Tracato (A Trial of Blood & Steel #3)

The third book in the series, perhaps a bit darker than the others, but full of the same interesting philosophical insights and physical battles. Sasha finds a different kind of struggle here, one more in her head than in her sword. Just great writing by Shepherd, the book flows along like Sasha’s footwork. We see more of her family and their struggles as well as the big war promised throughout the series revs up to happen.

I would say this book was a bit slower than the previous two but overall was a solid continuation of the story. Looking forward to the conclusion.

Book 3 of the Blood and Steel quartet.

Shepherd is amazing as a writer with his ability to suck me into his story.

I do appreciate that as the story is told, things get grayer, and grayer.

I love Sasha more and more, and suffer with her. Sasha truly grows as a character.

But the story just piles death upon degradation. Things get worse, and worse, and worse, and worse. Then they get really bad.

The battle isn’t told as epically, as it was in Book 2. If you’ve read Book 1 and 2, get Book 3, but be ready for some pain. Well told pain, but it is rough.

The war that I’ve been expecting since the first book, Lenayin’s invasion of the Saalshen Bachosh, has finally started! I feel like it certainly took long enough. On that note, one thing I noticed is that this book, unlike the previous two in the series, jumps right into the action. There is very little time spent on new character development, which seems fair. We already know all the main characters pretty well at this point. The pace of the first two books in the Trial of Blood and Steel was pretty forumlatic. The first half or so of the book was spent learning about the characters and building up to some sort of battle scenes that only pertained to the book, not the series.

I felt Tracato completely skipped the introductions and started instead at the first set of book-specific battle scenes, in this case being the Tracato civil war. Then it jumped to the series-wide conflict, the Toravan/Lenayin invasion of Enora. I was personally pleased to see this focus on action and moving forward the overall plot of the series, and I preferred the way character development was strewn throughout the book. It felt much more realistic, and I didn’t feel like I had to fulfill some sort of characterization quota (which is saying something, because I love Sasha). It just… felt a little better paced to me. I look forward to the finale! (it is the finale, right?)

Very dark and intense continuation of the story so far. Definitely one of the best fantasy books out there.

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