The Hallow of Blood

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

When Ezril is taken from his home by a man in a cassock, he knows it is to a life in servitude to the god Truth. A life in the priesthood, though for those considered Hallowed, is truly no life at all. But Ezril has been offered by his family in good faith, in the hope that he will learn what they have to teach him.

Given a new name and a new purpose, Ezril is determined to survive the tests of the seminary as the priests forge him and his new brothers into blades destined to serve as sacrifices to the cause of Truth. In the end, choices will be made, legends born, and loyalties tested. But above all else, Ezril Vi Antari will have to face the truth that perhaps he is not as Hallowed as he has been led to believe...

This is a slow burn, Grimdark, coming of age fantasy. It is inspired by the novel Blood Song by Anthony Ryan.

Information

Status: Hiatus
Year: 2023
Author: The First Observer

Royal Road Stats

Rating: 4.5/ 5.0
Followers: 1,213
Views: 614,854

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(8)

Shadow107Royal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
I'm not amazing at writing reviews so please bare with me.
As my title suggests "The Hallow of Blood" is everything advertised and more. It's story, written from the perspective of Ezril, will immediately have you hooked especially with it's perfect execution of a grimdark atmosphere. Needless to say, if you found the synopsis to be at all intriguing then please read this story.
The Grammar is perfect as far as I could tell. And while the only character we truly know at this point is Ezril, his interactions with the others (especially Teneri) really make you feel immersed (chapter 2 had me tearing up).
Anyways, I'm not really sure what else to say. The only criticism of the story I have is that there isn't enough of it.
bellkunRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
If we're discussing the quality of writing, this work is almost perfect, in my opinion. The use of words, descriptions of emotions and places, and the natural dialogues. It's truly impressive. Although I'm not qualified to provide a technical evaluation, I can share what I feel as a reader exploring the work. "It's as if I were there." This sentiment may sound commonplace, but in reality, it's the greatest skill of a good writer: the ability not only to tell a story but to transport the reader to another world, making them perceive the details of this fantastic universe and the emotions of the characters. The overall tone of the work also pleases me greatly. There are no nonsense here; the story is taken seriously, which is a delight for my eyes, as it is increasingly common for works to excessively use humor to distract the reader. I also like the fact that it's a more classic fantasy work, meaning no reincarnation, transmigration, blue screen system, harem, etc.
However, unfortunately, the work has taken a very different turn than I imagined. Initially, it seemed to focus on action and battles, but now it leans more towards a tragic romantic drama. We have a protagonist madly in love, committing follies. Although I appreciate a touch of romance, here it seems a bit excessive, a kind of overly passionate romance. Not that romance is particularly bad, but it's the type of romance where the protagonist becomes a hostage to his partner. In one moment, he is a calm and composed priest, highly trained in combat, and in the next, he is chasing after his passion like a dog on a leash. Lenaria could ask Ezril to plunge a knife into his own chest, and he would do it. It's a relationship of dependency, which is in deep contrast to the personality of an experienced fighter who can control his emotions and impulses in battle.
The work is really good and has the characteristic of progressing very slowly, so all this romance might just be a necessary phase for character developm
Willingly_IgnantRoyal Road
★★★★★ 5.0
A damn good Binger this one be. Your gonna be following a kid around as he grows up and the interesting bit about him is that he got chucked into a order of warrior priests. There's more to him than that, but I ain't gonna spoil this for you.
Expect no numbers, but plenty of progession as he gets his shit kicked in by other kids and the priests teaching him how to become a right proper dealer of death and all that religious jazz they been preaching to him, we don't actually have to listen to a full on church sermon, the MC suffers that fate without us, but you'll naturally be fed bitsbof the credo and their whole religious order an it's rules as they become relevant, or are broken.
Characters are great, sometimes there's a bit of grammar an spelling mistakes but other times it's just people speaking in their ways, not many mind you, I just gotta be honest about the grammar part, but backnto the characters. THERE BE NO CARBOARD CUT OUTS HERE!!! Seriously. You might jot get a full story of a character for a while. Or they're just kids and they're kinda one dimensional cus they're still kids, but they're being kids. As they grow or you come to find more about them, you'll see what I mean by there are no cardboard cut outs here. Fleshy is how I'd put em, even the ones who you don't see much of have presence and that's saying something.
Styles good, worlds interesting, and story's a banger. This is one of those I'm looking forward to the ending cus I wanna see what it'll look like in a hardback. Half tempted to stop reading here and wait a good long while for it to pop cus them 40 an change I've read have me excited and the cliff I just stepped off is a great stopping point rn. Like seriously.
Chapter 46s final words make a great cliff and I think would have been a hilarious way to end a book to get people hounding for the next
M.R.GRoyal Road
★★★★★ 4.5
Very well written but unfortunately not for me. It goes a little too far into grim dark for me. Still like I said well written. I hope that it's audience continues to enjoy it because there were some very interesting elements to the story. I will admit that the grimdarkness treads into the realm of unrealism but I'm sure that there are some people who enjoy it
juhgRoyal Road
★★★★ 4.0
First, I will address the familiarity that some may have to this story. This story seems largely based off the story Blood Song by Anthony Ryan. From characterization and the characters’ background to the style of the names, the reclusive group of warriors tasked to defend a kingdom, the barracks life, the elusive religion that has its share of heretics, and even the nature of the tests are almost identical. You’ll see what I mean if you give the referenced book a try (not a plug).
Nonetheless, this is good writing and combines the best of complex characters and world elements.
The main character is frustrating and simple at times, but as a child this is expected. Hopefully, this work will continue to deliver!
EldwinRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
As some others have noted, "The Hallow of Blood" is technically well-written. It's easy to read, with few grammar errors, and strikes a balance in its language.
However, personally, I struggled to fully engage with the story. My reservations stem from the narration and the characters. While it borders on grimdark, the story feels more like a descent into depression, navigated through sheer apathy.
The main character lacks agency and seldom exhibits a desire to change this. This passivity makes him less engaging. He seems driven only to avoid failure and to maintain the status quo, which, while sensible, doesn't make for an interesting character.
Additionally, we catch glimpses of a richly imagined world with different races, gods, powers, and (a) dominant religion(s), but we're left wanting because the characters are too emotionally detached to explore them deeply. And there seems to be little reason for this, everyone just seems like they are naturally apathic introverts or too angry with others to really communicate, seek knownledge or do much of anything about, well, anything they don't like.
To summarize, "The Hallow of Blood" isn't a bad story, but it's not for everyone. It's unquestionably bleak, but it's far from bland or uninteresting.
DerDreisRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
I love a good classic fantasy novel, with a semi-grounded world and a mite of suffering for the main character, which this novel delivers on exceptionally, the world feels alive through its excellent writing and good world building, the characters are realistic (except one) though with their own weirdness and skeletons in their closets. The main character has secrets kept from even the readers (up until a point) and in the early chapters is fun to follow through his life in the seminary.
This all changes when Lenaria enters the novel.
Lenaria when she is first introduced seems like a love interest character, which I suppose is technically right, but for some reason I cannot divine our main character (who up to this point has been pretty rational and composed, if not cold to everyone) suddenly seems to be obsessed with her, a girl he knew AS A CHILD. He has seen this girl 1 single time in (about) 7-8 years if not more and he is suddenly obsessed with her. He throws everything that made him an engaging character away anytime she is in view, and it’s not just Ezril but the author himself seems obsessed with her, it feels like there is not a chapter that doesn’t mention her name later on somewhere. I’m personally just hoping she dies or gets possessed by Rin to temper and strengthen his will or some other reason and this is merely a forced attempt to make something he cares about highly.
TLDR: As another reviewer has said, starts as a gritty, combat and mystery fuelled, grounded fantasy/war novel and turns into romantic drama. Opening chapters are worth reading until he graduates from the seminary. After that not so much.
BsonRoyal Road
★★★ 3.0
I'm not far enough into the story to comment much on the plot or characters. As far as I can tell they both seem solid.
I have some issues with the setting thus far, mainly that some of the grimness seems poorly justified. Like the way sisters are beloved while priests are hated when they're both part of the same church, and religion is quite literally a propaganda machine - surely it could do some image management to make their work more efficient.
But my main issue is the technical writing. The author is going for a more poetic and flowery prose, not a bad ambition, but sadly one that doesn't quite hit the mark.
Often a sentence is dragged out too far with nonsense fluff until it groans under its own weight. Occasionally I found myself telling the author that the word they used, likely did not mean what they thought it meant. Some turns of phrase make sense on a metatextual level, but not in the context of the setting.
I love a good flowery prose, it's a great way to give character to a text, but it takes a deft hand and good practice to pull off. In this case it will take an editing pass with large scissors to improve.