Children of Blood and Bone [Mar 08, 2018] Adeyemi, Tomi

3.7 stars.

Firstly, I do not think this is a bad book at all. But it isn't as great as I feel it could have been, for a number of smaller and bigger points.

Right from the start I was surprised by the similarity between the heroine here, Zélie, and Onyesonwu, heroine of [b:Who Fears Death|7767021|Who Fears Death (Who Fears Death, #1)|Nnedi Okorafor|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348469489s/7767021.jpg|7036603]: both are chosen, outcast, have lost one parent, get their magic from their mothers, and are basically angry with the world. And prone to get themselves into trouble due to their temper. But this isn't what made me take off 1.3 stars - it could always be coincidence, or an unintentional tribute because one author was familiar (and impressed) with the other's writing. I think I would have been more impressed with the novelty of this story if I hadn't read Nnedi Okorafor's book before this one.

What cost this one, was the truly awkward and uncalled-for love story of Zélie and Prince Inan. For one thing, Zélie just didn't feel like the kind of character who would fall for a guy so much that she actually is ready to let go of her aims and convictions as soon as he looks into her eyes tenderly and tells her his ideas are better. But there you go. Another great bother to me in respect to this love story is the fact that, in my opinion, it neither helped develop either of the characters in it (for Zélie it just remained out of character, as mentioned, and Inan just remained as flat and monocausal in his actions as he was before). Nor did it do anything for the main story line's progress - it even felt hindersome, actually.

Generally, you could have told the whole story without Prince Inan without loosing anything. His betrayal, which could have been the starting point for a great adversary, deteriorated into a little boy's fear of the displeasure of daddy, and thus into another realisation of is one and only motivation: being a good son. His magic, apart from giving him and Zélie a place to get inimate, serves no purpose. The parent-child drama between him and his father might even have been more interesting, had it happened between the King and Princess Amari.

Amari, by the way, was my favourite character. She is endearing and irreplacable for this adventure as Samwise Gamgee is for the quest of destroying the One Ring. It is her who does the most "growing" as a character, and also her who keeps Zélie focussed on and up to her task, and the group together. I don't even mind the hinted-at love story between her and Zélie's brother Tzain, yet another male addition to the hero-team whose function isn't quite clear to me. At least falling in love fits Amari.

I would have wished for more information on the maji clans and different gods, the general background story, so to speak. But then, it was logical that there couldn't be too much of this in a world where the ones passing on this lore in an oral tradition had almost completely been erased from the world about a decade previous to the story's time.

Therefore I am inclined to read the next book, too, hoping for more information, and also hoping that certain Princes stay as dead as they should be, according to the great finale in this book.

Magic is gone, cruelly extinguished by King Saran along with the majis who wielded it. The children of the maji, Diviners, were spared but left without any of their ancestral powers. Instead, they are second class citizens, subject to unfair taxes and sent into slavery when their families can't pay. To be a Diviner is to be constantly on your guard.

Children of Blood and Bone is a Nigerian inspired fantasy with strong themes of genocide, prejudice and police brutality. I loved the cover on first sight and it's received so much advanced praise so I was excited to pick it up. Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to my expectations.

The narration is first person split between three characters. Zélie is the main character, she witnessed the brutal execution of her maji mother when she was a little girl. She's young, stubborn and impulsive, not thinking things through very well, but the fate of all magic ends up lying in her hands.

Amari is a princess who is a witness when the King discovers magic is returning, seeing her Diviner maid, who is also her best friend, slaughtered by her father. She runs, taking the relic which returns magic with her. She grows from the scared princess to a strong warrior, despite many people not giving her a chance to prove she's different from her family. She is the middle ground of the three characters.

I liked the fact that one perspective was from the other side. Inan is the prince sent to retrieve his sister, Zélie and the relic they've stolen. He has been brought up to fear magic and he hates maggots, the derogatory word for Diviners. His father's family was killed by maji, leading to the Raid, a genocide. I wanted to know more about what happened in the past, why did the maji target the Royal family, who at the time seemed to want to work with the maji?

There are a few scenes in the book where you get a glimpse of how dangerous magic can be in the wrong hands. There is a bit of you that understands the fear in these moments, even Zélie has doubts about unleashing the power. I liked that it wasn't entirely black and white with regards to magic. It isn't some benevolent force, although surely there must have been a solution that didn't involve so much suffering.

At times it really felt as though, somehow, I'd got an earlier draft than the one everyone was raving over, because with some strict editing and pruning, I think I would have liked it a lot more. And no, I didn't read a proof as I waited for my pre-order in the end.

It's a long book, not unusual for fantasy, but the pacing was uneven. There were sections which gripped me and then, they'd move on to something else and it would feel a slog again. They are up against the clock to save magic but somehow they have time to stop for a party? The parts that deal with prejudice, oppression and brutality come across as much more passionate than the plot to carry these ideas. If you read a lot of fantasy, the plot itself is quite generic.

And my biggest gripe might be somewhat spoilery, so look away now if you haven't read it. The romance was a complete u-turn. I don't mind an enemies turned lovers trope but it cannot be sudden. You cannot erase a lifetime of prejudice in a day, even if you are a mind-reader. How do you go from hating someone who kills your people to smooching after a few conversations? The romance was unnecessary, you can have a character learning that their outlook on the world is wrong without it being about a girl. And do it slower, it's not like the book was too short to draw it out.

The map of Orïsha is vaguely Nigeria shaped and you may notice that most the places names are real places, even if they're not all quite in the right positions. At least Lagos is still a bustling hub, though I'm not sure that the fictional places are intended to mirror their real life counterparts.