I would like to thank the author and Elsewhen Press for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Elsewhen Press

Published – Out now

Price – £12.00 paperback £2.99 Kindle eBook

The ragtag group from Jalard have finally reached Shemet, Sharma’s capital city. Scarred and bereft, they bring with them the grim tale of what happened to their village, and a warning about the ancient powers that have been awakened and now threaten all humanity.
Despite this, some of them still hope that reaching sanctuary within the Synod will mean an end to their hardships, but these hopes are soon dashed. Sharma’s ruling class are caught within their own inner turmoil. When Jaedin senses that there are moles within their ranks, not only does his call to crisis fall mostly on deaf ears, but some who do hear seek to thwart him when he tries to hunt these infiltrators down.
Meanwhile, across the Valantian Mountains, Gavendara is beginning to muster its forces. Using ritualistic means to augment their soldiers, their mutant army is like nothing the world has ever seen before.
The Zakaras are coming. And Sharma’s only hope of stopping them is if it can unite its people in time.

Warning – this review will have some mild stories for Bloodsworn by Tej Turner – it is very good and well worth your time. Remember only professional reviewers would ever attempt reading an epic fantasy the wrong way round 😉

In the fantasy trilogy the second volume has a challenging task of being the bridge between the start and ultimate end of the story. It needs to keep the reader interested not to turn around and say yeah, I’ve seen enough and can move on. I’m pleased to see that Tej Turner in their new novel Blood Legacy succeeds in definitely making me keen to read the final instalment in the Avatars of Ruin series.

A brief recap. In Blood Legacy, the story of Sharma and Gavendara two countries with a reputation for war. The rulers of Gavendara seeing their country rocked by a deadly disease have now seen their rivals as an opportunity to get new land. But to do that they’ve found a deadly magical ability – to turn people into demonic creatures that pretend to be human known as Zakaras. In Sharma, a small group of young but talented warriors have unexpectedly found themselves at the front of the defence of their country, Ancient magic, god-like powers have enhanced their abilities, but they only just escaped and at a deadly cost. Now they are trying to raise the alarm but will anyone believe them and also further enemies are lurking ready to attack.

I think what I liked most about Blood Legacy was how Turner has worked hard to expand the world and also the characters. Refreshingly its not a tale of simple goodies and baddies. Very much in this story we see the leaderships of both countries are flawed. In Gavendara we see people who are not aware their leaders have started a war using dangerous magic while in Sharma we get a very slow, bureaucratic government too focused on process than actually doing anything. Its good to see a story that isn’t showing everyone on the other side is evil. To add to this Turner adds two new characters who we first meet training to fight for Gavendara the slightly amoral Astar who masters illusions and Elita the aloof but mischievous woman who may be the most powerful fighter in her team. They uncover the secrets the Gavendaran leadership are hiding and have to flee. I loved this duo who both seem initially pains in the neck but we realise do have a level of decency in them and play a key part in the storyline.

For the core group we met in the first novel they face different types of challenges. Pleasingly this is often them processing and responding to the events of the first book. Kyra who as part of a PTSD seeing her village destroyed and had acted more recklessly is now dealing with guilt her actions led someone to their death. Bryna who saved the day is now realising her magic casts a high price and is battling letting her feelings for someone be shown and her responsibilities and Jaedin who is probably the most powerful of the group is dealing with his powers, his first relationship and battling Sharma’s apathy to getting things done and their ongoing homophobia. While all the cast get key missions the focus on their personal battles too and their very human responses (a regularly pleasing part of Turner’s work) make them all engaging characters you care about.

While our characters are all maturing and their powers are now being handled there is also a lot of positioning going on in the story. This is clearly setting things up for the big conclusion but you’re conscious not everything will be wrapped up in this story. There are plenty of fights, ruses and schemes entangled in the plot to keep us entertained.

Blood Legacy is a very enjoyable piece of epic fantasy with a modern perspective. Intriguing characters, strange magic and a sense of more mysteries to be solved make this do that important job of pivoting the story towards its conclusion. Very much worth a look from you. Highly recommended!