Review: A heart-stopping Adventure
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 21, 2014
Now how's that for a cover? That is one serious hottie, our pilot Ridgewalker Zirkander, hero of this action-packed, steampunkish, magic-filled story. Actually, to be entirely accurate, Ridge shares the limelight with his sorceress girlfriend, Sardelle. And my two personal favourites from this Dragon's Blood series, Ahn and Tolemek, also tag along.In Blood Charged, Ridge, Tolemek, and a team of flyers are sent into enemy territory to infiltrate a secret laboratory. Their goal? To steal a sample of impossibly rare dragon's blood being used in the war against Iskander. Ridge – being Ridge – manages to contrive to bring Sardelle along. Just as well, because nothing goes according to plan and our heroes are taxed to their absolute limits in their quest to survive.This is good stuff. The action – and the humour – starts on page one and does not let up until the very last breath. Unlike some of Lindsay's other stories, there is nothing predictable in this one and the characters are on the back foot throughout. This isn't Sardelle, her magical soul blade sword, and her hot flyer boyfriend routing the enemy. They have to claw for every victory. It made for exciting reading.Talking about the soul blade sword . . . Jaxi is wonderful in this story. I grow to like her more and more with each tale and I really hope she meets her dragon . . .It was also masterful the way Buroker used the sword to merge the story each time the characters got separated. I don't know if that makes sense, but I can't tell you more without giving away spoilers. You will just have to read it to find out more.What didn't I like about this book?To be honest, I was disappointed that Ahn and Tolemek had subsidiary roles. They are by far my favourite characters and I would have loved to have seen more of them in action. I'm really hoping the next book is either from their POV, or at least has their POVs included because they both have so much to offer to the action. And I'm secretly in love with Tolemek.That said, Blood Charged left me eager for more because, while the main goal of the story was reached by the end, there are a thousand more questions that have opened up. I know the next instalment is going to be fun and I'm excited to follow the adventure. Happily, Lindsay churns books out at an alarming rate (I wonder if she actually sleeps?) so I probably won't have long to wait.So, number of stars for Blood Charged? Four. (Okay, that's just me being peevish. It would have got five if I'd seen more of Tolemek and Ahn, but not everyone is necessarily as obsessed about them as I am)