completed about the same time, Ms. Hodgell lost her publisher. Hypatia Press released the third book in 1994. Alas our torments were just beginning. Hypatia Press folded, and Ms. Hodgell was concentrating on her doctorate and her teaching career. Finally, Meisha Merlin produced a beautiful hardcover of a new novel, To Ride a Rathorn in 2006. Shortly after that, Meisha Merlin folded! Arrgghh! Well, now Ms. Hodgell has retired from teaching and devoted herself to writing and the result is before you, a 5th novel, Bound in Blood, from Baen Publishing. Goodness me it was worth the wait but I don't know if my ticker can take much more!

Other reviews have discussed the plot. I will restrict myself to some other comments.

First, there is no way anyone can come to Bound in Blood de novo and possibly sort it out. Ms. Hodgell's story telling is layered, and everything that happens depends heavily on everything that came before. Fortunately, omnibus editions of the preceding novels have been released also by Baen, so they are readily available for the interested fantasy fan. I urge you to try her world building, starting with The Godstalker Chronicles.

Next, the cover art by Clyde Caldwell is very dramatic and depicts a scene from the novel quite well (although Jame often describes herself as flat chested, but maybe that wouldn't sell many books...). For me, the depiction of Jame on the roofs of Tai Tastigon in the original publication of Godstalk is how I will always envision her.

Finally, I am always struck by how consistent Ms. Hodgell's prose has been, crafting an absorbing story, mingling scenes of humor and horror with great power. One of the things I find so fascinating is the varied, odd and sometimes unspeakable powers wielded unwillingly by the Shanir of the Kencyrath, very unique in fantasy worlds.

If something has changed over the years, I think there has been a softening of Torisen's view of his twin sister; originally I was under the impression that he and Jame would come into mortal conflict for the souls of their people, but now it seems they need each other to accomplish that very thing.

I believe Ms. Hodgell is now rather far along with her next novel so we won't have to wait four more years. She has a wonderful and evocative voice in the genre. You owe it to yourself to immerse yourself in her world. I do wish there had been a hardcover edition. I cherish my leather bound books from Hypatia Press and the lovely edition of To Ride a Rathorn. Maybe strong sales will encourage Baen to take the plunge.

If you've been reading the Kencyrath novels, don't stop now! And if you haven't been, why not? Start at once! (But definitely don't read this book until you've read the other books first, except for "Blood and Ivory", which contains "spoilers" for "Bound in Blood" and the previous book, "To Ride a Rathorn".) The world and characters created by P.C. Hodgell get more and more interesting with every book. It's not just "Yet Another Generic Fantasy Saga" (which the cover might have you believe). It's the opposite of generic, though you may not notice immediately because the books are just so much fun to read. It took awhile before I realized how astonishingly creative it all is in its detail, complexity, and unpredictability.

Anyway, our unfallen Darkling heroine continues her training at Tentir, and it's an ongoing question of whether Jame will survive Tentir, or whether Tentir will survive Jame... along with a number of field trips back to her family's hall to remember the dead and to the hills to participate in odd but vital native rituals (She gets notes asking "Do you /want/ the world to end?") And the dead continue to not quite be dead, as everyone seems to talk to ghosts. But most of the Kencyrath are masters of the art of Denial, and it's an uphill fight to get any of them to face the unpleasant truth of their situation. And the more we see of them, the scarier the Shanir powers get...

Minor quibbles:
* This book felt a bit rushed at times. A lot happens in a short number of pages.
* As I'd read "Blood and Ivory" first, which contained a number of "outtakes" from other points of view, I knew things as a reader that Jame and Tori didn't know yet, and it was a bit of a spoiler for me. It would have been nice to discover things together with Jame. However, there were still surprises about Greshan in this book! Luckily, "Blood and Ivory" mainly dealt with the past, so not many spoilers about the younger generation.
* The Kencyr play a lot of mind games. It's frustrating to have Jame learn something, then lose her memory of it. Especially when she goes around thinking "I've forgotten something..." *headdesks* I suppose that means Hodgell's done a good job conveying what it would be like to have a leaky memory, but still!
* Jame and Tori (and Kindrie and...everyone, basically) have so many Issues (and more keep piling on top of them with every book) that at times I felt I was in an IEP meeting and going through one of those interminable checklists for whether my kid had met the educational goals... ("Objective 1: Tori overcomes his hatred of Shanir and accepts that he is one himself. Progress Report 5: Progress Code: [] achieved, [x] Making sufficient progress to meet goal, [] Not making sufficient progress to meet goal (Team needs to address insufficient progress), [] Not yet introduced...") Luckily, they DO indeed make progress, and it's not one of those annoying series where you feel the characters go around and around in circles never getting anywhere. No, no, no, here, you feel they ARE getting somewhere...into a bunch of new problems!

In short: I loved it. Now eagerly awaiting the next book!

I pre-ordered this (as I imagine all of Hodgell/Kencyrath/Jame fans did) and started reading it immediately. This isn't one of those books one can read sporadically - it's a miss lunch, dinner, & a night's sleep book.

The story continues Jame's adventures in a warriors' school (I'll use normal English here & not Kencyrath terminology) as her brother's heir. Jame is a marvelous invention - she is interesting, has flaws, but is indomitable. She also has powers which are unique and wholly believable within the paradigm of the series. Hodgell has created a wonderful cast of characters, and a marvelous, unusual world (the lexicon at the end of the book is a huge help - esp. since these books started in 1982, thus it's easy to forget things like, say Tai-tastigon, when it's mentioned in this book).

This novel is not one to begin reading this series - it is a continuation, and a new reader would be completely lost, since Hodgell is not one of those authors who spend an inordinate number of pages doing a data dump of what went one before (and bless her for that). Besides, the idea that one would miss out on the wonder of the prior books in this series is just sad. Start with "God Stalk" and "Dark of the Moon" (or the compilation "The God Stalker Chronicles"), continue with "Seeker's Mask" & "To Ride a Rathorn" (or the compilation "Seeker's Bane") and then this novel will make sense.

For me, this novel was one that followed a series motif - it has sort of a cliff hanger ending, thus making one anxious for the next book.

As an ardent fan, I'm torn between wanting to know what the heck is going to happen, and hoping that the end never comes. It's one of THOSE types of series.