Blood and Iron

By Jon Sprunk

After losing his wife and son to a devastating plague, Horace becomes a soldier, sailing to battle for the Great Crusade against Akeshia. A shipwreck lands him on enemy shores, where he finds himself enslaved and on a brutal march across the desert to destinations unknown. When the caravan of slaves encounters a fierce storm, Horace discovers he possesses zoana, a mysterious gift of magic potent enough to instill fear in his captors and to earn him a place in Queen Byleth’s court.

Horace quickly learns that life at court is a complex, treacherous prison of its own kind and he remains at the mercy of his foe. With help from Jirom, a gladiator and fellow captive, and Alyra, spy and handmaiden to the Queen, Horace must outwit his enemies and harness his powerful magic to liberate himself and the thousands who have lived in oppression for far too long.

With fast-paced, breathtaking action, magical adventure, and an unforgettable story, Blood and Iron is the stunning first book in the epic Book of the Black Earth series by Jon Sprunk, Compton Crook Award finalist and author of the Shadow Saga.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 16, 2016
• ISBN: 9781625671585

Reviews for Blood and Iron

[kmartin802_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

BLOOD AND IRON was a richly, complex fantasy novel. The story was filled with politics and magic and centered around a ship-wrecked man named Horace. Horace had been on a crusade to conquer the heathen Akeshians when his ship was destroyed in a storm. He found himself in the land he was supposed to conquer. He was unable to understand the language and was made a slave. While he was being taken somewhere in the company of other slaves, he met Jirom who was also a slave who had be used as a gladiator. Jirom was a much-traveled mercenary soldier before he became a slave. The two men strike up a friendship. However, when a magical storm hits the convoy and Horace uses his own magic to stop it, things change for the friends.As a user of magic, Horace is freed but taken under guard to the queen. Jirom makes his way to the queen's army where he gets involved in a slave revolt. Horace finds himself with a magic he doesn't understand in a court steeped in intrigue. The queen who is young, beautiful, and treacherous is trying desperately to keep control of her throne and country. She is eager to bind Horace and his magic to her cause. The politics was complex and convoluted. The characters were also complex in that I had no idea what their true loyalties were. I could completely understand Horace's feelings as he found himself in such a confusing situation. Knowing who to trust was a matter of survival but nothing was clear.Fans of epic fantasy will enjoy this story which is the first of a series.

[stefferoo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When trying to make a good impression, the saying goes you should put your best foot forward as soon as possible, and that's definitetly true for books as well. The fact that Blood and Iron was a bit slow in doing so may have weakened it a little in my eyes, but it is by no means a bad book. Indeed there are a lot of strengths, ones that I think would have made this book even better if the narrative had seized full advantage of them and taken things all the way.The book's description begins with "Set in a richly-imagined world, this action-heavy fantasy epic and series opener is like a sword-and-sorcery Spartacus." If that sounds like your thing, then I have great news for you, because that is exactly what Blood and Iron delivers. "Richly-imagined world" doesn't even begin to do the setting justice; this is one incredible feat of world building that Jon Sprunk has managed to achieve, as he has created an empire resplendent in its diversity of peoples and territories.The writing certainly does not skimp on the details. Every time a character enters a new environment, we are treated to an explosion of rich information about the surroundings, from the beautiful shoreline where the main protagonist Horace washes up after a shipwreck, to the decadent throne room of Queen Byleth's palace where he ends up being a political prisoner of sorts. When it's discovered that Horace possesses the lantent abilities of a sorcerer, we are introduced to the beginnings of a complex world of magic as well.Individually, the characters are also pretty interesting. Considered a "savage" by the slave-keeping, bloodthirsty culture of the Akeshians. Horace is our main character simply trying to stay alive in the intricate web of customs and politics in Byleth's court. Byleth herself is someone I could not get a bead on for much of the novel. Dependng on whose point of view you're looking at, she's either strong or powerless, a tyrant or a victim, manipulative or vulnerable, though perhaps that is why of all the characters I found her the most intriguing.For the most part, however, it feels like the plot of this novel is too too narrowly focused on the machinations at court, when my overall sense is that it wants to be something more. I didn't exactly get the feeling there was war and a greater conflict on a grand scale out there, which is what I think the narrative wants you to know but somehow doesn't quite manage to convey. It's almost like the bigger story is always just there, lurking underneath the surface, and I kept wating for it to break out but it never did, at least not until close to the very end.Part of this has to do with what I thought were a couple of underutilized perspectives, namely those of Alyra, a slave who is really a spy in the queen's court, and Jirom, the badass mercenary and gladiator extraordinaire. Scenes with the former working for her underground network or the latter fighting in his army's battles, both of which would have expanded the story's scope, were only inserted here and there between Horace and Byleth's dealings with each other. Meanwhile, to me there seemed like a lot of nonessential rehashing of events between the protagonist and the queen that take place at the palace. It took a while for it to click with me where this one wanted to go with its story. As such, the novel has the feel of a long introduction, albeit a good one. Like I said, there's a lot to like in here; it just takes a while for it all to consolidate into something more effective, and the ending was without question stronger than the way it began. Now that we've got the ball rollilng, I'm looking forward to the second book.