Sunday Funday: Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop
I’ve been trying to keep Sunday Funday to more recent books that are good which might be overlooked because they aren’t written by Stephen King, etc. Sometimes though, there are books which are just too good to pass up, even if they are slightly older. Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop is one of those. Written in 1998, this gem of a novel which turned into a highly successful and enjoyable trilogy takes the concept of evil and kind of flips it on it’s head? To wit: Satan is one of the main protagonists. Yes, I said protagonists correctly and deliberately. The book is just incredibly outstanding. Twenty years on (good lord, has it been that long?) the book holds up against any of the more recent entries into the literary world. Seriously, if you have not read this book yet, stop whatever you’re doing and get on board. You’ll be better for it.
Daughter of the Blood
By Anne Bishop (www.annebishop.com)
Starting a new book is hard, especially when the explanation for the book is distinctly… odd. A book which contains a reversal of the standard good and evil dichotomy? A book which shows the hero not at the beginning of her powers, but quite suitably ascended in them? How could such a story hold any value if the hero has already mostly completed the journey on page one? Demons are in shackles, and somehow Anne makes us care. This book is a triumph not only for the clever turn of phrase which parades down the hallway of each page, but also for the seamless way in which classic troupes are overturned and trodden upon to make a pathway for something new. As the pages mount, and trust me you will add them up with alacrity, the story morphs into one where the hero isn’t actually the hero, but another of the lonely and the shackled. The forgotten, each in their disparate circumstances, unite together to free one another from their bondage. It is so haunting to have a story build in that fashion. Layer upon layer, act upon act, each character lending to the next in haunting refrains which leave the imagination of the reader breathless.
A little over the top you say? Nay I say to thee. This book deserves high praise. This book deserves hyperbole. Within it’s covers lies a world of dark and fantastic gothic imagination. I can hardly even find a niche in which to fit this book, it defies so many genres. There are times when a book can take the easy way out, follow a routine and formula which will almost guarantee success. At each turn of the novel, the author doesn’t want the easy way. Nothing comes easy or cheap in Daughter of the blood. Yet the magic which is described within it’s pages was surely used first to aid in the books existence. Anne Bishop took the road less traveled by when placing pen to paper for this novel, and that has truly made all the difference.
