Of Blood And Fire by Ryan Cahill, is the first book in ‘The Bounded And The Broken’ series. The book is also the first book by the author and was originally self-published.
Listed as epic fantasy and high fantasy, I didn’t get that vibe from the book early on. At first, the story was rather plain and the dialogue felt very YA.
It had some violence and a bit of cursing, but it was rather plain for the most part.
The first part of the story plodded along slowly as everything was centered around the main characters, Calen, Dann, Rist and Ella, in Milltown. Like other stories of the genre lately, it began with an initiation, a dangerous rite of passage called The Proving that the young men of the village must accomplish. It’s dangerous to the point of possibly being lethal. Frankly, I’m tired of these ‘provings’ in stories because it makes it difficult to care about the characters since their own families are willing to let them risk their lives to win a contest.
The Proving, proved eventful as the young men got bullied and attacked by creatures which weren’t supposed to be in these woods.
Here the story gets a bit more interesting as the world opens up a little.
Until now, it seemed as if everyone in this village was unaware of the greater world and the powerful magic and strange creatures operating around it, basically untouched by it. They hear tales but everything is labeled a myth, a legend.
Calen, Dann and Rist are sent to a major city, to do some trade, while Ella, in a relationship with another young man, secretly runs away to be with him.
The world building becomes more apparent now that people have left the village and different forces, good and evil, start to reveal themselves. The youngsters are challenged by these forces and eventually drawn into the intrigue of others, of strangers.
Their whole lives take a drastic turn.
I’ll not say more about this to avoid any spoilers, but the book does improve from this point on.
The writing is still a bit YA for my taste, and it’s not a tale you haven’t heard before, the tropes about magic and fey rather common but ok. It’s entertaining and interesting.
The characters, those described in some detail and given backgrounds and personalities, never grow on me. I’m not invested in their plight. It feels like an unemotional ride, going from point A to point B to point C and so on. I’m not sure I care if anyone dies.
The young men had just emerged from a small, secluded world where they understood very little about the bigger world, where bullies could push them around, and now they are facing down larger trained soldiers with skills and arms, as well as magic. Not trying to say too much but two of the young men learn along the way that they possess magically abilities. There are lots of trainings scenes while going from Point A to… etc… But it feels like their improvements are too much at times. And while this felt somewhat contrived at times, I felt the writing improved somewhat near the end. I started to enjoy the writing more as the tale developed beyond Milltown.
I think, overall, the book did enough to pique my curiosity, and it made me interested to learn where it goes from here. I will, at some point, read the next book. I’m giving it 4 stars. It might be more like a 3.5 but I think it deserves a 4, a better than an average story once it got going.
Allen M Werner is the author of the epic dark fantasy series
THE CRYSTAL CRUX
and the recently released Greek Mythology novella
ARES IN CHAINS
Author Allen M Werner 
I’d like your feedback