BOOK REVIEW | BLOODRUSH | BEN GALLEY

 

BOOK REVIEW

BLOODRUSH

BEN GALLEY

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Prime Lord Hark is found in a pool of his own blood, his only son Merion Hark finds his world turned upside down and inside out. The Prime Lord’s last will and testament forces Merion west across the Iron Ocean, to the very brink of the Endless Land and all civilisation. To a place they call Wyoming.

In the dusty frontier town of Fell Falls, there is no silverware, no servants, no plush velvet nor towering spires. Only dust, danger and the railway. Merion has only one ally to help him escape the torturous heat and unravel the mystery of his father's murder: a faerie warrior named Rhin, and a twelve inch-tall outcast of the fae realm.

Revenge and redemption are never easy. There are dark forces at work in Fell Falls, and not just the railwraiths, brigands or the savages. Secrets lurk in Merion’s bloodline. Secrets that will redefine the young Hark, and open up a whole world of magic buried by empire and industry.

REVIEW

I think I have said this before, I am not much of a coming of age fan. I know that there are plenty of people out there who really enjoy this trope in their books. However, I am not one of them. I tend to stay away from them if I can, and when I generally read on the blurb that the book is a coming of age story, you will generally hear the creak of my eyeballs as they roll up to the sky, and the book gets put back very promptly.

But there are exceptions where I will put this general malaise that I feel about the old coming of age story to one side, and one of these exceptions is when Ben Galley is the writer. I can pretty much guarantee that if I pick up a Ben Galley book, I know I am going to enjoy it, so I will put my prejudice aside for a little while and just let the story take me where it is going and enjoy the ride.

Bloodrush is an updated version of Ben Galley’s earlier books and tells the story of Tonmerion Hark, the teenage son of Prime Lord Hark who by a quirk of fate (his father getting killed) gets sent to Wyoming to the care of his aunt, Lillian. Along with his secret friend and sometimes guardian, the faerie Rhin.

To say that Tonmerion (shortened to Merion for most of the book. Except when he is in trouble or being a brat, which he spends most of his time doing in the book) does not want to go is an understatement. Expecting to inherit his fathers wealth and estates, he is surprised to find that this is not the case and that upon the event of his father’s death, his dead dad has put a clause in his will that he is to hop on a boat and stay with his aunt who lives in the wild frontier of an alternative version of the wild west.

Now, one of the things that I was looking forward to this with this book was the fact that it was labelled as a weird western (although, me personally, would put it more in the fantasy western mold to be honest), and I have a little bit of a soft spot for the old western. I mean I like splatter westerns, weird westerns and to be honest, just straight up plain westerns. I mean I grew up on the Edge series by George Gilman, and in fact some of my favourite films are westerns too (right, I will stop it now, but just let me say, one of my favourite films growing up was Valley of Gwange – dinosaurs and westerns).

Anyways, back to the job at hand – the book. I loved the alternative versions of the world, in particular the UK and The US, and how there are faeries present in this world, as well as a whole host of other fantasy creatures, and some great variations of traditional fantasy creatures (although there is one that I will not mention coz that would spoil the plot) such as the rail wraiths, who we find out have become more prominent and are causing havoc.

The plot has a lot going on. For the main part we have the traditional fish out of water aspect, but there is also the fight between the railway and the indigenous inhabitants of this alternative version of the US, and also there is the mystery of who killed Merion’s father as well as a number of other things. In fact, Ben Galley manages to chuck the kitchen sink at the reader, but it never feels like its too much.

Now, obviously when we talk about fantasy books, we have to mention the magic system. There is one in this series, and I would say that it was quite original, except that I have read two books in quick succession with similar magic systems. The system revolves around the user imbibing blood, in particular animal blood, which gives the user some form of super power, usually something connected to the nature of the animal that the blood comes from. Now, I know straight away that some of you are going to think this is similar to Sanderson’s Alimancy. However, I didn’t think so and thought it was quite original (although, I have just read Anthony Ryan’s Draconis Memoria series and it does have some similarities to that, but that’s because I have only just read it and I think Ben Galley’s book precedes Anthony Ryan’s book by a couple of years).

I loved the characters in the book, particularly Aunt Lillian. One of the things that I especially liked in the story was how Ben Galley doesn’t make the main character an instantly likeable character, and in fact casts him as the complete opposite. He’s annoying, brash and at times a plain spoiled brat, which makes a nice change, especially in a coming of age story.

Right, I am going to stop rambling on and say – go read this book, it’s ace.