5/5 Stars

Queen Gabrielle and her loyal followers are trying to regain her throne from the usurping Lord Campbell in time to face the true evil menacing her people. Meanwhile her sister Danielle, wielder of the Martyr's Blade, must face her destiny and make some painful choices– if she uses the Blade against the Shadow, will she be able to control the consequences?

THE MARTYR’S BLOOD is the epic third volume in Joel Manners’s THE CHRONICLES OF THE MARTYR, and while it can reasonably be read alone without missing too much information, it would be a shame to miss out on the rest of the story. This is a brilliantly-designed fantasy world, with a solid political history and context, as well as a magical system with a logic and a shape to it that makes sense and works well and consistently within the story. Characters are well-drawn, fully human and full of life and personality, and whether hero, villain, or somewhere in between, their motivations and goals are believable and make rational sense given their positions and viewpoints. This is a complex and thoroughly vivid world with substance to it, with the sense of a weighty past, substantial history, and complicated present-day situation, revealed to readers in bits and pieces as the story goes on so that they can see clearly what is going on without the action being bogged down in tedious backstory.

The love story at the heart of the book, between the aristocratic but down-to-Earth Lady Danielle and her fierce, lively rogue lover Wyn, is tender and passionate in turns, and their devotion to each other is vivid and heartwarming. (And it is refreshing to see an author treat a lesbian relationship as unashamedly sexual and sensual as well as tender and cozy.) Readers see the characters and their story from different perspectives as the epic tale goes on, getting a sense of what motivates and drives each group- Temple priests and Guild artificers, those loyal to Queen Gabrielle and those who scorn her as a foreign upstart usurper, the peasants and poor folk fleeing the Shadow and the soldiers who sometimes threaten and sometimes protect – and of the internal politics and conflicts within each group. Sometimes readers even get the perspective of the Queen’s messenger raven Bran, giving Manners a chance to exercise his substantial gift for descriptive language from a bird’s viewpoint – “Bran watched the river of steel people pass beneath his perch, his black gaze darting after every glint and sparkle that stabbed through the cloud of dust their boots stirred.” The book is a long one, over six hundred pages, but the action and energy of the plot never lags, and the unwary reader may find themselves too engrossed in the story to put it down before the final page. There’s enough resolution here for an ending, but also enough plot possibilities hanging for a sequel, if the author so chooses (and this reader hopes he does).

Joel Manners has created an immersive and beautiful fantasy world in THE MARTYR’S BLOOD, a grand and epic story involving three-dimensional characters, well-developed magical and political systems, vivid descriptions, and lively, action-filled plots.

Joel Manners’ epic Chronicles of the Martyr fantasy series continues in fine style with The Martyr’s Blood, an action-packed and thrill-a-minute continuation of the exploits of Danielle and Wyn as they strive to defeat the Magi, overcome the Crunorix, and save the realm of Albyn. There are swords and sorcery galore as the heroes embark on their most dangerous adventure yet, journeying through a meticulously crafted and compellingly evoked world where magic and danger prevail even in dreams and the fate of the many rests in the hands of the few. It all makes for a fast-paced and exciting story with a good dose of humor and humanity at its heart.