BOOK REVIEW: THE HEART OF THE BLOODSTONE BY PHILINNA WOOD
Philinna Woods’ debut epic fantasy is as charming as it is intriguing. The beautiful, almost lyrical prose shines through the pages and creates a rich, vibrant, oceanic world contrasted by dark and complex tribal politics.
Bohran has been banished for years, his eyes shine with the feared Onyx stone, or so the tribe chief believes. When their revered merchant turns up dead and Bohran is found with the murder weapon in hand, he is immediately blamed and set up for punishment. Did Bohran come back just to be killed himself?
Avalan, our main protagonist is set to stage a coup over the chief of Hydrus’s rein. For years Bassalt has placed increasing restrictions on his people, hiding their birthrights and closing off the islands so no one can get in or out. Avalan has had enough, demanding to know more about the birthstones and the outside world he vows to set his people free. Bassalt claims he is trying to keep the people safe from the feared eye of the Onyx. The one birthstone which could ruin everything he has worked to achieve.
Lusha, who longs for a life of the moonstone and has plans to escape the prison that the island has become. She wishes desperately to visit her aunt to learn about the healing powers set in her eyes. Lusha shines bright, but will it be enough to heal all of the wounds she carries with her?
Old friends unite once more as Avalan leads Bohran and Lusha out of the village and into freedom. Together they will uncover the truths of the birthstones and find out just what they can do to free Hydrus after all.
The Standouts
There were two standouts for me in this book. The prose and the magic system. The prose was beautiful, it felt like the author put real effort into making the world flow almost lyrically off the page. Don’t confuse lyrical with light. This book has some dark and sinister elements to it. But the prose reminds us to remember the beauty of the world around us as we uncover the machinations of tribal masters and discover the secrets within the pages.
The magic system in The Heart of the Bloodstone is unique and interesting. My explanation is not going to do it justice, fair warning. Each individual carries the truth of their stones in their eyes, but the powers they can access remain relatively hidden due to Chief Bassalt's rule over Hydrus. We uncover a number of these stones on our journey with Lusha, Avalan and Bohran. The Moonstone is used for healing, the Bloodstone used for blood-based magic which doesn’t quite get explored in full and the Onyx, a feared stone of death. We get brief glimpses into the heliodor and tigers’ eye but I would have liked to have seen these more (maybe I am greedy for cool magic). Towards the end of the book, we get a show of what some of these stones can do and I for one, really hope we get more of that in the second instalment!
One criticism which I need to shed some light on is the characters. Our main three characters seemed a little two dimensional and didn’t experience a whole lot of growth over the course of 600 ish pages. They did however stay true to the characters we were presented at the beginning. I’m not sure if this was done intentionally to allow for more growth in later books, but it does feel like they are being set up for individual and group arcs
That being said, I had a good time with this book. If you are a purely character driven or grimdark reader, you may have a few issues here. If you love being lost in a world, then you will find yourself at home. This is a lighter fantasy than I would usually pick up but I am definitely looking forward to book two to see what the author does next!
