Thieves of blood pdf

This helped out with the feeling of urgency that you should feel with these kinds of stories. It felt like Makala's life, along with the lives of the others who are also captives, were on the line and important. There were some side trips, but they were integral to the plot.

Finding out more information about the Black Fleet is a logical step one would take while searching for it. Finding a former member of the crew is yet another logical step. There was one side trip that felt weird, being struck in a mire, but it wasn't dragged out and was resolved rather quickly. When everything is said and done, this is how you want to do a straightforward story.

The villains were fantastic. He was your usual henchmen type, be evil and do what your told. However, he still was menacing. Nothing seemed to phase him and he gave off this air of confidence that only villains seem to have. While with most villains it would be kind of silly, Erdis Cai made it terrifying. When he popped up throughout the story, it gave me chills.

He took menacing to another level. However, the best villain in Thieves of Blood, and the most frightening, is Jarlain. From her first appearance, she was formidable. You could almost sense that she had hidden power and that you would never have a chance against her.

As the story went on, you really start to feel bad about her situation and learn more interesting things about who she is. That's what makes a great villain, and Jarlain pulled it off wonderfully. Side Notes: 1 Editing. There are some very silly editing mistakes that popped up from time to time while reading. The most memorable mistake is having two misspelled words within a page of each other.

It kind of detracted from the story, but not for long. What's not to like about vampire pirates? It's as cool as it sounds. The best way to describe the cover art for Thieves of Blood is epic.

It's just epic in every way. It's very action heavy, with Diran seemingly rushing at Erdis Cai to save Makala. The colors do a good job in reflecting the dark mood that's in the novel. There are some awesome poses and it helps in adding to overall feeling of the cover. Also, its notable that something akin to this does happen in the story, which I find very satisfying.

All in all, the cover art is just epic. There wasn't much that really holds it back, aside from a few things that can be ignored. The relationship that suddenly seemed to develop between Ghaji and Yvka came from no where. There wasn't enough time devoted to their budding romance. All we got were some looks here or a word there. It just felt sudden. Also, character descriptions came off as jarring. Having a brief description followed by dialogue or exposition, then a huge paragraph dedicated to detail, did take me out of the story for a brief time.

However, everything else seemed to work great. The protagonists and antagonists were just great. They both added something to the story. With the protagonists, there were some great backgrounds that really made me want to read more about them. Also, the story was wonderful. This is how you should write a straightforward fantasy novel.

The straightforward nature gave the plot a feeling of importance and made it feel like something was on the line. Overall, would I recommend Thieves of Blood?

Yes, this is a great story with some fantastic characters. Plus it has vampire pirates, what's not to like about that? Feb 10, Adam Duclos rated it liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.

To view it, click here. This was a fantasy story set in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Ebberon, a land full of high magic, recovering from a century long war that ravaged the land with all sorts of magic battles. Spoilers Diran, a cleric and reformed assassin, and his half orc fighter buddy Ghaiji are in a port town on the lookout for shape changers to kill.

They run into Makala, an old flame of Diran's from his days as an assassin. They catch up in a nearby tavern, when the town is attacked by pirates! The three of This was a fantasy story set in the Dungeons and Dragons world of Ebberon, a land full of high magic, recovering from a century long war that ravaged the land with all sorts of magic battles.

The three of them, plus an elven performer, fight the pirates off for a while, but Makala gets abducted by the pirate leader, a vampire, and they get away! The elf has a magic ship, so they all hop aboard and follow clues to figure out where the pirates come from.

They meet a prototype warforged magical living construct , save a halfling from a sea monster, and abduct an old artificer who knows where the pirates are. They discover that the vampire they met works for another more famous vampire! Eventually, they get in to the pirate's secret port, sneak in, fight a bunch of bad guys and monsters, save Makala from the leader vampire and kill him!

The lesser leader vampire gets his hands cut off and flees, only to reappear at the last minute and nearly kill Makala after all! Sadly, Makala becomes a vampire and flees. The end! I had a few problems with this book. First of all, half the book was actually from Makala's point of view while she was captured, but none of it had any bearing to the plot! She wasn't able to take any beneficial action to help herself for the entire book. Her side of the story gave us a bit more insight into the motivations of the bad guys, but it mostly boiled down to "They're evil", and the others figure it all out by themselves anyway.

The whole point was that this one vampire had found a hidden undead army that could only be rejuvenated by filling a huge pool full of blood. The blood had to be from those of a special character and could only be added to at special arcane times. The vampire had created a whole pirate army just to find these special individuals, and it had still taken him 40 years to almost but not quite fill it up.

So, the good guys rush in to save their friend Makala who is the last special person needed to finally fill this thing up The flunky didn't even bleed that much, and wasn't one of the special ones! That didn't make any sense! Another thing The guy had been nearly killed, and slowly dragged himself away while the elf had a quiet conversation with a little girl.

Finally, I had a few problems with the fact that this story was set in Ebberon. First of all, this is a land of high magic Ghaji has nothing, while Diran has a bunch of daggers made of different substances, none of which are magic. Ghaji is overjoyed near the end of the book when he gets his hands on a flaming axe The artificer guy who leads them to the pirates has one wand The only one with any magic is the elf, since she has the magic ship and a few trick explosive balls.

Considering that Why the hell do they leave all the loot once they defeat the baddies? They had all the time in the world to look around Why was this set in Ebberon again? No giants, no dragons Aside from the setting of Ebberon being all wrong, the book hit another pet peeve of mine Would it hurt the authors of these books to do a little research?

I'm just saying, who is going to be reading a DnD book set in Ebberon, especially one with no explanation as to what the hell Ebberon even is? Fans who want to immerse themselves in a DnD story and know when the author is getting annoying details wrong. Vampires whose bodies are disintegrated by silver? A weapon has to be both silver and magic just to hit a DnD vamp properly! And they can't regrow body parts! Nor are there any rules for cutting off body parts in the first place!

And they have to kill their victims themselves to make a new vamp, not just let them die later! For me, the lamest part was at the end.

Onkar, the second in command vamp, had just abducted Makala, drank most of her blood, then got interrupted by the good guys, who killed him. Makala was in bad shape, and Diran tried out some healing magic on her. At this point, if she was alive she would have been either healed and fine, or nothing would have happened.

When he's done, her body is healed, but a day later she becomes a vamp. Not in Ebberon buddy! She's either dead or alive, not undead. Of course, then they're all concerned about her being evil, and I'm sure it's supposed to be a touching moment, but he should know that he can just kill her and resurrect her again and she'd be fine. Even if his personal magic isn't up to snuff, he belongs to a huge cleric organization that is evidently heavy on the healing that's the only magic he ever uses, after all and has all that loot lying around to pay for it if he's strapped for cash.

What an idiot! And where the hell does Diran keep his never ending supply of non magical daggers? And if he doesn't have enough money for a real magic weapon, does it make sense that he would specialize in throwing expensive daggers around and then never retrieving them?

Why would he even use such a piddly weapon? The last thing I didn't like about the book was the pacing, which was just a laundry list of tasks the characters had to get to one after another. What a slow read. The good thing? The title. The evil vampires were totally thieving blood!

Aug 23, Yris rated it did not like it. So boring it's a pain to read. Descriptions are good enough to pique my interest in the world and lore, but other than that, it's bland. Characters fall flat. Their relationships have no chemistry whatsoever esp. The plot's straightforward, and without an interesting cast? It's a slog to read through, made worse by the smattering of sexism throughout the novel. Sep 07, Marvin rated it liked it Shelves: fantasy.

Shelves: fantasy-i-loved , dear-god-the-tropes , oh-so-edgy , what-a-surprise , you-know-what-it-was-okay , eberron. It is necessary I present you all with a small amount of history between this book and myself. I first read Thieves of Blood when I was sixteen, with no prior knowledge of the world of Eberron and never having read Tim Waggoner's work before, thereby having nothing to compare it to. As a very stuck-up, opinionated, and arrogant sixteen-year-old, I dismissed the book upon finishing the read the first time, feeling it was extremely poorly written and not worth looking into the rest of the trilogy.

But what I didn't realize then, was that this book I was so quick to dismiss was my gateway to a world, a setting, an adventure into the imagination that I've grown to love. It was during a trip to Half-Price Books in early , I stumbled across a copy of Thieves of Blood, which wasn't too surprising, as Eberron is a highly under-loved world setting and sort of has a cult following; Eberron titles don't sell well at all, especially when compared with contemporaries like The Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance, and decided, for the sake of second chances as well as my own collector's need to acquire as many Eberron books as possible, that I would pick it up and read it again.

This time around, I can say I definitely have a much greater appreciation for the story, the characters, and the overall setting, and I enjoyed it as a fun little adventure and a foray back into the familiar. I still think that the book overall could have been written better than it was, but it's far, far better than I remember and just proves I was an arrogant idiot at sixteen. Good points: -The plot, though fast-paced and interspersed with flashbacks, flows well, and the characters are for the most part, solidly written and generally easy to relate to.

Unsure point: The fight scene at the plot's climax can get a little confusing, but is overall relatively fast-paced and over with quickly. It's a treat for those of us whose eyes easily wander and just skim long fight scenes in writing, though perhaps a little disappointing for those who enjoy long, drawn-out battles. Neutral points: Diran Bastiaan, our main character, feels rather bland at times, and lacking in character definition.

While these flashbacks are meant to give background and definition to the characters they explore, they occasionally feel as though they detract from the overall plot and add very little definition especially in Diran's case. Makala seems to get most of these flashbacks, but since it's questionable by the end of the book whether or not she'll make a reappearance in either sequel, giving her all of these flashbacks can feel somewhat pointless.

Negative points: -Very few concepts unique to the world of Eberron or that were initially created by Eberron are actually explained. The book was written as though for an audience who already knew a decent amount about Eberron, and seems to assume those are the only readers who would pick it up. Hence, a lot of world-unique things are going to leave readers scratching their heads. The story of life with Eberron books is that rarely do you find an Eberron book that has both good writing AND good editing.

And I don't mean one little spelling error here and then another one way way later. Whoever edited this must have fallen asleep at their desk or was lazy as all get-out. However, this isn't necessarily a book I'd recommend, almost at all. If you have a natural knack for editing and seeing poor editing can detract from a read for you, do not read this book. If you are wanting to get into Eberron as a world in general, this is NOT a good gateway book, as there are several concepts that go unexplained.

If you're very picky about fantasy in general, do not read this book. However, if you are an Eberron fan and you've not yet read many of the novels, I do recommend giving this one a shot; or if you're just looking for a decent fantasy book for a casual read, this isn't a bad one to pick up. Apr 25, Steven Wilber rated it it was ok Shelves: eberron. Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this novel. While the start of a new series it can also be read as a stand-alone.

The basic story-line of the novel is fairly straightforward but interesting and well-written. Diran, an ex-assassin who is now a priest of the silver flame, and his companion, the half-orc Ghaji are travelling the land fighting demons and other aberrations as part of Diran's service to the flame.

Along the way they encounter Diran's ex-lover, Makala, who is also an e Let me start off by saying that I really enjoyed this novel. Along the way they encounter Diran's ex-lover, Makala, who is also an ex-assassin.

She is then kidnapped by a strange group of raiders led by a vampire. Diran and Ghaji set off on a quest to rescue Makala and the others. While the novel started a little slowly in my opinion, it really improved as it went along. In particular, the characters were well-written and had interesting back-stories, which the author did a nice job of laying out using dreams and flashbacks. The issues and emotions faced by the characters felt 'right' in that I could believe they would react in that way.

The inner conflicts faced by the characters were another plus. My only complaint is I would have liked the 'good guys' to be a little less straight-forward and a little more grey i. In addition to Diran and Ghaji, I thought the villains of the tale were well done. At points you really wonder how Diran and co will overcome these foes. Plus, while the plot is fairly straight-forward, the author executes it very well. He managed to keep me interested and curious about what would happen next.

And to me that is what is important. Can the author keep me vested in the characters and their plight? In this case the answer was yes. The book left me wanting to know more about the characters and in particular what happens next. My only complaint with the book is that a few scenes seemed unnecessary and contrived. One scene has the heroes rescuing a sailor actually a pirate from "The Mire".

The scene just didn't seem to fit with the story, except to add a new character who in my opinion was not really necessary. Also there were a few scenes where the characters actions didn't make much sense to me. Such as the opening scene where Diran attacks a shapeshifter who he seems to think is a powerful demon which he would have no hope of defeating.

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When raiders hit the town, capturing Diran's former lover, he must risk everything to save her. And he's running out of time—for these are no ordinary pirates bent on plunder, but minions of Erdas Cai , a warlord and servant of the Blood of Vol. Cancel Save. Fan Feed 1 Changeling 2 Kalashtar 3 Warforged. Universal Conquest Wiki. Blade of the Flame. The Chronicles of Abraxis Wren. Taint of the Black Brigade. Draconic Prophecies.

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