Good Blood by Billy Ketch Allen [SPFBO]

The Blurb:

Is his blood a gift to the world, or a curse that could destroy it?

In the world of Terene, fate is determined by your blood. For Descendants carrying the healing blood of their ancestors, it is a life sentence. Enslaved by the ruling nobles, their blood is harvested to both power the nation and keep them weak. But after centuries, the bloodline is dwindling.

The Highfather of the Faith seeks an alternative to rule the world. Against him, a band of cutthroat rebels fights to free their people. Caught in the middle is one boy on a desperate journey to uncover his past. In his veins, he holds the power to change the world.

But he doesn’t know it yet…

Adam’s Review

Note: This is a potential semifinalist.

Good Blood presents a dark world, where men drain the blood of descendants to use the magical healing properties that their ancestors once used to control the surrounding lands. 

Our protagonist is an amnesiac boy, found half dead yet slowly healing. He’s sold into slavery, only to find that he has ‘good blood’ – that is, the healing properties are particularly potent, which makes him desirable property for both the lords of the land, and the more powerful church. I have to say that I’m not a big fan of the amnesia angle – it tends to feel like an easy way to provide exposition. From the looks of things the origins of the character will come into play more in the second book, but for now it didn’t work great for me.

Things from there go into something resembling a typical 90s epic medieval approximating fantasy saga. You’ve got a clueless but noble young protagonist, a wise and learned mentor, a grizzled ex-warrior pulled back into the good fight, a feisty young woman as potential love interest, the terrifying henchman of the primary villain doggedly pursuing the hero. It’s tropey, yes, but the characters are all competently written; and without repeating ice cream analogies from a fellow Fantasy Inn judge’s review, there’s something to be said for a book that hits familiar beats and does it well.

What is novel, to me at least, is the healing blood element, and the effect that it has on the world is the most interesting part of the setting (which unfortunately means that the rest of the setting sits somewhere in generic medieval fantasyland). It’s nice to see a magic system that doesn’t revolve around manipulation of the ‘elements’, and the inclusion of the magic healing blood leads to some admittedly gruesome scenes revolving around draining blood to heal others, or healing debilitating wounds with alarming speed.

There’s a bit of clumsy maneuvering in the second half of the book as characters are wheeled into place for the big finale – but that finale itself is exciting, and in general I found the action well written, like much of the rest of the book.

In all, I found Good Blood to be well paced, and very moreish. Yes, it follows a certain formula, but I think if you’re in the mood for something that hits familiar story beats, it’s as good to pick up as anything similar I’ve read before. I enjoyed reading Good Blood, and recommend checking it out if what I’ve said appeals to you.

To check out our other SPFBO 7 reviews and keep up to date on which books are still in the running, check out our SPFBO 7 Hub page here.