Kinship of a Dragon (Blood History, 2); Charles D. Shell

Continuing in the footsteps of its predecessor’s epic fantasy, with its robust political machinations and warring factions, “Kinship of a Dragon” follows up almost immediately after “A Dragon Called Blood”, the first book in the Blood History series. And, just like the first book, the second book in the series is a chonky boy! Understandably so given the several plot lines the author continues from the first book, but the strongest plot points this time around barely involved our main characters, Corbin and Blood, at all. Corbin’s story is rather simple in comparison: he and his dragon are still trying to exist despite the hatred aimed at them for what they are, and keeping their lady love and her mother from being kidnapped. They fend off assassins sent after them, but the big, sweeping world changing events that occur in this book are handled by one of the (many) side characters this time around.

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Shell’s writing has this fun style to it that, despite the heavy topics in this book (there is a brutal war going on, on several fronts here) the narrative and the characters never come across as overly pretentious or precious. It made following the several plot points easy, especially as the author continues to do a fantastic job splitting his chapters between each story point in a way where you never really forget what’s going on and keeps a great story pace. The “downside” of that is that at certain points of the book, you just cannot stop reading as one characters’ chapter will end on a cliffhanger and it won’t be for another two chapters until we return to them and their peril. That being said, I do wish some of the political machinations had been cut down or removed from this story as it made some of the chapters between the warring nations feel too detached from the overall story arc Shell was going for (vague to avoid spoilers).

On that note, it has been several years since I read the first book in this series and it did take me awhile to remember, through story context, what had happened in the first book. Even so, some of the finer details never did return to me and they seemed to be important? Namely characters would name drop themselves or others and that was supposed to mean… something? But the impact was diluted because I couldn’t really remember some of the side character relationships that these names were supposed to convey. It would have been nice to have a bit more of a recap to start this story off given the gap in publication in the series and the sheer number of important characters, but I figured out enough to where I was never truly lost in the story, either. But, if you can, I do recommend not waiting years in between to read these books! Though, be forewarned, there is one scene of torture against a young adult so if you find that to be a sensitive topic, just be forewarned.

This series is one of epic proportions: it has a robust magic system, several nations with their own cultural practices and feuds, dragons, demons, golems, war beasts, intense political machinations and warfare, not to mention the found-family journey that Corbin and his friends embark on. While Corbin doesn’t have his epic “save the day” battle like he did in the first book, pretty much all the other characters did which was nice to see. I do love when side characters get their own spotlight! But I do wish we could have seen more of Corbin showing everyone just how “good” he and Blood are. However, given the cliffhanger ending of this book, I’m sure a lot of the impressive magics and saving the day antics are just ahead for Corbin and Blood. Despite this book’s length, I was never bored and often stayed up well past my bedtime to read and find out what will happen next. I just wish there was a bit more of a recap and a little less of the political machinations around Rolan, hence the 4.5 stars. But if you are itching for epic fantasy war stories with a lot of clever wit and action, I highly recommend this whole series and I cannot wait for book 3! And thanks to the author for my review copy!