Nightblades live by the sword

And nightblades live under grueling conditions, travel very long distances on foot, have many enemies searching for them all the time, and eat what they can scrounge. They have few opportunities to ever relax, and are able to own very few possessions. The many sword fights in this book usually end with people dying. The story has torture scenes. Might make a person appreciate modern life. ( )

Another good story about a young boy who develops great dueling skills and reaps the violence associated with living by the sword. Fast paced and well written. ( )

This is the first book in the Nightblade trilogy and is a solid epic fantasy done in more of an old school style. It was similar in tone to series done by Joe Abercrombie and Brent Weeks.

I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was well done. My only complaint is that the narrator sounds a bit robotic at points, especially when he is reading the narration rather than doing a character voice.

This book follows multiple characters. The first we hear from is Ryuu, an orphaned boy who is found and mentored by a mythical Nightblade. The second is Moriko who is forced to join a monastery because of her innate magical talent. The third is Takako, a beautiful young woman sold to a brothel by her father. We watch as they grow up in a kingdom on the brink of war.

There is excellent world-building here and the characters are engaging, if infuriating at times. The writing flows well and the shifts between character POV are clearly marked and easy to follow.

My main complaint is the amount of violence done to women and the lack of a truly strong female character. Although there are two main female characters, they both have incredible violence committed against them time and time again. In addition to that (even the female fighter) needs to be rescued by the main male hero. There is a lot of discussion about how smart and capable these women are but that capability is never shown. The whole thing reads like a fantasy targeted at young men.

I am going to warn those away who don't like reading about violence against women. In the first chapter alone there are multiple rape scenes. One of the main female characters deals with repeated rapes. In addition to that both of the main female characters are often humiliated with forced nudity and brutally tortured. While I understand that this is part of the story, I was curious as to why similar tortures and humiliations never happened to the male characters.

Aside from the above rather large issue, I liked the idea of the Nightblades and thought the story telling and writing were solid. There is good world-building here. This story very much echoes traditional ninja/samurai tales and seems to pull from a lot of Asian influences around ideas of honor and with respect to how the fight scenes are laid out.

Overall, despite some good storytelling here, my dislike about reading about violence and rape against women and the lack of any truly strong female characters turned me off on continuing the series. I would recommend to fans of Brent Weeks and Joe Abercrombie...to be clear I have similar issues with these authors and their “use” of female characters. ( )

Nightblade
By: Ryan Kirk
Narrated by: Andrew Tell
I liked this book despite it describing the rough and seedy lifestyle of this world they live in. The bandits raping and killing a woman, although it wasn't overly graphic, it was rough. A father selling his 10 year old daughter to a who're house, she has no idea what the place is, and tells them she is older. Then the vicious beatings from the Abbott at the Monastery to the children but especially one of the girls.
Despite these things, the story is good. These things were meant to show how tough the life is I suppose. The adventure, action, characters, and plot were good. I am knocking it down a star for rape and beatings. I hate that, sorry.
The narrator was pure genius! Excellent voices, emotional fluctuations, and feelings. Perfect! ( )

3.5 stars
*This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com, at my request.

Ryuu, Moniko, and Takako are young children in different parts of the kingdom that have a touch of the sense. Each is sent on a different path in life. Ryuu watched his parents killed by bandits and is rescued by a man skilled with a sword. Ryuu follows Shigeru home and finds a father figure in the man while he learns the ability to use the sense strong in him along with the sword, growing into a powerful Nightblade. Moniko is found by the monks to have the old form of the sense and she's taken to the monastery to life under the thumb of the Abbot, in solitude with others like her. Moniko is different than those here and is taught by Herochi to be a Nightblade. Takako's father can't take care of all in his family and sells her to a brothel. Takako's kind soul struggles with all that happens after meeting Ryuu and the friendship they have when Ryuu comes to save her from the Generals cruel son. Their lives cross as time moves on, causing fear of the Nightblades to rise again.

This is the first for me listening to Ryan as a narrator. He does subtle differences for a few characters, but this story doesn't seem to have as much dialog as it does thinking by the characters. Before I knew it, I thought there were notable differences for the characters, even when doing a drunk speaking. The chapters are set in each characters POV so it's easy to differentiate who's who. Ryan's work is clear and easy to understand as a narrator. The audio is clean and smooth. There were no distractions from his voice as he told the story. Ryan started to become the voice of the story and characters for me, long before half way.

There is a magic, of sorts, present. It's referred to as The Sense. Only some people are born with it. It seems to have changed in the way it works over the generations since the Great War. But there are a few that the power of the old ones is present, and strong. It seems this is the power that the Nightblades and Dayblades held, and could be what is feared by those of standing in the kingdom as they blame the Nightblades for the fall of the Great Kingdom. We start with seeing the Sense as a way to sense others or things around them. They can feel more keenly than others, beyond the natural five senses, and sense what move would be next in battle.

I really like the way Ryan leads us to learn of the Nightblades and Dayblades, and that there is a slight difference between the two. Through the lessons of these three kids as they grew to adults, we learn the different stories and history Nightblades and Dayblades have to the land.

Our three main characters start young and age through the book. The world searches for those of the Sense, but don't always find the ones of the old ones power. Ryuu is a perfect example of this. He's saved by Shigeru when his caravan returning home is attacked by bandits. Moriko is found by a monk that tests all the young children, only because of touch. She is spared from death by the Abbot to become like Herochi, a Nightblade that can track others of his kind, which the Abbot wants in his command. Takako is a gentle soul sold to a brothel by her father. She doesn't want fighting and death, but she's stuck in the middle watching it happen around her.

The world has those that are strong with a blade yet have a strong honor and restraints on themselves. A sort of with power comes great responsibility, and consequences when it's used. Then there is the opposite of the mindless cruelty and abuse of power and revenge. The book did have me thinking on how peace would be nice to have as the characters spoke their thoughts, and some listened to what was said.

There's not much dialog early in the book. Feels as though thoughts and telling of the world through events the characters live through. We start with a prologue. I could go either way on this, keep or not. It's here as a catcher to draw you into the story. I wondered for a good bit of the book when we would learn where it was from. I think I did finally place it, but it wasn't referenced in the same manner as where I thought it fit. As we get into the book and meet our characters, I felt like there was over explaining of family and family history. My mind started wondering in these moments, which is like skimming when reading. But as the book moved on, this became less and less and we got more of the current events and worries.

There is a strong sense of Oriental influence in this story from the dress to the manner of descriptions by characters to the honor of sword battle. I loved this feel to the book.

I found that I rather enjoyed the story here. There were some slow moments in the beginning but the story finished strong. I look forward to continuing the series. ( )