Review: A Thought-Provoking Thriller
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 25, 2013
Wow, this guy is versatile!!! I recently picked up King Samuel Benson's Tales of Twilight and absolutely loved them, partly because I found them so easy to relate to. I had never read any folktales from Nigeria before then, and was delighted to find how many similarities there were with the Nordic fairy-tales of my childhood. "Blood Tournament" is no fairy-tale, but again, because of the wisdom of this author and his deep understanding of people, this book feels profound and thought-provoking. It's definitely wisdom way beyond King Samuel Benson's young age (can't believe he was born in the 90's!). Here's one example: "Rumours aren't usually mere rumours until they've been confirmed as such." -  No smoke without fire, indeed.King Samuel Benson brings up the idea of a government taking a stand against its own people when he describes how "the people were taken into laboratories...their minds reprogrammed."  Their task was not to "win the war, it was obey the government."  A concept eerily familiar to me from the time I spent in Russia where Stalin destroyed  millions of people for disobeying.But it's not all gore and violence. The book definitely is written in a sincere, honest, and vulnerable tone. And that makes it much more relatable than something like Hunger Games (sorry, had to mention it since others brought it up).  Here's how King Samuel Benson describes his protagonist's love for his classmate Fummi, "His feelings for her had been so strong that after recalling the books and movies he'd seen about people falling in love, he began to wonder whether terming his feelings for her as love wasn't an understatement." What a beautiful thought. Great book.