Blood Magic: The Ballad of Kirin Widowmaker 01 by Matthew Cook

From The Week of July 31, 2011

While Blood Magic falls well short of greatness, the dearth of genuinely dark fantasy fiction leaves enough room on the literary stage for this maiden effort from Mr. Cook to come forth from the shadows and have a moment in the limelight. For while it will never grace any top ten lists, or be found lovingly tucked away next to hardcover copies of more venerated series, its antiheroine protagonist, its ruthless bloodshed and its merciless conclusion combine to lend it a punch to the guts both entertaining and savage.

In a kingdom beset by the Mor, a cruel race of powerfully built, intelligent bipeds set on savagery, Kirin, a young woman with a tragic past, does what she can to protect a band of the king's soldiers from their terrifying foe. For the Mor, recently thought to have been nothing more than myth, have fallen upon them with their multiple arms and their mastery of fire, leaving them outmatched and overwhelmed. Kirin, their scout, is their only hope.

Having come into a dark, necromantic power during a troubled and abusive adolescence, Kirin has shaped herself into a keen huntress and a powerful magician. Channeling the essence of her dead, beloved sister, she has long since outstripped her teacher for knowledge and strength. Unlike her fellow necromancers, who can only raise dumb and slow-footed wretches, her Sweetlings, the corpses she animates into loyal servants, are vicious, swift and lethal, faithfully protecting her and the company of soldiers whose lot she's thrown in with.

After a particularly costly battle, Kirin meets a young mage, Lia, an innocent who is abroad with Brother Ato, an older, judgmental priest who has little love or patience with Kirin's black magic. The two travelers have little experience with the life of attrition Kirin and her band face. Nonetheless, they are determined to aid them and the realm and, in doing so, will attempt to reform the dark necromancer by unraveling her past to discover just what pains her so.

For a seminal effort, Blood Magic must be considered a success. Kirin is a gripping antiheroine, a sadomasochistic wanderer as pained as she is savage. In her, Mr. Cook has given life to his greatest achievement here, a character worthy of a series. However, as much as Kirin fascinates, shocks and entertains, the author fails to imbue any of his other creations with the same animating spark. Lia and Ato are little more than cardboard cutouts of fantasy-fiction good guys. And Kirin's sister, present as a voice in the necromancer's head, is nothing more than a foil and an excuse for Kirin's more grievous sins.

But though this is something of a one woman show, and though the Mor fail to do more than provide an enemy for Kirin to fight, Mr. Cook's willingness to be different, to explore true darkness, to have a conversation about guilt and shame, and to investigate the nature of life in its many forms makes this work memorable and unusual. A mixed but compelling bag. (3/5 Stars)